In an increasingly online world, people are able to speak their mind freely without having to worry about repercussions. On Xbox live, boys who are timid in the real world, dish out vulgar insults like there is no tomorrow, people criticize everyone from politicians to chefs on online discussion boards, even if they are not qualified to do so. Making semi-anonymous statements on the internet for the public to see is a relatively new phenomena, anonymously writing political statements in public areas has been happening for hundreds of years, there has been evidence of graffiti found in ancient Roman ruins. Graffiti is an art form that allows the artist to get his or her name or message out and well known while still maintaing a sense of anonymity. Anonymity in graffiti is not only important because the nature of the statements that can be made, but also because graffiti is considered vandalism and is illegal. The illegality of it also ads to its appeal.
Graffiti from particular artists is generally recognizable, tagging is when an artist quickly puts his or her logo or signature on something.
Tags, especially in their larger and more elaborate 'throw-up' versions, became the initial focus of stylistic and social organizational innovation. Graffiti writers developed new stylistic techniques to distinguish their tags from the myriad graffiti competing for public space and attention. The tag became the unit of production and the basic measure of a writer's fame. Artistic quality overrode quantity for a minority of graffiti writers, culminating in murals which covered full subway cars and incorporated a variety of styles developed for tags and throw-ups. (Ferrell, 1993)
Graffiti artists can become famous without ever having their identity revealed.
Banksy is one of the best known graffiti artists in the world. Despite having won awards for his films and published books, his identity remains unknown to the public. In his film, Exit Through The Gift Shop, his identity is not revealed. His face is blurred out in interviews and his voice is disguised. He did not come out with the fact that he was the director after the Sundance film festival. The film was recently nominated for an Oscar, the debate of whether Banksy could accept the award became an issue. The Academy decided that they did not want to allow Banksy to accept the award in disguise or to accept the award without revealing his identity. They fear he may come on stage wearing his usual disguise of a monkey mask. Banksy has made it clear that he does not want his identity revealed, he made no appearances at Sundance but left graffiti around Park City during the festival. If his identity were revealed, his graffiti would no longer have the same meaning.
Works Cited
Ferrel, J. (1993). Crimes of style: urban graffiti and the politics of criminality. Journal of Justice and Popular Culture.
Pond, Steve. (n.d.). Oscars want elusive banksy to stay out of sight. The Wrap, Retrieved from http://www.thewrap.com/awards/ column-post/academy-grapples-banksy-problem-24563? page=0,0
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