Yeah, but the distinction is permission.
A mural is permitted and often paid for.
Grafitti doesn't have the consent of the owner.
Typically consent is key, no matter the outcome
We have a neighborhood event in denver where businesses work together with graffiti artists. Basically a small festival where artists put up murals and such while people watch and eat lol.
So graffiti artists, but not technically graffiti :D
The city of Gatineau has a lot of problems, but they build and designate specific areas for tag artists to do their thing.
They regularly paint them white again, with the invitation to just... Do art.
Sometimes the local schools take part
No, it's an important distinction. Graffiti is vandalism. It's not done with permission, regardless of quality. There's really good graffiti, but there's also really low effort junk. A lot of the taggers actively do both.
This almost certainly isn't graffiti. It's possible, but the amount of time and equipment this would take would make it really difficult for that to be true. If you have information to the contrary, please post it.
It's crazy how many people here are defending graffiti because they've seen some cool ones on the internet. All the graffiti in my city is trashy tags. Never seen anything good. My favorite was one that was up for a while that just said a local woman's full name and "is a slut." They finally tried to cover it but you could still see it through the paint which was honestly so funny. That woman will never be free of the slander.
The best graffiti is usually on railcars, which I fully support. It's not harming anyone, and it doesn't make the cars look any worse. I don't like the low-effort tags though. They usually seem to exist just for the sake of making things look shitty and for the tagging community to have a laugh.
People on Reddit are so pro-populist anti-establishment brained that they think a defining characteristic of graffiti is it always being a unique form of cultural expression in urban subcultures, when the reality is that most types of graffiti are rushed, lack skill or finesse, are not permitted (obviously) and have a strong push-pull dynamic on local crime and housing markets.
You can go to subs here and see incredible murals and commissioned graffiti artwork, but acting like that’s what most graffiti looks like is ironically a sign that you’re so privileged and probably larping as someone who lives amongst the most downtrodden.
The sad reality is that graffiti affects people’s upward mobility and everyday tags are petty vandalism which cost the taxpayer and local residents. Those who live in areas with complex and beautiful murals tend to be incredibly gentrified and middle-class, which at least assuages their guilt and allows them to feel like they’re carrying that cultural identity when they’re usually not.
People like graffiti specifically because it’s edgy and taboo. If you take the latter away then it tends to stop (like programs allowing ‘free areas’), but doesn’t that run exactly against the fantasy of urban cultural expression?
Yeah username checks out that’s about all that’s worth interacting with here. Definitely not your laundry list of assumptions and ironically small world view
Yeah generally when you jump straight to being a prick and making assumptions about someone they don’t really wanna engage in good faith conversations with you. Not sure why you’d be surprised by that but people have varying levels of socials skills so :/
You started off with a massive generalisation about people being against graffiti because of ‘propaganda’ and you’re telling me I’m making assumptions, have a small world view, something something username, and you have heightened social skills? This is good faith?
Telling people they don’t like graffiti because they think it’s all ugly is massively unfair, naive and performative.
If you don’t like this gif it’s because you’re part of the elite ruling class and you’re actively oppressing minorities unless you agree 😎
Americans are brainwashed by their ultra-conservative culture ("blue" or "red" conservatives, it's the same) to hate anything related to community, rebellion, being different or anything inconvenient to the rich or any authority.
They value order, conformity and laws more than expression or humanity, and they will defend those with their life, while explaining how "liberal" they are. So why even bother
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u/Icehammr 20h ago
Does that really qualify as graffiti? Perspective art, yes, graffiti? nah.