Graffiti

Graffiti art or vandalism?

Graffiti is a style of art.

Graffiti is looked upon by the majority of people as vandalism, because it’s defacing public properties. You can argue the case that some graffiti is allowed and seen as art more than vandalism, some councils have given authority to paint certain walls as morals. White washing some walls purposely for the use of graffiti, this is a good idea but it kind of defeats the object. Graffiti artists who create the huge and talented morals pick their locations for a reason, it’s part of the feeling and mood of the ideas they are trying to communicate. The location is the frame for the art pieces so by purposely creating locations with the white wash walls you are loosing the meaning behind the art, so by taking away the vandalism you're actually taking away the meaning and purpose of the art.

I know typography is an art and can be used in powerful ways of advertising, graffiti is mostly type or include signatures, and some invented fonts being regularly copied. This art is seen as vandalism yet its style is copied in commercials and other advertisement campaigns especially club flyers etc.

I think most Graffiti is a defined and recognised art style and at the same time its vandalism, some graffiti is purely art but with weaker meaning and no real message and some graffiti is intentional vandalism again without meaning, for example scribbling names on park benches is not my idea of expressive arts. The “tag” form of graffiti is used to sign larger pieces of work and also mark territories.

Graffiti is underground advertisement.

“Graffiti. Term applied to an arrangement of institutionally illicit marks in which there has been an attempt to establish some sort of coherent composition: such marks are made by an individual or individuals (not generally professional artists) upon a wall or other surface that is usually visually accessible to the public. The term "graffiti" derives from the Greek graphein ("to write"). Graffiti (s. graffito), meaning a drawing or scribbling on a flat surface, originally referred to those marks found on ancient Roman architecture. Although examples of graffiti have been found at such sites as Pompeii, the Domus Aurea of Emperor Nero (AD 54-68) in Rome, Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli and the Maya site of Tikal in Mesoamerica, they are usually associated with 20th-century urban environments. Graffiti range from simple marks to complex and colourful compositions. Motives for the production of such marks may include a desire for recognition that is public in nature, and/or the need to appropriate public space or someone else's private space for group or individual purposes. Illegitimate counterparts to the paid, legal advertisements on billboards or signs, graffiti utilize the wall of garages, public rest rooms, and jail cells for their clandestine messages. This illegal expression constitutes vandalism to the larger society.”
Taken from http://www.graffiti.org/faq/graf.def.html

Reading this definition has made it clearer to me that graffiti is both a style of art and vandalism; with out repeating what has all ready been said it’s a free form of advertising and expresses feelings through illegal ways of communication. It defiantly has a purpose because you can produce an advert / art piece where you want and have it as explicit as you like, with no boundaries as to where you must exhibit it and you can target everyone. You can making the message harder hitting just by locations, e.g. people who graffiti over bill boards and on public monuments get all the attention.