What is graffiti?

Graffiti refers to man-made and intentional markings on public or private facilities (such as walls). Doodles can be pictures or text. Graffiti without the permission of the facility owner is generally illegal or criminal.

Graffiti existed as early as in some ancient civilizations such as ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. If graffiti is defined more broadly, the murals painted by people in caves in prehistoric times can also be considered graffiti.

To this day, "graffiti" has given this street art a certain degree of recognition. Otherwise, these works would be called "graffiti" or "smear".

Graffiti is represented by the plural Graffiti in English. Its singular word is graffito. Both words are borrowed from Italian, and both originate from the Greek γραφειν (graphein), which means "writing". Historians are not sure when and how the word came to mean "graffiti."

★★★The history of graffiti★★★

■Ancient times

"Graffiti" was originally used to refer to things found on monuments, tombs or ruins Inscriptions or pictures, later including many paintings that could be considered desecration (such as pictures painted on sidewalks or on walls). If the author of a monument inscribes his work, it does not count as graffiti.

Kingsoft PowerWord said: Graffiti [poor handwriting; scribblings or drawings; chicken tracks; scrawl] is a metaphor for poor calligraphy or random writing (mostly used as a humble word). The ancients said: I still want to graffiti reluctantly, in order to ask for advice. ——"Flowers in the Mirror"

The first painting that can be called "modern graffiti" was located in the ancient Greek city-state Ephesus (now in Turkey). The content of this picture is a handprint, a heart-shaped pattern, a footprint and a number. According to the city's tourist guide, the drawing is believed to be a prostitution advertisement, instructing viewers to follow the direction of the footprints in a number of steps to find a prostitute and pay the amount indicated in the fingerprints.

Both the ancient Egyptians and Romans had graffiti on their walls or in front of their monuments. The graffiti in Pompeii was preserved intact because the city was submerged in volcanic ash. These unearthed graffiti include various details of daily life at that time, including daily Latin, curse words, curses, declarations of love, political speeches, etc. One of them was even painted with the slogan "Beware of Vicious Dogs".

The Vikings also left a lot of graffiti while conquering east and west. There are still traces of Viking graffiti in Rome and Ireland. In addition, the Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople was also damaged by Viking graffiti.

When Napoleon went on an expedition to Egypt, his soldiers also inscribed their names on the stele.

■Modern

In the 20th century, a kind of "visit here" graffiti became popular throughout Europe and the United States. The content of this kind of graffiti looks like a person climbing up the wall to peek, and people only see his eyes and nose. Underneath it are the words "Here we go" or "What? There is no such thing?" By World War II, with the popularity of fighter planes, graffiti on the fuselage also became popular.

After the war, in many big cities around the world, a group of people like child gangs painted graffiti on walls everywhere, often leaving their names to declare their control over the area near the graffiti. But by the end of the 20th century, this behavior began to be divorced from child gangs and slowly turned into a personal creation. Some people "doodle for the sake of graffiti" or do graffiti to increase their reputation and skills as graffiti artists. Personal graffiti is different from organized graffiti in both form and motivation. For example, the artistic motivation of individual graffiti is higher than that of organized graffiti; in addition, the media used for personal graffiti is also very wide, including walls, buildings, and even freight trains.

Sometimes graffiti, like a pen name, can reflect the author's accomplishments. Sometimes graffiti includes the year of creation, the author's name and its abbreviation, or reflects some of the author's experiences, memories or reminiscences. Some graffiti even contain cryptic language.

Even if some graffiti with the meaning of commemorating the deceased is painted on the front door of the store, the clerk does not dare to paint it randomly. In addition, some graffiti with special meanings painted on abandoned fences or walls are sometimes not erased by the owners or the government.

In addition, there are also some graffiti with local color. This is the case with the graffiti of some gangs in southern California.

Some avant-garde artists began to study the concept and use of graffiti in the 1960s. There is even an academy dedicated to graffiti in Scandinavia.

Because the graffiti artist needs to avoid arrest, many graffiti are completed quickly. This type of quick and illegal (even organized) graffiti is sometimes called "tagging" and is treated separately from other, more artistic graffiti.

■Others

Graffiti culture has derived many terms and customs. For example, underlining someone else's graffiti is considered an insult to the person who wrote the graffiti.

Sometimes graffiti artists compete with each other, and whoever draws the most or best graffiti wins. The winners of such contests are often respected within the graffiti community, but participation in contests also increases the risk of capture by authorities.

