Graffiti as Art - Research Paper Example

Graffiti as Art Introduction In today’s world, graffiti has become commonplace, appearing on literary every surface from walls in streets to toilets in public places. The context of materials drawn in graffiti is so wide, thus becoming the central focus of many scholars from different disciplines. The attitude towards graffiti varies widely. During the early days of graffiti emergence, some scholars compared art to graffiti, perceiving graffiti as a new composite phenomenon, with characteristics of childishness and adult assault. Yet others perceived graffiti as a psychological phenomenon, as a form of free and personal communication unbound by the daily social restraints that hinder individuals to express their thoughts (Almquist, 2009). Insofar as graffiti in Trinidad is concerned, graffiti is an art. The reasons, aesthetic criteria included, that reiterates that graffiti is an art outweigh the criticism of incoherence, nonstandard, and illegal presentation. This paper seeks to identify graffiti as a form of art, with particular emphasis on graffiti in the walls of the streets in Trinidad. The paper also highlights some peculiar tagging present in the graffiti as well as providing some samples from the region. Background A previous research on graffiti in Trinidad shows that prior to the arrival of Howok, a graffiti artist from Dublin aged 25 years, the graffiti in Trinidad was primarily two dimensions with one or two colors. However, the region is experiencing some changes in the graffiti section. Big, colored, three-dimension graffiti are pooping up literary every night on walls in the streets, from Diego Martin main road, Ariapita Avenue, Western main road to the Foreshore. Interestingly, these graffiti have some resemblance, with the majorly the name of the new graffiti artist, Howok. It seems that the artist brought different texts and colors to the graffiti industry in Trinidad. However, some graffiti in the Trinidad Island also reflect their culture, such as the one that depicts people playing the steel pan (Plate 1), a national instrument for the country. Plate 1:Grafiti in Trinidad showing people playing steel pans. Contrary to graffiti in the West and other parts of the world, the graffiti in Trinidad predominantly incorporates the name of the artist rather than the wide use of numerous graphics and texts eminent in North America (Schlee, 2005). Nonetheless, graphics are becoming a common feature of graffiti in Trinidad, though not with the same magnitude as with other countries. It is from such evidence that this paper seeks to assert that graffiti art in Trinidad is indeed a form of art. The origin of graffiti art in the Caribbean region dates back to the 1990s, as the societies were experiencing the impact of popular cultural phenomena. The popular Caribbean culture has influence of the developments across the global mass culture. Throughout the 1990s, the Caribbean societies exhibited signs of influence from international fashion, films, music, and other emerging industries, particularly among the youth. The young people tended to seek new avenues to express their feelings. They thus sought to propagate discourses as legitimate responses to the already established discourses. Graffiti art is among the most disruptive, subversive, and creative form of art in the Caribbean societies. It is dominant in Barbados and other regions such as the Trinidad Island. Despite its virtually omnipresent existence, the academic organizations completely ignore this form of art. Formal scrutiny, explication, and analysis of graffiti writing and art are yet to occur. The graffiti arts on public spaces and walls across the Caribbean depict the disaffection of some people. It is imperative to understand the background of graffiti in the Caribbean and the various cultural behaviors and phenomena that surround the graffiti art in order to make a comprehensive conclusion on the nature of graffiti art. Critics of graffiti art as a form of art base their arguments on their location, as well as unexpected, unconventional, and bold presentation, but the illegal location or presentation is not strong enough to disqualify it as a form of art. This paper presents some acceptable forms of graffiti as art, referred to as graffiti art, or spray can art or subway art (Dickson, 2008). The paper counters the arguments of unconventional presentation and vandalism with the explanation of apparent properties in those forms of graffiti that qualify them aesthetically as art. There are various forms of graffiti, including the two most common forms: individual markings and tag. Individual markings are a simple graffiti form such as a slogan, political statement, or a slur (Adams, 2006). This form of graffiti is very common in bathrooms and exterior surfaces, with majority applying the hand as a media of writing. The other form, tag, is