Where did graffiti come from? Why do you use the word crow? What is its corresponding English?

Graffiti, a graffiti art combined with HipHop culture, was formed in new york in the early 1970s. Edward, a scholar at City University of new york, wrote in the Encyclopedia of the World: "People often doodle on stones in public toilets, public buildings or parks; Some words and phrases are not very healthy; Sometimes it is to write names, but also about sex, many of which are political slogans. " Professor Wang Xiaojian, a theorist of modern art, said in a telephone interview: "The 1970s and 1980s were the glorious periods of graffiti art ... Its rise was not only the catharsis of African-American folk art, but also the psychological catharsis of repressed ethnic groups and classes in that era. So on the surface, it has a strong rebellious color, venting tendency and casual style, and even some anti-traditional and anti-social spirit. " Chen Youbai, an American painter of Dunhuang Painting School, said: "Without graffiti, it is not new york."

The origin of graffiti

ancient times

"Graffiti" originally refers to inscriptions or pictures found on monuments, ancient tombs or ruins, and later includes many paintings that can be regarded as defacing public property (such as pictures painted next to pedestrians or on walls). If the author of a monument engraves words on his works, it is not graffiti.

The first painting that can be called "modern graffiti" was located in Ephesus (in present-day Turkey), an ancient Greek city-state. The content of this picture is a handprint, a heart-shaped pattern, a footprint and a number. According to the tour guide of this city, the map is regarded as an advertisement, and the viewer is instructed to look for prostitutes according to the steps indicated by the number in the direction of footprints, and pay according to the amount indicated by the fingerprint.

There are graffiti on the walls or in front of monuments in ancient Egypt and Rome. The graffiti of the ancient city of Pompeii was completely preserved because the city was submerged by volcanic ash. These unearthed graffiti works include all kinds of details of daily life at that time, including daily Latin, swearing words, spells, declarations of love, political speeches and so on. One of them was even painted with the slogan "Beware of bad dogs".

Vikings left a lot of graffiti when they explored the East and the West. Among them, there are still traces of Viking graffiti works in Rome and Ireland. In addition, Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople was also damaged by Viking graffiti.

When Napoleon made an expedition to Egypt, his soldiers also carved their names on stone tablets as a souvenir.

Modern Times

In the 20th century, a kind of graffiti called "Come here for a visit" became popular in Europe and America. The content of this graffiti is like a person crawling on the wall and peeking. People only see his eyes and nose. There is a line under it: "Come here to travel" or "What? Nothing? " Words. In World War II, with the popularity of fighter planes, graffiti on the fuselage became popular.

After the war, in many big cities all over the world, boys and other groups of people scribbled on the walls everywhere, and most of them left their names to declare their control over graffiti. But by the end of the 20th century, this kind of behavior began to break away from the Youth League and gradually became a personal creation. Some people doodle for the sake of doodling, or doodle to increase their reputation and skills as graffiti artists. Personal graffiti and organized graffiti are different in form and motivation. For example, the artistic motivation of personal graffiti is higher than that of organized graffiti; In addition, personal graffiti uses a wide range of media, including walls, buildings and even freight trains.

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

Some graffiti with the meaning of remembering the dead, even if it is painted at the door of the store, the clerk dare not daub it at will. Other graffiti with special significance painted on abandoned fences or walls will sometimes not be erased by the owners or the government.

In addition, there are some graffiti with local colors. This is the graffiti of some gangs in Southern California.

Some avant-garde artists began to study the concept and use of graffiti in the 1960 s, and Scandinavia even has a college specializing in graffiti.

Because graffiti artists need to avoid being arrested, many graffiti are done quickly. This kind of fast and illegal (even organized) graffiti, sometimes called "labeling", is treated separately from other graffiti with artistic elements.

other

Graffiti culture has derived many terms and customs. For example, drawing lines on other people's graffiti is considered an insult to the graffiti.

Sometimes graffiti artists will compete with each other, and whoever draws the most or the best graffiti works will win. The winner of this competition is often respected in the graffiti world, but participating in the competition also increases the risk of being caught by the authorities.

