Does Graffiti = Vandalism
DOES GRAFFITI = VANDALISM by Corliss Buenavida
Some time last year, I don’t recall exactly, I came home to the Toronto homestead after some travelling to find my garage door had been tagged. They got one of my neighbour’s too and I suspect a few more of the laneway doors were victims also. My solid grey paint job had lasted a number of years so I guess I can’t complain too much. It’s not a huge deal and that’s why I haven’t done anything about it for so long.
However recently, another neighbour who fancies himself a bit of an artist has offered to do a mural on my garage door, so I wanted to get this blog written before the change occurs and I lose what I now see as an opportunity.
First of all, I admit tags don’t do anything for me. I like some graffiti especially those with a more traditional ‘art sense’ but tagging just seems like plain old vandalism with very little creativity. I mean, if you consider yourself an artist, how many times can you write ‘blob’ on a garage door, bus shelter or laneway wall before you want to try your hand at something new? If you don’t change it up, you’re just leaving a boring trail of signatures saying, “Look, I was in this alley. Look, I was on this bridge.”
BORING!
At least the soldier’s who repeated the Kilroy image across Europe during World War II were often doing it to antagonize an enemy.
In a few of the other laneways in our neighbourhood the community has worked with groups of artists to create themed collections to cover tagged laneways. One of my favourites is very close by and required the participating artists to incorporate a butterfly in each of their works.
Unfortunately, the immature taggers having no respect for other artists will eventually spray overtop of these wonderful murals. Perhaps as they grow older and acquire property of their own which gets vandalized, they will gain a sense of appreciation for their faux pas.
The other graffiti I like are pieces with something to say, often of a political or satirical nature. I recently made a point on one of my cycles around Toronto’s downtown core to include viewings of the two remaining pieces by Banksy of seven which were created in Toronto in 2010 while he was in town promoting the release of the documentary, ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’.
Toronto is also host to a long stretch of laneway, ‘Graffiti Alley’ which is parallel to one of the hipper shopping streets in town. Trip Advisor currently lists it as #38 of over 1000 things to do while visiting the city. I make sure to pass through at least once every year as images are often replaced with newer works.
Now, back to my garage door.
Like I said I don’t really get tagging. As far as I can decipher, my door inherited a big black ‘GBO’ or ‘G3O’ outlined in white. I think this was followed by a separate white spraying by the ‘OM CREW’ which may or may not include ‘WORM’, ‘902’ & ‘4x3’. (Note: “x” in ‘4x3’ represents a symbol I cannot reproduce with my keyboard which may be a ‘down arrow’ over top of a ‘1’).
The cleverest part appears to be a few lines added to create a face in the big black original ‘O’ of ‘GBO’. There is also a sperm-like squiggly arrow pointing up to ‘CREW’.
In addition, there are two small silver paint-pen markings which are completely illegible but very similar and which may also be created by the Om Crew as there is a common symbol to both, which is also above the large Om Crew name. These look like the work of somebody who is still practicing.
Whatever the case I have no idea what any of it means or represents.
So, I decided to ask the local community for assistance in deciphering these blobs and scrawls which may or may not be attributed to WORM or OM CREW? The timing couldn’t be better too. Students are about to get back to their books which means the laneway will be filled with kids from the local High School smoking dope throughout the school day and after the final bell. They use the lane because although it is legal to smoke in public in Toronto, as long as you are 20 meters from school property, you do need to be 19 years of age or older.
To accomplish my enquiry as to the meaning of the hieroglyphics on my garage door I created a little poster which I taped up on an open space and then put a plastic sleeve cover over top to protect it from the elements. Hopefully one or more of the delinquents hiding out in their secret lair will notice my message and follow up with whatever knowledge they have about my tags.
This is the message I posted.
You may have noticed I mentioned the ‘Throw Up’ style of graffiti. I did my research and I believe that is what the giant bubble letters are categorized as. I also found out that graffiti has been around a very long time as the word originates from the Italian word for ‘scratched’, as in old cave drawings scratched on a wall.
Perhaps there is a beerfloat blog follower out there who reads ‘tag’? If so, please send me a message with an explanation of my garage artifacts before my neighbour takes up his brush.
I’ll be sure to generate a follow up blog which has the answers I seek or at the very least displays my ‘new look’ garage door – before it gets tagged over again.
Corliss
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