Graffiti Investigations
Freight train bombing done by early graffiti trendsetter dondi white
Initially, I believed that graffiti could only be seen as two things: a form of vandalism or modern street art. As I did some background research on the topic i came across the history of graffiti and more or less its roots. Apparently it dates back to more than 30 000 BCE which came as a huge surprise to me since i always thought the graffiti movement started in the 1960′s making it a more modern form of art. This took me by surprise since i figured it was the early Hip-Hop culture which gave precedence to graffiti as a form of art although this didn’t seem to be the case.
To me, graffiti has always been more than just a form of art or expression, it almost serves as a gateway into the imagination of an individual. It has no boundaries, not even the edge of a sheet of paper can limit it possibilities, and there is no specific way to create it. It could be words or symbols, drawings – even scribbles could be presented as someone’s graffiti and although there are popular styles such as wildstyle and flava sava, graffiti is loosely based on an individual’s style or preference and therefore anyone can create their own style making graffiti an ever expanding form of art.
Some previous knowledge I had about graffiti, being the hierarchy of classes (Pawn, Knight then King/Queen) made me wonder:
1) how would one achieve this status?
2) how would other artists know to acknowledge statuses
3) how would artists enforce who gets to crown their tags?
The complexity of the whole hierarchy definitely leaves me speechless since it’s a concept I’m still trying to grasp although it also puts some negative connotation on graffiti as an art since it implies graffiti artist thrive to boost there renown instead of tagging or bombing for more aesthetic reasons. Others would argue that beyond beauty, some graffiti is done to damage or deface property and i wouldn’t disagree with these claims for certain graffiti forms such as throwies and tags but I would disagree with murals being considered as vandalism since it is a graffiti artist’s representation of thoughts, ideas and expressions in the most refined way possible. In the future I plan on trying out different graffiti styles, even experiment with the use of spray paints on canvases or walls but for now, practice makes perfect 
