As designers, we know how much love and attention to detail has gone into our creations. Are we egotistical enough to believe our work can't be improved on? Do we feel violated by someone's addition our work? Are we happy that the public is interacting with what we have produced for them, albeit in an unconventional manner?
NB unconventional manner = artistic expression!!
The more I explore major cities around the globe, the more I appreciate the art from.

All of the architects/designers on this forum, I believe, must share a certain aesthetic sensibility. If I were to try and define it, I'd say we all appreciate the more modern, "clean" design approach. With this in mind and taking into account our chosen profession/fields of study/interests, I was curious about your opinions on graffiti.

Some pretty amazing stuff went up this last week in Palestine. Certainly uses a different language to ask the same old questions that refuse to be heard.

Banksy, an English artist, hell bent on challenging perception.banksy (http://www.banksy.co.uk/menu.html)

check his site. he's pulled the wool over a lot of the established art worlds eyes.

i like this one

climb

create a view

hold on tight!

I like this... very much. I wish we never had to build that wall, it's a shity situation here :bang head

Art is the best medication against the barbarism

Very inspirational images... may they teach us to look at humanity with compassion and forgiveness, and remind us of how connected we all are. Death to the wall. :peace:

These graffittis are like hope painted on a wall of despair. Very inspirationnal! Thank you for sharing this with us! :peace:

For the definitive site on urban art check:

www.woostercollective.com

grafitti, stencils, stickers, the lot. A great resorce if you're interested in that kind of thing. It also has good guides to various city's hotspots written by the artists themselves.

I can appreciate art for what it is, however, damage to some buildings can become problematic. Perhaps as designers and architects we could include areas in our designs which are availible to artists as a "living canvas". Murals that would constantly change. Every time someone would look by it would be different.

Perhaps as designers and architects we could include areas in our designs which are availible to artists as a "living canvas".

althought i've used this concept for interiors of community meeting places and "hip" cafes, it never occured to me to apply it to exteriors :confused:. it's funny how sometimes you get so involved in a concept that your eyes close instead of opening.

For the definitive site on urban art check:

www.woostercollective.com



yeah, that one's in my favorites. Hotrats, isn't Banksy from Bristol? do you produce any of this kind of thing yourself? i recently got into stencils and am now adapting them to t-shirt designs. it's a lot of fun and passes the time when the real works a bit slow coming in.

Yeah, Banksy's from Bristol. There's loads of his stuff around town. Sickboy's another local talent. - I'd post some pictures here but I think that's more suited to Woostercollective or dedicated street art sites. I used to do a few t-shirts, flyers and stickers in my spare time for friends club nights and stuff.

My own view on street art/grafitti is that it has its place and can brighten up some areas. I think there has to be responsibilty on the artist though to distinguish between art and vandalism. Some street art/grafitti adds to the richness of an area. In some areas it's a legitimate protest against oppression.

Window scratching/etching and tagging pristine new buildings just amounts to wanton vandalism though IMHO. As for adverts and billboards - they're not much better either.

Thanks for sharing those pics. Proof that Art is a weapon.

I guess they ought to start calling him the West Banksy. ;)

I guess they ought to start calling him the West Banksy

that is pure genius mate. :D

Yes very inspiring images , i think they capture the spirit of graffiti well and in this case they are most welcome unlike many. The anonimity is interesting, the light of day reveals a previous evenings expression. My personal favourite is the ladder although the mind boggles how it was achieved either a clever trick or a grappling iron and some absailing ! Every action creates an equal reaction confined makes freedom.

This stuff is genius!

...there is an energy from graffitti's spontanious nature that can give more weight to political points of view.

Graffitti brings the issue directly into context, therefore provokes debate in a different way to that created by words in a newspaper......which in this case is needed!

ROb

How's this for street art? Julian Beever's (http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm) anamorphic drawings are quite astonishing.

