I don't even konw where to begin with this.
I remember the art crimes site from the internet beginning.
Art Crimes / graffiti.org - The Writing on the Wall
I've always appreciated tagging and bombing since I was a kid. I loved the fonts, the colors, the style. I can't believe that some of the pieces can be done quickly and be so intricate.
What I cannot agree with is something like tagging buildings and trains.
None of these train cars look attractive in any shape or form from the 70s-80s. I can't imagine how it would make me feel as a commuter to watch a beat down looking train come into the station and see it assaulted by spray paint and pens from the inside and out.
But here is this building that I walk past all the time.
Quote:
190 Bowery
Photographer Jay Maisel bought the building at 190 Bowery 42 years ago for $102,000. Covered by graffiti and assumed by many to have been abandoned for years, it's matured into a single family home with 6 stories, 72 rooms, 35,000 square feet, an estimated value of up to $70 million and three residents.
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The 72-Room Bohemian Dream House
Quote:
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“I can’t believe it,” says Corcoran’s Robby Browne, an expert in downtown real estate. “I thought it was vacant.”
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This is exactly how I felt about this building each and every time I walk past it. Yet the place is a pearl when you look at the gallery shots. I didn't know it wasn't vacant until I actually looked it up so that I could find photos of it to post here!!!!!
190 Bowery, the Greatest Real-Estate Coup of All Time? - New York Magazine
The building was landmarked. I just wish that they'd de graffitti it.
But as a building owner, and a board of director's member for a 4 building 1600+ family coop, I'm annoyed at graffiti. It costs money, manpower, and time to clean it up.
I recall the first time I saw COST/REVS wheatpastes all of the city when I first moved to NYC. The Andre the Giant, the LES Squid, Neckface...
Urban Decor - A Wall-to-Wall Tour of New York Street Art
Of course last year, there was the
infamous Splasher who went around defacing the graffiti and everyone was up in arms. I was interested in the idea that someone who didn't have the right to paint something was pissed off that someone defaced their work. I thought of just how odd and ironic this is. They didn't have permission to paint the wall in the first place in many occassions, and then when someone does to them the same thing, they are all pissed off and up in arms.
Basically I think I can sum it up as, permission walls, I'm good with. That's a no brainer. Open walls that no one has coopted, a bit grey. Walls/things that people use like gate rollups, doors, windows, I get more annoyed with it.
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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.