Cavalry Spotlight: Graffiti

I know it's been a minute, but we're back! However, today's Cavalry Spotlight is going to be a little different. Instead of featuring an up and coming artist we are going to talk about a whole art form. One that represents that underground, independent, and innovative art movement that we are all about. You all may be familiar with the artform of graffiti already; I'm sure you've passed countless overpasses that have been tagged, seen countless trains or subway cars with graffiti all over them, and you have more than likely seen it on buildings in or near your city.

But, have you ever stopped to really take in what you were seeing? Even more, could you actually even understand what you were seeing? A lot of graffiti can seem unreadable and so abstract that you don't know if it contains words or even what the hell it represents, haha. Well I have done quite a bit of research and interviewed someone that's part of the scene and found out a lot of really amazing stuff. I always admired Graffiti before but I honestly have a whole new respect for it now after gaining more in-depth knowledge of the culture surrounding it. To be honest with you, if I was good at art and drawing I wouldn't be typing this right now because I'd be out tagging a building, haha.

To begin understanding graffiti and what it's all about, I started by looking into its main period of growth and evolution beginning in the 1960s and '70s. Initially graffiti began growing in popularity when teenagers in New York began writing their nicknames on neighborhood walls with permanent markers. At first the nicknames served territorial functions until a youth under the nickname "Taki 183" began writing his name all over subway stations and trains. This action gained quick public notoriety even getting an article published in "The New York Times". This notoriety and public attention caused the initial purpose of graffiti for territorial functions to shift into using graffiti as a way to gain fame, respect, and pride.

Suddenly, graffiti began showing up everywhere and on a much larger scale; buildings, trains, subways, ice cream trucks, almost everything became a canvas for graffiti. Along with this shift, graffiti artists began forgoing the use of permanent markers which was the main tool used for writing. Now aerosol spray paint was becoming the main tool. The obvious reason being that it allowed for more visibility and larger, more intricate writing (Cooper & Chalfant 14). 

This evolution of writing ones nickname as a way to gain respect, pride, and fame amongst a large community of artists, led writers to develop their own unique styles and variations for writing their names. The challenge was to represent who you were as a person and also to make your name stand out and be unique from all of the other writers. This was a sort of "Self-branding", or creating a recognizable logo for your nickname. With spray paint now being introduced, size and color quickly became important aspects of graffiti. The standard "Bubble Letter" type style for writing names kept evolving and evolving into crazier and more abstract things. The most important thing that stood out to me from this information was the fact that these were all names, they are all letters that say something. Some graffiti just looks so abstract that before I didn't even see the letters, I thought it was just a jumbled, cool looking design of some kind, like a Jackson Pollock piece or something, hahaha. An important thing noted by graffiti artist, Aaron Kuntz, whom I interviewed, was that this new emergence of style and its importance, reduced the amount of graffiti being made but increased the quality. The saying "Quality over quantity" became in effect as now the way to catch people's eyes was not through merely seeing a name, but by seeing a memorable piece of graffiti that built a reputation.

Here is a small example of the evolution (from easy to read to absolutely abstract) and names that are found in different writings:

"Schmoo"

"Saber"

 "Unit"

"Secret"

"Fear"

 "Cyte"

As you can see the names can go from pretty easy to read to extremely abstract, but that is part of the art and culture behind graffiti writing. the name "Saber" may be easy to read but my opinion is that the name "Cyte" is a lot more eye-catching, creative, and unique. This is what more respected graffiti artists strive for when making their pieces. So after recognizing that graffiti writing is a representation of artist's nicknames my next question was, "How the hell do you write like that and what's the creative process behind it?!"

