Tag This! pt II

Here at last is my delayed follow-up to my last graffiti post.  Just as I was writing it, I found a link to an interesting argument FOR graffiti.  Interestingly, it was not about freedom of expression, or an explanation of how it's the only way the disenfranchised can communicate with an uncaring world,  or how it's art in its own right.  Rather it was an aesthetic defence of tagging as a wake-up call to urban complacency.  And a load of BS.

Graffiti glossary necessary  to a vibrant city

Don't get me wrong - I love the unexpected.    A few years back there was a guerrilla crew called the City Beautification Ensemble spray-painting bike posts in a rainbow of colours, my favourite being gold, silver and bronze.   A few remnants remain, reminding us to look twice at a utilitarian object, while finding a way to beautify it.  I love yarn bombers, who also create a juxtaposition of soft and hard, decorative and practical, and always with a sense of humour. (For further thoughts on fighting urban greyness, check this awesome Projexity blog post by Calvin Kuo.) 

Still, I take exception to the idea that taggers are being creative or "improving" the blank slate out there, and that I, in finding it unsightly, am somehow hung up or that I'm somehow attached to a phone and not cognizant of my neighbourhood.  Sure, the author's Intstagram pics make everything look so shiny and hip, but that is not my reality.   I am very cognizant and I feel it's oppressive and yes, ugly.  Now, I grasp the irony of using the term oppressive as a privileged citizen - however, I do so not so much politically as viscerally.  When you are surrounded literally on all sides with what amounts to  people shouting rudely to mark "their" territory, it makes for an overwhelmingly negative sensory experience.  I normally enjoy walking my neighbourhood with my eyes looking up and around, noticing new things, clever ideas, the beauty of the everyday - artful window decorating, a wasp's nest in the snow, half hidden garden gnomes - but with relentless tagging, I actually have to block much of it out for my own sanity - the opposite of what the author espouses.  It feels endless and depressing and it makes me angry that there is no where for me to avert my eyes - I am constantly forced to confront someone else's self-centred need to make my city a worse place.

So, with that out of my system, here is a little Easter treat that appeared on the garage across from my back window.    At least one person around here has the right idea.

Go Donatello!

BTW Here's another online discussion of the issue, this one a bit  more attuned to  the actual purpose and intent of tagging.  Happy spring! 

One more update: Torontoist.ca has a weekly street art blog called Vandalist, featuring creative spray painting and postering around the city.  Here's a link to an entry about the "art" of graffiti coverup, which I'm well versed in.  I have to admit, wielding a spray can is quite therapeutic....