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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