Graffiti challenges the notion of what is beautiful. It also shines a light on who gets to be angry in our culture as well as who and what are considered threats.
The bias in the original Twitter thread you read isn't unacknowledged - in fact, I think it's the whole point. To me the thread seems intended to be an easy entry point to or rebrand of a (now much-mocked) meme that encapsulates Christofascist/Dark Enlightenment thinking: "reject modernity, embrace tradition." The contrast isn't merely between "Eurocentric aesthetics" and modernism but also between idealized whiteness/masculinity and a more inclusive worldview. It isn't just the Twitter thread that tells me this, either - the author has made it clear in past writings that he shares the neo-reactionary obsession with a divinely ordained monarchy. Finally, this is perhaps circumstantial evidence, but he also uses the kind of Greco-Roman bust profile picture that on Twitter one sees next to profile pictures of Crusaders, MAGA Pepes, and anime girls dressed as Nazis - it's a signifier of his influences. In that context, I can only see the thread as an explication of a specific aspect of fascist ideology and an advertisement for future indoctrination.
It's unacknowledged insofar as it's not stated explicitly or transparently to his followers. I know people who follow that account who have no idea that they're being indoctrinated into an extremely biased/dangerous/bigoted/racist worldview. They think they're simply receiving a generous and thoughtful education from a neutral and obliging arbiter of culture. I agree with you about (and am horrified by) all the other things you mentioned in your comment.
That bridge photo popped up in my twitter feed last week and I spent a while looking at it trying to figure out which was supposed to be the 'non beautiful' one and then I had flashbacks to White Dudes™ in art school and kept on scrolling. Kudos to you for writing through it.
Also, I love that someone loves the illegible underpass tags.
Kudos to you for being able to scroll past it! Seriously, I wish things like that didn't get under my skin the way they do. Also, it's interesting that that random account popped up on both of our feeds around the same time. What about our preferences, I wonder, told the algorithm that we wanted to see more lists of artworks made by dead white dudes?
Someone I follow must have retweeted it. I have ad block on hard for twitter and only see posts from the people I follow. In other 'I am old, get off my lawn' news I recently upgraded to a 'smart' phone and am appalled by the number of ads that come up when I scroll twitter or instagram (the ad block is on the laptop). Apparently the algorithm thinks I want bread and vitamins.
What a magnificent ode to graffiti and to the refusal to be silenced in the face of injustices that spark long term efforts and movements (Land Back, Black Lives Matter). As a response to such pervasive assaults that impact the smallest aspects of everyday life, “I was/am here” is a revolutionary voice.
I appreciate and mostly agree with your idealistic vision. But it also comes from privilege. You have clearly never lived in the ghetto. You have never found your car scribed all over. Or your garage tagged up. Unfortunately lots of tagging and graffiti does occupy private, spiritual and natural space. Yes it may be saying: "Here I am, acknowledge me!" But it also often stands for "turf" or "tribe" marking, perpetuating violence, toxic masculinity, disrespect of property, personal achievement and just about everything and anything that can be disrespected for the sake of bad ass-ness or one upping your peers, etc. It is another complex layer of society that can be viewed in many different ways.
I appreciate your comment and perspective. I agree with everything you said and that there are a lot of layers of complexity around this topic. I haven't lived in the ghetto or had my car tagged, but I've had other personal property tagged and have been in spaces that were sacred to me (both natural and built) that were horribly defaced, sometimes with swastikas and antisemitic graffiti (I'm Jewish), which is to say that some of my experiences with graffiti have been extremely negative. I'm aware of the culture that exists around a lot of the graffiti I see. Though there's also graffiti and public mark making that exist outside of that culture. I'm not suggesting that all graffiti is good. I'm suggesting that maybe all graffiti isn't bad, as we've been trained to see it, and that it's possible to look at things with different eyes. Unlike the guy running the aforementioned Twitter account, I don't believe that my perspective matters any more than yours does, or that I'm right, or that what I'm saying is objective. I'm just offering a lens that people can look through if they choose to.
I always appreciate when someone explains WHY they think something is good, as opposed to just saying that it IS good. Sometimes I find myself enjoying that thing too, even if I hadn't before.
I'm with you. I want to be taken for the ride of WHY so that I can make my own decisions. I always shut down when someone tells me that something IS objectively good.
