Ask anyone their opinion on graffiti, and you’ll get views of love and hatred : some people see it as vandalism, others a nuanced artform. On the plus side, gifted artists such as Banksy have made graffiti an aesthetic pleasure, utilizing stencils to produce tricky artworks loaded with political points attached. This kind of graffiti was likely to become popular with the public and the art critics : appealing to both eye and intellect. This sort of graffiti is even acquired as graffiti prints, and placed in middle class households and office meeting rooms.
All the same, when it comes to your down and dirty graffiti – the scally, the tagger, the gangbanger kind – this sort of graffiti is oftentimes seen as vandalism, a crime committed by the talentless. However misinterprets graffiti as strictly an art form. To many people, it’s not only art, but a method to mark a neighbourhood, or even a two finger salute : anti-art, anti-social, anti-establishment.
Graffiti has invariably been an underground pursuit, although the effects are public facing. The intended audience is often unidentified. Is it for a rival gang? A communication to an individual? To the public at large? Or….possibly it’s just uncalled-for and out of boredom.
Whatever the reasons, there appears to be a sustained demand to spray on walls. Some towns have conceded that graffiti isn’t a short-term craze, so they’ve marked off zones where graffiti is permitted – usually uninhabited areas, but now and then busier zones like boarding surrounding inner city construction sites.
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