Graffiti: A Form of Art or Crime

Graffiti is a highly controversial form of art which is considered illegal in several places, punishable by law whereas on the other hand some people term it as an innovative way of expressing creativity, freedom of speech and political awakening. This art indeed is a criminal art if it is done without the consent of the property’s owner, agreement with the society’s norms, and permission by the law of land.

One paradigm is The Newcastle City council of NSW, Australia, which categorically announces that graffiti is a deliberate act of vandalism and urge the residents to join hands to combat this crime. Their official website says, “Graffiti is an ongoing challenge that impacts our community. It is a complex and expensive problem for government and law enforcement agencies. City of Newcastle is committed to providing a clean, safe and welcoming environment for residents, workers and visitors. It is important for everyone to take ownership of their neighbourhood and to work with local authorities to reduce illegal graffiti activity.” But, for some people, this activity has a different value and voice different opinions trying to convince that graffiti is a form of art hence not to be penalized for.

Graffiti is a form of expression of thoughts and ideas through writings and drawings which is found on the highly visible areas of street walls, under the bridges, in the subways, etc. typically without permission of the owner of the property where it is inscribed and is considered new phenomenon for our generation. But in fact, Evidence of existence of graffiti dates to thousands of years ago when people used to draw shapes, signs, and text in the caves, foothills of mountains. In ancient times of Egyptians, Romans and Greeks, people used to inscribe poems on the buildings to demonstrate their protest and to spread the word. Modern graffiti which we witness these days spawned from Philadelphia, USA in the early 1960s along with the heavy metal music and from there it found its way towards New York and flourished in the 1970s.

Graffiti as an expression form is used by people for rhetoric political uprising for a revolution to mere love declarations or just for simple thoughts or cheap way of advertising products and services. Suniti Bandaranaike (2001) in her research paper writes that “Graffiti exists in many forms and its reception differs widely from the writings on the Berlin wall or the aboriginal etchings in primitive caves to the more recent writings on our contemporary walls.”

Today, apart from aerosol spray paints, people use stencils, preprinted posters and stickers to put their work on their targeted location. According to an article in Graffitocanberra there is also a type which is known as a Piece. A piece which is short term for masterpiece is a painted image with free hand with the help of three or more colors and take considerable amount of time to finish. Such work will help gain the artist respect from other artists if it is painted on an obvious place such as city centers, townhalls, or universities as these palaces are heavily guarded and pose a great risk. The piece is followed by a style known as ‘Heaven’ which the unknown author explains as a piece of art which is painted on a place which is very difficult to access such as under belly of a bridge or on high rise structures. Graffiti artists go to such lengths which shows their determination and enthusiasm which suggest that graffiti is not just a communication channel but a tool to assert someone’s views, authority and can claim intangible earnings.

Since long, it has been a debatable aspect whether graffiti is a crime or an art. There is no doubt that it is an art which like all other arts such as paintings, music, literature, attracts unpretentious appreciations as well as well documented critique as many publications can be found on the book shops promoting this art. Graffiti is a very challenging, time consuming, and energy draining form of art, and the artist gets respect for his or her work at least in his or her community if not in the society in general. Some of the artists claim that it’s a gift to the society. According to BBC News, Felix a member of reclaimyourcity.net promoting graffitists, and their work argues that “Graffiti, big and colourful letters and pictures, and street art, also known as post-graffiti which includes stencils, stickers, posters and other media - are the vibrant expressions of modern cities... Graffiti and street art are the only ways that people can interact with public spaces actively. These art forms can, for example, express emotions, give critique on current politics or society, or offer venues for public art.”

Whereas, law sees it with a different angle and rightly so, as this form of art mostly appears on the property on which graffitists have no right. This act can be punishable by thousands of dollars in fines as well as prison sentence of up to 5 years. During the inception of a new law targeting graffitists of New York City, situation took a stark turn as seven young artists backed by fashion designer Mark Ecko; filed a lawsuit against the City for this anti-graffiti law. As reported in the same article in BBC, a New York city councilor Peter Vallone who sponsored the law said to the public that he wants to send a clear message to the graffitists and vandals that their freedom of expression end where his jurisdiction begins.” This shows the grit of the politician to address the problem of the largest city of the world’s superpower.

If we look at Pakistan, graffiti has been used mainly for political slogans or advertising by cheap and undocumented businesses. For the length of breadth of Pakistan, one cannot see in any direction without a graffiti in his or her view sight. In general, the people of Pakistan seem to be against this kind of vandalism and consider it offensive and obscene. Absar Ahmed Khan, in his blog, argues against this art by writing that “Wall-chalking and graffiti are unacceptable for the obvious reason that walls are not put up for the purpose of serving as canvases for political slogans and other promotional gimmicks ad nauseam. Graffiti, at the same time, disturbs the overall infrastructure of the city by damaging public property and aesthetic appeal.”

To bring this culture to Pakistan and to fight illegal, offensive and obscene wall chalking in Pakistan, Street Art Pakistan came up the scene in the year 2010 with participants from all over the country comprised of aspiring artists and young students. The contest has since held on the walls of Pakistan with positive thought-provoking literature and drawings. According to Mudassir Zia, CEO and Founder of Street Art Pakistan, their mission is an initiative to eradicate the illegal practice of wall chalking and ‘Reform the Walls of Pakistan’ by painting them with positive themes depicting colorful stories of our country.

To conclude, we can infer that graffiti is indeed a wonderful type of art which can flourish and is destined to reach the heights of popularity with direct proportion to the rising standard of literacy in our society if it is being done within the parameters of law and moral values of the society. Or else, it is and will always be termed as vandalism, a crime which is punishable rightly so.