Your writing resonates very well with my sensibilities regarding graffiti! I also enjoy the sight of graffiti, especially if it's done well (I know, perfectly subjective), and, as a photographer, I'm constantly framing what I consider the best cropping of the work in my mind's eye, as I drive by. It's too bad when a favorite one gets painted over, but at least someone is presented with a freshly-gessoed canvas! I have a favorite mural on Powell, painted years ago by my friend Joe Cotter, and which still looks magnificent. I am heartened that no one has tagged his piece, as Joe died a few years ago. Maybe the word got around, and they're leaving it alone out of respect.
You are the second person to mention Joe Cotter in the last couple weeks. I know how beloved he was by all who knew him (and those who didn't but who loved his work). It's nice to hear from another graffiti lover. If you haven't seen this hilarious and amazing short film made by a local documentary filmmaker (and narrated by Miranda July), you might dig it. Your comment about the freshly-gessoed canvas made me think of it: https://vimeo.com/689820550
Thank you for the link to that video! Love Miranda July, and her voice-over is a perfect fit for the visuals. My friend and outstanding photographer has brought the idea of graffiti-removal-as-art full circle, as this portfolio shows! https://www.kosoff.com/GalleryMain.asp?GalleryID=191952&AKey=C782FMS2
I left a comment on this article taking issue with the author's attempt to aggrandize graffiti as art. I said that in my world it's called "vandalism" and I believe condoning, and even promoting it, undermines respect for the law.
My post contained neither profanity nor the expression of personal animus towards anyone, yet it has been removed, presumably by the author of this column. One wonders how many other comments that may have taken issue with, or were otherwise deemed critical of the author's viewpoint have also been "erased?"
I was under the impression that the genesis of Substack was the desire to promote open and uncensored discussion...apparently not. I wonder how long it will take this comment to be similarly "cancelled?"
Hi, JT. Welcome to OUT OF THE BOX. This is a community of artists, arts workers, and art enthusiasts who are interested in challenging ourselves to look at things in new ways, to consider new viewpoints even when they are difficult for us or we don't agree with them. If you're interested in having nuanced and respectful debates about subjective opinions on art and life, this is the place for you. We're less about barking our opinions at each other as though they were objective fact, which is what you did in your original post. You were snide, belittling, and accused me of making my living by encouraging people to commit crimes, which is both patently false and inflammatory. That's why I removed your comment, which I'm not covering up or trying to hide. I stand by that decision, so this is not the gotcha moment that you perhaps think it is. I don't hesitate to delete comments that seek only to make declarative statements about what is true and what is false and that show no interest in inviting further thoughtful conversation with the rest of the community. As a matter of public record, your comment is only the second comment I've ever had to remove in the nine months that OOTB has been in existence. If you peruse former posts and their comment sections, you'll find many examples when readers disagree with me or post opinions that are starkly in opposition to mine. We welcome that kind of dialogue on OOTB because that's what art's all about. What I don't tolerate on this Substack is people offering their opinion as if it were the only truth—as you had done with your previous comment—or maligning the work that I do, which is done in service of supporting living artists, pursuing equity in the arts, and trying to look at how we can improve systems of funding while removing the type of gatekeeping that has poisoned the art world.
Defacing public or private property without permission is considered vandalism, which is illegal in every American community in which I’ve lived for the past 78 years. You may characterize that as just my opinion, but I’d call that an objective fact. On the other hand, you are correct when you accuse me of offering my opinion when I suggested that romanticizing such illegal behavior is tantamount to encouraging it.
In the future, may I wish you luck in your attempts to interact only folks who agree with you…but remember, you always have that “delete” button for those who don’t.
Your Substack site was recommended to me by another writer for whom I have the greatest respect. I will be more careful to vet his recommendations in the future.
Wasn't always but one day while riding my motorcycle on the back road behind the farms I noticed on one of the seemingly abandoned yet not really abandoned tin shacks some graffiti words. I thought someone came way back here to mark that tin shack.
By the time I got to the bridge to get back on the main road I noticed the same tag.
Now a few years later my eye is tuned to spot like graffiti wherever I travel.
I can compare from memory and rank the artwork, city to city state to state. This ranking is only in my head; right now; But someday....
