Friday, April 9, 2010

Graffiti: Illegible, Incomprehensible, Inevitable

Comrade X is constantly surprised and dismayed by what people choose to write in public forums, or rather, on public spaces (or rather, on private property). If it's something you're putting out there for the world to see, Graffito, why can't it be something the world can enjoy? Or something that will educate, stimulate, perhaps even, oh, I don't know, START THE FUCKING REVOLUTION? Why can't graffiti writers be sloganeers? Oh, no, instead they choose to waste valuable space which could be taken up with ideologically agitating propaganda with things like this:



Now, who the fuck is Will and why are you writing a letter to him on a wall (are you sure he'll see it? He didn't respond), and what do you care how big his room is and WHY CAN'T YOU DRAW? First: maybe you'd be spending more time with friends (if you had any) and less time spray painting retarded-looking images on buildings if you actually asked people things that actually mattered. Or do you have some sort of social phobia or disorder that makes you utterly stupid and embarrassing in public? Do you have Turrets? Or do you REALLY CARE how big his room is? In which case, get a fucking hobby, man.

Or consider this:





R. Crumb? Really? Do you think he will actually see this and somehow be pleased? He HATES people, especially people like YOU! What exactly are you trying to say here? What ABOUT R. Crumb? Are YOU R. Crumb? Do you suffer from schizophrenia? Is this some sort of warning? Is it a coded message about something? WHAT IS IT?

And then of course there is always one misguided hippie who thinks that by scratching something in wet cement on a street no one actually uses (there being nothing but the back end of a parking lot on the other side of this sidewalk -- no foot traffic at all) that he will inevitably spark some kind of reaction and change the world. More likely, he was too much of a pussy to put this message up where SOMEONE MIGHT SEE IT and actually get the message across! We must risk things (like our freedom, like jail time, like OUR LIVES) for the Revolution! Listen, hippie: we don't WANT you in our Revolution, and your attempt to be a part of it here is just PATHETIC:



Good god! THAT'S your attempt? So sad. What would Will think? Or R. Crumb?

4 comments:

  1. Look at what happened with Andre the Giant with the word "OBEY" written below... It became a pop culture phenomenon in NYC. So that may not translate to PDX, but it has become so ubiquitous of an image that I have seen the same treatment for Greg Oden, who I think is a member of the Blazers.

    Additionally, in SE, there is a plethora of "Paul R Us is Dead" written in some rather odd places. I just want to know who Paulrus (as I call him) is and why he is dead. hmmmm....

    As for the last image: silly faux-hippie thought he was being cool. And he failed.

    ever and always, Comrade E.

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  2. there was also the NYC phenomenon of 'dickchicken' that was apparently all over the place but i didn't know it until it ended up on the wall across the street from my kitchen window. first seen by me on Easter morning last year, and cleaned away by the following morning as if it had never been there. an apparition in words.

    i find graffiti utterly fascinating.

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  3. http://www.design-police.org/

    Seriously, this is one of the more amusing things I have ever seen.

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  4. I think it is meant to be printed out and then cut. It is a lo-fi design solution in a hi-fi world.

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