Whose wall is it anyway?
By- Ajinkya Nene
SY B.Sc. 22-25
Estimated reading time ~ 7 minutes.
Humanity has an inexplicable urge to leave a mark of their own on their surroundings. Since the time that our ancestors were cave-dwellers, certain enterprising individuals have taken it upon themselves to leave an indelible mark for posterity – often on communal property or even property that is not theirs to begin with.
Thus began the practice of graffiti or street art, a tradition that is steeped in rebellion and varying levels of illegality as much as it is an art form unrestrained by any form of division in society.
After all, anyone can paint on a wall, just ask that one kid left unattended for too long with a suspiciously large box of crayons. Hey, no one said the art has to be good, just unrestrained by censorship.
If you have ever played Subway Surfers, the consequences of street (trainyard?) art, are no secret to you. Unfortunately, while they do include being pursued by a cop of sizable proportions and his comically small dog, it does also grant a chance to gain immortality through art history.
Indeed, some artists have won their space in the collective creative consciousness of the world through their graffiti. However, many more have had their art erased and have even faced legal consequences themselves – courtesy of the inherent clash of vandalism and art that graffiti represents.
Image source : A mural by the celebrated modern street artist Banksy. It depicts prehistoric cave paintings being removed by a society that cannot reconcile valuable artistic and cultural legacy with the dubious legality of graffiti.
The question then remains: why do otherwise clearly talented artists devote their considerable skill to paint graffiti and street art in general? The answer lies perhaps in the very nature of art itself. The traditional schools of art are perceived as a product of high culture – to be collected by the elite and be gawked at in a museum by huge throngs of the have-nots. Amidst this elitist reverie, the humble origins of art can be overlooked; in a cave some tens of thousands of years ago, an unknown artistic individual painted on their dreary cave walls– to delight and to educate, perhaps even leave something behind for posterity to discover. Human expression in one of its purest forms. Graffiti thus finds itself in a juxtaposition, simultaneously rebelling against what art has become while remaining true to one of the most fundamental ideals of art.
Here is a quote by Banksy expressing his views on mainstream art:
“The Art we look at is made by only a select few. A small group create, promote, purchase, exhibit and decide the success of Art. Only a few hundred people in the world have any real say. When you go to an Art gallery you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires.”
Graffiti can thus circumvent the mainstream art industry, bringing the artist’s work and message directly to the people on the street without a middleman. This also makes street art an effective medium of protest and self-expression, with both overt and covert themes in art conveying a socio-political message.
Image source One of Banksy’s most influential murals, instrumental in popularising street art worldwide. An original painting of this work was famously shredded live on the auction stage by way of a hidden mechanism in the frame, elevating Banksy to a household name.
There is something to be said here about process art, the idea that the journey of creation of the art matters just as much, if not more, than the end result and thus is part of the innate beauty or value of the final piece. Process art has seen a rise in popularity in modern times (think Jackson Pollock), incidentally around the same time that modern graffiti and street art emerged as an artistic phenomenon. To me, it seems that both process art and graffiti took off in pretty much the same time frame and exhibit the same trend of defying the notions so prevalent in traditional arts at the time, focusing instead on the authenticity and messaging in the art. They thus originate from the same confluence of changing cultural norms and innovations in art. Both art forms are in many ways challenging the commodification of art; with process art concerned mainly with the often fleeting experience of creation while the temporary nature of graffiti in itself is fairly resistant to commodification.
This is by no means a criticism of commodification itself – perhaps that is best left to the art critics, but it is important to recognise how this spirit of rebellion can influence the themes explored in street art. If an artist is already risking being charged with vandalism for the mere act of graffiti itself, they are being incentivised to not hold back their social commentary due to the sunk cost or risk already being baked in.
Image source : Graffiti in California
Of course, there is a spectrum of sorts on the artistic value of graffiti, as it is in most forms of art. Overt political messaging and even gangs marking their territories through tagging might be perhaps on an extreme end of the spectrum not necessarily exhibiting much in the form of creativity.
It is interesting to note, however, that when history is written, even such creatively lacking forms of graffiti can yield valuable information of the times the artist was living in, from the language used to the mundane realities of daily life that would not be interesting back then. The epitome of historical graffiti serving as a window to the past can be seen in the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii – it was entombed in volcanic ash about two millennia ago, graffiti and all. 
Image source Graffiti of a long since dead ancient Roman politician, a photo of the original on the left and the modern line drawing of it on the right. The inscription says “This is Rufus”, presumably the name of the politician being caricatured. It’s nice to know that long nose jokes have always been amusing.
It is fair to say that while graffiti have been looked down upon for a majority of their modern life, there is a resurgence in street art anyways – with governments and other institutions realising that if they do not beautify public space with artwork, someone will, and the result may not be necessarily what they like.
Image source Graffiti in Pune credited to Amitabh Kumar. I highly recommend this article if you want to explore street art in Pune!