Graffiti
Graffitti Art vs Vandalism
Riding the Go Commuter trains in and around Toronto years ago I was amazed at the diversity of self expression on bridge abutments and retaining walls beside the tracks. These were colourful murals that blended into each other with no rhyme or reason, and from my seat whizzing by on a train impossible to decifer.
A few years later I was walking along the downtown streets of Hamilton and happened to notice that a very nicely kept home, with a gorgeous garden had their cream coloured Garage defaced by a large spray painted squiggle in brown paint. The neighbourhood was a little run down, but this home stood apart for it's neatness and well kept grounds. I guess that someone felt they needed putting in their place... back down with the rest of the neighbours.
Funny that I had never really noticed graffiti before that. I'm sure it was there every where around me. It just blended into the urban landscape. Somehow seeing that beautiful home so awefully defaced made me realize that it was vandalism.
A small community group in Toronto ran youth programmes, like teaching job finding skills, and programmes to give youth more productive outlets for their energy, ran a programme to paint free-form murals on large canvasses to be installed around the neighbourhood. Now that was art.
Many places in major towns have large murals depicting historical scenes, and that's art. Why I remember being at a conference in Edmonton Alberta in February (brrrrrrr) and being bussed out to a small farming town whose only claim to fame were the 25 murals they had on the downtown building depicting the peoneer spirit of Alberta Farmers. That was the whole purpose of our trip. We arrived at the town piled out of our bus into the church hall where we were fed lunch while a local historian explained the Murals. After lunch we piled back in the motor coach for a tour of the murals. Very impressive.
Couple of years ago my husband took me to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) where we saw pieces of an Egyptian Temple set up in a giant hall - and there on the walls of the temple - was graffiti dating back over the centuries: Romans carving their names for posterity! Vandalism! But in that case history.
Nowadays I live in a small town but visit big cities on a regular basis, our small town is under siege from taggers, young people who aimslessly spray their tag or signature squiggle on mail boxes, posts, walls, fences, almost anything is game.
Just today when I went to mail a letter our mail box has been cleaned so much the former bright red is now almost pink. Another less cared for mail box and nearby pole are covered in multi coloured marks.
In Buffalo creative taggers have climbed high on building and placed huge squiggles on buildings so they can be seen from elevated highways.
What is this explosion of mindless marking? Are youth so ignored in todays hustle the only way they can get attention is to deface property?
While the colourful murals that I saw along the railroad tracks may have seemed harmless at the time, I now realize that even these are vandalism. As society slowly sinks deeper into the mire of lawlessness and un caringness, this is just one more symptom of a society that is failing ourselves.
Where is our sence of community and belonging? Crime in major centers is on the rise for precisely this reason. We no longer see each other as people who are part of our own community, but as untrustworthy strangers: us and them.
My Solution is to create better and more cohesive neighbourhoods!
Riding the Go Commuter trains in and around Toronto years ago I was amazed at the diversity of self expression on bridge abutments and retaining walls beside the tracks. These were colourful murals that blended into each other with no rhyme or reason, and from my seat whizzing by on a train impossible to decifer.
A few years later I was walking along the downtown streets of Hamilton and happened to notice that a very nicely kept home, with a gorgeous garden had their cream coloured Garage defaced by a large spray painted squiggle in brown paint. The neighbourhood was a little run down, but this home stood apart for it's neatness and well kept grounds. I guess that someone felt they needed putting in their place... back down with the rest of the neighbours.
Funny that I had never really noticed graffiti before that. I'm sure it was there every where around me. It just blended into the urban landscape. Somehow seeing that beautiful home so awefully defaced made me realize that it was vandalism.
A small community group in Toronto ran youth programmes, like teaching job finding skills, and programmes to give youth more productive outlets for their energy, ran a programme to paint free-form murals on large canvasses to be installed around the neighbourhood. Now that was art.
Many places in major towns have large murals depicting historical scenes, and that's art. Why I remember being at a conference in Edmonton Alberta in February (brrrrrrr) and being bussed out to a small farming town whose only claim to fame were the 25 murals they had on the downtown building depicting the peoneer spirit of Alberta Farmers. That was the whole purpose of our trip. We arrived at the town piled out of our bus into the church hall where we were fed lunch while a local historian explained the Murals. After lunch we piled back in the motor coach for a tour of the murals. Very impressive.
Couple of years ago my husband took me to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) where we saw pieces of an Egyptian Temple set up in a giant hall - and there on the walls of the temple - was graffiti dating back over the centuries: Romans carving their names for posterity! Vandalism! But in that case history.
Nowadays I live in a small town but visit big cities on a regular basis, our small town is under siege from taggers, young people who aimslessly spray their tag or signature squiggle on mail boxes, posts, walls, fences, almost anything is game.
Just today when I went to mail a letter our mail box has been cleaned so much the former bright red is now almost pink. Another less cared for mail box and nearby pole are covered in multi coloured marks.
In Buffalo creative taggers have climbed high on building and placed huge squiggles on buildings so they can be seen from elevated highways.
What is this explosion of mindless marking? Are youth so ignored in todays hustle the only way they can get attention is to deface property?
While the colourful murals that I saw along the railroad tracks may have seemed harmless at the time, I now realize that even these are vandalism. As society slowly sinks deeper into the mire of lawlessness and un caringness, this is just one more symptom of a society that is failing ourselves.
Where is our sence of community and belonging? Crime in major centers is on the rise for precisely this reason. We no longer see each other as people who are part of our own community, but as untrustworthy strangers: us and them.
My Solution is to create better and more cohesive neighbourhoods!
posted by Chris Red at 5:33 AM
1 Comments:
I think graffiti is a form of art, and is just expressed in different places than other art ( another thing that makes it so unique ). Graffiti makes old, run down, buildings interesting to look at.
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