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Underneath the graffiti
An Unconventional Art Tour By Liz Beggs, Jayplaywriter
Stopped by a train again. I settle myself into the headrest, turn up Wilco and prepare to zone out for the next three to five minutes, but then I see it, on train car after train car. ALIVE written in blocked gray letters outlined in blue. PAKO sprayed in green and yellow and UNCLE SEX, an extra-disturbing message, scrawled in white and yellow. This style of graffiti originated in Philadelphia in the '60s, raced to New York, traveled across the ocean into Europe and crept into the back alleyways of Lawrence. It decorates plaster, brick and steel, walls, trains and subways.
steel, walls, trains and ammunition.
Graftifi has gotten a bad rap as the scrawling of gangs and the work of thugs, and because of its subversive nature, it is an art form unexplored by the average individual. The tags and names that are thrown-up, dotting our downtown, are vandalism to some, expression to others.
vandalism to some, expresses This expression is misunderstood by most of the population because graffiti uses stylistic writing and symbols creating a design that is sometimes illegible to the
average passerby. "We write for each other," says Denz, known among graffiti artists as one of the best graffiti writers in the Midwest, who can be only be identified by his tag name. If people cannot read it, they can't understand it, and people are afraid of what they do not understand, he says. Lawrence, it seems, is one of those cities that doesn't understand. We have no legal walls for graffiti artists to use and in fact, Tony Jones, Douglas County Community Services Coordinator, says that graffiti destroys neighborhoods and he sets out to eradicate this vandalism as quickly as possible.
quickly as possible.
Because of the urban aspect of graffiti, it has become intertwined with the hip-hop culture. According to Susan Farrell, curator of Art Crimes at www.graffiti.org, many people say that graffiti is part of hip-hop but it is more accurate to say that graffiti and hip-hop involve many of the same people and hip-hop style has been a major influence on graffiti. Denz, member of the T.A.C. (Taking All Cities) and K.D. (Kings
Destroy) crews, argues that the first element of hip-hop was graffiti. It was only after graffiti that DJs and break dancing surfaced in the hip-hop culture. Richard S. Christen, University of Portland, says the two are intertwined because graffiti shares certain characteristics of hip-hop, such as reconstructing the old to make something new.
something new.
The fear of the unknown adds to graffiti's association with the hip-hop culture and makes gangs the perfect scapegoat. While it is true that some graffiti comes from street gangs, the majority is the creative outlet for adolescents with a lower socio-economic background. Lawrence is no exception. Tony Jones thinks that most graffiti is vandalism with a personal agenda or political opinion. Denz explains that these underprivileged youth cannot afford family trips to Yellowstone or picnics in the park and graffiti becomes an outlet for them. In his essay on hip-hop writing, Christen asserts that graffiti-writing satisfies a certain need for these adolesscents and cures their isolation, boredom and feelings of powerlessness. Christen says that these adolescents are searching for an identity and a voice." The writers consistently talk about graffiti as a way to stand up and shout 'Here I am. Pay attention to me," he says.
attention to me, here.
Much like Denz, these young adults struggling for a voice join crews, which are similar to regular street gangs except that there is no element of violence. They compete against other writers by trying to outdo other crews' or writers' pieces by out-styling them. Another way writers compete is in the sheer number of tags that an individual throws up on the walls or freights. Unlike the subway cars in New York that get pulled from operation if they are tagged, freight trains still run, and they travel across the United States, ensuring national exposure.
national exposure.
"Watch next time the train cars of the Santa Fe pass by. You will get an art show from around the nation."
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Jayplay 10.28.04