Graffiti - Art or Crime

Probably the most prevalent graffiti form is that of the "hip-hop" style, and that is the school we are particularly going to focus on.

Centred around the pseudonym the graffiti writer endeavours to get his name the most exposure possible. "Taki 183" the alias used by a Greek kid from Manhattan in the late 60's was the first to be noticed by the general public. The notoriety created by such publicity helped fuel each writers fame and give birth to hundreds of new graffiti writers. With more writers tagging, different styles and techniques had to be developed to make a persons work stand out from the rest. The 70's is when the styles of lettering increased in its evolution - 3D, drop shadows, intricate colour, fill ins, readable straight letters, illegible wildstyle letters, backgrounds and characters pushed previous boundaries.

Arrival in Australia at around a similar time we received movies such as "Beat Street"; thus the Hip Hop phenomenon was born in Australia. Early graffiti writers in Australia were generally made from breakdancers. In Sydney, graffiti crews such as Cosmic Crew, Digit Dance Team, United Break Team and others such as Zu'lu Artists, Crime in Style, International Bomb Squad, Rock City Funk, Tour do Future and Future Art Beat (Fab-4) were all at the cutting edge of the Sydney scene. Styles are developing at a rapid rate and writers are travelling abroad with the sole purpose of painting in another country. Graffiti writers, as well as painting walls and trains, are also getting into the fields of fine arts and graphic design - whether this waters down the title of graffiti in their work is a matter of contention. Some writers are also opting to concentrate on purely legal work; does this mean it is still called graffiti, is the crime element the reason why areas of the establishment cannot call it just art.

Webster's dictionary describes graffiti as "a class rude scribblings or figures on the walls of the cata comps, etc..." dating from ancient Roman times and the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia states in reference to graffiti, "technique of producing a design by incising or cutting through a surface layer of paint to ' reveal a contrasting undercoat". The term is derived from an Italian word meaning "scratched". If graffiti means to scratch doesn't it sound closer to defining a hip-hop dee-jay than defining a hip-hop visual artist? Perhaps the emphasis on the letter form and in particular wildstyle legibility distances from the public perception of what art is. The fact that graffiti artists are generally writing their name cause people to conclude that writers are ego-tripping.

Writing one word thousands of times on public property has people up in arms, but when the motives are different and the writer is an old man, society crowns him an eccentric hero. Arthur Stace who wrote "Eternity" all over Sydney in the early 50's, has a plaque in his honour. People as notable as Martin Sharp have commented on how this man's graffiti has influenced their lives.

During the Sydney 2000 New Years Eve celebrations, the Eternity tag appeared on the Harbour Bridge in front of a live crowd of 1 million people. Click on the image to read more about Eternity

Australia has one of the oldest histories in wall painting - with the indigenous Australians having work dating back many thousands of years and from this we learn much of their history. In fact archeologists have learned a great deal by study of a country's graffiti - I wonder what their conclusion would be if they discovered us thousands years down the track. Graffiti has changed quite a bit and travelled in numerous directions - graffiti is a world phenomenon. Perhaps in our distant modern society it is an instant art form. Perhaps it's lack of censorship makes it attractive or maybe it is a by product created by our advertising TV generation mind sets. Whatever the reason for graffiti's increase, it appears - judging from history - that in some form or other graffiti is here to stay.

Mistery