Photo: Laurel street alley between 10th and Broadway, Vancouver BC
Since the 1970s graffiti has been associated with ‘urban degeneration’, a spatial scale of economic means (Carrington 2009). In Vancouver graffiti is still very much a marker for the social class of neighborhoods. The difference in pervasiveness of graffiti in the less wealthy communities vs. the more economically endowed parts of the city is clear; even within these larger sections of the city graffiti vs. non graffiti spaces seem to be segregated, for example alleyways vs. busy streets. The more wealthy sections of the city can fund the maintenance and preventative measures (like cameras) in their public space more efficiently than those areas with less funding. Thus inequality is one of the main discourses in and around graffiti. The geography of graffiti in the city reflects imagined communities and their, “challenge [to contemporary] notions of consumption driven public space”(Carrington 2009 and Anderson 1983).
The definition of ‘graffiti’ is tied into its reputation as the media of the masses and middle class (Riggle 2010 and Carrington 2009). It has been debated widely whether or not graffiti is a form of art or vandalism (Riggle 2010 and Carrington 2009). The article, “Street Art: The Transfiguration of the Commonplaces” by Nicholas Riggle differentiates between ‘graffiti’ and ‘street art’. Street art, “tak[es] art out of the museum gallery and private collection and put[s] it in the stream of everyday life” (Riggle 2010). Whereas, Victoria Carrington uses graffiti as a comprehensive term which includes stickering, stenciling, tagging, throwups, graffiti, street art, bombing, vandalism ect. Riggle on the other hand posits that some graffiti can be considered street art if it meets certain criterion but that street art is not necessarily graffiti (2010). Graffiti is the desecration of public space but does not utilize the space in the way that street art does, Riggle sort of elevates certain forms of graffiti in an attempt to legitimize it as a public art form and disconnect it from its label of ‘vandalism’.
Art is largely perceived as ordained by the mainstream and popular media; authenticated by its presence in museums and galleries (Carrington 2009 and Riggle 2010). Museums house art that is expensive to make and to see, viewed most frequently by the upper and middle classes and the pieces themselves are chosen by the same (Riggle 2010). In galleries art enjoys the protection of social norms and the law, as well as displaying the authorship of the artist, street artists give up the right to their work as well as the recognition and possibility of monetary gain (Riggle 2010). According to Riggle, a graffiti artist who sells his/her art is no longer deemed a graffiti artist by the graffiti community, but a sellout to the commercial industry (2010). Personally, I still really like commissioned graffiti and don’t agree that this should be the case. I like the idea of art available to the public for free and the reclaiming of the public space by the public.
As long as the work is done in a public space graffiti and street art remain blurred (Riggle 2010). I disagree with vandalism, however the criterion differentiation vandalism from graffiti and art is unclear. The difference between graffiti and vandalism is that graffiti is done on public space whereas vandalism is done on private space (Riggle 2010). The definition blurs when one takes into consideration space owned by large corporations like billboards as opposed to the city, the public. In this capitalist society urban space has become a valued commodity and a dynamic canvas for both sanctioned and non-sanctioned graffiti (being advertisements) to express ideas and communicate within imagined communities (Anderson 1983 and Carrington 2009).
Bibliography
Anderson, Benedict
1983. Imagined Communities, Pp. 9-46. London, New York: Verso.
Carrington, Victoria
2009. I Write, Therefore I Am: Texts in the City. Visual Communication. 8:409. Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies, University of South Australia.
Mazarella, William
2004. Culture, Globalization, Mediation. Annual Review of Anthropology 33:345-367.
Riggle, Nicholas Alden
2010. Street Art: The Transfiguration of the Commonplaces. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 68:3. The American Society for Aesthetics.
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