Graffiti: from the Streets to the Walls of the Corporate Boardroom
Ask anyone their opinion on graffiti, and you’ll receive views right across the board : some people see it as vandalism, others a nuanced artform. On the plus side, talented graffiti artists such as Banksy have made graffiti an artform that is pleasing on the eye, applying stencils to create technically tricky graphics with a subtle meaning attached. This kind of graffiti was likely to become popular with both the masses and the art critics : pleasing to the eye, and the intellect. This kind of graffiti is now even bought as graffiti prints on canvas, and placed on the walls of middleclass homes and corporate meeting rooms.
All the same, when it comes to your down and dirty graffiti – the gangbanger, the tagger, the street urchin – this type of graffiti is often seen as vandalism, an offence perpetrated by the untalented. But is graffiti simply an artform? To many people, it’s not just art, but a means to put your stamp on a district, or even a rejection of society altogether : anti-art, anti-social, anti-establishment.
Graffiti has invariably been a clandestine pursuit, even though the effects are public facing. The intended audience is often unbeknown. Is it for a rival crew? A communication to a single person? To the public at large? Or….possibly it’s merely gratuitous and out of nothing else to do.
Whatever the reasons, there appears to be a permanent need to spray on walls. Some towns have admitted that graffiti isn’t a short-term craze, so they’ve designated zones where graffiti is allowed – usually derelict areas, but now and again more civic zones like boarding that surrounds inner city construction sites.
