A Visual Report
Will Kirkpatrick
4¼”
Cover Art by Rambo Rame Thank you
5¾”
Priority Mail Address Label 228, March 2016 is 4¼” x 5¾” All photos Will Kirkpatrick © 2023
Glossary of Terms:
There is a lot of terminology in the graffiti world with a lot of the words overlapping in meaning or use. Black Book: A graffiti artist’s sketchbook this is where a writer begins their journey. Bomb: A high volume of graffiti put up in one session. Sometimes done in groups. Buff/ The Buff: The act of cleaning up/ removing graffiti usually by a city official. The buff refers to the people who remove the graffiti. Crew: A group of writers who usually go out together to write. Going Over: Writing over someone else’s tag. This is usually frowned upon, opinions vary from writer to writer.
Throwie: A larger more time-consuming piece that usually features two or more colors with an outline and a fill. Toy: Slang term for someone who is bad or generally lame within the graffiti world. People can define toys in many ways but toys defined by their ignorance to graffiti “rules”. Up: If a writer is up or has gotten up, they have a large number of tags in an area. This legitimizes them as a writer and comes with a level of respect. Writer: Someone who does graffiti.
Heaven Spots: Spots that are often hard or dangerous to reach but provide the writer with a prime location to share their tag. Racking: The act of stealing paint for graffiti. Sticker/ Labels/ Slaps/ 228s: Various terms for stickers or mailing labels that writers use to get a high volume of tags up with little on-site work. 228 refers to the USPS Priority Mail label 228, they are free. Tag: Basic form of a writer’s name. These can usually be put up quickly and in high volumes. But can also be a way to refer to what a writer usually puts up.
Krap and Skue.ghost on the east facade of 1211 Nobel St.
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Origins of Modern Graffiti
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he act of writing on walls has been around since the dawn of man. The earliest cave drawings are at least 65,000 years old, and you can find evidence of people writing on walls all the way up till the first modern writer, Darryl McCray. In the 1960s McCray began to write Cornbread on the walls of a Youth Development Center he was sent to. His name stood up next to gang members but claims he was the first to write his own name separate from gang affiliations. And from that point on graffiti became more than it had been. Graffiti began to expand in New York graffiti grew even bigger. Taki183 lived in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan and was featured in the New York Times on July 21, 1971, and expanded the practice even more. From the article: “Graffiti have had a long history in the city’s subways. Kilroy, who was everywhere in World War II, left his mark along with the mustaches drawn on advertising posters and various obscenities. Officials said, however, that the problem had mushroomed during the last two years.” Graffiti remained an underground and unrecognized art movement in its early years. November 30, 1979 graffiti saw its first fliting with the world of fine art. Claudia Bruni Sakraischik host two New York graffiti artists, Fab 5 Freddy and Lee Quinones, in Rome. “In New York there are some people who want to rub out the spray graffiti without realizing that this is the purest form of American popular visual art of the late ’70s and…pictorial expression of the new black generation,” said Bruni.
Cornbread and his tag (PHOTO/ Unknown) Both writers were part of the Fabulous 5, a graffiti crew known for painting whole subway cars. It only took America another six months before an exhibition was hosted. June 1980 The Times Square Show opened. Featuring a significantly larger number of artists such as Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Fab 5 Freddy and more. It is important to note that even with the fame of Keith Harring’s people, walls being sold with Banksy pieces on them, Shepard Fairey drawing Obama and David Choe painting Facebook HQ people are still doing graffiti all around us and some will never be seen beyond their city block before the buff comes and erases them. Graffiti is an art form that exists in public and is meant to be seen in public. Artists should make money and be successful even if they are graffiti artists, but their roots will always be there and graffiti will remain until there are no surfaces to cover.
Photo from Taki183’s feature (PHOTO/Don Hogan Charles)
Graffiti Today
Gus, Kaz, Rew northbound on I-95 in Philadelphia, Pa.
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t is impossible to live and travel in Philadelphia without seeing graffiti and it takes many forms and finds new places that you would have never looked. The word graffiti comes from the Italian word graffiato, meaning scratched. Graffiti is used in Art History to describe a piece of art made by scratching a design into a surface. Scribers are a contemporary display of scratching used in graffiti. Usually pen size objects with pointed metal tips that are used on glass, plastic, or anything that will let it leave a mark. Stickers are common and are favored by some artists because of their ease of access and use. Praise Doobler can be seen around the city with his cartoon render of Conrad Dobler. Artists often trade or collaborate on Label 228s as well. Philadelphia based artist Kid Hazo makes comedic street signs or ads and hangs them up alongside official signs all over the city. Wheat pasting takes newsprint weight paper and a mixture of flour and water to paste up the paper with an artist’s design. Shepard Fairey creator of Obey Giant started off in the wheatpaste world. Around Philadelphia you may see artists like DOOMED FUTURE and ANTIFLOWERSHOWMOVEMENT who often use wheatpaste.
In issue 6 of Priority Magazine, a Philadelphia based street art zine, I interviewed Foan. He tags political messages such as Tax Yale along with this name Foan. Most of his work focuses on letters with a few including characters or other illustrations.
Photo courtesy of artist “I had a couple characters in the mix, a couple different visual things. But if you ask a graffiti writer versus a graffiti artist, depending how you want to spilt that. Graffiti is a love of letters. And I’m someone who was in special education for my penmanship when I was in elementary school. So, I kind of took it as a challenge and I really liked the idea of taking a bit of text and turning it into a more graphic representation of a letter. Along with learning the structure for example how the open counter on a C has a lot of negative space and how are you going to manage that with the letter next to it. And I found all of that very, very fascinating,” said Foan.