If the graffiti artist is trying to increase the aversion and make the work difficult to clean, he may choose to graffiti on the roof, or use a sharp instrument (such as a key or knife) to carve out his work.

■Legal status

Graffiti has caused a lot of possible social pressure, because graffiti usually appears on surfaces that do not belong to the author, such as walls, buildings, train bodies, etc. In other words, graffiti constitutes a unique element.

Commonly used graffiti tools include spray paint and thick box-tipped markers. Graffiti work is often done quickly, as the artist avoids detection and arrest by authorities.

In order to combat graffiti, some cities will set up special walls in certain places for people to use graffiti. This measure is said to crack down on minor graffiti, but encourages graffiti artists to spend their time creating high-quality works without fear of being arrested for loitering and other crimes. However, some people are not in favor of this measure and believe that legal graffiti does not effectively eradicate illegal graffiti.

Many people view graffiti as nuisance, or a form of damage that requires expensive cleaning and repair of the property. Areas full of graffiti are considered dirty and have more crime, so graffiti can be a quality-of-life indicator.

Proponents of the "broken windows theory" believe that dirty areas, including those already affected by graffiti, encourage more graffiti and even more serious crime. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani implemented anti-graffiti measures during his term based on this theory. The measure, one of the largest anti-graffiti efforts in U.S. history, includes passing a bill banning the sale of spray paint to anyone under 18. The bill would also force store owners who sell spray paint to lock the spray paint in the box and keep it out of reach of thieves.

Some community organizations also form teams to deal with graffiti. A French Protestant anti-graffiti group even erased ancient cave paintings, winning the 1992 Alternative Nobel Prize in Archeology.

In 1993, an American young man named Michael P. Fay was arrested for painting graffiti in Singapore (he spray-painted several luxury RVs). Later, the local court ruled that the graffiti law of 1966 The young man was sentenced to four months in prison, fined 3,500 Singapore dollars (equivalent to 2,233 US dollars or 1,450 pounds at the time), and caned (it is worth mentioning that this law was originally used to target graffiti that promoted communism). . The sentence caused an uproar in the United States, which does not impose corporal punishment for crimes such as graffiti. The New York Times has published multiple editorials criticizing the Singapore authorities' verdict and called on Americans to protest at Singapore's diplomatic offices. Although the Singaporean government received many requests for amnesty, Fair was still caned on May 5, 1994. (Fair was originally sentenced to six canes, but then-Singaporean President Ong Teng Cheong finally agreed to reduce his caning to four.)

The United Kingdom passed an Anti-Social Behavior Act in 2003 to deal with Graffiti. The following year's Keep Britain Tidy campaign encouraged a zero-tolerance approach to graffiti, and recommended immediate fines for graffiti perpetrators and a ban on the sale of spray paint to young people. 123 British MPs who support the movement said: "Graffiti is not art, it is a crime. We will drive graffiti out of our communities for our constituents."

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA The city's anti-graffiti campaign in the mid-1990s was even more intense. Wadi, bridges and noise barriers in the city are covered to prevent graffiti. Graffitiists have allegedly been injured and even killed trying to paint graffiti in these areas.

In addition, the city's municipal government has set up a hotline to report graffiti and a website for reporting graffiti. Similar to New York, the city also prohibits the sale of spray paint to teenagers or the locking of spray paint in boxes. Penalties for graffiti include fines, community service, or jail time.

★★★Various graffiti★★★

■Spray paint art

Spray paint art is generally considered to be one of the four major elements of hip-hop culture One of the elements. This kind of graffiti is divided into many branches, including the evil style in Philadelphia and the wild style in New York. The authors of these graffiti are mostly classified by their graffiti form and even the media they prefer.

The Philadelphia style of graffiti began in the 1960s, but later became popular when it appeared on New York subway trains.

One of the founders of the New York graffiti genre was a messenger. He marked his delivery routes with graffiti. When the New York Times reported on his story, teenagers rushed to imitate his graffiti. Although there were people doing graffiti in New York before this messenger, he was the person who had the greatest influence on New York graffiti.

In the 1980s, with the rise of the art market and people's renewed interest in painting, some graffiti artists were promoted as artists, such as Keith Haring. Slowly, the lines between graffiti and popular art are becoming increasingly blurred.

One thing worth noting: spray paint and even some box pens contain the harmful substance xylene. This substance can not only enter the human body through breathing, but also be absorbed by the human skin. Some graffiti artists wear gloves to avoid direct contact with spray paint.

