Orange R

Defining Graffiti

Miles Simons, Staff Writer
May 23, 2012
Filed under Features

“Graffiti (n.) Writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place.” Though the U.S. and other countries have depicted graffiti to be a crime, it is not always perceived that way.

Graffiti has been debated between being a vandalism crime or a piece of art. Graffiti is a “selfish, stupid, destructive crime”, former Mayor Richard M. Daley said. Most police officers and other authority figures would agree. The United States has labeled graffiti as a vandalism crime, thus indicating a general disapproval of it.

However, some in the art community would argue a different vantage point. Some have stated to see graffiti as a use to advance how they think and live. “Graffiti was the best education,” said KC Ortiz, photojournalist. “I learned to listen to myself and get around barriers that other people set up against you.”

Art and vandalism are not the only forms to which graffiti has been used/interoperated. Graffiti has also been used as a form of protest. For example, graffiti artists have used graffiti to depict the Syrian president as an oppressor. Statements such as “Down with the traitor” And “To the trash heap” have been associated with the Syrian president. This course of action has been met with violent retaliation. Yet, the protests through spray paint have continued.
The struggle between authority and what has been called offender, artist, or even liberator through graffiti has been fought for years, sometimes even resulting in deaths through the medial use of graffiti.