The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal

Graffiti Removal: the process of erasing
graffiti by painting over it.

Subconscious art: a product of artistic
merit that was created without conscious

artistic intentions.

Graffiti removal has become one of the
more intriguing and important art

movements of the early 21st century

with roots in abstract expressionism

minimalism and russian constructivism.

Graffiti removal is both a progressive
continuation of these movements

and an important step in
the future of modern art.

What makes graffiti removal
particularly intriguing though, is that

the artists creating it are unconscious
of their artistic achievements.

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This unconscious or subconscious
production is nothing new

and examples can be identified
at any urban landscape,

in mediums ranging from sculpture
to design to performance.

Stemming from a basic natural instinct
to be artistic and creative

human beings create subconscious
art on a daily basis.

Of course as is the case with many
conscious artists, much of the work

has little artistic merit and fits more
accurately into the category of exercise.

But occasionally an individual or group

subconsciously create a work
of true artistic genius

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When compared to the works of
the great abstract artists

such as Rothko, Rauschenberg
and Malevich's,

graffiti removal can be seen as the
culmination of many of the important

movements of modern art

while maintaining its own distinctive
traits and qualities.

Examples of successful 
graffiti removal pieces,

also known as ‘buffs’

will often free a balanced composition
of densely layered floating shapes,

and areas of colour, and often fall
into one of three stylistic forms:

symmetrical, in which a recognisable
geometric order of layered squares

and rectangles can be identified.

Ghosting, in which the remover follows the
lines of the graffiti piece it is covering

so that the general form and shape
of the original tag is emphasised.

And radical,

in which the remover uses neither geometry
nor the original tag as guidelines

for their painting.

Often called an outside the lines remove.

But regardless of its stylistic form

graffiti removal will always make a 
decisive rejection of recognizable imagery

and in fact repress
communication entirely.

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Graffiti removal is a layered
and complex art form

and what makes the removal movement

so significant? Its that is unconscious,
accidental and collaborative.

Removal pieces may take
many months to complete

and can be a collaboration of
several taggers and removers.

Graffiti removers are not schooled artists

but government employees who possess
the qualifications of responsibility

and dedication

They are trained to operate machinery, 
drive city vehicles and are versed in

anti-graffiti legislation.

They are equipped with brushes,
rollers and a palette

that includes colors such as
halation, dove, and red.

Although graffiti removers are
making aesthetic choices

about color and technique
in their daily routine,

they don’t set out to create public art

but rather to uphold anti-graffiti
laws and deter civil disobedience

halation should be down there with those.

Well, could be this one

Well, obviously it’s this one. 
Well, this is halation right here

Is that right here, I pulled it out. 
You pulled it out?

I thought that was snow.

The streets of Portland Oregon’s
southeast industrial district

have become a hot spot in
the graffiti removal movement

creating the first official 
graffiti-free zone

city legislators have passed
laws mandating the daily patrol

and immediate removal of all tags in
graffiti within this two square mile area

Portland is becoming known as
a very unfriendly for taggers

in a nutshell a graffiti-free zone is
where you go in and you clean

the graffiti up each day,

it’s you go in and start in the same
place and clean it up day after day

the goal being that the taggers
will quit marking the territory

in terms of the rectangles that you're
talking about in terms of when we

clean it up

but what we do with rectangles it’s just
better, It's easier on the eye if you

do a square as opposed

to just you basically have an outline
of the tag if you just cover the tag

the goal is not to have
rectangles the goal is really

to match the building as close as we 
can and not have it stand out, but

occasionally you have different people out
there doing it they they clean it up

differently and you end up with a result
in different patchwork looks out there

sometimes.

Well, it's oftentimes difficult
to get politicians and government

officials to share their
artistic motivations.

Closer examination of the interview
video tapes reveal the more accurate

and repressed subliminal intentions
that are at work.

In terms

of the rectangles that you're talking
about in terms of when we clean it up.

Beauty and art is the intended goal that
we have when we go out and clean up

it is no coincidence that funding for
anti-graffiti campaigns often outweighs

funding for the arts while not being a 
conscious decision on the part

of the ruling class,

the declared war on graffiti plays
an important role in the

furthering of the art form.

The unconscious artistic desires

of even the most conservative
members of the ruling

system leak out in this
subconscious conspiracy

to find and promote creative endeavors.

It is a complex set of circumstances that
fuel subconscious art production,

human beings have a natural
instinct to be creative and artistic,

but conflict arises when society favors
material wealth over creative expression.

When individuals are encouraged to repress
their natural instincts in order to pursue

the accumulation

of commodities, a dangerous buildup of
repressed artistic desire is generated.

Graffiti removal and other subconscious
art forms are the natural

eruption of these desires and
their ubiquitous forms speak

to the passions and dreams within us all.

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