Graffiti - sh*te or art?

gobnaitolunacy · 03-12-2012 11:27AM

Spotted in Cork city
FUK OFF GARDS.

In other places, the near-illegible lettering fonts resemble obese caterpillars.

TwoShedsJackson · 03-12-2012 11:30AM

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Without graffiti how would I know who's gay around the city?

Like that M Khan guy. Definitely bent.

juan.kerr · 03-12-2012 11:30AM

Any form of graffiti should be discouraged, regardless of whether some or all consider it to be tasteful. Damaging property is breaking the law and costs someone money to clean up.

Some little sh** decided to spray paint some crap on a brick wall in my apartment complex recently. So the management company needed to pay a few hundred euros to get it removed. All thanks to some little scrotebag whose parents probably think is an angel.

biko · 03-12-2012 11:37AM

I've seen a few commissioned works that were nice, but most of the graffiti around is ****.

kylith · 03-12-2012 11:43AM

Street art good, tagging bad.

AnonoBoy · 03-12-2012 11:48AM

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

Like that M Khan guy. Definitely bent.

Also:

Anto. Deco. Deano. Robbo. Kev. Jeremy.

All gay according to my graffiti sources in Dublin 3.

Zer0 · 03-12-2012 11:52AM

I really think that some insight into graffiti may be needed, as some see it as vandalism and some see it as art. Graffiti is usually known as art if it is a commission piece. Even if someone paints a very elaborate, beautiful piece illegally, it is still known as vandalism.

There are many different parts to graffiti, if you write graffiti, you're known as a writer. A writer wants to get his name all over the place, so the general public and other writers can see it too, as the graffiti community is somewhat a clique, as most writers who are up know each other.

The goal of the writer is to be up, as in well known. In order to get up, a writer must tag, bomb, piece, paste or whatever else to get his/her name out there.

A writer would have their own tag (a signature of their name), their own bomb (two letters from their name sprayed in bubble letters, for example if I wrote TAG, my bomb could be TG or any combination of those three letters), a piece (which could be as simple or as complex as you like)

I'm just trying to give everyone a general jest of things as there's some stuff I've probably left out because I could be here for hours typing...

In short, as I said at the start, graffiti itself is essentially vandalism as the writer has not sought the permission of the owner of the surface to write upon, even if it was a beautiful piece full of colour, shading, 3D etc, it's still illegal!

kylith · 03-12-2012 12:30PM

Zer0 wrote: »

I really think that some insight into graffiti may be needed, as some see it as vandalism and some see it as art. Graffiti is usually known as art if it is a commission piece. Even if someone paints a very elaborate, beautiful piece illegally, it is still known as vandalism.

There are many different parts to graffiti, if you write graffiti, you're known as a writer. A writer wants to get his name all over the place, so the general public and other writers can see it too, as the graffiti community is somewhat a clique, as most writers who are up know each other.

The goal of the writer is to be up, as in well known. In order to get up, a writer must tag, bomb, piece, paste or whatever else to get his/her name out there.

A writer would have their own tag (a signature of their name), their own bomb (two letters from their name sprayed in bubble letters, for example if I wrote TAG, my bomb could be TG or any combination of those three letters), a piece (which could be as simple or as complex as you like)

I'm just trying to give everyone a general jest of things as there's some stuff I've probably left out because I could be here for hours typing...

In short, as I said at the start, graffiti itself is essentially vandalism as the writer has not sought the permission of the owner of the surface to write upon, even if it was a beautiful piece full of colour, shading, 3D etc, it's still illegal!

The difference being that a piece of artwork, illegal or not, is a beautiful thing. Tagging or bombing looks like the work of a pathetic 12 year old scrawling his name all over his schoolbooks, and does nothing to beautify the area, it just looks like shíte. Maybe taggers should focus more on making their tags little pieces of art and less on their pissing contest, then it wouldn't look like a child got hold of a spraycan. You don't even need to be able to draw, you can use a stencil.

To summarise:
This is artwork.
This is not.

AnonoBoy · 03-12-2012 12:34PM

Anti-graffiti project in Dublin: http://markandpaddy.com/Anti-Graffiti

RoyalMarine · 03-12-2012 12:36PM

what is the punishment for someone caught?

well that's if the gardai can catch them..

AnonoBoy · 03-12-2012 12:44PM

RoyalMarine wrote: »

what is the punishment for someone caught?

well that's if the gardai can catch them..

Fine I think.

But I think there should be a register of graffiti artists published so I know if any of my walls are living near one of them. We should spray-paint their faces and names on local walls so everyone in the area knows they're there.

CruelCoin · 03-12-2012 01:34PM

Depends.

****e: http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRqm14qhF5hFaWka13CC2tJL6P5ETa0ekfbetXmFNkas0Jb9pC5b0DdGnAGsg

Art: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arylhillman/8241305384/

1ZRed · 03-12-2012 01:40PM

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Without graffiti how would I know who's gay around the city?

Don't worry about it, I've my own sort of graffiti on them so you'll know :pac:

FatherLen · 03-12-2012 01:41PM

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Without graffiti how would I know who's gay around the city?

or a rat.

btw this is class

1ZRed · 03-12-2012 01:54PM

Graffiti fail

juan.kerr · 03-12-2012 01:57PM

1ZRed wrote: »

Graffiti fail

Yeah, Bart's mask isn't much of a disguise alright.

old hippy · 03-12-2012 02:02PM

Tagging is rubbish but I've seen some seriously cool graffiti in the US and UK.

The most rubbish and prolific tagger is "Tox", seems to be all over SW London and beyond. He's the tagging version of spam!

