Graffiti Girls...
From Mod Mania
Peter Wong
Graffiti....
Peter Wong
Graffiti art has rapidly changed from that of the late 1960, 1970’s when it started in New York and Philadelphia neighborhoods. It was within the SoHo’s of New York that work painters like Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf and Richard Hambleton, and, Blek and Nemo in Paris that started the trend of graphing and tagging upon urban environments. Graffiti art was first used as a means to tag ones territory and still is today. It was a means to convey a point to others around and or just a spontaneous doodle. Old school graffiti was very cryptic and hard to siphon but “in a revolt against generic styles, artists are breaking the unwritten graffiti rules to create new graphic forms and images out-side 3-D and wild-style graphic” street logos, Tristan Manco. Since graffiti was mainly associated with tags and pieces in this ‘classic style’, other phrases have been used to call art on the street.
Graffiti art can be found as many styles such as signs, logos, iconographic, poster, stickers, stencil or just paint work. It has evolved from the old school 3-D and wild styled cryptic lettering to a more non cryptic style, drawing inspiration from bio-technical forms, calligraphy, ethnic patterns, retro fashion and fine arts. Also to, modern graffiti has moved away from just wild lettering and tags. Although these still occur and are still popular, today modern graffiti artist are changing and using icons, symbols, spontaneous doodles and images within the tags upon urban environments. This is sub categorized as street art, collecting all the many off shouts of graffiti. Although perceived as being the same graffiti and street art are quite different and this quote simply explains the two. “Graffiti and street art are separated not only by the techniques but also by sociological elements” graffiti woman – Nicholas Ganz. Simply the former is largely governed by the artists want to spread their tag and achieve recognition and fame, and the ‘old rules’ of ‘getting up’ still apply; it’s all about quality and quantity. The later being street art tends to have fewer rules and embraces a larger range of styles and techniques. In street art, for example you can draw landscapes with ‘filigree lines’ and bring it to the walls. There are so many techniques and materials that can be used from the graffiti field.
As the styles evolve so does the people perception to the pieces and to the people to create them. To us the artists or designers these pieces of works are just merely an expression oneself, using the urban environment as a canvas instead of the traditional paper canvas, but to others this is a different story. People in society think of graffiti artist as low lives or disturbed being who have no other things to do than destroy property and urban landscape with these absurd arts. They don’t see past the crazy lines and stenciled images, into the emotions and message that’s conveyed. Artists are merely modding or re-jigging the plain grey concrete environment into a colorful world for others to see.
“Whatever the terminology, the urban environment attracts artists of all persuasions – train – writers, paste – up artists, performance artists, poetic doodlers, muralists and and protest artists – whose message board of art and ideas. Graffiti today is more visible, less cryptic and communicates to a wider audience. In cities choked with advertising it provides an important forum for social commentary and free expression. Its innovators enliven the urban landscape with bold graphics and extraordinary images, creating a new visual vocabulary” street logos, Tristan Manco
We the public are the consumers and recipients to all the graffiti – stencil art or so called vandalism. It’s a free for all, a public exhibition of expressions and thoughts, which after being posted could last for days, weeks or years. Like most consumer products (e.g. walkman, toasters) that is out there we don’t know anything bout the designer and producer except for their names (brand name I.e. Sony) and the finish item that is presented in – front of use to see. And like most items we can either hate them or like them. Like wise graffiti is similar as a household product, as we only know the artist name (I.e. Swoon or Lady Tribe) and what they decided to ‘piece’ but nothing else. We don’t know the artist gender, age, thoughts or ambitions, just the lonely name tagged and the graffiti you see in – front of you. And like other things graffiti is deemed a hated art with most people not seeing beneath the painted piece. They don’t see the advantages of the spaces used by the artist and let alone understand the society of a graffiti artist, with its tough competition of having the best, seen work.
As artist create art in the public area for people to see, they draw attention to city spaces and areas thought to others as having no artistic interest or advertising advantages (for example the little alley down flinders lane in the CBD – see below picture). These graffiti artist challenge the ownership of space by the council and co-operate corporations battling against them to promote their own thoughts. “They battle with the giant illuminated billboards, themselves just as much visual invaders of the city as graffiti” street logo – Tristan Manco; they being the corporate organizations. Although as the consumers we don’t think about what type of graffiti form it is, either it be a logo or a mural, or care where it is placed or derived from as long it appeals to our senses and pleases them (which it rarely does). As the end user to the art it is the artist/ producers aim and job to attract and convey its ideas to use. One type of stencil art (stencil art being a off shoot of graffiti covering a wider range of different styles like stenciling, sticker, poster, murals, figures and logos etc rather than the normal cryptic pieces and tags categorized as graffiti. It’s also known as ‘post graffiti’ and ‘neo – graffiti’) that has done this is Logos. Keith Haring an early 1980’s graffiti artist was one who created a whole “urban mythology” Graphics alive - Visionary and used chalk to drawn icons and logos on black billboards in New York Subways. Although many thought this was absurd and disgraceful (being like children drawings) he still continued to do them, conveying a simple idea of a fun life and mystic shapes to passer byres.
