Paint is meant to restore beauty and/or update the appearance of an existing construction, but is a building any different after a new coat of paint has been applied? Has it been reconstructed, so to speak, since the change of its appearance?Is this also the case when graffiti has been applied to a surface? Does graffiti reconstruct its medium?
Typically graffiti is sprayed on older, run-down walls in inner-city areas, ones that have withstood the test of time and wear marks and scars indicative of their age. Do the multi -colored paints of graffiti writers rejuvenate these aged walls? As these vivid and raw styles of urban art coat the surface of these walls, are new buildings created; are they reconstructed?
Now sites of contestation, these walls they take on a new identity and a new role in society. No longer are they the remnants of an old business or the blemished walls of a lonely alley, they are now caught up in the process of artistic creativity. The walls might now express individuality or rebellion as opposed to their past notions of practicality. This transition gives the surface a new identity and function in our everyday lives. No longer is the wall ignored; it is negotiated by each passing commuter. Its message, if the artist chooses to give it one, will be experienced by many passers-by, regardless of their intention to do so. In this way graffiti is a form of reconstruction: the writer’s coating effectively lends to the existing surface a new identity and a new role in society.
Ben Ford Coldham
KU Student/Graffiti Artist
bcoldham@gmail.com
The human race continuously builds, shapes, and reshapes its environment. We populate the land with construction; we erect structures to block and to manipulate natural forces. Most of our experiences are within our own built environments. Even our communication systems are constructed. Bertram Lyons, Director's Intern
Spencer Museum of Art
Graffiti Writing
Why are our city walls
Erok Johanssen
covered in colored names?
Is there an underlying artistic purpose
or is it strictly to obtain the greatest fame?
Does graffiti invade public space
or can it save endangered lives?
Tell me what’s more dangerous
Teens with spraycans in hand
or ones with guns and knives?
It’s true some graffiti stakes claim
to territories run by gangs
Other graffiti is an escape from life’s pain
some graff just aims to slay the mundane
Some writers destroy for the purpose
of being their city's biggest vandal
Other writers create scenes
even the greatest imagination can barely handle
Graffiti exists in
so many different forms
some constructive
some destructive
but all defy societies norms
Erok Johanssen is a Kansas-born graffiti artist who graduated from the University of Kansas in 2006 with a degree in Creative Writing. He is working currently out of DotDotDot Artspace, a local collectively-run art gallery.