Another

Other side of the pool

I got an email from a coworker last week about this artist, the photo above is one taken from the wrong angle and that is why the leg is so long. I have other photo's of his work.

second..

third..

fourth..

fifth...

sixth..

seventh..

8th..

last..

I think this guy is great. Some people might view this as graffiti, but I think it is one of the things most far from it.. It's temporary, it washes away, I like this idea much over spraypaint or other street art mediums. It allows the artist to express themselves, not damage property, and allows easy cleanup for another artist to use the same space after a short while.

Now if we only had more artists like Julian...

Well f### me, look at the Cobberman droppin' hammers right here. It’s all about your perspective, quite literally. Look at the faces of those in the pics viewing from the wrong angle. Bemused. The traditional French trompe l'oeil artists had nothing on this. Please state where these works were done. It looks a lot like Leicester in England where I grew up. I’m probably mistaken as the western high street has become so homogenised!

Im not exactly sure where these are taken from but Julian Beever is an English artist who does pavement art all over. Mainly England, France, Germany, USA, Australia and Belgium. You only get the 3D effect when viewing the sidewalk art from a certain angle.

I think this guy is great. Some people might view this as graffiti, but I think it is one of the things most far from it.. It's temporary, it washes away, I like this idea much over spraypaint or other street art mediums. It allows the artist to express themselves, not damage property, and allows easy cleanup for another artist to use the same space after a short while.

Now if we only had more artists like Julian...

Well good graffiti is usually painted over surfaces that don't contribute to the looks of the city. Concrete surfaces or untreated facades of old buildings provide the best canvas for a graffiti.
I think of it as a visual contribution and a punishment to the owner for having such an ugly building LOL

Well good graffiti is usually painted over surfaces that don't contribute to the looks of the city. Concrete surfaces or untreated facades of old buildings provide the best canvas for a graffiti.

That and everything else. :no no no:

I think one thing to take into account of what kind of culture where these 2 ideas originally came from. They are quite different.

Stecilling is an act of spreading propaganda, a way of mass media, mass production and multiplicity of the same slogan/idea/image. My guess is that it has more a political root.

Graffiti on the other hand, especially in the form of 'tagging' is about territorial markings, much like animals do.

These days of course, both ideas have fused but I still thought it's interesting to point out the origins.

:wondering

symbolix.com (http://www.symbollix.com/main.html) I think this guy is great. Some people might view this as graffiti, but I think it is one of the things most far from it.. It's temporary, it washes away, I like this idea much over spraypaint or other street art mediums. It allows the artist to express themselves, not damage property, and allows easy cleanup for another artist to use the same space after a short while.

Now if we only had more artists like Julian...

there is this other artist, called moose, i don't know if you guys know about him, He is a Brittish street artist who makes his graffiti (if you can call it that) by cleaning his images out of the dirt symbolix.com (http://www.symbollix.com/main.html)
i still don't know if it is art, but is defenetly a very intresting way of making a statement without actually distroying anything.

and an example of his work

symbolix.com (http://www.symbollix.com/main.html)

there is this other artist, called moose, i don't know if you guys know about him, He is a Brittish street artist who makes his graffiti (if you can call it that) by cleaning his images out of the dirt symbolix.com (http://www.symbollix.com/main.html)
i still don't know if it is art, but is defenetly a very intresting way of making a statement without actually distroying anything.

and an example of his work

Graffiti by subtraction..... I love this idea and what a statement it is.
Is it art?
well I geuss it is all about how you define Art. For myself if it brakes my concern with day to day life and makes me question some point, well I would have to call that art.
Just my 2 cents.
:cheers:
dk

Graffiti by subtraction..... I love this idea and what a statement it is.dk

In college we had a pub where a good night drinking & partying was celebrated by writing messages on the walls & ceiling (tissue dipped in beer & then writing / cleaning through the nicotine staining)

It gave the place a wonderful atmosphere. Pure Folk Art.