I interviewed Aaron Kuntz, who is involved with graffiti culture and grew up pursuing the culture and lifestyle that it offered. I spoke with him for probably over and hour and left with some really interesting details. It was really exciting too hear from someone that was so involved in graffiti culture and knew so much about it from a first hand experience. I asked Aaron if he could explain the writing process some more and its evolution and here is what I got. The following is a summary of what was discussed as opposed to a very lengthy transcript, haha:

Graffiti is something that grew amongst the youth from a fascination of words, the words and style of writing gave people an identity. To start with the basics, a graffiti artist generally begins with what is reffered to as a "Black Book". This is basically nothing more than a sketchbook where the artists spend hours practicing and developing their writing styles into something that is unique and reflective of their passions. Like a manuscript for an author, the "Black Book" allows for rough drafts, experimentation, and the refinement of different works. This is the reason some graffiti writing may look futuristic, funky, soulful, etc. The sketches are primarily done using a variation of markers though some artists may purchase larger canvases for practice with spray paint. A lot of times during different social events (Some underground, some public) that bring graffiti artists together, "Black Books" are brought in order to share styles and ideas with other artists. This is no different than in music where several artists may collaborate on a song. In these "Black Books" graffiti writers practice writing and incorporating several important aspects in the writing of graffiti.

Several of these aspects which are all integral to the design and feel of writing a letter in graffiti style included "Chips", "Hookups", "Imprints", "Overlaps", "Checks", and "Pipes". Here are some examples in use, click on the above links for more specific details:

Aaron also spoke about the different classifications that graffiti has: Styles of writing that is really tough to read, really intricate, and always contains connected letters is called "Wildstyle". Graffiti that is more representative of the earliest forms from the 60s, mainly relying on the use of markers and usually nothing more than a name scribbled on a surface, is called "Throw up" (Interview).

Here is a video of work being sketched in a "Black Book" and work being made with spray paint on a wall:

Lastly, one important cultural aspect of graffiti I wanted to touch upon was the way it tied into the main four elements: Beat Boying, Djaying, Mc-ing (or rapping), and Graffiti itself. I am a DJ myself, learning the art of turntablism, and I've known about the connection with graffiti but I never understood why. Speaking with Aaron, who himself was a DJ, graffiti artist, and is passionate about the hip-hop scene, really helped me understand that connection. Aaron really hit on how graffiti encompassed all of the elements. It's an underground culture that probably faces the most criticism, just like hip-hop faces with it's lyrical content, djaying with it's use of music sampling, and b-boys with their unconventional, provocative style of dancing.

Aaron continued explaining how graffiti is ultimately a form of poetry and expression just like all of the other three elements, and most importantly graffiti is able to be independent in it's own right. B-boying, DJaying, and MC-ing, all go hand in hand for obvious reasons but graffiti had to evolve and become an element on it's own. Graffiti is the "Black Sheep" of the four elements and is still not widely accepted compared to DJaying, B-boying, and MCing (Rapping) which have all seen some form of mainstream success especially in the form of TV shows. Graffiti grew from a chance to stand against the upper class society, and was a way to gain respect and pride within the inner city youth and it remained underground. Today graffiti has begun seeing more success in the public spotlight, having exhibitions in art galleries and museums, but it has still managed to remain the most underground of all four elements (Interview).

I plan on going more in-depth about the culture behind graffiti in the future, I'm thinking about putting a video together, we'll see. I hope this spotlight at least gave you an insight into the graffiti culture of the last several decades and more importantly helped you understand what the hell you're even looking at!  I highly recommend checking out learngraffiti.net for more information on the creation and design of graffiti and then also check out www.otherthings.com for awesome, examples of graffiti evolving in the same spot over several years. In some of the spots to choose, you can see how the writing evolves from easy to read "Throw-up" to absolutely crazy "Wildstyle" type works.

That's all for now, but I hope you all enjoyed this and I look forward to adding more about this at some point or maybe even tackling one of the other three elements connected to graffiti!

Sources:

All images from: http://www.graffiti.org/

Cooper, Martha, and Henry Chalfant. Subway Art. New York: Henry Holt and, 2004. Print.

"Graffiti Culture." Personal interview. 1 Mar. 2010.

*I didn't include to many books or "Academic" sources because that's a little oxymoronic when your dealing with a culture that has underground roots and avoids mainstream attention. The interview I had with Aaron, which included first-hand accounts from a graffiti artist himself was to me the richest source of information and knowledge that would not be found, let alone compare, to any book or second hand source about graffiti. I don't believe that books or text can really convey the excitement and passion that a writer himself can. The best comparison I can think of is asking Oscar De La Hoya's trainer how Oscar feels when boxing. No one could ever explain it as good as Oscar himself...