Street Art & London
Graffiti and street art can be defined as the expression on an individual seeking
attention through the medium of spraypaint, paste-ups, etchings and stickers Graffiti as an art can be traced several centuries ago, with documented records of elaborate wall paintings during the Ancient Greece period and Roman Empire era. The art has changed with the times as current graffiti artists use spray paint and marker pens as their basic tools. Despite its history graffiti and street art is still known all around the world as a crime.In more modern times graffiti has been used as a tool to express social and politalcal messages.Visualisations such as animations and the characteisation of political leaders such as obama are used to express the social and political statements. In other cases graffiti is related to gang crime and terrirory marking. Desipte the negativities associated to graffiti, it has now started to be seen in a positive way.
The history of graffiti can be traced back to th Greek era. The word graffiti was coined from the Latin word graffito meaning scratched art. In the Roman Empire it was related to the inscriptions and figure drawings found on ancient walls. The earliest recorded forms of 'graffiti' are seen in the form of prehistoric drawings and cave paintings dating back to around 30,000 BC. Its thought that cavemen once drew images of wild life and hunting expeditions depicting their environmentused using tools such as pigments and the bones of animals. Forms of ancient graffiti can still been seen in the middle east.
The Greek city of Ephesus is said to be where modern graffiti originated from . Locals in these region claim that the graffiti was used as an advertisement for prostitution. For the Ancient Romans they used graffiti as an art to decorate walls and monuments. Graffiti art played an important part in the classical world displaying phrases of political rhetoric, love declarations, and words of critical thought. Today's graffiti on the other hand displays views of social political ideals.These forms of historic forms of graffiti have been used by researchers to gain insight into lifestyles and languages of ancient cultures.
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Modern age graffiti is perceived to have intermingled with hip hop culture with its cradle being the New York City Subway graffiti. However, all over the world there are notable graffiti expressions on buildings, subways and railroad boxcars. Of notable recognition is the graffiti "Kilroy was here" done by American troops during the World War 2, the slogan "Boredom is counterrevolutionary" written on almost all buildings in Paris during the May 1968 student protests, and lastly the legendary "Dick Nixon Before He Dicks You" graffiti in America during the 1970s indicating the apathy the youth had against that U.S president.
Lee Quinones and Fab 5 Freddy were the first art gallery and graffiti artist to collaborate, this was done in Rome in 1979. This moment is seen as the moment graffiti turned mainstream. The art was subsequently publicized through feature films and documentaries like Wild Style in 1983. During the late 1980s period a new genre of graffiti emerged called stencil graffiti. Due to it's simplicity this new technique spread rapidly across the world.
by: Doyle Southerland