Series One - Graffiti Art: Introduction

The first series for this blog is on graffiti art. I've become interested in graffiti as an issue in urban politics. There are a number of local politicians, particularly in New York, who have devoted their political careers to combating what they refer to as graffiti vandalism in the city. They see graffiti as a symptom of urban decay, and something that needs to be destroyed before an area or a neighborhood can thrive.

On the other side of the fence are people who actually make graffiti art. They have different names - some call them taggers, some call them artists. But I'm not interested in any artistic distinction between the two groups of people - I'm focusing on why a certain piece of graffiti is called art, and why another piece of graffiti is called a symptom of urban decay. I also want to try looking at the difference between taggers and artists in terms of how they are portrayed, either by politicians, the media, or people who live in the neighborhood. I also want to see if the difference between types of graffiti has more to do with where (geographically) the graffiti is. For example, if something is displayed in SoHo, is it automatically seen as something that is artistic? Or at least something that is more artistic than a tag on the subway?

I don't know the answers to these questions, so I'd like to try to use the blog to figure it out. Again, I'm not trying to look at graffiti through an artistic lens (I'm not nearly talented enough to do that) - I'm trying to examine how graffiti is viewed in an urban politics context. At the very least, I think it will be a fun project.

Pam