Writers, painters and artists have produced countless works of art on the urban experience. We can never explain or justify the city. The city exists. It is our space and we have no other. We were born in cities. We grew up in cities. In the cities we breathe. When we travel by train, we travel from one city to another. There is nothing inhuman in the city, perhaps only our very humanity. The traditional city landmarks are special buildings, statues and memorial pillars, squares, bridges, towers, etc., which have historical, social and artistic significance. They facilitate orientation and significance in the city by creating an urban hierarchy and a local identity. However, the modern city is experienced as an image, as an abstract continuum of colors, lights and descriptions. This dimension intensifies urban space and transforms it into a changing picture of desires and expectations. The city has become addicted to the media and today it is shaped by this vision. The city is perceived as a visual product. As a result of the visual dominance, the traditional points of reference are now a focus of human display.
Modern urban arts are characterized by existing in the public space. The term summarize all art forms arising in urban areas, being inspired by urban architecture or present urban lifestyle. It can be anything from a small graffiti and a corner musician performance to a very big municipal spectacle. Urban art is an international art form with an unlimited number of uses nowadays. Many urban artists travel from city to city and have social contacts all over the world, In addition to presenting in formal galleries and halls. Artists using the digital media with a subject matter that deals with contemporary urban culture can also be considered as urban artists.
Urban Interventionism is a name sometimes given to a number of different kinds of activist design and art practices, art that typically responds to the social community, locational identity, the built environment, and public places. The goals are often to create new awareness of social issues, and to stimulate community involvement. Urban Interventionism has been associated with a changed understanding of the relationship between the social and the spatial, called the "spatial turn" of the arts and sciences in the 1980s. In this turn a new viewpoint was taken on public and urban spaces , whereby urban spaces are seen not merely as containers for or outcomes of social processes, but as a medium through which they unfold and as having constitutive significance themselves. According to this train of thought the spatial sights of a city have the power to shape interactions and create new experiences. This power is utilized by urban interventions through the works created by the artists. Urban interventions are linked to artists and philosophers of the 1960's. To put art at the service of the urban does not mean to prettify urban space with works of art. Rather, this means that time-spaces become works of art and that former art reconsiders itself as source and model of appropriation of space and time. This also echoes other art forms that are connected like the 1960's Happenings. Combining art forms are characteristic to Urban Interventionism. Artists working in this international vein often utilize outdoor video projection, found objects, sculptural artifacts, posters, and performance events that might include and involve passersby on the street.
Graffiti are writing or drawings that have been scribbled, scratched, or painted illicitly on a wall or other surface, often within public view. Graffiti range from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings.Graffiti is the the main form of Urban Art. While not exhaustive, Graffiti give a sense of the millennial and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit. Graffiti writing is a way of defining what the generation is like. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people. Graffitters are a little bit more like pirates that way. They defend fiercely a territory with the space they paint on.
Historically, The term referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Use of the word has evolved to include any graphics applied to surfaces in a manner that constitutes vandalism.
The ancient Romans carved graffiti on walls and monuments, examples of which also survive in Egypt. Graffiti in the classical world had different connotations than they carry in today's society concerning content. Ancient graffiti displayed phrases of love declarations, political rhetoric, and simple words of thought, compared to today's popular messages of social and political ideals.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka scribbled over 1800 individual graffiti there between 6th and 18th centuries. Etched on the surface of the Mirror Wall, they contain pieces of prose, poetry, and commentary. Many demonstrate a very high level of literacy and a deep appreciation of art and poetry. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
These early forms of graffiti have contributed to the understanding of lifestyles and languages of past cultures.
Contemporary graffiti writing is often seen as having become intertwined with hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti. However, there are many other instances of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
Advent of aerosol paint made Rock and roll graffiti a significant subgenre. Aerosol Graffiti became associated with the anti-establishment punk rock movement beginning in the 1970s. Following the spread of hip hop culture In 1979, graffiti artists were given gallery openings, which contributed to a growing interest outside New York in all aspects of hip hop. Style Wars film reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture by incorporating famous early break-dancing groups into the film and featuring rap music in the soundtrack. Hollywood also paid attention, as it depicted the culture and gave it international exposure in movies such as Beat Street.
