2018 | Essay | Author

In graffiti, the writing is the art form and the cityscape and urban objects are the canvas. Each part of the work is a facet of the other, with their meaning and forms interacting and conflating towards a point in which one is irremovable from the other. The city surface which holds the social, political, and economic connotations of the site becomes both the material and the medium which produces the work, in that the work is always constructed in relation to the cityscape. Therefore, the form and effect of graffiti extends past writing, producing a gestalt object that includes the social and temporal interactions of viewers and the work. The gestalt of graffiti highlights that writers are able to form a critical relationship with the urban environment and urban bureaucracy that is built not purely on antagonism and fear, but also on reliance.

Interviewer:      And how did you decide where to tag? Was it like a very – did you have a process of where you wanted to do tagging or was it just wherever?

Interviewee:      It was more of a bunch of impromptu – more trying to find the right opportunities to get away with doing it, so then you start to pick up a keen awareness of public space and also how people behave in public or selective viewing, so I just started to know I could do tags in front of people and they wouldn't see it just because they wouldn't be expecting to look for it, to begin with.

Interviewer:      Oh. So you could tag on the sidewalk and people would kind of not pay attention?

Interviewee:      Mm-hmm.

Interviewer:      So, when you tag in front of people, was that, I guess, a sort of place that was more viable or more sought after than, I guess, somewhere else where people couldn't see it?

Interviewee:      Yeah, 'cause you're getting more foot traffic.