On Graffiti...

There is a certain machismo associated with graffiti in that taggers are always trying to outdo one another by posting their art in more and more precarious urban spaces. All the while they're watching out for the police. They are using technology as a means to implement their constructs. Watchers keep post in strategic areas armed with walkie talkie and cellphones to alert for oncoming authorities. Spots are scoped out and analyzed with digital camera revealing best times to tag a certain area with a large scale mural. Graffiti has transcended the realm of the gangbangers and has become a legitimate rebellious international art movement. Taggers are competing with counterparts in other cities. They keep track of their latest work by accessing websites. Major art publishing houses have taken note and have published several books on the subject. However, taggers moving into the mainstream art world seems to be an idea further away from reality more than ever. Gone evidentially is the era of SAMO hanging out with the Warhol crowd and dating Madonna. Today's taggers are more like a secret society competing and collaborating with each other on a global level. And now it is apparent that elements of street art have moved into the graphic design world or vice versa. The proliferation of images enabled by technology continues to spread widely across visual channels, including the t-shirt. Nay, because of the rapid development and transference of a conceptual image on the fly, the t-shirt has indeed become the new graffiti.