Artist’s Statement: The Visuality of Presence

Like many other places in the world, as you walk through the streets of Mexico, your walk is not a silent one. Everywhere there are murmurs that evidence the impact that graffiti has had on the culture and the very tissue of the community.

Graffiti goes beyond an aesthetic exploration focused on social responsibility; it is a tool that is uncomfortable, inappropriate, undesirable, because it dares to break down the dictates that seek to domesticate expression. It is a practice that modifies our surroundings while going hand in hand with the contemporary history of our country. Defying social expectations, it also is not a means to nurturing its very name but rather to increasing its anonymous, collective presence a thousand-headed, multi-named hydra that melds into an amalgam of pseudonyms, tags, and throw-ups.

In practice, the inclusion of elements that actually form part of the street itself, or of the “public sphere”, such as walls, abandoned automobiles, garbage cans/dumpsters, street signage, and so on, rather than being a destructive hijacking of public property, are rather part of an appropriation that formalizes the liberation of said elements, recognizing them as part of our environment and as the alterable property of the community, free and accessible to all.

Grafitti, in essence, tries to manifest presence. Cornbread o Taki 183 (the first taggers identified in the US) among many more, are figures that inspired the commencement of this cultural movement, which today belongs to the whole world and provides the chance to the others to say, “Here I am. I belong here too. Although it makes you uncomfortable, although you want to ignore me.” Graffiti stands out visually and destroys the facade of the false order and tranquility that not can access. It refuses to accept responsibility for the configuration of a system that disfavors minorities and those that live on the margins. Insulting terms such as “aggressive”, “vandalism”, “territorial”, used to denigrate graffiti among more privileged circles are nothing more than a demonstration of how in essence and in practice graffiti is far from a tepid art.

Translation: John O’Shea