Folksonomics

Graffiti has received a mixed press in the last few years. On the plus side, gifted creatives such as Banksy have made walls a place to put a political point across, employing stencils to produce tricky graphics with a nuanced political point. This type of graffiti was certain to become popular with both the masses and the likes of The Guardian pressroom : pleasing to the eye, and the intellect. This sort of graffiti is now even purchased as graffiti prints, and hung in suburban homes and office reception areas.

Even so, what of the everyday type – the gangbanger, the tagger, the street urchin – this type of graffiti is often seen as antisocial, a crime committed by the talentless. But this is to misinterpret graffiti as strictly an art form. To many people, it’s not just art, but a method to mark a neighbourhood, or even two fingers up at society : anti-social, anti-art, anti-establishment.

Spraying has always been an undercover activity, although the effects are very much public. The intended audience is often unidentified. Is it for a rival crew? A communication to a single person? To the public at large? Or….perhaps it’s merely gratuitous and out of nothing else to do.

Whatever the reasons, there seems to be a permanent need to spray graffiti on walls. Some towns have conceded that graffiti isn’t a fad, so they’ve marked off zones where graffiti is allowed – usually derelict areas, but now and again busier zones like boarding that surrounds inner city buildings under construction.