May 31 2009
Goethe in Italy
OK, not Goethe, but F&N Matt of Former Graduate Education Institution sent me the following images of graffiti in Roma, so I thought I’d post them here. A few notes first.
1. Global Diffusion – I still think it’s curious that graffiti would have caught on. As we know, it’s a global phenomenon, but isn’t that strange. So, coming out of New York in the 1970′s, you get three distinct phenomena that basically cover the globe in about 30 years: economic neoliberalism / financialization, hip hop culture, and street graffiti. And you get the sense that these are all connected in some way, whether it be through the transformations in language and public space or other vectors.
2. On Trains – I’m always amazed to see operating commuter train lines with graffiti on them. In the US, various transportation and security agencies have already solved the problem of keeping the trains clean, so you almost never see these trains leave a yard like this. Maybe freight trains, which nobody cares about anyway, but not commuter lines. So to see stuff dated “09″ from Rome is still kind of jarring and funny; these trains aren’t just hit, they’re killed. I remember being on a train going from Brooklyn to Manhattan – maybe the old B line, since I was probably coming back from Borough Park. It stopped for a while in the tunnel between Brooklyn and Manhattan (did the B take a tunnel? I don’t remember), and when it came out on the other side, the conductor sent us all off the train. While it was stopped in the tunnel, some writers had killed it front to back with quick outlines; there was nothing on it when I got on at Fort Hamilton Parkway. A pretty ballsy move, all told. But they were sending it back to the yard immediately. The MTA wouldn’t let the train run for even one stop looking like that, and they’d toss out all the riders to get it buffed. And this was back in ’93 or ’94. So to see these running is still amazing. Trains haven’t run with graffiti on the New York subway for twenty years already.
Anyway, thanks to Matt for the flicks. And feel free to send your own – with one proviso. Don’t send me any of that Banksy stencil shit from London (which people seem to think I’d enjoy), or any other “politically transgressive street art,” or whatever the eff they’re calling it. As you well know, I don’t care about it, and I won’t post it.
NEUTRO and THE, Rome, Italy
KO duster, Rome, Italy – I like this one especially, because KO either got chased off and perhaps caught, or he was rocking these quick fill-ins on an operating train (i.e., when the train was in service). As you can see from the quick black of the fill color, he did these in a big rush. This is what we call a duster. But you’ll also notice that he didn’t have time to complete the outline on the second fill in: he left the “O” without an outline, and you can see how the outline trails off and gets shakey at the bottom of the second “K.” There are only two reasons why you will see an incomplete outline: either the writer had to move, or the surface did. I think our friend KO here got a little greedy, and tried to do two quick fills when he probably only had time to do one. Given the rushed character of the fill-in and the way the second K gets shaky at the bottom, I think he jumped on the tracks and did these fills while the train was stopped at a station. KO also missed his outline target on the first K. He couldn’t finish because the train was pulling out. Which is a big thumbs up for fucking nuts, of course.
THE, Rome, Italy
Until next time…
I feel bad now, because I should have photographed graffiti for you while I was in Tokyo… though I can’t even recall if I saw any…. Hmmm, so let’s just say that there was no graffiti in Japan. Everything was glistening and futuristic…. except for the old stuff which was shadowy and classic.
As for your new look and the habits of coding, I’m resistant to change, so by the time you changed the old look/code, I had just gotten comfortable with it.
RE: your title, I did actually go to the “Protestant Graveyard” where Goethe is buried, too… there wasn’t any graffiti there, though. There were some cute cats. I find the random “this landmark is also a cat sanctuary” thing a little weird, frankly.
Yeah, I was definitely impressed by the ubiquity of graffiti in the Roman Metro. I’d say 3 out of every 5 trains were pretty much completely covered, and it was rare to find a train that didn’t have ANY tags. There wasn’t nearly as much graffiti in other parts of the city, and I kind of wondered if that was a result of selective vigilance on the part of the authorities (i.e. they don’t mind so much if you tag the modern looking train, but if you come near the ruins they’ll kneecap you) or if it was more of a perceived cultural attachment between train cars and graffiti… I don’t really know enough to say one way or another.