Answering Questions Vol3

In this post, I will answer questions No5 and 6.

5. What is the difference between Graffiti and Street Art?

To identify the difference between Graffiti and Street Art, I used 4 different dictionaries.

Firstly, I researched the definition of Graffiti. Webster’s Pocket Dictionary said that it is “a crudely drawn inscription”, and it is the plural form of “graffito”. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English said that it is “rude, humorous or political writing and pictures on the walls of buildings, trains, etc.” Oxford Dictionaries wrote that it is “Writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place.” Only Oxford Dictionaries wrote clearly it is “illicit” which means illegal, but the other two dictionaries also mentioned they are crude or rude. Also, I can guess that they are done on the walls of buildings, trains or other surface in a public place.

              Secondly, I researched the meaning of street art. Urban Dictionary said it is “any art developed in public spaces - that is, "in the streets" — though the term usually refers to art of an illicit nature (as opposed to, for instance, government or community art initiatives). The term can include traditional graffiti artwork, though it is often used to distinguish modern public-space artwork from traditional graffiti and the overtones of gang territoriality and vandalism associated with it.” From this definition, I can surmise that street art can be illicit, but it is not always vandalism or cruel.

              In my post “Answering Questions Vol1”, I mentioned that Art should basically be creative, impressive, imaginative or beautiful. From this definition, I think that it can be said that some graffiti arts, for example the art works by KAZZROCK or TOMI-E, who I introduced in the last post, can be included in street arts. Also, art works in Shimokitazawa Ichibangai are street arts because they are legal. However, there are many other graffiti on the street that is only writing their names or words on walls. They don’t meet any of the definition of art. Thus, they cannot be said street art.

               

6. What kind of legal actions are taken if you do it without permission in Japan?

              They will be usually charged for Property Damage (Article261 of the Criminal Law) or the Minor Offenses Act, Clause 33, Article 1. Property Damage is crimes those destruct or injure other people’s things except for documents, buildings, and warships and other vessels. Minor Offenses are for example, putting posters on somebody’s house or structures without any reasons. If you are charged for Property Damage, you will be sentenced for three years, or fined under three hundred thousand yen. For Minor Offenses Act you will be detained or have to pay a fine.

Bibliography

The new international Webster's pocket dictionary of the English language (2012 ed.). (2002). Naples, FL: Trident Press International.

Longman dictionary of contemporary English (5th ed.). (2009). Harlow: Pearson.

Definition of graffiti in English: Retrieved July 06, 2016, from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/graffiti

Street art. (2013, December 11). Retrieved July 06, 2016, from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=street art

壁にスプレーで描かれた絵って、かっこいいけど、ただの落書きとはどう違うの!? (2016, January 06). Retrieved July 06, 2016, from http://news.mynavi.jp/news/2016/01/06/382/

汚れを落として描く「グラフィティ」 日本でやったら違法？. (2013). Retrieved July 06, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.jp/2013/12/29/eminem-reverse-graffiti-illegal-_n_4514014.html

Kamata, K. (2015). Daily Roppou: 2016. Tokyo: Sanseido.

Answering Questions-Vol2

In my latest post I answered to questions 1 and 2. So, this time I will answer 3 and 4.

3. When did it start in Japan?

There was no information which describes when the graffiti came into Japan. However, I found some information about the leading graffiti artists. KAZZROCK started his activity started his organization “VANGUARD”, which does various activities in the street scenes such as, graffiti and hip hop dance, in early 1990^th. Afterwards, he went to the United States for skill up, and joined a graffiti group in Los Angeles called “CBS”. After coming back to Japan, he hold a one-man show named “Graffiti Art is Not a Crime”, at a gallery in Harajuku. In the latter 90^th, he started collaborating with many other artists and brands, and in 1998, he established his own brand “KAZZROCK ORIGINAL”.

In the latter 2000^th, he was asked to demonstrate his art skill at the garage of Tokoro-George(所ジョージ), one of the Japanese most famous comedians, on a TV show.

TOMI-E is also one of the famous Japanese graffiti artists. When he was a teenager, he met the hip-hop culture. In 1991, when he was 16, he went to the US and the graffiti on a large wall shocked him. After coming back to Japan in 1994, he has been doing his activities in various places such as, street walls, CD jackets, company advertisements, and club tours to do live performances. Recently, he has been painting on Japanese papers called “Washi(和紙)”. In 2006, a movie called “TAKI-183” which sat him as the model was shown.