In addition, personnel who remove these graffiti must also receive training to avoid being exposed to harmful or even toxic substances during their work. They will use thinners such as acetone or toluene, or utilize high-pressure techniques to remove graffiti. When dealing with areas where graffiti is common, they will also apply paint that repels graffiti paint.

■Railway Graffiti

Graffiti in cities often appears on the bodies of subway trains. In New York, subway graffiti was once considered the ultimate goal of the graffiti career.

The ultimate in subway graffiti is to spray-paint patterns on the entire train. The spraying range can be limited to just below the car window, or it can cover the entire car body (including the car windows). Subway graffiti has been documented in many foreign books and documentaries.

Graffiti on freight trains has an even longer history. At first, some homeless people who secretly boarded freight trains would write their names on the inside and outside of the carriage (to indicate that they had been there), or use chalk to record the places the train had visited. However, it is unknown whether these people introduced the spray-painted graffiti on freight trains.

Freight train graffiti is mostly a rural pastime. In fact, it is not easy for people there to find other entertainment. This type of graffiti is often found on trains in the United States, Central Europe or South America.

Because the trains travel to different places, graffiti writers often become famous all over the world. The situation is even more pronounced on freight trains, because these trains often travel across states and provinces, so graffiti drawn by one person on one train may be daubed by another person on the other side of the country. The situation is viewed as a nationwide graffiti competition.

■Street Art

Street artists may choose to graffiti on advertisements, posters and other media, but they will also graffiti on some public properties in the city. The most common thing about these graffiti is that they are often illegal.

This kind of graffiti may have a political purpose, or it may just be the whim of the graffiti artist. Street art is popular all over the world.

■Radical or political graffiti

Graffiti can be a way for those who resist the government to vent their anger. However, people who engage in political graffiti often have different purposes and philosophies.

Graffiti can have different meanings to different people. Some of them consider graffiti to be a method or technique of political practice, or even a tool for expressing anti-technology. In the late 1970s, a political organization in the UK wrote anarchist, anti-war, gender equality and anti-consumption slogans in many places on the London subway system.

Some people define political graffiti as a disruptive or strategic media activity, and classify those who engage in political graffiti according to their political or economic background and stance. Due to the wide range of political graffiti, the opinions of political graffiti writers may be very different or even conflicting.

Politically marginalized people (such as those on the extreme left or right) also use graffiti to express their political thoughts. This type of graffiti is sometimes called propaganda graffiti.

The content of this kind of graffiti can be very crude. For example, the Nazis might just draw a "swastika" symbol.

The works painted by Hong Kong's famous graffiti artist Tsang Tso-choi are also political graffiti.

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■Computer Graffiti

Many graffiti artists have turned to computers to create graffiti in recent years to avoid violating the law. This type of graffiti is mostly computer graphics that imitate spray paint art. Technically, these creations are not unauthorized, so they do not count as graffiti, but their patterning makes them so.

Strictly speaking, computer graffiti is just a computer-assisted creation by graffiti artists, and it is not really the computer that is responsible for the graffiti.

In addition, computer graffiti is often used in games to simulate real-life urban scenes.

Computer graffiti is now popular mainly in Japan and China, which is called "Internet graffiti". And Japan has developed a series of graffiti software.

■Other graffiti

Public toilet graffiti: Graffiti in public restrooms or public bathrooms. This graffiti is often indecent, including foul language, toilet jokes, pornographic content, and even crude cartoons.

Drunk painting: A kind of graffiti done on drunk people. The content is often indecent or insulting, including writing all over the body or shaving part of the body hair to create a text effect.

Crop graffiti: refers to graffiti that draws geometric patterns in fields by removing crops. This type of graffiti is more common in remote areas and is often considered illegal.

Tree Graffiti: Graffiti carved on the trunk or bark of a tree. The most common content is a declaration of love. It is said that starting in the 19th century, shepherds in the American West would carve words or images of women on every tree they encountered to relieve their boredom. Some graffiti-covered trees are now considered of historical value, and local authorities are even considering protecting them from erosion, felling and other damage. It is said that this kind of graffiti can cause the upper parts of trees to die, but so far there is no research on the impact of graffiti on the health of trees.

■Graffiti War

In the early 1980s, a large-scale graffiti war started in the Bull Ring shopping center in Birmingham, England. The city has invited some of Britain's famous graffiti artists to take part.

This competition erected many large boards for participants to doodle, and it was a rare occasion for so many people to gather their doodles together. However, when graffiti artists copy others, it often triggers confrontation between groups or gangs. A British television documentary contained footage of the graffiti war.