simple, scribble-like, fancy writing of an individual’s real name or nickname. In Trinidad however, the tag has evolved to incorporate aesthetic elements such as multiple color, spray cans, and three dimensions, as well as a distinctive form of territorial marking by the artists. This form of tag graffiti is the most popular in Trinidad. Plate 2: Graffiti with three dimension, multi-color, and spray can elements in Trinidad. The use of spray cans, three dimensions, and multiple colors elevate the tag graffiti in Trinidad to graffiti art, the creative use of spray paints to design artistic graffiti, or that resembles the graffiti-like style. Plate 3: Graffiti with name of artist (Kraze) and cartoon character (a chimp) Methodology For this research, the presenter opted for a physical (face-to-face) exploration of the graffiti industry in the Trinidad Island. The primary collection of data was through observation as well as interviews with a few artists who remain anonymous under request. It is important to note that prior to the arrival of Howok in the late 2000s, the most dominant form of graffiti was two dimensions with a few colors. However, more three dimensions, multi colored, spray paint graffiti are appearing in the street walls in the Trinidad Island. The regions with dense concentration of the graffiti include Diego Martin main road opposite Starlite Plaza, Foreshore opposite the stadium. Others include Aria pita Avenue near POS, the Western main road near Good wood Park and under the tunnel, Colville Street, and Link Road St. James, the exit to Mucurapo road. It is evident that majority of the graffiti works are in the city or in areas with large concentration of poor people. The face-to-face interviews with some of the artists were also important in understanding their intentions when creating these graffiti. The interaction and observation of the artists at work in their private workshops provided a deep and rich source of knowledge to the presenter (Chesluk, 2004). According to the anonymous artists, they lack the financial capability to obtain the adequate materials to produce quality graffiti, as well as technicalities such as fear of apprehension by the local law enforcement authorities. Therefore, the artists work under pressure of time and materials, thus the current state of the graffiti art in Trinidad Ireland. Both methods, observations and face-to-face interviews, were very rewarding to the presenter in terms of knowledge and information. The data collection method focused on three locations: main city areas, private graffiti exhibitions, and shantytowns. On the main city area, the central focus was on the Foreshore areas, which has numerous graffiti art as compared to other areas. The private exhibition part focused on the private works of Howok and Kraze in their respective workshops. In the shantytowns category, the focus was on the Woodbrook, a local community in Trinidad where Howok purportedly lives. Plate 4: Woodbrook, the residence of graffiti artist Howok. The contents of the graffiti works analyze incorporate tag messages. The messages essentially represent the graffiti artists or their identity. Nonetheless, some of the graffiti art incorporate pictures and funny quotes, such as the one with the name “legalize” and a “weed” symbol in the colors of the Trinidad national flag. Plate 5: Graffiti with the word “legalize” and a weed symbol. The graffiti art in Trinidad is more frequent in main city areas such as the Foreshore region and in shantytowns such as Woodbrook. Results The results of the observations were amazing. There are many graffiti in the streets of Trinidad Island, majority being enhanced tag forms with the names Howok and Kraze. Interestingly, these graffiti have numerous tags, some with numbers as well as names. After much speculation, the presenter came up with some possible meaning of the tags. First, the names either refer to their nicknames in their graffiti world, or are either a hail out to their fellow graffiti artists within their circle. There is substantial evidence that graffiti artists operate in territorial groups, and these groups often associate or communicate with each other in form of small tags and characters incorporated in graffiti. Second, these tag names could be a form of identity, a secret identification system within their circle that identifies some graffiti works with particular artists. Third, the number could be references to streets or location codes of relevance such as their home or their birthplace, or the number of the graffiti works in their series (Dickson, 2008). This is particularly evident with the graffiti bearing the name Howok. In the plate 4 example below, we may translate the number six tag as the serial number of this particular graffiti, and the tag “100 Project 2009” as the project name of the artist as well as the target to produce 100 graffiti. Plate 6: A Howok