4. Is there some places that we can do graffiti legally in Japan?

              I couldn’t find any place that people can do graffiti freely, like the one in Venice Beach in California. However, there are some places that permit tacitly graffiti done by general citizens. For example, in Yokohama, you can see graffiti under the guardrail along National Highway 16. These graffiti are done illegally, but the city just winks at it. Some artists are even asked to paint on the walls or shutters by the local government.

In the graffiti world, they have a tacit rule not to do unskillful paint on a skillful paint. By using this rule, some local governments ask famous and skilled artists to paint first, to avoid people to paint unskillful graffiti which are less artistic. In 2005, an NPO in Shibuya draw graffiti made a legal wall of Miyashita Park. In addition, the number of shopping district which many shops are closing and many shutters are down is increasing recently in Japan. To make these “Shutter Districts” bright, there are activities to ask artists and students to paint on shutters. In Shimokitazawa Ichibangai（下北沢一番街）, a shopping district in Tokyo, they started the activity to ask for volunteers of university students and artists in 2003. The district’s association pay for the paint and cure and their youth group paint the basecoat. They say that not only their wonderful paintings helped to prevent scribbling, but also many people stops their feet to see them.

Bibliography (Sorry for all the bibliographies being Japanese. All of the questions were graffiti in Japan, so I couldn't find English ones. I hope you can enjoy them by their photos.)

KAZZROCK GRAFFITI SITE.Retrieved June 29, 2016, from http://www.kazzrock.com/profile.htm

グラフィティ・日本で活躍するアーティストまとめ | Graffical Market. Retrieved June 29, 2016, from http://grafficalmarket.com/artist-matome/

TOMI-E | official site. Retrieved June 29, 2016, from http://www.tomi-e.jp/biography_jp.html

 

Legalwall. (2005, November 9). Retrieved June 29, 2016, from http://legalwall.komposition.org/index.php?catid=88

下北沢一番街 公式ホームページ　しもきたイチバンどっとこむ | シャッターギャラリー. (2014). Retrieved June 29, 2016, from http://www.shimokita1ban.com/gallery

 

Answering Questions ②

Again, I would like to answer to two of the fifteen questions I have posted earlier.

3) Do famous graffiti artists get paid for their work?

Yes they do. Since I have introduced three famous graffiti artists in the last post, I would like explain how they get money from graffiti as an example.




Banksy is one of the most famous graffiti artists in the world. So many companies has offered him to collaborate with them. Although he has rejected most of them, he has accepted some of the offers. His works has also been sold at the auction and was sold for an amazingly high price. It’s not clear if Banksy himself had sold it but it has proved that his graffiti is worth paying.


Invader has held a solo exhibition of his graffiti in different countries such as his home country France, Japan, America, Italy and more. He has also published some books, so he earns money from holding events and selling goods.



Claw&co collaborating with Sweet Chick

Claw Money was a female graffiti artist but has become a designer using her graffiti style. She now has her own fashion label Claw&Company. The claw mark is one of the representative of her design. Her brand has collaborated with many world famous companies such as Nike, Converse, Ugg Australia, Calvin Klein and has made a huge success.

They earn money within different ways but I thought that it is all impossible if they weren't famous. They are just a small percentage of the whole graffiti artist populations. Most of the graffiti artists get money by selling their work drawn on canvas.




4) Do you think graffiti could affect the society? If so, how?

This is just my opinion but I think it could affect the society both in good and bad ways. As I have explained before artists like Banksy draws graffiti that has strong message. It gives opportunities for people to stop and think about it through art. However, despite some professionals, most graffiti artists are amateurs and sees graffiti just as a way of expressing themselves. Also, I've heard that graffiti is sometimes related with gangs. They use it to show that it’s their territory to other gangs.  Many people still do not have much good impressions with graffiti and is a great fear for them. Drawing on somebody's property is vandalism. If the town gets filled with graffiti it might also reduce the population of the tourist, which could be a serious problem for some places. I can't decide weather it's good or bad but I'm sure it has a great effect to the society. 

＜Bibliography＞

"Street Art and Contemporary Art Auction." 2016. Juliens Auctions, 30 Apr. 2016. Web. 27 June 2016.

"Invader - Home." Invader - Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 June 2016.

