Newschool "Vandals"

A collaborative effort by local Toronto artists is displayed on Bloor street. Elements of both graffiti and "classical" art are easily seen.

 In the past couple of decades the street art and graffiti movement have been on the rise. “Some kids are doing it just to be cool, it is trendy.” Says Marvel an up and coming graffiti artist. “But me, I do it because it is how I express myself.” The mayor however would beg to differ by stating that his campaign against graffiti in Toronto “is to keep the streets and alleys clean and beautiful.” The clean part is understandable but many others would agree with the fact that graffiti is what often brings tourists into Toronto. “Every major city in the world has a different style of graffiti, it drives tourism. So why shouldn’t we?” says local street artist Snowy Owl.

The first instance of graffiti dates back to the times of cavemen when they would scrawl the catch for the day on the walls of their homes. Centuries later artists started using aerosol cans to display their “tag” or signature on public spaces to claim territory. It soon latched onto hip-hop culture and became the focus of “Style Wars”, a documentary which aired on PBS in 1983. From then on stencils, murals, and street art displayed with graffiti took off rapidly. A sub-culture emerged and soon began to spread worldwide reaching Europe and soon other continents.

Unknown to the general populous, there is a hierarchy within the sub-culture of graffiti. This hierarchy consists of pieces that graffiti artists could do throughout their career. The first of which is their signature, or “tag”. This is a simple spray where the graffiti artist displays their street name in the form of a signature. Above that would be a “throw-up”, it is what is commonly seen on train carts. This is generally the artist’s signature but done larger, it has some artistic value because of its multi-coloured nature but it is not intricate. Next would be a “piece”, this is something an artist would need to carefully consider the planning of. This is because a piece requires going beyond the 2D nature and size of a throw-up, it is an opportunity for the artist to show how they have evolved since their last attempt. The last step on the rung would be a “mural”, often an entire building wall is dedicated to these murals. And because of this they are not only legally commissioned but highly respected by not only local artists but passerby’s as well.

Within this hierarchy there are certain rules that each artist may choose to adhere to. An artist cannot go over another’s piece or mural with a tag, it’s seen as a sign of disrespect. It takes a lot of tagging however to be good enough to do a throw-up, enough throw-ups to move onto a piece, etc. As an artist moves up in the rank of their pieces they can establish a reputation for themselves by spreading their name throughout their city. But they have to be extra careful about where they post their name. “Some artists can be very territorial about their sprays sometimes, and it creates drama when they start layering over each other’s work.” Says Marvel. “If you’re lucky enough you could find or start a crew, basically just a group of people that share your passion for graffiti and eventually they become your family.” This is often times why the general public and police force mistake works of graffiti for gang related symbols. Every piece that a crew finishes is signed off with their crew name, ex. HSA, CA, DOH, SGK, and many others. This abbreviation signature and the nature of a team of graffiti artists working together on pieces is reflected negatively in the media.

Unfortunately the members of Rob Ford’s followers and the big man himself do not share the belief of graffiti being beautiful with its creators. The “Clean Toronto Together” started in the spring of 2011 with the vision of targeting litter and graffiti around the city. What he failed to realize was the immediate lashback that would ensue once workers began to cover up the walls. “That’s just going to attract the throw-up artists and vandals, and it becomes a cat-and-mouse game.” Said Vandal, the owner of the Bombhsleter graffiti store. The comments on the articles that surround this story cover a wide range of views. “Covering graffiti is the dumbest thing you can do. Somebody else is going to come along and paint over it anyways. The best thing to do is offer your wall to a good artist and have them do a nice mural for you.” – realtalkk replied to the article. 24therd replied by reverting back to the “vandal” argument by saying “Since covering graffiti is so dumb, let us just give up and let the socially moronic, disrespectful, graffiti hooligans run wild.” In every article that covers this topic the main issue lies between artistic freedom and vandalism.

There is no disagreement over the fact that art itself is subjective to the viewer. Regardless of what the artist’s intentions were originally for the work, it is the reaction of the viewers that shape it in the end. At the forefront of the graffiti movement were first the tags, people’s street names written as fancy signatures as a display of territory control. This is the only remnant of graffiti that still exists today that can be seen a gang related. “Graffiti is my outlet for everything bad in my life, there’s something positive about it for me. It’s a freedom of expression.” Says Marvel. “I’m not a fan of Ford and his stance on graffiti. He’s an outsider, what right does he have to judge what art is and what isn’t? If anything his life in the media is a performance art.”

The city of Toronto has a program in place of artists that want to find legal outlets for their work. StreetARToronto “is a new, pro-active program that aims to develop, support, promote and increase awareness of street art and its indispensable role in adding beauty and character to neighbourhoods across Toronto, while counteracting graffiti vandalism and its harmful effect on communities.” Says the description on the website. “But why make it a bureaucratic process? It just adds more unnecessary process work for the starving artist.” Says Snowy Owl a local mural designer/street artist. The program is run by a councilor and funded by the city of Toronto as a means to make graffiti murals more organized. But in the process of doing so it is losing one of the aspects that make graffiti great: spontaneity. “Finding a virgin wall in Toronto is tough these days, graffiti is starting to become hyped up and everyone’s tagging now.” Said Marvel “But whenever the opportunity presents itself I use it to its max potential.”

There is no doubt that the debate on what is graffiti vs what is vandalism will continue for a very long time in North America. But since the crumbling of the wall in Berlin, the city has become one of the world’s top destinations due to its popularity with graffiti. Walking along the streets of Kreuzberg you’ll notice massive wall murals – a mix of paint, paper, and glue – around every corner. The majority of these works are commissioned, but that doesn’t stop anyone from putting themselves out there through other means – persecution however is unlikely. This means that tagging is prevalent and you’re more than likely to see socio-political commentary charged pieces alongside random signatures. But, all together, it makes the streets and alleyways stand out from the rest of the city. This not only demands mass funding from the city’s tax payers but also a more relaxed approach to what is “vandalism”. Obviously the cities are facing different circumstances but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Toronto can’t pick up a thing or two in understanding the sub-culture that has evolved and continues to over many a decade.