In my hometown, a mostly post industrial Midwest city, “they”, appropriated the graffiti.
The City had a huge graffiti presence–amazing work, which offended the upright within the region, while the rest of us were fascinated by it. A new sheriff came to town in the form of a very talented individual who as the newly elected mayor began to “clean-up” the city. The graffiti was scrubbed, graffiti artists were prosecuted, the fines were debilitating, I believe a couple of guys went to jail. The graffiti clean-up was deemed an early first step towards a revitalized business environment.
Meanwhile, as part of this revitalization, some old railroad tracks were ripped out: it was determined the former rail corridor would be a great place for a bicycle path. The tracks had been recessed roughly 40 to 50 feet into the ground; there was a lot of concrete embankment which provided a ripe canvas for the community’s graffiti artists.
The powers-that-be determined that this graffiti should remain. Presumably, the gritty urban feel within a safe environment would attract outsiders looking to identify with the urban vibe. This, of course, would be good for business, and it has been good for business.
But, on another level, it’s a colonial takeover. It is a show of force by the power of capital to impose its will, its aesthetic: not due to its ideological purity, but by the pure rational choice as to whether a social manifestation, serves, or does not serve, the needs of capital–for better, and for worse.
It would be nice to have both the graffiti and the development: the graffiti to be determined not by whether it serves capital, but by whether it serves a useful purpose for the broader, democratic, community.
Graffiti gives voice to the voiceless, it is an expression of our urban youth, a reminder they are still there, largely unengaged in an economic structure which provides full employment only during major war. It directs our attention to the abandonment of our urban cores–the real source of the visual blight. Graffiti reminds us of the many shortcomings of the highly dynamic capitalist economic model.
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