Street art. Do you call it graffiti or tagging? Our government has decided to distinguish between tagging(graffiti) which is undesirable and street art which is OK.
New York City does not make the distinction. In general, Street Art here is posters and stencil sprayings and alternative media displays. Graffiti is pretty much paint. I think an American would use the words tagging and writing to refer to scribbling just your name (tag) or creating a big colorful piece (writing graffiti). The field is further distinguished with "bombing" which I think it just two tone bubble letter style. In New York City we also have "scratchiti" which is when people scratch their names into the windows of the subway. I don't know if anyone other than the mayor calls it that though.
Now that I think about it, there is a legal way for these things to appear. Sometimes property owners will get local graffiti artists to paint up their building. At that point, however, I think we call it a mural.
I love the Banksy's you've got there!
ReplyDeleteStreet art. Do you call it graffiti or tagging? Our government has decided to distinguish between tagging(graffiti) which is undesirable and street art which is OK.
ReplyDeleteNew York City does not make the distinction. In general, Street Art here is posters and stencil sprayings and alternative media displays. Graffiti is pretty much paint. I think an American would use the words tagging and writing to refer to scribbling just your name (tag) or creating a big colorful piece (writing graffiti). The field is further distinguished with "bombing" which I think it just two tone bubble letter style. In New York City we also have "scratchiti" which is when people scratch their names into the windows of the subway. I don't know if anyone other than the mayor calls it that though.
ReplyDeleteNow that I think about it, there is a legal way for these things to appear. Sometimes property owners will get local graffiti artists to paint up their building. At that point, however, I think we call it a mural.