How do you think it influences young people today (as opposed to when you were starting)? Writing empowers people. It returns control of the streets to the people, steals it back from the powers in control. It makes people question what is private property. Is that real or is that just a notion we buy into? It makes the general public proud to live near a mural or to have contributed to its creation. People understand that public art are treasures that belong to all of us. This is communal, pre-columbian thinking, and we are reclaiming that thinking through public art and discourse.
It would be healthy for us to reexamine the notion of illegality in graffiti. Jim Prigoff, coauthor of Spray Can Art, taught me to look at it as commissioned or non- commissioned, not as illegal or illegal. That way we see it less in the context of how the system wants it to be, and more in the way of what is right for the people. Legal/ illegal promotes the belief in private ownership and promotes capitalism, classism, and everything that comes with it. Commissioned/non-commissioned brings it back to older ways of thinking, where it’s more about community, connection to the earth, and what impact we want on the next seven generations.
What is your opinion of the boundaries of the term “vandalism”? (for example Banksy has taken to referring to his own work as vandalism instead of street art since so many people have abused the term) That gets back to my thoughts on private property. To me vandalism is damaging property, whereas writing is changing the colors of a surface. We aren’t knocking over street signs; we are putting thought and message and light where previously there was none.
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