"We need to be clear here, graffiti is a crime "

[editor]

What the hell is wrong with this fool?

Who knows, but he's like a One Man Self-Pwning Unit.

 

[editor]

Here's the kind of shit we mainly get in my area:

One Victorian clock tower trashed by cunts.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Lets put it to the Graph Board. Some of PowZ stuff is hard to come by these days and this early 'white only' effort could be considered for listing.

 

[DrRingDing]

If all you can do is moan I suggest you move to the home counties where you clearly belong.

 

[tarannau]

You see, I actually quite like Graffiti, even I do wince at my tagging past a little.

And even I'm still thinking, "How did this inane RingDing pillock get to 13000+ posts?

 

[editor]

If all you can do is moan I suggest you move to the home counties where you clearly belong.

DrRingDing engages his usual, "I've lost the argument so it's time for a hissy fit and more petty insults."

It's all a bit pathetic, really.

 

[editor]

You see, I actually quite like Graffiti, even I do wince at my tagging past a little.

And even I'm still thinking, "How did this inane RingDing pillock get to 13000+ posts?

There's some great graffiti out there, but the shit on Brady's clock tower is nothing less than mindless, artless vandalism. It looks even worse now.

 

[DrRingDing]

There's some great graffiti out there, but the shit on Brady's clock tower is nothing less than mindless, artless vandalism. It looks even worse now.

Where's your solutions then? You're an authoritarian so maybe you're thinking harsher punishments for the kids.

Maybe putting their nozel spraying fingers in a thumb screw?

 

[DrRingDing]

There's some great graffiti out there, but the shit on Brady's clock tower is nothing less than mindless, artless vandalism. It looks even worse now.

Get a pot of paint. Then paint.

But then what could you whinge about?

I'm sure you could find someting.

 

[editor]

Where's your solutions then? You're an authoritarian so maybe you're thinking harsher punishments for the kids.

Maybe putting their nozel spraying fingers in a thumb screw?

You're a fucking idiot. Really.

Fuck knows why we let such a twat post up such idiotic garbage, day in and day out.

Oh hang on, you're calling me "authoritarian"? Now there's a dilemma for you.

If I'm an authoritarian, would would have banned ages ago. But you're still here. Whoops!

Poor ol'RingDing. Self-pwned once again!

 

[free spirit]

to be fair to ringding, I reckon he had a decent point at the start of this thread. There's a difference between street art painted by an artist who's work is selling for thousands (hundreds of thousands), and who's one of the most well known and prolific artists of his generation... and some random shit tagging.

Maybe the council ought to be looking at it more as banksy giving them a free piece of public art. Council's spend enough of our money comissioning shit public art (ok they do pull the occasional angel of the north out of the bag) without spending more of our (well tower hamlets council tax payers) money cleaning off a piece of art without at least sussing out if the local community want it cleaning or not.

BTW it'd not be hard to sus out if local people wanted it to stay or not, half a day with a clipboard should at least give you a decent idea.

 

[A. Spies]

Its crap that someone did stuff like that on the colocktower. But part of graffiti is also placement. Tagging and throwups are in themselves pretty difficult to master, if you're crap at art it can take years of spending hours a day developing a style, then it has to be painted in under a few minutes. I agree that tagging absolutley everywhere is a bit stupid and ugly cos of repetition but tags are also the basis from which you learn proportion, flow, connections and all the other stuff that makes a mural.
Think its pretty hard to debate between people hate and love graff though because I n I think most people that love it would find it difficult to get into the skin of anyone that prefers a blank cocnrete wall/shop shutter to one covered in succesful/unsuccsesful attempts at caligraphy/art by ordinary kids/people most of whom aren't loaded and have found something to perfect. Don't you hate how city spaces are controlled purely by business logos and adverts and signs telling you what can and can't be done? making you feel like within that space you have to here. obey this, buy that? But wouldn't it be really boring if it was completely anonymous as well?
This debate would be balanced out a bit more by half the people that think graff is mindless trying to create even just a decent tag. It's well difficult.

 

[DrRingDing]

You're a fucking idiot. Really.

Fuck knows why we let such a twat post up such idiotic garbage, day in and day out.

Oh hang on, you're calling me "authoritarian"? Now there's a dilemma for you.

If I'm an authoritarian, would would have banned ages ago. But you're still here. Whoops!

Poor ol'RingDing. Self-pwned once again!

Still no solutions just a lot of bitchin?

Shame you can't engage in meangingful debate, just sticking to petty point scoring.

 

[editor]

Don't you hate how city spaces are controlled purely by business logos and adverts and signs telling you what can and can't be done?

Yes. But I also hate shit, self-aggrandising, inartistic, ugly, talentless tagging too. It's just mindless vandalism.

And there's a fuck load of that around where I am, and precious little work of any merit at all.

And I like good graffiti.

