Wednesday, January 23, 2008

ghost

Now for something hopefully less controversial...
This is a new tag to me, might be old. This is in the alley behind Marie's and Tennessee Valley Bicycles. There's some good graffiti on the concrete barrier by 40 east, right before the Broadway exit. Check it out. It's in the middle of all that traffic! Those dudes were committed.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Less controversial? You called graffiti good.

Mickey said...

My English 101 prof claimed to have done his thesis on graffiti as literature. I'm all for somebody improving the aesthetics of an otherwise neglected wall with a mural or some thoughtful prose, but what are the merits of simply tagging it? What's interesting about signing your made-up name to an abandoned building or an overpass?

ck said...

you guys make good points. is graffiti a good thing? i don't know. i do find it interesting. maybe "good" wasn't the right word to use- i think "interesting" is more appropriate. thanks for commenting! i hope to get the dialog going on here about the pros and cons of graffiti in our city.

stan said...

if we're calling graffiti art, we should at least critique its relevance, beauty, and method.

as long as we're in the defining mood, what makes something art anyway?

Anonymous said...

what is art? is life art? is art art?
(that's lisa turtle from saved by the bell, y'all).

i dont know. i think graffiti can be art. i understand that vandalism is a problem. but then again i am interested in the issue of public space versus private space. my brain isn't working right now so i'm sorry this doesnt sound as good as it should. you know what i mean, though? graffiti as an art and not as an act of vandalism...

but can that be possible? can you have one without the other? or does graffiti cease to be graffiti if it's not also executed in the traditional manner?

stan said...

these probably can't be considered art, but they're clever:

http://franksemails.com/pics/worlds%2Dbest%2Dgraffiti/ATT13909183.jpg
http://franksemails.com/pics/worlds%2Dbest%2Dgraffiti/ATT13909185.jpg
http://franksemails.com/pics/worlds%2Dbest%2Dgraffiti/ATT13909189.jpg

Mickey said...

Those are great, stan. If it makes you think or makes you laugh, then I say have at it. I just wonder why people like Ghost would take the risk of breaking the law, not to mention wasting perfectly good paint, just to tag. Is it like some kind of grown-up Pokemon or something? Is this Ghost's turf now, trespassers beware?

Unknown said...

"There are no little things": I think it was "The Tipping Point" that opined that communities being lax on things like graffiti and turnstile hopping resulted in a higher rate of more serious crimes as well.

stan said...

i never read "the tipping point." "blink" was excellent though, so gladwell's other work is on my list.

for the sake of argument though, does there come a point of overkill? what about the overwhelming majority people who are sucked into a life of crime by going to prison for a minuscule felony? i don't have any numbers to back me up here. i'm more or less piggybacking on others arguments...

in response to mickey's comment earlier, i don't know about tagging=art. but i do know that leaving our mark is a pretty big deal to any of us.

samuel said...

Assuming that all graffiti is vandalism and therefore criminal, how much more criminal is owning buildings that one allows to rot creating an area of blight? Is it a greater or lesser crime to tag a building in a condition of great disrepair?

I don't know that I'm adding or detracting from the conversation, but I think the two subjects are closely related when discussing things that are good and bad for the city and for the public.

Simple tagging usually does nothing for me. However, having seen some graffiti that obviously took time, effort and talent, I can appreciate it. What if we were able to allow some of our town's more talented graffiti artists to decorate certain places such as the I-40 bridges that form a sort of arch of a gate way into the Old City over Central?

Anonymous said...

Samuel, it is because they wish to not support any graffiti artist.

Anonymous said...

Sorry for the double.. but isn't there a better graffiti on the rooftop of that picture? and isn't the photo the same building that a homeless immigrant fell off of and killed himself by landing on his head? why doesn't the city focus on cutting out all the people that have been shot this year for not wanting to give up a little money.. or better yet all the drug deals that go on, on many of our street corners.. they did have a prostitute sting the other day.. but what about all of those catalidic converters that were being stolen even one from my close friends car while watching a show in the old city graffiti should be the least of the worries during these very criminal times

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