GRAFFITI WRITING FULL

'It's intelligible in terms of communicating a message. 'In order to exercise discretion against prosecuting there needs to be some aesthetic justification, and for many people in society tagging doesn't provide that.'Ĭhapter III Australia finds its own graffiti 'wild style'ĭr MacDowall said some of the reasons people struggled with tagging was illegibility, placement and advertising-like repetition across multiple locations.

'The only difference lies in how the laws are enforced. 'They constitute a crime of marking graffiti or the crime of criminal damage or wilful damage,' Professor Young said. University of Melbourne criminology professor Alison Young said it did not matter whether it was street art, graffiti or tagging, a crime was a crime if the work was done without permission Many other cities now seem keen to also capitalise on street art's popularity with tourists.īut while local governments encourage some forms of urban art at the expense of others, in terms of the law, the delineation between legal and illegal has not been so clear cut.

In a few short years, street art became such an important part of the Melbourne tourism experience that now it seems no trip is complete without visitors taking a selfie in one of the city's famed laneways. 'When you're young and powerless, graffiti is an easy way - well, not that easy - to earn the respect of your peers with nothing but your own hard work,' a graffiti artist from Melbourne's East named Paul said. In 1971, when the New York Times published an article about TAKI 183 - one of the very first recorded graffiti artists - it didn't matter that he was a poor teenager from Manhattan.Īt the time his tag was so prevalent on the New York City landscape, it was as recognisable as any actor with their name up in lights on Broadway.ĭespite the city's high unemployment, tagging put fame, admiration and respect within reach of even the city's poorest inhabitants.Īnd now, more than 40 years later, tagging still offers the same rewards.

GRAFFITI WRITING FULL

'There is a direct link between a tag that became more and more ornamentalised and eventually became this full colour burner.' 'Tagging is a prototype for a mural,' he said. University of Melbourne graffiti scholar Dr Lachlan MacDowall said tagging was the cornerstone of graffiti culture that emerged from the impoverished neighbourhoods of New York in the late 1960s. Have we been preconditioned to dislike tagging, or is it an activity that has little or no aesthetic value?

These factors make it difficult to have an intelligent discussion about the origins, motivations and aesthetics of tagging with even the most open-minded people. In an era where street art and graffiti murals have never been more acceptable to society, tagging has a serious image problem: it's associated with gangs, it's considered mindless vandalism and it challenges our ideas of property ownership.Įven within graffiti culture, tagging is often overshadowed by murals or confused with other forms of graffiti marks like throw-ups (usually two letters consisting of an outline and a fill).Īnd if you add street art to the discussion, for the uninitiated the delineation of tagging will be as hazy as the fumes from a can of spray paint. Tagging, the act of writing your graffiti name with spray paint or markers, is one of the most maligned, misunderstood and prosecuted forms of self expression.įrom its early beginnings in struggling New York City neighbourhoods to suburban Australian alleyways, artists and some members of the public remain divided over the artistic value of graffiti.Ĭhapter I Graffiti finds colour in poor New York neighbourhoods

Graffiti writing