“Logos can be powerful emblems representing many ideas and emotions. In today’s climate of anti – globalization, the logos of corporate giants now carry with them negative, as well as positive associations. We have a love – hate relationship with them; some we admire, others we vilify. The word ‘logo’ may have been tarnished, but the logos and symbols in street art are very much alive – looked upon as public brands or anti – logos flying in the face of the nefarious empires of corporations” Street logos, Tristan Manco
Graffiti has similar aspects to the normal consumer products its ideals and ways of presenting it self is very much different. “Galleries, magazines and shops are controlled spaces” street logos, Tristan Manco while graffiti art is uncontrollable. Governments and councils can pull them down and people can slag them and the artist off but it still won’t prevent graffiti from happening. Graffiti is spontaneous and there is nothing that is the identical to the next. It is always changing, evolving into new thing and ways of putting ideas, emotions and thoughts into the urban jungle for public view and recognition. It is no longer routine; instead expect the unexpected. “In watching the city walls, some common threads in today’s street art and graffiti can be deciphered, but what unites the whole scene is the reclaiming if public space for public art” street logos, Tristan Manco. Graffiti is a free art which is made by people because they want to not because they have to. People in society calling this vandalism and a disgrace, saying the artists are unsocial troubled kids won’t stop this. Commercial values or ideals do not control the making/ style of graffiti or restrict the ideas of him or her; the artist. It is one of today’s “most fertile art forms” graphics alive – Visionary and although still not as popular within society as other arts it is slowly gaining popularity. As it grows popularity it is clear that if differs from other arts as there is no market, in which an artist has to perform for, but a free range consumer, but like many other consumed products out there, there are many producers and graffiti is none different.
Although many despise graffiti and their artist and find them appalling, some have praised and used its useful means. There are a lot of positive uses of graffiti and we find graffiti everywhere today, not all done by professional artists but many done by students or people bored with no where to draw on. Some use it to convey love messages on buses, others doodle on chairs and tables as they have no paper and the list goes on. One embracement of graffiti in society the use of it in advertising, especially the uses of the graffiti art of stenciling. People have found that it is a strong source of conveying an idea. It’s simple, easy to under stand and stands out amongst the common sources of advertising. Although relatively new and quiet big in Melbourne corporations and groups have used stencil arts in their works as a means of promotion (i.e. the current commonwealth bank ads on bus shelters) either on their posters or on streets (i.e. The white ‘Lil Alien’ stencil found around on the streets near RMIT). “Graphics is a visual language. It is made to translate some kind of information” graphics alive - victionary and that’s what people are starting to do with graffiti. It’s new in advertising and it grabs people’s attention. Even tho people don’t like graffiti and find it vulgar they still look, as it is attention grabbing.
Like advertising, the graffiti world is a dog eat dog world where men rule and girls get stomped upon. With names such as Swoon, OPT, La Mano, Tribe, YZ and Rb827 it is hard to decipher which graffiti art is done by a man or a woman. Graffiti is a male dominated art and its hard for females to compete against them. Just because it’s a girl that is piecing peers don’t believe their work is good enough to get recognition. Females generally have to work three times as hard as a guy to get the same recognition as a male does. Just like in a school playground rumors are spread to detriment a artist, slagging them of about their work and personal lives. These bagging have only made female artist stronger as Lady Pink. All the insults of them being sluts; sleeping with all their crew and having people do their pieces for them have only made female artist strive to greatness and making them more determined to be seen, but for some this is to much as many put their aerosol cans away after a few years.
Fems are always changing their styles like men. The easiest way to tell is “most girls have different handwriting from guys. Girls use rounder letters” Mickey and more girly shapes and characters in their pieces but not all. But beside from this fact, the females in this graffiti world are no different than the guys. These people are the producers of the art, producing art for us the consumer to see. In many they are conveying a point to society (E.g. a protest against the government in a form of a piece, expression of emotions) or to other taggers (protection of territory). They are here to show others what they are capable of, to express themselves usually.
“Miss 17 and I are not out here as ‘female’ writers. We are out to CRUSH and that has no gender specification. Man or woman, you have to be able to compete and rep your name on the streets” claw
Back in the 1980’s when Lil Swoon started out the only females that were represented in the scene were “only the girlfriends and sidekicks” graffiti woman – Nicholas Ganz, there was no ‘lone wolf she mamas’ out there doing if for themselves. It was only further down the years as the scene grew did also the female contribution in graffiti but with a heavy cost. As this was a male dominated art no females where never taken seriously. As lady echo explains “even after that someone will try to use personal information to the detriment of your reputation” graffiti woman – Nicholas Ganz. Although many girls receive these negative experiences most say it makes them stronger.
