The Art of Graffiti - Part 1

"Just make sure my face doesn't show man." Curse, a southern Connecticut graffiti artist, turns away from the camera and picks up another can of paint. "I just had an article about me in the newspaper but still..." As Broderick Grant of PolarityPhoto continues to shoot, Curse is careful not to turn towards the camera while he constructs an elaborate graffiti piece on a legal wall in the city of New Haven.

It is rare for a photographer to be allowed to shoot a graffiti artist at work, since the activity is highly illegal, but Curse and his girlfriend believe, like most graffiti writers, that their pieces are indeed art that should be shared with the community at large. After spending upwards of four hours photographing the pair, Broderick and his partner have, between them, taken over one thousand frames and chronicled every piece on the wall. Within days, the photos they have posted on the internet of Curse and Jo's work have amassed thousands of views and comments from at least twenty five different countries.

Curse and Jo are well aware they are walking the fine line between art and vandalism, prompting them to request that the photographers respect their desire for anonymity. In spite of graffiti art appearing in museums, art exhibits, and auction houses, most pieces still fall under the umbrella of vandalism, which often results in outrageous fines for artists who get caught painting on surfaces that aren't considered legal.

For decades the public has viewed graffiti as a manifestation of gang activity in the inner city. While gangs do use graffiti to communicate with rival gangs, and often to announce impending assassinations of particular individuals, graffiti as an art form has also been adopted by many outside the gang culture. Unfortunately the public has developed a relatively irrational fear and hatred of graffiti, making it difficult for true graffiti artists to fight the public's perception of graffiti as a sign of crime and urban squalor.

Yet in spite of the overwhelming opinion that graffiti is malicious, deliberate defacement of property, graffiti now influences everything from clothing lines, to corporate logos, to video games. Any aspiring graffiti artist can go online and learn not only about the history of "writing", but about the basics of becoming a writer, including an overview of the vocabulary used by writers and the value of tagging certain spots. In a way, graffiti has become a mainstream concept that has been adopted in many public arenas and by public figures such as designer Marc Ecko.

"Graffiti is without question the most powerful art movement in recent history," says Marc Ecko on his website. "...[it] has been a driving inspiration throughout my career." Ecko started out as a pharmacy student living in New Jersey, airbrushing t-shirts in the basement of his parents' house. Over the past two decades, Ecko has become a major supporter of graffiti, publicly fighting against laws that would make it illegal for anyone under 21 to purchase spray paint and continuing to support art students and graffiti artists in their fight to protect their freedom of artistic expression. In April of 2006, a viral video circulated throughout the internet that showed a group of individuals dressed in black hopping the fence at Andrews Air Force base to spray paint the words, "Still Free" on the side of Air Force One. It turned out to be a hoax, but the message was clear: graffiti writers weren't going to bow to public opinion.

Much like Ecko's statement with the Air Force One hoax, most modern graffiti carries with it a social or political message. Writers are often classified by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, labeled as a part of a subculture that rebels against authority. The Berlin Wall was covered in graffiti reflecting the social pressures on the German Democratic Republic of East Germany while under the oppressive rule of the Soviets. Both sides of the conflict in Northern Ireland produce politically motivated graffiti, and Banksy, a well known (but still anonymous) British graffiti artist produces graphic social commentary on walls throughout London.

Though vastly separate from the gang culture, graffiti still remains intertwined with hip-hop culture. Many of the most elaborate pieces produced in the recent past were created in memory of deceased rappers such as Big Pun, Notorious B.I.G., and Tupac Shakur. Many graffiti artists also collaborate regularly with musicians and public venues that hire the artists to produce pieces inside clubs and on the walls of outdoor skate parks. Graffiti is no longer limited to inner cities and urban areas as different demographics adopt the culture as their own. As graffiti continues to draw public support, the history of graffiti plays an important part in the growth of the newest generations of writers.