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
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