Mullaney on Graffiti
While there’s something wonderfully incongruous and almost comical about watching Moseley Councilor Martin Mullaney give a mini lecture on the origins and aesthetics of graffiti art he does, through his “war on tagging”, know a fair bit about the local scene. In this video, about the Selly Oak pocket park, he talks about The Gifted Few and The Lost Generation crews.
Martin’s line is that you can have graffiti art without the blight of tagging, which I would be skeptical about, but if you’re ignorant of and curious about Birmingham’s graffiti art scene this is as good an intro as any.
Using this info a quick bit of Googling found me Hoakser who does stuff like this:
and whose MySpace links to loads of other TGF / TLG folks.
For more graffiti, with no distinction made between “art” and “not art”, check out the Birmingham Graffiti and Street Art pool on Flickr
God, that’s painful to watch: The Gormless Gimp on Graffiti. I think that without the voices of the ‘taggers’ or the ‘artists’, Mullaney’s talking like a monkey with a stick up his bum. With all the street cred of a neon yellow bum bag.
Graffiti didn’t originate in New York; it has a far longer history. They found graffiti in Egypt and Pompei, dating back to well before America and spray-paint was founded. Mullaney, at least get your spin-chimps to research the subject a little more thoroughly.
Street art can be brilliant, mediocre or useless; but at its best, it’s intelligent, visually strong and thoughtful. A channel for opinion. A method of statement in contrast to the norm. At worst, it’s the ill-understood placement of swasstikas and other symbols used in an inflammatory manner, or crass expressions sprayed with no more meaning than was ever understood by the mark-maker.
Anyone can make marks, but it takes someone with an innate ability to make it into real art. The real street art rocks. Taggers with the latter angle in their work, who show that letters are more than face value, rock. If you’re going to spray, make it count and make it beyond excellent. You’re working on a canvas that has a huge ability to vex people. Make a range of people stop and pay attention for the right reasons: something new, something different but something that speaks talent with an open and inteliigent voice. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to be controversial or confrontational.
Personally, I like the idea of having a place where professional graffiti artists can mentor others. Some fantastic artists and designers have evolved from the Land of Graffiti, so it’s not something I’d want to see discouraged. I also don’t want to totally remove the notion of freedom, but there’s a line that has to be drawn between where it’s legitimate to work and where is a total no-go in terms of location. I think those who do it for the love if it and pride in their work are potentially most responsive to this. Those who just prefer to spray a rudimentary knob spraying guy goo on a street sign probably need military boot camp.
Babbling over.
Whither old style word-based graffiti?
A shiny pound coin to the first person to spraypaint some witty joke about local politics on the outside of Mullaney’s house.
Try http://www.hoakser.co.uk/ to see what he can do without have to fight your way through all the MySpace clutter. I don’t know where he’s painting now, but he used to regularly paint a row of garages on Woodbridge Road, producing enormous pieces that ran spanned over 10 or a dozen garage doors. The garages have been pulled down now so the site can be redeveloped as houses (you thought I was going to say flats, didn’t you), which is a bit of a shame. Made my walk out with the dog a bit duller, if nothing else.
I will only say one thing.
Graffiti is only what anybody makes of it.
Thoughtful, interesting, hateful, racist, judgmental, heavenly, hellish, obscene, original, the list goes on.
Graffiti is a representation and a extension of the artist’s mind and creativity. I know because i do it on paper.
The Best In Graffiti From The UK & Around The World!
Have a look…
http://www.ukgraffiti.com
i like graffiti . . . . . !!
$afe m8s this is sick work
The Best In Graffiti From The TR & Around The World!
Have a look…
http://www.illegal-crew.org
what the fuck that so cool man fuck yea locos for life
OCA
best in carlsbad
well i dont reall yknow much about this man, but i do much about this subject and he is a lil off base with his informantion.
i have been a writter a.k.a a tagger for many years now my stuff has not always been on paper on canvas if u know wut i mean.
To set right the wrong ideas this man i setting out i will explain some things the subculture consistis of 3 different things first “graffiti” which is just regular writting nothing else along with it which i admit at times if no skill comes with it can be an eye sore.
Second there is “tagging” which this man confused or called graffitti art this is what do the most and every much enjoy. He satated that the writting on the the taggings are to destry such things,but in fact are signatures to show “props” to an art work.
Finally there is “bombing” this has nothing to do with gangs or a number of people tagging together this is a term used for mural done by a tagger it can be political or not it just includes caractures or some kind and so on,. this came about since it usually takes up a whole wall so it look like someone bombed the wall with a paint bomb thus bombing…
i dont know if this man has any prior art experiance other than his own opinion but true artist see that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and respect all work for what it is
graffiti is an expression or part of the artists mind
if graffiti is done right it looks amzing literally i could stare for hours but i agree sometimes the tags look like s**t especially if its done badly in our local area we have an “artist” “smoked” and hes terrible his tag is wonky and his pieces are ram bubble writing and block letters to be honest it angers me and for the past few weeks ive been dying to get yellow industrial paint and paint flowers and rainbows over his work to annoy him muahahaha he makes my village look terrible if he did it under a bridge out of sight then it might be ok but he doesnt its everywhere if he sketched and practised his letters it might help maybe look good
what makes graffiti seem so bad is its illegal the artists go out on their own behalf to get there name recognised if there were more legal walls to practise on or more graffiti coverage it would be good
afterall graffiti is art wether its liked or not
i know im a graffiti artsit myself.
Holy! thats amazin!
dayum dats tight… make me wun..lol jux kiddin’ but yea props tu who made dis
i like graffiti :)
http://www.illegal-crew.org Have a look. :)