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How do you tag graffiti – anti-social or art form?

Written by Posted On Tuesday, 29 September 2015 02:53

Graffiti is found in almost every city and town in the world. It comes in many forms – from drawings and scribbles to messages and “tags” sprayed, painted or scrawled on walls, street furniture, bridges, underpasses, telephone boxes, bus shelters, historic monuments and even gravestones.

 

Some people consider graffiti harmless and say it doesn’t hurt anyone. The reality is that it does hurt and hits everyone in the pocket. It makes an area look untidy and can encourage more anti-social behaviour and crime. It’s also a nuisance to property owners and local councils who have to clean it up.

 

The cost of graffiti

 

Graffiti is an on-going problem that flourishes worldwide and its removal from public and private buildings and structures is staggering. It’s estimated that removing graffiti costs:

 

* £1 billion a year in the UK

* Network Rail at least £5million per year to clean it up

* London Underground pays a minimum of £10million per year and estimates they would have to stump up around £38million to replace all of the graffiti-etched windows on its tube trains.

 

These costs are the tip of the iceberg and don’t include the lost revenue, delay to services, hundreds of thousands of staff hours dedicated to cleaning and repairing the damage and police time. That’s money that cash-strapped councils and organisations could better spend on other things. Cleaning up unsightly, racist and offensive messages and images takes money away from other services that benefit ordinary people, like keeping libraries open, building playgrounds, improving schools or providing care for the elderly.

 

The effect of graffiti

 

The scale of the problem is massive and as well being unwelcome, graffiti can have a negative impact on communities. It can alter people’s perception of an area; making them think it is unsafe and can deter businesses from investing. Graffiti is a common problem in urban areas and councils act quickly to remove it, particularly if it is offensive.

 

The history of graffiti

 

Annoying, criminal, thought-provoking and misunderstood, graffiti has been around in various forms for a long time. In fact, it could be said it goes as far back as ancient times when our primitive ancestors expressed themselves by drawing paintings in caves. In more recent times, graffiti evolved into something more than words scrawled on public toilet walls in the late 1960s in America and by the 70s it was so widespread to be considered a major menace. The boom in street art has developed into a cultural phenomenon with graffiti artists earning millions for their creations.

 

Graffiti: vandalism or art?

 

Graffiti has progressed from simply putting a moniker or “tag” on a wall to elaborate murals and is today recognised as a cool art form. Councils that pay fortunes to have “illegal” eyesores removed, also pay to have “legal” graffiti put in public spaces to give dark dingy underpasses and crime hotspots a fun makeover. Such initiatives have helped the general public accept street art for its aesthetic value. Graffiti is today recognised as a cool art form. Banksy, one of the world’s most famous graffiti artists, has exhibited in galleries around the globe and celebrities have paid large sums for his work. Movie star Brad Pitt paid over two million dollars for an original piece by the anonymous British artist and British pop group Blur had him design an album cover.

 

Graffiti removal

 

Illegal street art remains a pain for those who have to clean it up. Serious graffiti vandals work solo or in crews to “tag” public areas, while opportunist scrawlers daub structures and buildings in random acts of vandalism with offensive swastikas and ethnic slurs, sometimes putting their lives at risk by spraying dangerous spots such as bridges. Graffiti removal is time-consuming and costly and isn’t always 100% successful. Newly painted graffiti on surfaces such as metal, glass, and polished brick can sometimes be removed with a scouring pad and a lot of elbow grease, but daubings on porous surfaces like concrete and brick are tough to remove. It’s best to leave the job to the professionals who have the knowledge and the equipment to get rid of it effectively.

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