The art forms short lived nature hasn’t help change the male perspective on this either. Graffiti pieces are regularly painted over or destroyed, sometimes within the hour or days to follow, leaving the pieces to go unnoticed by most people. Although it is impossible to count the number of female artists out there, books and magazines are starting to be produce giving recognition to the different female artists around the world. Such books as Subway Art, The Faith of Graffiti and Spray city have broken the mould by only pasting in work that have been done be female artists. As being seen as one of the most fertile art forms in the world the acceptance of female aerosol artists has become more common.
The birth place:
Graffiti is seen as one of the most fertile art form in today’s society and it is. From its beginnings in the Soho’s of NY and Philadelphia, America, graffiti has not only changed in its different styles and forms but also has spread across the nation and the world. It is present in every country and continent of the world today and its popularity still grows.
The USA was the birthplace of graffiti and is home to some of the most influential graffiti and street artists. Not only did the men play a part but also the likes of female artists Lady Pink, NY most renowned and respected female aerosol artists help plant the female figure into graffiti. As the years past so did the number of female artists in America and its spread across the country. In the early 1980’s Lady Heart and Abby teamed up and started bombing Queens starting a spread, with artists like CC (chick) in Brooklyn, Lil Love in the Lower East Side, Gates in Denver, Spyder in Ohio and Lizzie in the Bronx. On the opposite side of the country the West Coast was fostering a scene of its own with San Francisco being the hotspot in the early 1990’s. People such as Ruby Neri (aka Reminisce or the horse lady) and the late Margaret Kilgallen help foster the grown LA scene. In contrast to what was happening over in America Canada and South America weren’t as prominent but produced extremely talented and creative female artists. Yoni situated in Toronto was wife of Canada’s first male spray artist and used to catch tags next to her husband, while Nina has been active since the mid 1980’s and was Brazils first female aerosol artist.
Across in Europe female artist started to sprout with the Netherlands having a fair amount of early female activity. In Amsterdam, Mickey entered the scene in 1983 and is one of Europe’s first female aerosol artist who is widely celebrated. Between the mid 1908’s to the early 1990’s tags by Jena (The Hague) would also “crop up” around the Netherlands. In Sweden Blue was a one of the most prominent spray artist and got into graffiti in1985. Over in Germany a crew called the FUCK YOU CREW has developed the female scene through the likes of Casie, Mad C, Mace, Suez, Dani and Donna. In the late 1980 and early 1990’s a number of graffiti crew formed in Germany such as The Comic Luzies crew founded in 1989, The Monster crew in 1993, Real Home Girls (RHG), King Size Bombers (KSB) and Emancipated Jungle Sisters (EJS). As groups formed in Germany, in Switzerland Rosy was the long - standing leading lady tagging and piecing around the cities.
Miss Tic and Nice Art Kollectiv’s Ariane are among the many female “pochoir artists” that emerged in France in the 1980’s before the flood of “tags” and “throw – ups” that spread thru the streets of Paris. Also in France Toulouse’s Miss Van and Mademoiselle Kat formed another for of graffiti in the early 1990’s. They were the first female artists to paint full female figures with a brush. Also Spain’s graffiti and street art culture was quite “sizeable and Vibrant boasting such artists as Musa, Dune, Fly/Flai and Den” graffiti woman – Nicholas Ganz.
Down here in Aus the scene like Europe developed in the 1980’s and was concentrated around large cities. In Sydney the artists Rhythm and Rhyme teamed up to piece huge pieces on rail lines and alleys. Also in 1987 a pure female crew was founded called Girl Style crew. On the other side of the country in Perth a artist called Mayhem was active before 1988 and before “Poise shaped the cityscape” graffiti woman – Nicholas Ganz. Down in Victoria a large female crew was formed, with over twenty spray artists, DJ’s, breakers and MC’s within the group called Ladies luv hip hop. Across from Australia in New Zealand Diva NZ has been spraying since 1998.
There are many within Asia such as French born Miss lili, Redy and Shiro based in China, Hong Kong and Japan respectively. Although there are many female-based graffiti artist around the world the one sure thing to you notice between male and female artist put simply by Mickey is “most girls have different handwriting from guys. Girls use rounder letters. You see this already in primary school. With this background a lot of girl writers use round letters when they first start out, although obviously not all of them. Girls also tend o use round characters like butterflies, hearts, big eyes – cute shit!” Mickey
Bibliography
Ganz, Nicholas. (2006). Graffiti Woman. London, United Kingdom: Thames and Hudson Ltd
Manco, Tristan. (2004). Street Logo. London, United Kingdom: Thames and Hudson Ltd
Viction:ary. (2006). Graphics alive. Kingsfeild centre, Hong Kong: Viction: Workshop Ltd