"LOOK IT'S THE CLAW." Claw & Co. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 June 2016.

Answering Questions ①

Like Azusa, I would also like to anwer to 15 questions I have posted earlier on this blog. Some of the questions are quite difficult so I am not sure if I could really find the answer, but I would like to try my best.


1)Why do graffiti artists paint on walls and not on the canvas?


I was always very curious why they had to paint on walls. I've made a research and found out that they do it for different reasons. Some people are motivated by strong feelings such as angers towards the society and they wand to show it towards people. Some feel isolated and want themselves to be recognized by someone. I think it really depends between each artists but I realized that graffiti artists that got famous often had some kind of message in their works, such as political message. So I think the main reason for this question is that because they have something they want to tell.



2) Are there any famous graffiti artist?


There are. I was surprised to find out how the styles of graffiti differ within each artists. I would like to introduce three of the famous.


First is Banksy. He is one of the most well-known graffiti artists in the world, yet not much is revealed of him. He is believed to have been born in Bristol and mainly works in London. His work is often political themed. He also has sneaked in to famous museums such as British museum, and displayed his work without any permission. From these acts and his art style he is sometimes called “art terrorist”. I felt that his work is different from any other graffiti artists. Message hidden in is piece drags peoples hearts and I think that is why it is loved by many people. 

Second is Invader. He is a French graffiti artist born in 1969. He took his name from the game "Space Invader" and his work is strongly inspired by it. His work is seen in many different countries from his home country France to China.  He started to draw these because he wanted to "bring the virtual world into reality". His work is all very cute and it was different from what I thought graffiti would look like before the research.

Lastly,  Claw Money. I chose her because I was interested in the fact that she was a female graffiti artist. She began writing graffiti in New York. She is deeply influenced by other graffiti artists such as Dondy, Sharp and Revolt. After she became famous for her works she used her graffiti style and made her own fashion label Claw&Company. She now works as an designer. Compared with the two artists above, I thought her works is the most typical graffiti. I like how she uses the colour.

It was very interesting looking at different graffiti artists and I loved all three of them's art style. It was fun to research.



＜Bibliography＞

"GRAFFITI Everywhere." Anti Social Graffiti. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 June 2016.

Biography.com Editors. "Banksy." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 23 June 2016.

"About Space Invader - Artist Biography." N.p., 2012. Web. 23 June 2016.

"Claw Money." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Apr. 2016. Web. 23 June 2016.

Answering Questions Vol1

In my present post, I made15 questions regarding to graffiti. From today, I would like to answer these questions. In today’s post I will answer questions one and two.

http://graffiti-controversial.blogspot.jp/2016/06/questions-regarding-to-graffiti.html

1. What do you think is “ART”?

In my guess, “ART” is paintings, acts, music, sculpture, etc. that is shown to other people. This is still my guess, so I searched it on different dictionaries. I referred on these dictionaries because I think they are one of the most famous dictionaries in the world and they have long history, so they should have done many researches to provide correct information to people.

Oxford Dictionaries said that it is “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power”.

Collins School Dictionary and Thesaurus says it is creation of works of beauty, especially paintings or sculpture. It also says when it is “arts”, literature, music, painting, and sculpture are considered together.

In Japanese dictionary Kojien, I researched the word “GEIJUTSU” which means art in Japanese. It said art is the activity and effort by people who create things, such as paintings sculpture, construction, poetry, music, or acts, which has appreciable value by using their techniques, body, and materials.

Thus, according to these definition it is clear that it should be creative, impressive, imaginative or beautiful and created to express important feelings or ideas. My guess was true in that paintings and sculptures are included in art. In the Japanese dictionary, it also included all of the other things that I mentioned first. From these definitions, I think graffiti can be accepted as art because they are paintings and they have strong feelings and ideas to express.

2. When and where did graffiti come from?

To find out when and where graffiti came from, I used three sources used for education. They all have the way to contact and basically had same information.

According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5^th Edition, the definition of graffiti is “rude, humorous, or political writing and pictures on the walls of buildings, trains etc.” Referring to this definition, it can be said that graffiti existed since thousands of years ago when people started to writing things on caves. In the Ancient Rome and Greek, people wrote their names and protest poems on buildings. The term “Graffiti” also came from the Greek word “graphein”, which means to write.

