Graffiti Adna Suljanovic and Amy Cremers

Why we chose this topic

We wanted a topic that we liked and it also had to be interesting. First we wanted to do a presentation about a country because you can tell a lot of things about it. But then we thought, that there could be more people who had a country as a topic. So we decided weren’t going to do a country for our presentation. We found a lot of topics, what looked fun to do and are not about a country, but we thought that graffiti would be the best topic.

Colours and aerosols

The most important things if you want to spray graffiti are of course the colours and the aerosols. Your artwork is going to be the most beautiful if you can use a lot of different colours. The best is more than four, also it is very handy to have dark colours for the edges and light colours for the basic. A lot of graffiti artists use the mark Montana for their aerosols. You can buy this aerosols by special shops.

History

The first drawings on walls appeared in caves thousands of years ago. Later the ancient Romans and Greeks wrote their names and protest poems on buildings. Modern graffiti seems to have appeared in Philadelphia in the early 1960s, and by the late sixties it had reached New York. The new art really took off in the 1970s, when people began writing their names, or ´tags´, on buildings all over the city. In the mid seventies was it sometimes hard to see out of a subway car window, because the trains were completely covered in spray paintings known as ´masterpieces´.

Reasons why people spray graffiti

There are a lot of reasons why people spray graffiti. It can be different for everyone.A lot of people spray graffiti as an expression of their thought, feelings and values. The art of writing is a creative method of communication with other writers and the public. What the graffiti shows us is the identity from the artist, the expressions and the ideas. This kind of art, of expression, is not always understood by people because: people think that graffiti is vandalism and that artists paint the walls and buildings on purpose to make them look ugly or to harm people. Equally the artists want to show you what their meaning of life is. They want to make the world more beautiful on their own way.

Another meaningful reason why people spray graffiti and graffiti can be called as art is to explain the thoughts of the artist. Graffiti artists wants that their work will be seen as art instead of vandalism and that art communicate feelings and ideas to public. Graffiti art has not only the function to communicate with other people by means of drawings and text on the wall, but it makes the environment more beautiful by the appearance of graffiti on places where usually graffiti will be seen as a very ugly thing. Such as on a wall of a free or abandoned building. It also can be that people spray graffiti because the want attention.

Reasons why people think graffiti is not art

The location and the presentation means a lot with graffiti art. Graffiti will not be art, expect if it is in a special location or framed and placed in a museum or a gallery. Twenty percent of graffiti is linked with gangs. Graffiti is also criticized because it is hard to understand. This is not the only reason why graffiti is not considered as art. People aren’t accustomed to see art that isn’t in a museum. The recognition from graffiti is important for two reasons. The first reason is because of the social, political and economic influence from the art world. Second, the recognition protects the generalization from all graffiti vandalism and that’s why it is something that always has to be eradicated.

Legal places for graffiti

There aren’t any specific places for graffiti. There are 1481 legal graffiti walls all around the world. There are boards where is written on that you can spray graffiti there. You have special internet sites where you can find legal graffiti places all around the world. And you can mark where it is or isn’t legal/illegal anymore.

Famous graffiti artist: Banksy

Banksy is an anonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist and film director with a secret identity. Their street art and epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti in a beautiful stenciling technique. Banksy's works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls and bridges of cities throughout the world. Banksy says that he/she is inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist who later became a member of the English musical group Massive attack. Banksy shows his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls. Banksy does not sell photographs or reproductions of their street graffiti. Banksy's name and identity remain unknown - it has been stated that the reason for this secrecy is that graffiti is a crime. There has also been speculation that Banksy is a woman, or that Banksy is a team of seven artists.

Although there is a little certainty about the real identity from Banksy. The most sources indicate that his real name is Robert or Robin Banks. His name is probably Robin Gunningham. You can find his streetart in different European cities, but also outside Europe as in the Palestinian Territories and the United states. Banksy started as a graffiti-artist. Later he started using a lot more templates, so that it would cost less time to finish his work. Banksy claims that he switched working with templates, while he was taking shelter under a garbage truck, because the police followed him. His work on the street drew fast attraction from the media. Banksy’s work characterizes by their gripping and humoristic pictures, in combination with slogans. He especially paints animals (like monkeys and rats) and humans (among other things like police officers, military, elderly and children). Beside that, he makes stickers, sculptures and CD-sleeves. Banksy’s first film, Exit through the gift shop is becoming as ‘’The world’s first street art disaster movie’’ and went in premiere on the Sundance film festival in the American state Utah.

How we felt about it

It was a hard topic because, we had much trouble with finding information. But, we learned a lot about graffiti like Banksy, colours and the history of it. We hope you guys enjoyed it and understood our present.

Made with Adobe Slate

Make your words and images move.

Get Slate

Report Abuse

If you feel that this video content violates the Adobe Terms of Use, you may report this content by filling out this quick form.

To report a Copyright Violation, please follow Section 17 in the Terms of Use.