Graffiti's impact on society, Feature article by Tristan

Essay by ghettofabulousA, May 2004

download word file, 3 pages 4.0 1 reviews

Downloaded 81 times

A.r.t or C.r.i.m.e?

Who is responsible for the pervasion of this so called "artcrime" in today's society???

The word "graffiti" is derived from the Latin term "graphium" which means "to write". Graffiti evolved during ancient times but first impacted on modern society in the late 1960's, when political activists used it as a medium of revolt against governing powers. Thereafter, individual artists began to gain recognition.

TAKI 183 was the first known artist to write tags, starting in central New York subways. After seeing the regular appearance of TAKI 183's tags, new artists began to flourish throughout New York City, establishing personal tags visible to almost everyone. The artists' goal was to be the most prolific and visible, leaving tags on subways, buses, trains and walls around the city.

Graffiti later developed into an "art form", where the writer with the most unique style and conspicuous presence was deemed the best.

While the competition between artists in New York reached boiling point at this time, the rest of the world began to experience the first of these so called "artcrimes".

..."Graffiti is just another form of art, and art is all self expression, legally or illegally"...

Inevitably, laws were introduced aiming to control the outbreak of graffiti artists. This provoked a race amongst artists to paint as many trains and subways as possible, before the law caught them.

The recognition of style and technique gained more appreciation by fellow writers as the use of vivid colours and seemingly cryptic language developed. The original style of tagging progressively became an artform. Today there is a definite distinction between "tagging" to deface and "street art".

Graffiti has developed over time to create a complex social framework, involving breakdancing, DJing, MCing and graffiti to form a popular youth culture referred to...