 

[Backatcha Bandit]

"The privitazation of public space by the corporate media is an unacceptable and unathorized enforcement of our slavery to the industrial capitalist machine. I believe it is not only my right but also my moral duty to counteract the corporate marketing media, to subvert and oppose their intent to control our collective mindspace by placing messages of truth alongside theirs."

As for 'mindless tagging' - the desire to achive some sort of immortality by recording your name on a surface in a public space isn't exactly a new phenomenon.

Some transcriptions and translations of ancient Graffiti on the walls of Pompeii: http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Latin_Vulgar/Texts/Pompeii_Graffiti.html

e.g. "Lucius pinxit" - Lucius painted this.

Then there's even older stuff:

Since the vast majority of 'graffiti' is done with the knowledge that there is unlikely to be any prospect of financial gain, (indeed, quite the opposite if caught), could it not be argued that it is among the *purest* of art forms?

 

[editor]

Since the vast majority of 'graffiti' is done with the knowledge that there is unlikely to be any prospect of financial gain, (indeed, quite the opposite if caught), could it not be argued that it is among the *purest* of art forms?

How would you fancy some of that 'purest art form' all over the front of your house then? No? Why ever not?

Most tagging has got fuck all to do with art. It's just petty juvenile vandalism. Nothing particularly wrong with that - it's what kids have always done, after all - but to elevate it into some sort form of high art form is pure bollocks.

Unlike primitive cave artists (wha'?!) trying to interpret and understand the world around them using form, line and shading, tagging is usually the work of teenagers trying to big themselves up for their own personal gain (in the shape of elevated status amongst their peers).

*note: I'm not asserting that all tagging is without artistic merit.

 

[Monkeynuts]

There's something really cuntish about the idea that disliking graffiti is "Tory" and that those of us who don't should "fuck off back to the Home Counties".

I'm perfectly fucking entitled not to like it.

 

[Wolfie Smith]

<I'm not asserting that all tagging is without artistic merit>

I'd love to see some that had some. Tagging is either an illiterate scrawl or uses some stupid 'hip hop' lettering that might have been cool 25 years ago when it was invented but now looks very old indeed.

I actually like banksy stuff, but if its sprayed on a wall then it's fair game to be painted over. It's ruddy graffiti art and part of the flipping charm is that it isn't supposed to be there for ever.

 

[DJ Squelch]

You see, I actually quite like Graffiti, even I do wince at my tagging past a little.

Were you Taran, HKA by any chance?

ETA I remembered I'd seen this -

So maybe they did ask the local community.

 

[Maurice Picarda]

I like this idea that councils can simply remove walls and take them to Sothebys in the hope that there's £50k in it. There aren't many structural surveyors on Urban, are there?

 

[scifisam]

I'd have a lot more respect for this statement, and for the decision made by Railtrack (I think it was them - I've lost track of which company is which when it comes to trains) to paint over the Banksy graffiti if they put as much effort into cleaning up graffiti which doesn't have a huge artistic following.

The Banksy graffiti by Old St station was covered over with black paint, but graffiti further down the wall was left there. Of course, the Banksy wall has now been scrawled with ugly tags again, and hasn't been cleaned up at all.

There was a special effort made to clean up Banksy's graffiti.

Is any of Banksy's graffiti on places like that clock tower, btw, which was already deemed beautiful by many and suffered from the adding of paint? All the Banksy stuff I've seen is on blank walls which were otherwise ugly or, at best, dull.

@Maurice - IIRC, the one by Old St was on a disused sub-station which could have been sold as a building, with the selling point of the valuable art it showcases, without attempting to take away the wall.

 

[art of fact]

i cant believe they are restoring banksys and giving him special treatment. dont they realise by allowing banksy to freely commit vandalism they are encouraging other people to do the same. i am a big banksy fan, but i dont think because his work sells for large sums it should be deemed exceptable over other graffiti.i see good and bad graffiti all the time getting cleaned off, but thats what i like about graffiti its constantly revolving a fresh.... when the council decides what is good graffiti and what is bad it just takes all the excitement out of it.

 

[intrikat]

not even the scots are immune...









Personally I like graffiti - I lived in an area of sydney that had loads of fantastic street art such as this:
The well-known and much-loved "Idiot Box" mural by Andrew Aiken was located on the side wall of a large terrace house at 64 Erskineville Road, opposite the renowned Imperial Hotel. It featured a surrealistic portrait of the TV character Marcia Brady from The Brady Bunch, brandishing an automatic pistol, and painted as if she is bursting through the shattering glass of a TV screen. The TV itself is painted in a trompe l'oeil effect, apparently breaking through the brick wall of the house on which the mural is painted. The power switch and power cord and plug of the TV were applied objects made from plastic. Regrettably, this remarkable mural, which had been in place since 1993, was removed by the new owners of the property in November/December 2006.
I looked for pics of this - unfortunately couldn't find any
Agreed some tagging is shit, but would much rather see graff on walls than advertising. Tough debate as I know a lot of people don't like it either.