Just art on a wall?

When it comes to opinions concerning graffiti, there seems to be very little middle ground. There are the enthusiastic advocates who want to convince us that true art only takes place under stressful conditions, and the "upstanding citizens" who simply don't want anyone expressing themselves on what are supposed to be clean walls. One advocate makes it sound like a "life choice":

"When graffiti is decriminalized it is no longer "graffiti". It is just art on a wall - which can be cool but it's not graffiti....Illegal graffiti separates artists from the real writers, who risked it all time and time again to create it."

while on the other hand, others see only pure vandalism. An anti-graffiti faq puts it very succinctly:

Graffiti is not Art. Graffiti is a crime.

It's been over thirty years since Norman Mailer wrote a lengthy introduction to The Faith of Graffiti - probably a tone-setting tome back then, and a rather embarrassing read today. Could the energies that "graffiti artists" devote to walls be channeled into writing, perhaps, blogs? I'm not aware of any attempts in this direction, but it might be an interesting idea to check out.

Go to: Taking to the streets