Here is a photo of some organised graffiti to add to the collection

i live in sf and we have grafitti everywhere. if i were the owner of the building with it, i'd be a more than a bit miffed. some grafitti appeared on the side of the building that i worked in and the owner got a ticket from the police saying that if he didn't clean it up he'd get fined.

It's easier to get forgiveness than permission.

Thats a great one...

Art is the best medicine against the barbarism

I worked with the graf artist WOW123 for the facade renovation of an appartment building in bremen, germany that was prone to tagging/vandalism.

Keys were:
a) to find a writer that has enough fame so his piece doesnt get crossed
b) to find a theme that would please the eight tenants (and the respectable owner)
c) to find a theme that works with the building

after shot 1

http://www.wow123.de/

before shot 2

after shot 2

Banksy, an English artist, hell bent on challenging perception.banksy (http://www.banksy.co.uk/menu.html)

apparently my message is too shooooooooooooort

I worked with the graf artist WOW123 for the facade renovation of an appartment building in bremen, germany that was prone to tagging/vandalism.

Keys were:
a) to find a writer that has enough fame so his piece doesnt get crossed
b) to find a theme that would please the eight tenants (and the respectable owner)
c) to find a theme that works with the building

Brilliant Formula :not worth :not worth

I worked with the graf artist WOW123 for the facade renovation of an appartment building in bremen, germany that was prone to tagging/vandalism.

Keys were:
a) to find a writer that has enough fame so his piece doesnt get crossed
b) to find a theme that would please the eight tenants (and the respectable owner)
c) to find a theme that works with the building
Doesn't that make the artist a pariah of some sort , afterall grafitti has been an artform of the underground , a form of urban protest which feeds it and gives it its vitality , it is not about making pretty pictures .

art...is art indeed :)

Doesn't that make the artist a pariah of some sort , afterall grafitti has been an artform of the underground , a form of urban protest which feeds it and gives it its vitality , it is not about making pretty pictures .

Arv,
thank you for reflecting on my post.
i don´t know what a pariah is. when i googled it i found this:

PARIAH - People Against Racism In Aboriginal Homelands
(http://www.country-liberal-party.com)

which has a positive connotation for me but is propably not what you were talking about. although it made me remember a very powerful "form of urban protest": The Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra. (on this: Gregory Cowan, Nomadic Resistance: Tent Embassies and Collapsible Architecture http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/images/history/1970s/emb72/embarchit.htm )

sorry for getting side-tracked.
i admit that my formulation was provokingly pragmatic.

i understand your concern about selling out a subculture. and for some thats a really hot topic. but i believe that you can´t generalize there. that its really up to you wether you are exploiting or creating.

For many people i know in the world of skateboarding, their subculture is a way of life for them. i think thats true for the grafitti scene as well (the four elements of hip hop: MCing, DJing, Breaking & Writing) i think that WOW123 would actually be happy to quit his dull day job and devote his life entirely to writing on walls. if he could live solely on "productions" as he calls them on his website. www.wow123.de

i´d think. in any case i think the design brief was actually very loose. but maybe it became so "pretty" because he actually met the people who live behind the walls he is working on. and they weren´t his clients either. they were just happy about the renovation in general. and curious what he was doing. okay maybe some were a bit grumpy. and they propably still are. but the others see it as an improvement of their adresse

i was opting for more abstract. but i dont think it got corny -
greetz from bremen

Pariah is defined as A person who is rejected (from society or home)
A bit strong but I find it valid in terms of acceptance into the folds of a subculture which I am assuming grafitti is .

yo! check this: graf style cast aluminum gate on luxury condo building
40 bond st, manhattan

first seen here:
http://anarchitecture.blogspot.com/2006/02/herzog-and-de-meurons-housing-graffiti.html

...taken ??? Graffiti.org (http://www.graffiti.org/) :D
Art Crimes
The Writing on the Wall :peace:

and of course Zewall (http://www.zewall.com/) :D

Subway art (http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/artwork)

thats pretty cool.