Grafitti on private properties
- Thread starter caff
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Well, "art in the eye of beholder" or not, done by wannabe eminem or art school graduate with posh west london accent - is slightly irrelevant. Painiting graffiti on private property is just vandalism, just like me painting even the best aerographs on someone's car without them asking for it would be. You don't get to do even Mona Lisa on someone's property if they don't ask for it, just like you don't get to tattoo strangers in angry tribals just because it catches your fancy. Buy yourself a piece of land for canvas, express yourself all you want. But what belongs to others is off limit. Am I right, or am I right?
So would you say that your style is unique or do many of these perhaps mistakenly called 'yobs, chavs, layabouts' try to create pieces with some merit. Making graffiti about Kant would be tough tbh, but that implies a more intellectual side to what you're doing. Also implies that it's in writing as opposed to pictures and squiggles?
I would be very surprised to hear that most of the taggers are intellectuals who would like to demonstrate interesting and meaningful things.
This topic interests me a lot to be honest, and the firm im in now specialises in 'Intellectual Property' and 'Freedom of speech/ expression'
Would be interested to learn more, perhaps elsewhere? What should I look for in graffiti? I've not been Banksy's biggest fan tbh, and don't pa attention to bus stop scrawlings and train line tagging. Should I be doing something different?
Thanks
I would be very surprised to hear that most of the taggers are intellectuals who would like to demonstrate interesting and meaningful things.
This topic interests me a lot to be honest, and the firm im in now specialises in 'Intellectual Property' and 'Freedom of speech/ expression'
Would be interested to learn more, perhaps elsewhere? What should I look for in graffiti? I've not been Banksy's biggest fan tbh, and don't pa attention to bus stop scrawlings and train line tagging. Should I be doing something different?
Thanks
Average graff artist who started doing T-shirts and made his name as a 'designer'.
Wouldn't give him the time of day to be completely honest.
*n
We don't have such property in this part of western world. Only pseudo socialism offered option of "everyone's property", usually also meant - nobody's property. "Public property" belongs to council, government, housing association, even Mayor's office, now apparently. Even stuff like monuments and parks "belong" to whoever is the land owner "on behalf of public". I can't think of a single "public property" that would truelly mean "it is mine to do with it as I see fit"..
Eh?
I wouldn't call my work unique; by definition, in stylistic terms, graffiti builds upon what has gone before and pulls influences from pop culture elements. There are very few graffiti artists who step outside the norm stylistically and even fewer who do so in terms of theme. I try to do work that is 'outside' the normal thematic realms of graffiti though...
Not always. Pictures and 'squiggles' can say a lot. Although I think that what you are referring to as 'squiggles' may infact be Wildstyle writing; incredibly stylised wording that just looks abstract unless you're used to the style and know what you're looking at.
Nobody has said they are as far as I know. As I have already mentioned, I personally view 'tagging' as without merit and the product of a neanderthalic territorial instinct. Possibly the twentieth century art equivelant of a dog urinating against every lampost it passes.
As I've had to say a few times already this week: Banksy's a...unsavoury type.
He's made a fortune ripping off Blek Le Rat.
As for further info, there are a fair few books about graffiti out there; most concentrate on subcultures and the rise through hiphop but some simply show the vast wealth of work out there.
Most art galleries I've been in in recent years carry a few books.
Other than that; google
*n
Not really, you don't expect random people to pop in and make themselved tea in your kitchen just because the building is owned by council. It doesn't belong to everyone. Just like you can't go and take council's money or cars "because it's by extension property of people". It's similar with "decorating". If it's everyone's to paint their favourite Kant quotes on, then it'd by default be everyone's to torch, black out all the windows or smear with poo. Not really the case though, it's not everyone's, it's only rented out to SOME for use.
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If it was done well, like any art then yes in my opinion it would be fine, I,ve heard of local councils actually asking these so called 'yobs' to actually graffitti buildings which are in disrepair as it makes them look better for free!
One of the best known Banksy pieces in the UK is in Liverpool, on a dissused pub which is actually now been graded as a listed building because of it.
*Rant Over*
Not all of us live in council houses
*n
I don't live in one either, but just because we don't live in one doesn't give us right to decorate it for them?