After watching the 1983 hip hop documentary Style Wars produced by Tony Silver, I was left feeling like I didn’t know the first thing about hip hop’s culture. Or rather, if I were being more honest with myself, that I had come to the documentary with several preconceived notions about who was involved in this community, what it entailed, and that I for the most part disliked the aesthetic of all things ‘hip hop’.
I have resigned instead to the not knowing, and have ridden myself of any prior misconceptions. I think this film demonstrates well the viewpoint of those ingrained in the beginnings of hip hop and those who were inadvertently fighting it.
'Style Wars is a 1983 documentary on the hip hop culture in New York. The film has an focus on graffiti, although “bboying” and rapping are covered to a lesser extent. The documentary shows both young artists struggling to express themselves through their art, examines their points of view on the subject of graffiti, as well as the views of. 'Style Wars is a 1983 documentary on the hip hop culture in New York. The film has an focus on graffiti, although “bboying” and rapping are covered to a lesser extent. The documentary shows both young artists struggling to express themselves through their art, examines their points of view on the subject of graffiti, as well as the views of.
10:10 – In the film, one of the graffiti artists refers to the underground subway tunnels as being tombs beneath the city. He says, they are “ just a lot of lock, a lot of steel, a tomb under the city. A lot of trains a lot of fun, a lot of art. Art that’s going to be a part of New York City’s history forever”.
It is interesting to regard graffiti as the documentation of an entire community, the start of a culture. Paralleling these underground ‘tombs’ adorned with the integral language and art of this culture is not far removed from the idea of the tombs of ancient civilizations in which scribes left evidence to inform future cultures of it’s existence. In much the same way these hip hops kids are altering the face of a city via a specific and antiquated method of communication – writing.
I found it interesting to think of graffiti artists as being the ‘writers’ of this subculture – that they are communicating and preserving evidence for this shift, or emerging, cultural revolution. Also, the ‘writing’ is much less a script than it is a visual experience. The medium at use, and the surface being this moving entity, makes for a very specific and visceral image of a community that is in it’s moving, is as much an identity of the greater city as well.
19:15 – The mother declares with certain finality that her son owns nothing on the subway. This comment seems stemmed in the material and literal idea of these writers owning lots, or trains, in the subway – rather than the idea of the ownership of what this work represents in terms of it’s place and significance. I feel that she perceives this tagging and graffiti work as being a kind of destructive and almost territorial ‘game’, to which the sense of ownership in the physical becomes misconstrued. It is not without notice that graffiti is borne from demographics who have historically been marginalized in their ability to have a sense of place and work attributed to their name. This could also speak to a changing identity, that ownership is not something to be sought after in terms of monetary value, but that ownership could be more likely associated with a desire for acknowledgment. Train tagging denotes a lack of physical place, and I think this speaks to the lack of permanence in history that this demographic holds. In a sense, it stands more for the need for recognition and a sense of meaning or impact upon a medium that is universally known.
Style Wars Graffiti Games
In terms of this sort of contentious or pointed art work in currently, such as seen with graffiti artist Bansky, I think that the intention is similar, but the overall result is quite different from that of the young men in the video. Besides Bansky’s presumably less challenged economic and demographic standing, the graffiti produced is equipped with the same ‘vandalizing’ essence put in public spaces. However, I cannot help but feel that Banksy’s work is somehow less honest and more reflective of commonly shared beliefs of the intended audience. There is a note of irony and cliché in Banksy’s work that I do not get from the tagging and graffiti of the NY subways in the 80’s. Banksy chooses to work in corporates spaces for what I can only assume is the certainty of a response to a pointed message. This is definitely an exercise of power, but I feel like it is different from the desire for ‘owning’ that occurs with the hip hop kids. I think in with contemporary graffiti art, is more about the individual and less about representing a community or culture.
19:00-20:55 One of the white graffiti artists is talking about stealing cans of paint, and how simple it is for him to steal as opposed to the kids of different ethnicity. He says, “It’s harder on black kids, or like, Spanish kids, because everybody thinks a graffiti writer is back and Puerto Rican and that like, you know…it’s wrong. A lot of white people are writing them”. I think this statement makes clear that the distinction between black and white, affluent and low income, is a relatively obsolete factor within the hip hop commuity.