Zer0 · 03-12-2012 02:30PM

the punishment for being caught is a fine up to 50k and or 6-12 months in prison or less I think, if I can remember rightly I could be wrong though.. it depends on how many things were painted and the costs of removal also. Tagging doesn't look great because it's not supposed to look great it's the writers signature, it's just supposed to be out there. it's another way of getting your name known. Graffiti itself is its own sub culture, as it evolved from the hip hop scene in the usa during the late 70's early 80's. The first type of graffiti was tagging, it then evolved into bubble letters of the writers tag, because the idea bigger is better was put into practice.

Unless you write graffiti or have an interest in it, you won't understand half of it, e.g. tags etc. I can understand why it would be difficult for someone who hasn't wrote before to try and grasp a basic understanding of the whole process, but half of it requires planning and a way to execute your work.

There's many different types of writers also, toys for example would be beginners as they wouldn't have much of an understanding and in other words there work would look ****e. But we all have to start from somewhere. Some writers just choose to focus on one type of graffiti. Bombers for example would focus on bombing, taggers focus on tagging, piecers would focus more on pieces than anything else. But it's important to have a healthy balance on all three or five if you include wheat pastes and stencils. There's also rules in the graffiti world, for example, no houses, places of worship etc but not everyone follows these.

The more successful writers have made a career out of graffiti, as in they get paid for their work and are viewed as artists for example, maser or banksy are now successful artists who are now commissioned and paid for their work. The more successful writers have gone onto art college to further their talents and use graffiti in a positive light to reach out to communities for example maser has done projects in inner city Dublin to brighten up the place in other words.

c_man · 03-12-2012 02:54PM

Zer0 wrote: »

Unless you write graffiti or have an interest in it, you won't understand half of it

Stay away from my walls

bodhrandude · 03-12-2012 03:50PM

Not art, etching a twenty foot "Brits Out" on Benbulben mountain, I never got that one, we were in the Republic too

.

Mal-Adjusted · 03-12-2012 04:28PM

bodhrandude wrote: »

Not art, etching a twenty foot "Brits Out" on Benbulben mountain, I never got that one, we were in the Republic too .

There's a huge "free palestine" on the side of a wall between Galway and Rossaveel.

iamstop · 03-12-2012 04:57PM

Here is a documentary about the rise of Gaff in NY in the late 70s/early 80s
Well worth the watch if you are into graff at all:
http://youtu.be/IxQc2EG_CXw

Here are some pics I took in Sandyfort:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fresh6000/sets/72157631642911678/

Oh and there is deffo art to be found in the graff scenes around the world.

Teyla Emmagan · 03-12-2012 05:07PM

I pass the George Bernard Shaw everyday and they have the hoardings outside done really well. They obviously get somebody good to do them, and it's large scale, interesting, well finished and regularly updated graffiti pieces. But because it's there at all other little scrotes see it as an invitation to deface the entire area in scribbled cr&p, of the entirely worthless variety. There's a new tapas place there which was just done up at great expense and they plastered and replastered and replastered the wall outside again and again trying to keep it clear of graffiti. And all to no avail - annoys the p*ss out of me just looking at it now. Never mind fining the little gits, scrubbing walls for days and days if they're actually caught would be a much better lesson. Might actually teach them something about the expense, and frustration and effort their actions cause other people.

Pottler · 03-12-2012 11:36PM

RoyalMarine wrote: »

what is the punishment for someone caught?

well that's if the gardai can catch them..

They get tagged. Ankle tagged.

Bipolar Joe · 03-12-2012 11:56PM

Everything worth saying has been said.

There's one in Limerick, on the FAS office near Colbert station, that reads "South ruls side OK." There also used to be a huge back-and-forth between two girls on the bus benches at the station, with both calling the other a slut and whatnot. Fascinating stuff. Complete shite, but fascinating.

Grimebox · 04-12-2012 12:02AM

Almost anything can be considered art. So yes, graffiti is art

AnonoBoy · 04-12-2012 12:08AM

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

I pass the George Bernard Shaw everyday and they have the hoardings outside done really well.

That's used as advertising space really isn't it?

bodice ripper · 04-12-2012 01:16AM

it's not art. any old ****e is art. graffiti is craft, with peers, rules, techniques, styles and competition.

tags are the basic form, and probably most important form. you don't like them because you don't actually know what you are looking at. They are for other writers, you seeing them is incidental.

kylith · 04-12-2012 12:48PM

bodice ripper wrote: »

it's not art. any old ****e is art. graffiti is craft, with peers, rules, techniques, styles and competition.

tags are the basic form, and probably most important form. you don't like them because you don't actually know what you are looking at. They are for other writers, you seeing them is incidental.

Tags are a pissing contest: "I'm better than you because my tag is more places". Tags are what people hate about graffiti because they make places look dirty and neglected, they show zero artistic merit, and they say nothing. What you're basically saying is "You don't like this pile of shít because it's not for you, it's for other shít-pile leavers". Maybe it's not meant for the public in general, but we can still tell a pile of shít when we see it.

If you're going to go to the bother of getting paint and risking getting caught to graffiti something then put some fecking effort into it, say something with your art, do something different. Just stop writing "DEANO" everywhere; it looks stupid.

AnonoBoy · 04-12-2012 12:56PM

bodice ripper wrote: »

tags are the basic form, and probably most important form. you don't like them because you don't actually know what you are looking at.

Oh please. :rolleyes: Spare me that pretentious nonsense.

We don't get it, is that what you're saying?

Tags are badly scrawled on places they shouldn't be by people with too much f*cking time on their hands and an overinflated sense of importance. They're not important things at all and we could do without them.

Graffiti - sh*te or art?

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