The bias in the original Twitter thread you read isn't unacknowledged - in fact, I think it's the whole point. To me the thread seems intended to be an easy entry point to or rebrand of a (now much-mocked) meme that encapsulates Christofascist/Dark Enlightenment thinking: "reject modernity, embrace tradition." The contrast isn't merely between "Eurocentric aesthetics" and modernism but also between idealized whiteness/masculinity and a more inclusive worldview. It isn't just the Twitter thread that tells me this, either - the author has made it clear in past writings that he shares the neo-reactionary obsession with a divinely ordained monarchy. Finally, this is perhaps circumstantial evidence, but he also uses the kind of Greco-Roman bust profile picture that on Twitter one sees next to profile pictures of Crusaders, MAGA Pepes, and anime girls dressed as Nazis - it's a signifier of his influences. In that context, I can only see the thread as an explication of a specific aspect of fascist ideology and an advertisement for future indoctrination.
It's unacknowledged insofar as it's not stated explicitly or transparently to his followers. I know people who follow that account who have no idea that they're being indoctrinated into an extremely biased/dangerous/bigoted/racist worldview. They think they're simply receiving a generous and thoughtful education from a neutral and obliging arbiter of culture. I agree with you about (and am horrified by) all the other things you mentioned in your comment.
That bridge photo popped up in my twitter feed last week and I spent a while looking at it trying to figure out which was supposed to be the 'non beautiful' one and then I had flashbacks to White Dudes™ in art school and kept on scrolling. Kudos to you for writing through it.
Also, I love that someone loves the illegible underpass tags.
Kudos to you for being able to scroll past it! Seriously, I wish things like that didn't get under my skin the way they do. Also, it's interesting that that random account popped up on both of our feeds around the same time. What about our preferences, I wonder, told the algorithm that we wanted to see more lists of artworks made by dead white dudes?
Someone I follow must have retweeted it. I have ad block on hard for twitter and only see posts from the people I follow. In other 'I am old, get off my lawn' news I recently upgraded to a 'smart' phone and am appalled by the number of ads that come up when I scroll twitter or instagram (the ad block is on the laptop). Apparently the algorithm thinks I want bread and vitamins.
What a magnificent ode to graffiti and to the refusal to be silenced in the face of injustices that spark long term efforts and movements (Land Back, Black Lives Matter). As a response to such pervasive assaults that impact the smallest aspects of everyday life, “I was/am here” is a revolutionary voice.
I appreciate and mostly agree with your idealistic vision. But it also comes from privilege. You have clearly never lived in the ghetto. You have never found your car scribed all over. Or your garage tagged up. Unfortunately lots of tagging and graffiti does occupy private, spiritual and natural space. Yes it may be saying: "Here I am, acknowledge me!" But it also often stands for "turf" or "tribe" marking, perpetuating violence, toxic masculinity, disrespect of property, personal achievement and just about everything and anything that can be disrespected for the sake of bad ass-ness or one upping your peers, etc. It is another complex layer of society that can be viewed in many different ways.
I appreciate your comment and perspective. I agree with everything you said and that there are a lot of layers of complexity around this topic. I haven't lived in the ghetto or had my car tagged, but I've had other personal property tagged and have been in spaces that were sacred to me (both natural and built) that were horribly defaced, sometimes with swastikas and antisemitic graffiti (I'm Jewish), which is to say that some of my experiences with graffiti have been extremely negative. I'm aware of the culture that exists around a lot of the graffiti I see. Though there's also graffiti and public mark making that exist outside of that culture. I'm not suggesting that all graffiti is good. I'm suggesting that maybe all graffiti isn't bad, as we've been trained to see it, and that it's possible to look at things with different eyes. Unlike the guy running the aforementioned Twitter account, I don't believe that my perspective matters any more than yours does, or that I'm right, or that what I'm saying is objective. I'm just offering a lens that people can look through if they choose to.
i really needed this today. the affirmation of it and the stretching/learning of it. thank you!
I always appreciate when someone explains WHY they think something is good, as opposed to just saying that it IS good. Sometimes I find myself enjoying that thing too, even if I hadn't before.
I'm with you. I want to be taken for the ride of WHY so that I can make my own decisions. I always shut down when someone tells me that something IS objectively good.
