LONG STORY SHORT

08Apr08

Writing on the Wall
by Josh Livingston

[Photo: Political/Social Graffiti Wall, freetoeknee]

Choose one of the following that best describes this photo:
A) tagging
B) senseless defacement
C) street art
D) the first step toward total anarchy

If you said
A) We can smell your street cred from here.
B) You’re a high school principal.
C) You still owe $40K in grad school student loans.
D) Thank you, Rudy Guliani.

Like Rodney Dangerfield, spray paint gets no respect. But it is – or can be – more than just aggrandizing one’s handle in a flashy font. Graffiti can protest, memorialize, comment on current events and solicit action (several colorful exhortations on men’s room walls spring to mind). It can be divisive, socially-aware, inflammatory, poignant and funny. Under examination, graffiti is the (literal) brick-and-mortar equivalent to blogging. As extensions of man’s primal urge to self-express, blogging and graffiti share a legacy as old as the Lascaux caves, tagged by pre-literate man some 16,000 years ago. They parallel in several key ways.

Both are incredibly democratic forums that allow anyone to broadcast their views, often anonymously, to a wide audience. The minimum capital investment – a few cans of spray paint, an internet connection – is negligible, boosting accessibility. Furthermore, practitioners need no diploma or culturally-licensed authority, just an opinion (which, in ubiquity, are second only to elbows).

Both are stomping grounds for developing artists. As skills honed by continuing execution, visual arts and writing are perfected by practice. Try to find a graphic designer without a book of street art or an aspiring novelist without a rant on blogspot. But neither is a much of a career move. Only a few high-profile blogs generate enough traffic to lure advertisers and there are only so many luxury handbag collaborations for graffiti artists to go around.

Both are unbound by corporations, but are exploited by them when it’s useful. As the vox populi, their messages often resonate at the grassroots level. Viral marketers plant endorsements, extol products or spread buzz and fashion houses co-opt the graffiti aesthetic for credibility or edge.

Both are vehicles of dissent, challenging the hegemony of culture-at-large. While national coverage of Ron Paul’s presidential campaign was marginal, his supporters can articulate their devotion endlessly online; the more spray paint-inclined have also created a powerful arsenal of graffiti-style “Ron Paul Revolution” art.

In both media, it’s difficult to censor messages that could be repulsive or offensive such as swastikas and pro-anorexia blogs. The aggrieved have little choice but to look elsewhere. NY Times fashion editor Catherine Horyn recently discussed certain European designers’ adversarial view of online commentators; in their profound resentment of critical bloggers, they wanted to know how to control or remove unflattering posts (I can only imagine the look on their faces when informed they couldn’t).

Ultimately, the crux – and the real power – of these disciplines is their absolute editorial freedom. There are no gallery owners, art buyers, editors, patrons, advertisers or other cultural gatekeepers to pander to or appease. More than the big businesses of books, films and paintings, both are essentially non-profit.
And in a world where everything feels focused on the almighty dollar, that’s more than writing on the wall.

Long Story Short runs every other Tuesday.

More about Josh Livingston

Filed under: Long Story Short, art   |  4 Comments
Tags: blogging, catherine horyn, change, fashion, flickr, freetoknee, graffiti, keep your coins, lascaux caves, Long Story Short, new york times, ron paul revolution, street art, street cred, Urban Molecule, writing on the wall