graffiti with the tag “No 6” and “100 Project 2009”. After some enquiries with the anonymous artists, one suggested that the tags provide very important information to the society. The artists gave a comprehensive analysis of the tags in Howok graffiti. According to them, the artist probably lives in Paris, France. This is because of the tags in the graffiti, including “94 to Trinidad and Tobago”, “94 BAB”, and “94 Trinidad”. They argue that the “94” in the numerous graffiti represents where the artists lives (Plate 5). France is divided into area codes, with “94” representing Paris. In addition, they argue that the names in the graffiti are names for the associates of the artist, including such common ones as BAB, Onebay/Nebay, and KO. Their analysis may not be admissible, but the fact that they are graffiti artists themselves and the lack of adequate evidence, this information is valuable to the research. Plate 7: A Howok graffiti with the tags “94 BAB” and “237”. Apart from tagging, the graffiti in Trinidad also represents some cultural aspects of the region. For instance, there is one concerning the local song, seca, which incorporates the national colors of Trinidad. Others cultural graffiti art include the one with people playing the pan (Plate 1 above). Plate 8: Graffiti with the name “Las Seca” Frequency Media Rendered Political Tags Sexual 2D/3D Cultural Main city areas 11 Spray=14 2 7 0 3D=7 2D=4 2 Private graffiti exhibitions 10 Spray=10 2 5 1 3D=8 2D=2 2 Shantytowns 5 Spray=5 0 2 0 3D=2 2D=3 3 Table 1: Summary of the location, frequency, rendered, and context of graffiti in the Trinidad Island. NB: It is important to note that due to the nature of the study, the presenter managed to observe physically thirteen graffiti in the region, apart from those in private graffiti exhibition. Discussion The purpose of the above research data is to show that the graffiti in Trinidad is indeed a form of art, despite its unconventional presentation and illegality. The artists, herein referring to KOK, Howok, and Kraze, do not produce the ill form of graffiti (Schlee, 2005). Their graffiti is a tag that incorporates aesthetic elements such as multiple colors, three dimension, and spray paint, thus under the masterpiece category. Their works highlight significant cultural influences from across the global mass culture. From the observation, we may develop a four criteria basis for determining what graffiti art is. First, graffiti art is different from mere graffiti as the former has artistic intentions and results to a piece of artwork. Second, graffiti art (especially with reference to tag) has a rich history of development in technique and style (Adams, 2006). Third, graffiti art is recognizable in the world of art. Fourth, surveys and research from anonymous graffiti artists show that it is an art. Despite the efforts of the research, the most significant problem remains determining the synchronization point between the artist and the audience agreement that a particular piece of graffiti is an art (MacDonald, 2001). In other words, the society needs to understand what elements make the creation of art for graffiti artists and the same creation for audiences. Conclusion With special attention to Trinidad Island, graffiti that adheres to spray can art is a form of art in its own right. This is because it incorporates colors, form, and other elements, as well as a distinct arrangement of these elements in such a way that qualify its aesthetical appearance as an art. However, not all types of graffiti that use spray can art are graffiti art. With reference to Trinidad, the presentation does not necessarily disqualify graffiti as a form of art. The use of multiple colors, three dimensions, and spray paint, as well as the artistic presentation as evidenced in majority of the graffiti counters the criticisms (Almquist, 2009). In future, it is necessary to investigate the actual intentions of the artists in their graffiti as well as their choice of surface, such as walls of private properties. References Adams, J. (2006). When Art Looses its Sting: The Evolution of Protest Art in Authoritarian Contexts. Sociological Perspectives, 48(4):531-558. Almquist, B. (2009). Writers United: The story of a European Graffiti Crew. Dorkument Foglag. Chesluk, B. (2004). Visible Signs of a City out of Control: Community Policing in New York City. Cultural Anthropology 19(2):250-275. Dickson, M. (2008). The making of space, race and place: New York Citys war on graffiti, 1970-the present. Critique of Anthropology 28(1):27-45. Gottlieb, L. (2008). Graffiti Art Styles: A Classification System and Theoretical Analysis. Jefferson: McFarland and Company Inc. MacDonald, N. (2001). The Graffitti Subculture: Youth, Masculinity and Identity in London and New York. NewYork: Palgrave. Schlee, S. (2005). Fadings: Graffitti to Design, Illustration and More. Corte Madera: Gingko Press. Read More