$20000 on Norris St and Liacouras Walk.
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Ghuls on Carlisle and Norris street.
at 22nd and Jefferson Street
Mirror in bathroom at Good Dog Bar features ‘graffiato’ or etchings. Writers use pens with tungsten, or hard metal, tips.
Electical and other utility boxes are often targets of graffiti due to their aubdunance and infrequent buffing.
South side of a container at North Philly’s Peace Park at 22nd and Jefferson Street
East side of a container at North Philly’s Peace Park at 22nd and Jefferson Street The surfaces in which writers choose to make their art may be just as important as what they write. The city provides an unlimited surface to paint. Abandoned buildings, street signs, highway signs, windows, subway cars, light poles, box trucks, clothes, jersey walls, fences on construction sites, bathroom stalls and more. Often the easier and safer the spot the more graffiti will be present. Heaven spots are the goal and once you’re there that piece will run for a longtime. In Philadelphia the iconic “Boner 4ever” on the Beury Building at Broad Street and Erie Ave. In an Inquirer article on a proposed development of the building the owner vowed to pay tribute to the famous graffiti. Seven is a writer who loves hearts and the number 7 loves to paint in abandoned buildings. “One of my favorite things ever is to paint abandoned things. So, I love warehouses. I really love residential places, like, you know, hospitals, theaters, abandoned anything. There’s something that’s very beautiful about a property that has been left to die. And I come in there with what I like to believe a moment of love with a light. Not like I’m going to give this abandoned place a new life by any means, but certainly a little bit of fun. Just maybe reminisce or just to just to be in that moment, and just feel that energy again,” said Seven.
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(From left) Kaex, Aim, Paut, Serch A1 Bundy, Hova, Will, Enzo, Gus, Rew. 3rd St and Girard Ave
Assembled from 18 photos using Photoshop’s Photomerge feature
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William Bonnie WiLLiTO ON TOP
Half a rowhome on 33rd and Diamond Street tagged by Will, Depo and others.
(From left) Enzoe, Depo, Will
Depo, Will and others on 33rd St.
(From right) Enzoe, Depo, Will on Diamond and Sedgley St
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Many writers find work as mural artists. This piece William Bonnie did in collaboration with Mural Arts Philadelphia.
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Kaz
Rew
Gus
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1. Various tag on Callowhill Street below The Rail Park 2. Kaz on northbound I-95 outside of Philadelphia 3. $20000’s tribute to Jerry Garcia on Girard Ave in Fishtown 4. Obaber, Will, Keen, Zaza, Dolo, UTS on a fence at Frankford and Girard Ave 5. Two unknown tags on east side of Broad Street Line Cecil B. Moore Station
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Legality and Impact on Society
Opinions on graffiti vary drastically. The DOJ reported the US spends $12 Billion a year on cleaning graffiti. Graffiti is illegal. The punishment for graffiti varies between cities, in Philadelphia an offender maybe fined $300 or assigned to perform community service which may involve cleaning the damaged property. Repeat offenders may be fined $300 and/ or imprisoned for no more than 90 days. See Philadelphia Code 10-501 and 10-502 for details. In addition to this the city requires that spray paint, indelible markers, or etching acid must be stored in a way to prevent free access (stealing) of merchandise and no unaccompanied minors may purchase such materials (9-618(3a and 3b)). There are steps in place to make graffiti hard to access but people find ways. Artists steal spray paint or use materials that are more accessible. Sharpies can be found anywhere, and you may just have spray paint laying around your house to use. The barrier to entry is not getting the paint but getting out and writing.
Graffiti has reached beyond the Mid-Atlantic to every corner of the world. Varying social, moral, and legal ideals across the world change how it is punished. Michael Fay had been living in Singapore since 1992 with his stepmom. In October 1993 he was charged 53 times for various acts of vandalism, stealing and mischief. May 5, 1994, Fay was caned four times by Singapore authorities, jailed for 83 days and fined $3,500 Singapore dollars; caning is a routine sentence in Singapore. This story shook America and Bill Clinton plead with authorities to reduce his sentence; he was only to reduce the amount of hits from six to four. In Berlin Germany you are fined 15 euros for posting sticker or wheat-pasting flyers and spray can vandalism is fined based on “several hundred euro per square meter” formula. London has a fixed penalty of 75 pounds but in cases of racist graffiti or heavy property damage fines are proportionate to the amount of damage and up to 6 months in jail.
Bogota, Colombia has the most surprising law, graffiti has not been punished since 2011 after teenager Felipe Becerra was shot by Colombian police while tagging. Noe graffiti is considered artistic expression, but writers maybe punished for vandalizing historical buildings and personal homes. Besides on paper punishments what impacts does graffiti have on society. The London Assembly reports that the city spends more than 100 million pounds on graffiti related expenses and the US Department of Justice reports around $12 billion is spent in the US on graffiti. Many people also cite devaluing of property as negative impact of graffiti. It is harder to measure this impact. Through my research The National Association of Realtors reports properties with graffiti lose about 15% of their value. But this has only been cited from secondary sources with no link to the study.
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Krap and Skue.ghost on the east facade of Temple Star on Broad and Diamond Street
Manik and Waxer on an overpass northbound on I-95
Vinyl sticker on Beasley Walk by Barrack Hall. Artist unknown
Aim, Paut, Serch and A1 Bundy 3rd St and Girard Ave
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