UND-Pilsa Blog

Ask anyone their thoughts on graffiti, and you’ll receive opinions right across the board : some people see it as a nuisance, others a nuanced artform. On the “good press” side, gifted artists such as Banksy have made graffiti an artform that is pleasing on the eye, utilizing stencils to produce challenging artworks with a subtle meaning attached. This sort of graffiti was bound to get fashionable with the public and the art critics : visually pleasing and intellectually satisfying. This sort of graffiti is now even purchased as prints on canvas, and hung in suburban homes and office meeting rooms.

Yet, what of the familiar kind - the gangbanger, the tagger, the street urchin - this type of graffiti is oftentimes seen as antisocial, a crime perpetrated by the talentless. However misinterprets graffiti as purely an art form. To many people, it’s not only an artform, but a way to mark a neighbourhood, or even a rejection of society altogether : anti-art, anti-social, anti-establishment.

Spraying has always been an undercover activity, although the effects are very much public. The intended audience is often unbeknown. Is it for a rival gang? A message to an individual? To the public at large? Maybe it’s simply uncalled-for and out of nothing to do.

Whatever the reasons, there seems to be some kind of enduring demand to spray on walls. Some cities have conceded that graffiti isn’t a short-term craze, so they’ve designated zones where graffiti is permitted - normally derelict areas, but now and then more civic areas like temporary boarding surrounding inner city construction sites.