In the essay "Graffiti is Art" the author Charles 'Chaz' Bojorquez explains his experience first hand with the modern art form while growing up in Los Angeles. Explaining how graffiti is simply a rite of passage and form of self expression for many growing up. However most who are anti-graffiti just see it as vandalism and a form of loss of moral control in a city. Reason being is because tagging (a form of graffiti) is known to be spontaneous and yet illegal so graffiti does may cause property damage and could be met with fines and punishments by the law if caught. Graffiti has new rules which is why it takes on many different forms.
Graffiti is known to tie back from the early 1900s and became possible during the zoot suit era especially in the city of Los Angeles. Graffiti is also known to be connected to gangs and any type of affiliation as you can mostly see taggings of gang names around cities following the number 13. usually this is the easiest way to differentiate a gang tag versus one of a tagging crew or just a solo tag. What Chaz refers to as "hip-hop" tagging. The point of gang tagging is to show which gang controls which areas of the city and the point of hip hop tagging is to show how much you can "get up". Getting up in the city is important because it is a way to show your tag name as much as possible. Its a free for all and you can do it pretty much anywhere.
Personally growing up in Los Angeles as a Latino I also had an experience with graffiti. I was never good at it which is why I didn't continue but during middle school getting up was the thing to do. My friends and I would cruise around the city in our bikes and did as many hit ups around the city. As a matter a fact everywhere we went was centered around tagging, I remember our tag names being 'ONCE', 'ABEC' and 'BORN'. Since I was always the shortest they would literally carry me to post 'slaps' which were US Post Office stickers with our tag name in it. Thankfully in todays day the graffiti art movement is expanding and receiving more support. More and more graffiti artists are receiving college degrees in arts and now graffiti is becoming more accepting. It has even been sold and in art galleries and presented in many museums of art. At the end of the day graffiti was created to show validation, identity, dignity, and unity.
Thank you for sharing your experiences with us Jesus. This took me back to highschool cause there was this one kid who would put his brand stickers all over the school and that was how we all knew who he was. I also thought of how you said graffiti being more accepted, and I couldn't stop thinking of the new spiderman movie. I like how they show Miles slapping stickers with this tag name all over the city until his dad catches him.
ReplyDeleteI really liked that you shared your own personal experience with graffiti. I myself, also grew up in Los Angeles but was never in this kind of scene. I do, however, remember the kids who were all about it. Looking back now, I let my false perception of graffiti destroy my ability to appreciate it as a form of art.
ReplyDeleteThis just brought back so many memories! I never actually considered the stickers to be part of graffiti, but after reading your post, now I do. I remember people taking each other's stickers down or just putting theirs on top. I like what you said about graffiti being a rite of passage because it shows how powerful it can be and how it transcends time.
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