Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral: What is Graffiti?

24 Pages Posted: 2 Jul 2013 Last revised: 23 Jul 2013

Date Written: June 30, 2013

Abstract

Graffiti exists in a liminal zone undefined and unwonted by any particular cultural institution. Born on the streets, it exists on walls where it is subject to the weather and to the needs of and desires of the graffiti writers who explore those walls. It is the graffiti site, rather than the individual piece, that is central expressive locus of graffiti culture. Because the site is ever changing, subject to a dynamic controlled by multiple parties (graffiti writers, passers-by, municipal authorities, and the weather) we can think of the site as “home” to a tutelary “spirit,” known in Japan as a kami.

Keywords: graffiti, art, pop culture, liminal

Suggested Citation

Benzon, William L., Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral: What is Graffiti? (June 30, 2013). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2287849 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2287849

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