If a doodler tries to increase his disgust and make his work difficult to clean up, he may choose to doodle on the roof or carve his work with a sharp tool (such as a key or knife).

legal status

Graffiti has caused many possible social pressures, because graffiti generally appears on planes that do not belong to the author, such as walls, buildings, train bodies and so on. In other words, graffiti constitutes a unique element.

Commonly used graffiti tools include painting and rough handwriting marks. Graffiti works are often traces of quick completion, because graffiti people should avoid being discovered and arrested by the authorities.

In order to combat graffiti, some cities will set up special walls in some places for people to graffiti. This measure is said to crack down on some small graffiti, but it can encourage graffiti artists to spend time creating some high-quality works without worrying about being arrested for loitering and other crimes. However, some people disapprove of this measure and think that legal graffiti has not effectively put an end to illegal graffiti.

Many people think that graffiti is a kind of harassment, or a kind of destruction, which makes the property need to be cleaned and repaired at a high price. People think that graffiti-filled areas are dirty and there are many crimes, so graffiti can be an indicator of quality of life.

Broken window theory's supporters believe that dirty areas (including those affected by graffiti) will encourage more graffiti and even more serious crimes. Based on this theory, Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of new york, implemented anti-graffiti measures during his tenure. This measure is one of the largest anti-graffiti actions in American history, including passing a bill prohibiting the sale of spray paint to people below 18. The bill also forces shopkeepers who sell spray paint to lock it in boxes and put it out of the reach of thieves.

Some community organizations also have teams dealing with graffiti. A Protestant anti-graffiti organization in France even erased the murals of ancient caves and won the alternative Nobel Prize for Archaeology with 1992.

1993, Phil, an American young man, was arrested in Singapore for graffiti (he painted on several expensive RVs). Later, according to the graffiti law of 1966 (it is worth mentioning that this law was originally aimed at graffiti advocating capitalism), the local court sentenced the young man to four months' imprisonment, fined him $2,233 and flogged him. The verdict caused an uproar in the United States, because the United States does not impose corporal punishment on graffiti and other crimes. The New York Times has repeatedly published editorials criticizing the verdict of the Singapore authorities and called on Americans to protest in Singapore's diplomatic department. Although the Singapore government received many requests for amnesty, Phil was still flogged on May 5, 1994.

Britain passed an anti-social behavior bill in 2003 to deal with graffiti. The following year's "Keep Britain Clean" campaign encouraged zero tolerance for graffiti, and suggested that graffiti should be fined immediately and the sale of spray paint to teenagers should be prohibited. 123 The British MP who supported the movement said, "Graffiti is not an art, but a crime. For our voters, we will drive graffiti out of our community. "

The anti-graffiti movement in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA became more intense in the1990s. The dry valleys, bridges and noise barriers in the city were covered to prevent graffiti. It is said that some graffiti people were injured or even killed because they tried to graffiti in these places. In addition, the municipal government has set up a hotline for reporting graffiti and a website for reporting graffiti. Similar to new york, it is forbidden to sell spray paint to teenagers or lock them in boxes. Penalties for graffiti include fines, social service or imprisonment.

All kinds of graffiti

the brush

Painting art is usually considered as one of the four elements of hip-hop culture. This graffiti is divided into many tribes, including the evil faction in Philadelphia and the wild faction in new york. The authors of these graffiti are mostly classified by graffiti forms or even favorite media.

The graffiti style in Philadelphia began in the 1960' s, but it was later developed because it appeared on trains in new york subway.

One of the founders of school graffiti in new york was a messenger. He scribbled the delivery route. When The New York Times reported his story, teenagers scrambled to imitate his graffiti. Although someone had doodled in new york before this messenger, he was the one who had the greatest influence on graffiti in new york.

From 65438 to 0980, with the rise of the art market and people's renewed interest in painting, some graffiti artists were selected as artists, such as keith haring. Slowly, the line between graffiti and pop art becomes blurred.