The modern graffiti, which usually use sprays to paint, seems to have appeared in Philadelphia in early 1960s and reached to New York in late sixties. In 1971, an article about one of the graffiti writers was published by New York Times. The term “Graffiti” was also used for the first time by them. In the early 70s, Art Galleries started to buy graffiti. In the late seventies to early 80s, hip hop culture emerged. At that time, Keith Haring, one of the most famous graffiti artists started his activity to put black paper on blank advertising walls and paint on the paper. Graffiti became to be abandoned at this time but at the same time, they also became to be respected as art, especially by young people.

I discovered that paintings on buildings itself have quite long history. I am now also curious how writing names or poems on the buildings was thought at that time.

Bibliography

• Art - definition of art in English from the Oxford dictionary. Retrieved June 22, 2016, from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/art

• Collins school dictionary & thesaurus (First ed.). (2009). Glasgow: HarperCollins.

• Shinmura, I. (2008). Kojien. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.

• Lifer. Birth and Evolution. Retrieved June 22, 2016, from http://csdt.rpi.edu/subcult/grafitti/Birth_and_Evolution.html

• Artcrisis. (2014, September 20). Graffiti History. Retrieved June 22, 2016, from https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/graffiti-history-6022612

• The history of graffiti. Retrieved June 22, 2016, from http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/reading-skills-practice/history-graffiti

News related to graffiti

I found a news related to graffiti so I would like to tell you about it from three different articles.

This news is about anti-Muslim graffiti.

All of the article mentioned mostly the same thing for the brief story of the news. It said that last Thursday, when one women went on the Red Line she recognized anti-muslim graffiti written near the window. It said "Muslim Trash go home". She took a picture of it and posted on Twitter. MBTA official quickly responded with a reply by writing "Could you please forward us a car number so we and [Transit Police] can have this taken care of ASAP?" They removed the subway car and after the evidence was documented by the police it was cleaned and made back to service. All of the article also had the actual tweet of the passenger with it.

Article of Boston.com had more specific information than the others and it was easy to fully understand the situation.

Although article by Steve Annear only told about the story, rest of the two also mentioned about the shooting which recently happened in Orlando where 49 people got killed. They say that they were being especially careful because of this incident.



＜Bibliography＞

"Police Investigating Anti-Muslim Graffiti Discovered on the T." Boston.com. Ed. Kristi Palma. Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC, 17 June 2016. Web. 22 June 2016.

"T Police Investigating Anti-Muslim Graffiti - The Boston Globe." BostonGlobe.com. Ed. Steve Annear. N.p., 16 June 2016. Web. 22 June 2016.

"Anti-Muslim Graffiti on MBTA Prompts Investigation." Metro. Revcontent, 17 June 2016. Web. 22 June 2016.

Resent News story about graffiti

Today, I want to share a resent news in the United States about graffiti and compare three articles.

It is a news story about Casey Nocket, a 23 year old women who was sentenced for probation for two years.

All of the article explained that a 23 year old woman who did graffiti on rock of seven U.S national parks in 2014 was sentenced for probation for two years and that she was also ordered to do 200 hours of community service and pay the fee for the damage.

             

According to the article by Mercury News and Inforum, she did it during September to October that year. In the Artnet News article, it is also mentioned that she posted her paintings on Instagram, although Inforum and Mercury News article doesn’t mention which social network service she specifically used.

Mercury News and Artnet News named the parks that she did it, while article by Inforum only mentioned the states she did it. Mercury News also mentioned what kind of materials she used and how it is being removed and what kind of names she gave to her paintings. They also said that her community service include removing graffiti removal and she must also write an apology letter to National Park Service.

Artnet News also stated that she is not allowed to visit national parks or lands administered by the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Army Corps of Engineers, during her probation.

Bibliography

Reuters Media. (2016, June 14). Woman sentenced to probation for graffiti at 7 U.S. national... Retrieved June 15, 2016, from http://www.inforum.com/news/4054580-woman-sentenced-probation-graffiti-7-us-national-parks

Cascone, S. (2016, June 14). Instagram Graffiti Artist Gets Probation - artnet News. Retrieved June 15, 2016, from https://news.artnet.com/art-world/casey-nocket-national-park-graffiti-sentenced-518453

Gafni, M. (2016, June 14). Yosemite vandal sentenced for defacing rock formations in national parks. Retrieved June 15, 2016, from http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_30014558/woman-sentenced-defacing-yosemite-other-national-park-rock