Later, a affluent white kid who tags talks about how everyone is trying their ‘damn-est’ to get their name across this city. This statement at first seems be founded by different intention than some of the other less affluent graffiti artists might hold – but upon reflection I think it is this desire for a sense of one’s impact on a place or a people that is the shared commonality in the subculture. Standard stereotypes seem to dissipate in the hip hop culture, as the values and parts which make up this culture are based in movement, art, music, and language. They are discussing things that are universally applicable, giving people from all demographics and socioeconomic standings equal access to these forms of expression. Hip-hop is an entire culture based on exploring a different type of identity in which these characteristics hold no ground. In this regard I think affluent and white kids are drawn to graffiti because it is an approachable culture, where there is no pervasive ‘struggle’ or sense of being an outsider. The only ‘outsiders’ this subculture faces is the authority. The want to explore a means of going against the grain, of being on the ‘other side’ is an attractive and possibly enticingly foreign state of being for those of affluence.
40:15 Hip hop artists use their bodies as both a tool and a physical manifestation of the art and culture that is representative of their work and community. Through their dress and diction, music and ‘rocking’, these artists are conveying an entire sense of being through their bodies. In a sense their bodies are functioning as a billboard for all that is definitive for the culture. This material manifestation forcibly penetrates the hip-hop culture into the public sphere; it is an active and moving affirmation for the strength of this community.
42:24Yeah, I vandalism (sic), but I did something to make your eyes open up, right? So what are you talking about it for?” The point being made here by the artist is that although this work is considered vandalism this label does not detract from it’s ability to expose people to a new type of art making, writing, etc. Albeit it may be contentious, it is the very displeasure or foreign nature of this work that makes it worthwhile. To be sure, graffiti in it’s earliest form was avant garde in both style and function. To be significant and meaningful is to make people react – and whether the response is in praise or in passionate displeasure, having an emotional effect on people is a marker of success. This statement also reflects on the nature of commentary on something that is visual in nature; I feel like the artist is trying to relay the futility of talking about something that cannot be explained in words, but only represented in it’s initial form.
43:40-48:31 Artist vs. Bomber – Seeing the graffiti work in the gallery space seemed garish and off putting. As the french woman in the documentary noted, seeing the graffiti off the walls of the train was sad, and seemed a loss to what had become a defining aspect of the city. The work’s intensity was founded in it being vandalism, so removing it from it’s context seems to almost annul the integrity of the work entirely. Although the art is both expression and form I think that it is very site specific and can be considered seriously only in it’s original context.
These artists have reshaped their city to reflect the culture that it’s planned design contains. I think this is an important meshing of power with person; bereft of it’s people a city would be an empty plan, so to have a distinction of the people and their culture within a place is at most, integral. I would not even say that these artists are ‘claiming’ their city, but allowing their culture to be expressed in a new medium. Just as one has the right to dress in a fashion that expresses their interests, etc. I believe that there is a complicated allowance in which they can reinterpret how the city appears. If not through art, then in music, dance, clothing – I think these factors are equally as visual and aesthetically influential as any art on a train.
Style Wars: Banksy Piece Vandalized
A graffiti artist has vandalised a Banksy image in Hendon in an apparent show of disdain towards his fellow spray painter.
Less than a month after the painting appeared on the wall of a substation at the junction with the A1 and the A406 North Circular Road, it has been defaced by another urban artist.
Before being targeted, the image depicted a boy seemingly marking the wall of a power station with the words “Last Graffiti Before Motorway”.
But over the weekend someone painted the word “PRICE-LESS” across the wall, with one national paper yesterday running pictures of him in action.
Some have suggested it is a protest by another artist who may believe Banksy has forgotten the “true meaning” of urban art following his success.
Members of the Banksy Forum website, which follows the artist’s work, have condemned the art attack, with one member saying the perpetrator is “jealous, and bitter”.
Another man, who calls himself buddings, responded to suggestions Banksy only carries out work for financial gain, by writing: “I don’t get this at all.
“Banksy wasn’t paid to do it, he wasn’t hoping someone would sell the wall. Banksy could have done the same image on a canvas from the comfort of his studio for a massive amount of money but instead goes out in the middle of the night and gives London a little gift.”
He added: “How the hell does this remind Banksy of what urban art is all about?“
Forum member happy shopper said: “Obviously done by an idiot with no style at all.”
This kind of stuff has been going on since the beginning of Graffiti. For modern times proof, check Style Wars (one of my favorite all time movies).
Sure it was a wack throw up, but Banksy knows The Game.
The Rest is Up to You…
Graffiti Wars 2011
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
Style Wars Graffiti
Reks – Cry Baby [Prod. Statik Selektah] (samples: willie hutch – she’s just doing her thing)
Style Wars Graffiti Game Online
Bboys of Style Wars