What's appearing on our streets.......vandalism or art?

Hey Guys

 

I am wondering how everyone feels about graffiti stencil art

 

I have recently fallen for banksy and i know there are other

grafitti vandal artists out there as well. Some of the art makes

for great street photography moments and when i come across one it

makes me smile like walls don't just belong to advert

agencies...they belong to us. The streets are our playgrounds for

expression.

 

www.banksy.co.uk

 

What do you guys think?

Let 'em draw on their own walls on their own property.

 

Ad agencies rent space on walls from their legitimate owners. Graffiti "artists" don't ask, they just deface. A very big difference. They're vandals plain and simple.

It is clearly an art, until your walls get hit! lol <br>

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I think they should draw not on the walls, rather on the bilboards, instead of these boring adds. :)

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...but seriously, to steal a millon dollars, you have to be an artist, but that still will be criminal.

Unless those walls are on public property, they don't belong to "us" or "the people" and

even if on public property, how does yours or "Banksy's:" right to vandalize square with

your neighbor's right to see it unadorned with your wit or name?

 

No amount of paint huffing intellectuallizing or rationalization changes the basic concept

of Western Civilization of private property. Even if you think you think that it is okay for

any of "us" to come into your bedroom and do anything we the people might like to do at

anytime of the day or night.

Art and vandalism aren't mutually exclusive. That said, I don't

advocate tagging on private structures nor oversaturated boring

ads neither.

Visit www.woostercollective.com for some really brilliant sticker and graff art.

 

I support it fully. But that's not to say it should be legal. Part of my support of it is that as a medium it relies some what on subversion to be effective, and, if properly done, on subtelties that poor graff art and tagging lack.

I think it's great.

I'm not sure what the question, as phrased, has to do with photography. Whether or not people like it or not has nothing to do with photographing it. <p>

 

I often photograph graffiti and/or use it as backdrops. A lot of it is in abandoned buildings.<p>

 

<center><img src="http://www.spirer.com/images/handprints.jpg"><br><i>Hands, Marin Headlands Fort Series, Copyright 2000 Jeff Spirer</i></center>

Can't get enough of the stuff.

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<center><img src="http://www.leveckis.net/images/24HR2/images/04116_01.jpg"></center>

Me either.<p><center><img src="http://www.spirer.com/images/graffitimoon.jpg"><br><i>GraffitiMoon, Copyright 2003 Jeff Spirer</i></center>

I found it interesting that Pompeii had lots of graffiti.<p><center><img src="http://www.spirer.com/images/hell.jpg"><br><i>Enterance to Hell, Marin Headlands Fort Series, Copyright 2000 Jeff Spirer</i></center>

I found it interesting that Pompeii had lots of graffiti.<p><center><img src="http://www.spirer.com/images/eddie70.jpg"><br><i>Eddie70, Marin Headlands Fort Series, Copyright 1999 Jeff Spirer</i></center>

Like a fine wine needs time.

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<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/2704858-lg.jpg"></center>

Prague has lots of interesting stuff too.

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<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/2437061-lg.jpg"></center>

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<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/2959562-lg.jpg"></center>

Banksy seems to be introducing to the UK what a number of artists/provocateurs have been doing in the US for years. Banksy doesn't strike me as being too interesting, though having a self-promoting website is a novel twist.

By the way, is de la Vega still incarcerated? I haven't seen his work in awhile.

I like Banksy. I realize private property has always been a sacred thing, esp in America but maybe the times they are a-changin'. Look at how public entities (Enron, Halliburton, FDA, Merck, etc.) are ripping off the public. And getting away with it! You're going to have some backlash. I am much more interested in the responsibilities of these Goliath public entities toward the public than I am the responsibilty of the street tagger toward private property. Artless grafitti is an eye-sore but Banksy is a different story. It's interesting to me that grafitti is everywhere, ubiquitous. It is a phenomenon of our times. I know I would think different if I was the auto dealer but I laughed when an ecologically concerned group tagged a bunch of brand-new Hummers. The taggers are outlaws. Some outlaws are really distastefull to me like those public entities (think Minimatta) and some outlaws are heroic to me. I always try to live by Dylan's immortal line "To live outside the law you must be honest."

Sea wall, China Beach, San Francisco. Who is this hurting? <center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/2510430-lg.jpg"></center>

Does it make a difference if your car is keyed in an artistic fashion? Or of the artist is some juvenile student with a "mission?" the vandalism of the SUVs in this area was a part of spree of hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage. Excusing vandalism because some corporation also is "robbing" some one is the kind of juvenile excuse we always hear and the same one your mother should have cautioned against. Just because somebody else does it, doesn't make it right.

 

And in our streets it's the gang method of pissing on the fireplug or leaving a "marker" on the trail - I'll kill for my territory.

To me it makes all the difference in the world if the grafitti or the Hummer tagging is done artfully. The object is to get the audience into your message. Artlessness will loose the audience you're trying to reach. The pissing-on-the-fire-plug level I find artless and an eyesore. Still there are beautiful things out there that enrich the environment. In LA there are wonderful murals on the Harbor freeway and along the LA river. Maybe to lump all the grafitti into one category and then condemn it is over-simplification.

Beau, don't know last time I heard anything about him he was getting sentenced and running for state senate at the same time. But yeah haven't seen his stuff for awhile.

<i>Does it make a difference if your car is keyed in an artistic fashion? </i>

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Aboslutely, if you are going to key something you should put all your efforts into doing the best you can...just like taking pics.

Heh. Make it count eh Ed?

"To me it makes all the difference in the world if the grafitti or the Hummer tagging is done artfully"

 

And which branch of the Art Police is going to decide on that?