Spray Painting White Surfaces Across the World “Giving Off Colors to Plain and Hurt Cities” The empty concrete walls prominent in major urban centers and in small towns became living canvases. Acting as a reflection of communities as well as the cities communities inhabit, graffiti art became alive with every spray of an aerosol, beautifying neighborhoods and illustrating cultural and political commentary of a specific community. Art’s shape and role in society is constantly changing; consequently, it has no rules and at no point is it ever static. Graffiti art conveys loud messages that make looking down while walking a side road nearly impossible, forcing individuals to lift up their eyes and observe their surroundings. Street art, or graffiti, …show more content…
For instance, some graffiti artists spray paint “anti-war murals, portraits of idolized figures, or expressions of contempt for authority (Werwath). According to Timothy Werwath, approximately one-half of white middle and upper class artists use graffiti to exemplify a “rejection of values and morals that are being pressured on them by their environment,” believing that it’s the only method to disrupt the “uniform isonomy of a planned suburban community and break free from its culture of materialism and consumption” (Werwath). Grafftiti art on the side of government building, college campuses, walls along parks, dead end streets, etc. in Zimbabwe protests abject poverty in communities there(). Many believe that gangs and subcultures utilize “tags” and graffiti to communicate message that all members can understands and to identify specific individuals; for example, some leave negative and racist markings that “leave people in emotional distress” (Negative effects of …show more content…
Street art initiated as a form expression and free speech from political activists, gang members, and young adolescents. In the American society, the presence of graffiti contributes to a sense of poverty, uncleanliness, and an extremely heightened fear of crime and gang activity. Conversely, the majority of people on the western hemisphere support street art because it allows individuals who are “not formally trained to [speak out to] express themselves artistically in public spaces” (“Graffiti.” Issues & Controversies). In some urban cities, graffiti art legality is limited, yet is valued as a form of self-expression from “simple tags of identity, to scrawled expressions of protests and politics, to complex [prepossessing and alluring] scenes that … everyone [consider] art” (“Graffiti.” Britannica School). An artist working in Italy on multidisciplinary research and teacher at the Politecnico, Architecture, University of Milan, Emilio Fanthin, believes that graffiti is a form of collect expression or meta – art (“Graffiti.” Britannica School). On the contrary, some art scenes manifest abuse of power rather than simply having a political, philosophical, or poetical