Inside the Graffiti Subculture

Illegal graffiti is disconnected from standard modes of visual production infine art and design. The primary purpose of illegal graffiti for the graffitiwriter is not the visual product but getting up. Getting up involves writingor painting one's name in as many places as possible for fame. The elementsof risk freedom and ritual unique to illegal graffiti serve to increasecamaraderie among graffiti writers even as an individual's fame in the graffitisubculture increases. When graffiti has moved from illegal locations to thelegal arenas of fine art and advertising; risk ritual and to some extentcamaraderie has been lost in the translation. Illegal graffiti is oftenerroneously associated with criminal gangs. Legal modes of production usinggraffiti-style are problematic in the public eye as a result.I used primary and secondary interviews with graffiti writers in this book. Myart historical approach differed from previous writers who have used mainlyanthropological and popular culture methods to examine graffiti. Thisanalysis enabled me to demonstrate that illegal graffiti is not art.