Your writing resonates very well with my sensibilities regarding graffiti! I also enjoy the sight of graffiti, especially if it's done well (I know, perfectly subjective), and, as a photographer, I'm constantly framing what I consider the best cropping of the work in my mind's eye, as I drive by. It's too bad when a favorite one gets painted over, but at least someone is presented with a freshly-gessoed canvas! I have a favorite mural on Powell, painted years ago by my friend Joe Cotter, and which still looks magnificent. I am heartened that no one has tagged his piece, as Joe died a few years ago. Maybe the word got around, and they're leaving it alone out of respect.
You are the second person to mention Joe Cotter in the last couple weeks. I know how beloved he was by all who knew him (and those who didn't but who loved his work). It's nice to hear from another graffiti lover. If you haven't seen this hilarious and amazing short film made by a local documentary filmmaker (and narrated by Miranda July), you might dig it. Your comment about the freshly-gessoed canvas made me think of it: https://vimeo.com/689820550
Thank you for the link to that video! Love Miranda July, and her voice-over is a perfect fit for the visuals. My friend and outstanding photographer has brought the idea of graffiti-removal-as-art full circle, as this portfolio shows! https://www.kosoff.com/GalleryMain.asp?GalleryID=191952&AKey=C782FMS2
Love this! Thanks so much for sharing Brian's work.
As one who is uncovering the subconscious artist in myself I thank you for this video reference. I feel seen somehow.
Isn't is so great? I love how irreverent it is while simultaneously showing so much reverence for street art and filmmaking.
I left a comment on this article taking issue with the author's attempt to aggrandize graffiti as art. I said that in my world it's called "vandalism" and I believe condoning, and even promoting it, undermines respect for the law.
My post contained neither profanity nor the expression of personal animus towards anyone, yet it has been removed, presumably by the author of this column. One wonders how many other comments that may have taken issue with, or were otherwise deemed critical of the author's viewpoint have also been "erased?"
I was under the impression that the genesis of Substack was the desire to promote open and uncensored discussion...apparently not. I wonder how long it will take this comment to be similarly "cancelled?"
Hi, JT. Welcome to OUT OF THE BOX. This is a community of artists, arts workers, and art enthusiasts who are interested in challenging ourselves to look at things in new ways, to consider new viewpoints even when they are difficult for us or we don't agree with them. If you're interested in having nuanced and respectful debates about subjective opinions on art and life, this is the place for you. We're less about barking our opinions at each other as though they were objective fact, which is what you did in your original post. You were snide, belittling, and accused me of making my living by encouraging people to commit crimes, which is both patently false and inflammatory. That's why I removed your comment, which I'm not covering up or trying to hide. I stand by that decision, so this is not the gotcha moment that you perhaps think it is. I don't hesitate to delete comments that seek only to make declarative statements about what is true and what is false and that show no interest in inviting further thoughtful conversation with the rest of the community. As a matter of public record, your comment is only the second comment I've ever had to remove in the nine months that OOTB has been in existence. If you peruse former posts and their comment sections, you'll find many examples when readers disagree with me or post opinions that are starkly in opposition to mine. We welcome that kind of dialogue on OOTB because that's what art's all about. What I don't tolerate on this Substack is people offering their opinion as if it were the only truth—as you had done with your previous comment—or maligning the work that I do, which is done in service of supporting living artists, pursuing equity in the arts, and trying to look at how we can improve systems of funding while removing the type of gatekeeping that has poisoned the art world.
Ms Rabin,
Defacing public or private property without permission is considered vandalism, which is illegal in every American community in which I’ve lived for the past 78 years. You may characterize that as just my opinion, but I’d call that an objective fact. On the other hand, you are correct when you accuse me of offering my opinion when I suggested that romanticizing such illegal behavior is tantamount to encouraging it.
In the future, may I wish you luck in your attempts to interact only folks who agree with you…but remember, you always have that “delete” button for those who don’t.
Your Substack site was recommended to me by another writer for whom I have the greatest respect. I will be more careful to vet his recommendations in the future.
JT
Wow, I am also a selected graffiti connoisseur.
Wasn't always but one day while riding my motorcycle on the back road behind the farms I noticed on one of the seemingly abandoned yet not really abandoned tin shacks some graffiti words. I thought someone came way back here to mark that tin shack.
By the time I got to the bridge to get back on the main road I noticed the same tag.
Now a few years later my eye is tuned to spot like graffiti wherever I travel.
I can compare from memory and rank the artwork, city to city state to state. This ranking is only in my head; right now; But someday....