Graffiti

[barniclebill]

Graffiti, antisocial behaviour or beautification of eyesores?

[unruliejulie]

personally i think it looks awful. I prefer something a little less in your face! I think it makes areas look run down. Definitely a no no from me!

[maxximus]

define graffiti, years ago i had a job cleaning high rise buildings. we used to get a lot of calls from the city for graffiti removal, most were just a mess but a lot were truly art and i sometimes felt bad.

[makemesmile]

depends on what it is and where it is.

[Andyvon]

Vandalism! Its garish and ugly.

[jake-the-peg]

http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/banksy/banksy_c lean_streets.htm

[barniclebill]

Yeah, I've seen some of Banksy's stuff before, it's very good. Some of the haulage trains you see going by look much better with it on them. Although I must agree; a lot of the stuff you see on bus stops in this country is awful, Steve luvs kelly, John Davidson is gay, Andy M is a crap ride etc (no offence to any John Davidsons/ Andy M's out there BTW!)

[Champagne]

I don't really like seeing people's signatures all over the place, but the creative stuff is very funky. I like it.

[warpig1]

Kids graffitti ie 'jd was here 2006' defininately not, but creative art work, yes absolutely, some of it is sheer genius.

[nicorijnders]

So called "Barnicle Bill" I went to college with John Davidson and there is no way he's batty so get it right before you shoot your mouth off.

[barniclebill]

I'm really sorry, I don't even know him! I just used his name as an example, but I think it might be an idea to tell him that his phone number's all over the wall of gents down our high street! Apparently he "lUVS the BOBBY, an' he wants URZ!"
Not my words, honest....

[sg]

rofl @ nico!
yeh, I went to school with M Khan, and he is...

[Rusks]

It depends what it says. If it's swearwords of something then def. not. Has anyone read 'Scribbleboy'? That's about making everything in a concrete city look beautiful. I really reccommend it - but it is a childrens book. by Phillip Ridely

[bigmalc]

It's a useful form of expression to for those who use it properly. By that I mean people with genuine artistic talent. I don't think that names scrawled on walls/bus stops etc. should be considered grafitti; that's just vandalism. But I suppose in a sense it's still self-expression.

[sg]

I can't stand hippies who ruin nicely painted walls with their trite slogans, and who believe that us "straightheads" are going to be enlightened when we read such deep and meaningful insights as "Fight War, Not Wars", or "Blair = B. Liar" painted on in a terrible scrawl. Also, stop doing pictures of flowers!
Hippies!

[Miss Inquiry]

I think Banksy's stuff is amazing, creative and ingenious, and think more artists should follow his example. He has managed to create a huge following and yet no one knows who he really is.
The typical "tags" you get on bus stops, railings, fences, shop fronts, trains is in my opinion rubbish though.

[bednobs]

i think it can be both

[Backdrifter]

I think this banksy bloke has created a huge following BECAUSE no-one really knows who he is - a shrewd move on his part. I'm not that enamoured of his stuff or most of the more "artful" graffiti as it tends to have a samey quality and generally isn't very creative. But yes the worst examples are those who just etch their tag or whatever into bus stops and windows etc. which is just destructive.

A few years ago I visited Maes How, a neolithic chamber in Orkney that had been used as a sort of stop-over by Viking invaders a thousand years ago. Some of them had etched runes into the interior stone walls that translate as classic graffiti - simply statements of who loves whom, who's a good lay, who that person hates, etc. Viking graffiti. It was somehow both amusing and saddening!

[flip-flop]

It is utter ******** and mindless wanton vandalism. Nothing more.

I went to Budapest last year and pretty much every building had graffiti - it spoilt for me what was otherwise a beautiful city.

This is vandalism just as much as kicking the crap out of a bus shed is - it is criminal and when people are caught they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.