After the discussion of Style Wars on Thursday night, I was again getting a ride home from Natalie Hummel. One of the things we had talked about after the documentary was the graffiti between the Courier Café and Pizza M's in downtown Urbana. Curious, Natalie and I took a field trip to see the artwork mentioned during the class discussion. Here's what we saw:
I thought the image of the bikers along what is known as Biker Alley was incredible (If you haven't seen it, it's worth the trip). What impressed me the most about the piece was its size. It spanned across an entire wall and a half and was positioned high up off the ground. One thing that I didn't fully grasp while watching the documentary was the sheer scale of these murals. It's one thing to look at a screen, it's another to stand by a wall and look up at the real thing.
But then I realized that the graffiti in Urbana isn't incredibly large compared to the sizes of pieces in other cities or other countries...
No matter the size, there's no question whether graffiti is artwork or not, even if you're only writing your name.
(not really graffiti since it only exists in digital form, but close enough)
I was so entranced by the Girls in Graffiti book we looked at in class! I've never looked at graffiti as art worthy of study, much like rap, but it really is. The mere medium can make it very off-putting and disrespected, but what's a city without graffiti? What would uni's lounge be without handprints? It shows life!
ReplyDeleteI really like the photo you took of the alley, and the other photos are kind of awesome as well. I think that is part of what can make graffiti so cool--just the sheer size of some pieces is beautiful in itself. Also v cool tag thing of your name!
ReplyDeleteI love she sheer scale that graffiti has to offer. You can make something small, like part of a train car, or you can make a whole city a work of art, as seen above. It's really cool how with graffiti, the world is your canvas
ReplyDeleteI can't even wrap my head around how people created some of these images, especially on such a large scale.
ReplyDeleteMichelle said "What's a city without graffiti? ... It shows life!" and I think that's very dependent on the context of the graffiti. If images or snapshots can convey feelings, then the graffiti itself doesn't necessarily convey as strong a feeling as it does when viewed in context of its backdrop.
A line of graffiti names along a busy traintrack in Chicago evokes the feeling of "Showing life", whilst a graffiti picture on an abandoned warehouse in a landscape of decaying buildings evokes more of an idea of "what was" or "all that remains"... much more sober in spirit.