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks. Due to laws forbidding it, some of the "street artists" were arrested and charged with vandalism, and IBM was fined more than US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs. In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony.
Many graffiti artists see legal advertising as no more than paid for and legalised graffiti and have risen against mainstream ads.
Along with the commercial growth has come the rise of video games of the early 21th century also depicting graffiti, usually in a positive aspect, for example, the story of a group of teens fighting the oppression of a totalitarian police force that attempts to limit the graffiti artists' freedom of speech. In plot lines mirroring the negative reaction of non-commercial artists to the commercialization of the art form, it revolves around an anonymous hero and his magically imbued-with-life graffiti creations as they struggle against an evil king who only allows art to be produced which can benefit him. Following the original roots of modern graffiti as a political force came another game title, featuring a story line involving fighting against a corrupt city and its oppression of free speech.
Advocates of graffiti sees it as an art form, stating that Graffiti is without question the most powerful art movement in recent history and a driving inspiration. Graffiti have become a common stepping stone for many members of both the art and design communities in North America and abroad. From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Dogancay photographed urban walls all over the world. these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "The walls whisper, shout and sing...'' at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffiti artists to the public were in New York. A 2006 exhibition displayed graffiti as an art form. It displayed 22 works by New York graffiti artists. In an article about the exhibition, the curator said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti. Graffiti is revolutionary and any revolution might be considered a crime. People who are oppressed or suppressed need an outlet, so they write on walls, it's free. In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris, a clear acceptance of the art form into the French art world.
There is a significant graffiti tradition in South America, especially in Brazil. Within Brazil, São Paulo is a significant centre of inspiration for many graffiti artists worldwide. Brazil boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene, earning it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration. Graffiti flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities. Artistic parallels are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York. The sprawling metropolis of São Paulo has become the new shrine to graffiti. Brazil's chronic poverty and unemployment and the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples are as the main engines that have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture. In world terms, Brazil has one of the most uneven distributions of income, with Laws and taxes change frequently. Such factors contribute to a very fluid society, driven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised, that is South American graffiti art. Prominent Brazilian graffiti artists Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form and the more conventionally artistic values.
Graffiti in the Middle East is emerging slowly, with pockets of taggers operating in the various 'Emirates' of the United Arab Emirates, in Israel, and in Iran. Major Iranian newspaper has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist works on Tehran walls. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many graffiti artists in Israel come from other places around the globe. The religious reference"Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman" is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
Spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color. Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, limiting the healthy time of using them. Time is always a factor with graffiti artists also due to the constant threat of being caught by law enforcement. In yhis way' spray paint is a medium and a message. Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes as new media for graffiti artists.
Some of the most common styles of graffiti have their own names. A tag is the most basic writing of an artist's name. it is simply a hand style. It is by far the most common form of graffiti.
Many graffiti artists believe that doing complex pieces involves too great an investment of time to justify the practice. Doing a piece can take from 30 minutes to months on end, as was the case while working on the world's largest graffiti piece on the LA river. Another graffiti artist can go over a piece in a matter of minutes with a simple throw-up. This was exemplified by the writer "CAP" in the documentary Style Wars, who, other writers complain, ruins pieces with his quick throw ups. This became known as capping and often is done when there is a conflict between writers.
In times of conflict, graffiti art works are, in fact, an effective tool of communication and self-expression for members of socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR. The murals of Belfast and of Los Angeles offer an example of official recognition.
Because graffiti artists constantly have the looming threat of facing consequences for displaying their graffiti, many choose to protect their identities and reputation by remaining anonymous. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. He is art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some cities have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
By making the graffiti less explicit the drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character. Activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffiti artist painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in their being repaired within 48 hours.
Government responses around the world reflect the debate of the importance of Graffitti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanise the country's communist revolution.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffiti artists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated Graffiti Zones. From 2007, Taipei also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites with a goal to beautify the city with graffiti. The government later helped organize a graffiti contest.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti. In 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and graffiti, along with other concerns over urban life. In 2004, British campaign called for zero tolerance of graffiti. The campaign also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed 'cool' or 'edgy' image.
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffiti artists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and create art. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing. Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions. All forms of graffiti can be found in many places throughout the city. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent.
In the United States Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism.
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