Is Graffiti in the eye of the beholder … ???

Graffiti on my lane …

Hello …
Alot of construction work going on the roads these days …
And I had to take a detour on the way back from work …
I went through some roads that I’m not much familiar with …
And I realized that I was seeing a lot of graffiti on the walls …
So it got me thinking … why the sudden increase in Graffiti …?
What changed in the city …?
Has people got more to say, or we got more vandals… ?
It’s a bit complicated than that, so let’s talk about it a bit …

They say graffiti art began with the inscriptions on cave walls …
It has spread everywhere … every culture we see worldwide …
Different people have different views on graffiti in their city …

Some say it is an art form, a form of liberal expressionism …
They claim that with their vibrant inner-city literacy …
They liven up otherwise plain and boring walls …
And just generally improves the aesthetic appeal of an area …
They go even further saying graffiti is a part of urban lifestyle …

Others label graffiti as a juvenile act of vandalism …
They blame the graffiti artiste for blighting the city …
For them graffiti is made by socially incompetent teenagers …
And deserves no artic merit … none whatsoever …
They think graffiti is how gangs mark territory …
And send messages to rival gangs …
Most city officials are against graffiti and consider it a crime …
They also have whitewashing campaigns to clean up graffiti …

When I think about these colorful images/texts on the wall …
I get mixed feelings … I can’t decide if I like ‘em or hate ‘em …
Who decides what is art, what is good and what is not … ?
But I do know this … graffiti is supposed to be ephemeral …
And disfigurement of private property is a punishable crime …
Laterx …

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    • Posted in: Internet, Life, Thoughts

    This entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 3:37 am and is filed under Internet, Life, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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