What is graffiti? What is street art? What does apparently random, meaningless words, symbols, colours and drawings mean?
I think for me markings on public walls became of interest during a visit to Andalucia in southern Spain pre 2008. The culture of Spain had long interested me and whilst searching for flamenco, gypsies and Spanish Civil War locations I came upon the ruins of a former army barracks in hills near Tarifa. The combination of the environment of a former Franco-ist barracks, the textural age-related deterioration of the buildings, the colours, the use of words, the illustrations sometimes scratched into the fabric of walls and the divided politics conveyed a sense of communication, or lingua franca, to me.
People who visually contributed in this spot, no matter how simply or elaborately, were telling me something they felt or believed, almost in code form, upon a canvas which guaranteed a sense of entropy, or change. I was drawn to this form of communication and that interest has remained with me wherever I travel, most comprehensively in Morocco.
A parallel interest developed in modern art, and I enjoyed the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat ( 1960-1988), a New York artist whose graffiti-like work was a form of communication, a commentary on the divided society in which he lived.
Basquiat’s paintings contrasted luxury and poverty, integration and segregation, and inner vs outside experience. He appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, marrying word and image, abstraction, figuration, historical knowledge, and modern criticism.
Basquiat’s artwork employed social criticism as a tool for reflection and connecting with his experiences in the Black community of his period, as well as assaults on power structures and racist institutions.
Basquiat’s work was a form of codified political and social communication, challenging institutional cultural prejudices and stereotypes as I believe most graffiti and street art to be.
It is also the most democratised of communication, on public spaces free to view for all who pass.
Graffiti also has links with Dadaism and Surrealism
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