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

In addition, people who remove these graffiti should also be trained to avoid contact with harmful or even toxic substances at work. They will use thinner such as acetone or toluene, or use high-pressure technology to remove graffiti. When dealing with some places where graffiti is common, they will also apply paints that repel graffiti pigments.

Railway graffiti

Graffiti in the city often appears on the body of subway trains. In new york, subway graffiti was once regarded as the ultimate goal of graffiti.

The extreme of subway graffiti is to spray the whole train with patterns. The spraying range can be limited to the lower part of the window, or it can be spread all over the car body (including the window). Many foreign books and documentaries have recorded subway graffiti.

Graffiti on freight trains has a longer history. At first, some vagrants who secretly boarded the freight train would write their names inside and outside the carriage (indicating that they had been here) or record the places where the train had been with chalk. However, it is not known whether these people introduced spray-painted graffiti on freight trains.

Graffiti on freight trains is mostly a pastime in rural areas. In fact, it is not easy for people there to find other entertainment. This kind of graffiti often appears on trains in America, Central Europe or South America.

Because the train will go to different places, graffiti people can often be famous all over the world. On freight trains, the situation is even more obvious, because these trains often cross state and province, so the graffiti drawn by one person on a car card may be smeared by another person on the other side of the country. This situation is regarded as a national graffiti contest.

perform in the street

Street artists may choose to doodle on advertisements, posters and other media, but they will also doodle on some public properties in the city. What these graffiti have in common is that most of them are illegal.

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

[Editor] Radical or political graffiti

Graffiti can be a way for rebels to vent their anger. However, people who do political graffiti often have different purposes and ideas.

Graffiti means different things to different people. Some of them think that graffiti is a method or technology of political practice, or even a tool to express anti-technology. In Britain, political organizations wrote slogans of anarchism, anti-war, equality between men and women and anti-consumption in many parts of the London underground system in the late 1970s.

Some people define political graffiti as destructive or strategic media activities, and classify people who engage in political graffiti according to their political or economic backgrounds and positions. Because of the wide range of political graffiti, the opinions of political graffiti may be quite different and even conflict with each other.

Politically marginalized people (such as extreme left or extreme right) also use graffiti to express their political ideas. This kind of graffiti is sometimes called political propaganda graffiti. The content of this graffiti can be rough, for example, the Nazis may just use the word "ten thousand" as a mark.

The works of Ceng Zaocai, a famous graffiti artist in Hong Kong, are also political graffiti.

[Editor] Computer Graffiti

In recent years, many graffiti artists have turned to computers to create graffiti to avoid breaking the law. This kind of graffiti is mostly computer images imitating painting art. Technically, these creations are not unauthorized, so they are not graffiti, but their patterns make them classified as graffiti.

Strictly speaking, computer graffiti is only a computer-aided creation of graffiti artists, and it is not really the computer that is responsible for graffiti.

In addition, computer graffiti is often used in games to simulate real cities.

[Edit] Other graffiti

Toilet graffiti: Graffiti in public toilets or public bathrooms. This kind of graffiti is often indecent works, such as foul language, toilet jokes, pornographic content, and even rough cartoons.

Drunk painting: a kind of graffiti applied to drunken people. Most of the content is 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 the field by removing crops. This kind of graffiti is common in remote areas and is often considered illegal.

Graffiti: Graffiti carved on the trunk or bark. The most common content is the declaration of love. It is said that since the19th century, shepherds in the western United States will carve women's words or images on every tree they meet to relieve boredom. Now some graffiti trees are considered to be of historical value, and local government departments even consider protecting them from erosion, logging and other damage. It is pointed out that this kind of graffiti will kill the upper part of trees, but so far there is no study on the influence of graffiti on tree health.

[Editor] Graffiti War

From 65438 to the early 1980s, a large-scale graffiti war was launched in the bullring shopping center in Birmingham, England. The city invited some famous British graffiti artists to participate in the competition.

In this competition, many big boards were erected for the contestants to doodle. It is rare for so many people to doodle together. But when graffiti plagiarizes others, it often leads to confrontation between the masses or gangs. A documentary of a British TV station left a fragment of this graffiti war.