Graffiti – A not so Modern Form of Self-Expression
Article By Istvan Orban
Today, graffiti is an integral part of life in big cities. It is regarded as vandalism by some, while others think of it as a form of street art, a visual expression. Famous graffiti such as the works of Banksy that go viral quickly and can attract many viewers and visitors, often have deeper meanings, which reflect the issues of contemporary societies (e.g. war, solitude, corruption, etc.). But graffiti exists not only in modern or postmodern societies. If we look back in time, we can find many Banksies and graffiti makers, most of them anonymous.
People tend to leave marks of themselves. These traces can be simple, like leaving the name on a wall. Lovers often carved their names into stones or trees with a heart, or people who reached a remote place left their monogram as proof that they had been there. The most ancient graffiti has been found in caves, alongside large scale mural paintings. In Ancient Egypt, pyramid workers and tomb builders engraved their marks on the stones, but later visitors, like the Romans, left graffiti on the sites as well. They were a bit like an ancient form of TripAdvisor, where people left remarks about what they liked and what they disliked about a place. Some graffiti in ancient Rome had political messages, some advertised products, others communicated miscellaneous information. Political graffiti would appear during times of conflict, criticizing notable politicians. According to Plutarch, Brutus was persuaded to assassinate Julius Caesar by such writings, and Suetonius records that the public began to hate Nero after they saw graffiti criticizing him. Of course, such political graffiti was punished by the government. However, graffiti was widely used as a source of information. According to historian Peter Keegan[1], graffiti in ancient cities was left at busy places that were visited by many people, like temples, shops, arenas and brothels. The messages were mostly aimed at locals. Graffiti was also popular in the Middle Ages and sometimes these drawings tell us more about the people of the time than the official historical documents, because they reveal the voice of the public.
In modern times, graffiti has often been seen as an illegal or barbaric act. Gustave Flaubert, the French writer, regarded graffiti as barbarism or stupidity. When he visited Alexandria in the 1850s, he was horrified to find so much graffiti on ancient buildings and sculptures. Jean-Paul Sartre, who cited Flaubert in his book, The Family Idiot, said that graffiti is found all over the world, and those who use this technique are not interested in the monument, but in making their existence as famous as the monument, so that they can touch eternity.
But it is important to distinguish here between the graffiti of the period and later inscriptions. While contemporary graffiti tells us a lot about the age when a monument was built, enabling historians to learn from them, later graffiti, especially people’s names or opinions, do not add much additional value. So, for example, if a piece of graffiti was made during Roman times, it can be regarded as a historical source, while the tourists from later centuries who write their names or put marks on the walls or statues to show that they were there, are just regarded as doodles.
In Jack London’s novel, The Road, the author speaks about his wandering years when he travelled across the country and the hobos and bums left marks at railway stations to let others know about which places were friendly or unfriendly to them. So, graffiti was often used as a form of communication in times when there was no internet, television or mobile phones.
The modern graffiti that we know was born in Philadelphia in the 1960s, as Hal Marcovitz notes in his book, The Art of Graffiti. People used nicknames and symbols to mark that they had been there. Later, graffiti was used to symbolize the borders of gang territories. It seems that the desire to leave marks behind us is as old as mankind. And it is not connected to a particular culture, race or status. Rich and poor, educated and uneducated people, have all left traces behind them in all ages. Graffiti is a form of self-expression, a way of communicating feelings, thoughts, information or just the simple fact that someone lived and was there.
Image Credits: By Irina Luksha | Pexels | CC BY PD
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By Irina Luksha | Pexels | CC BY PD
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Article References
[1] Peter Keegan, Graffiti in Antiquity (Routledge, 2014)
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