Category Archives: Graffiti

Cultural Graffiti

Posted on March 5, 2018 by

I’m running a session for only the second time tomorrow, on Cultural Graffiti: it’s an interactive session, with two poets, and a musician, exploring hidden and claimed voices, unheard wisdom, and how formal control can never fully silence social voices. … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Graffiti | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Alice Loves Matty

Posted on June 27, 2017 by

Graffiti is a voice claimed when no other is given: the ultimately democratised language, subversive, irreverent, free. So often, we wonder why people will not engage, why they will not comment, question, or challenge. But that may be to miss … Continue reading →

Posted in Graffiti | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Writing On The Wall

Posted on April 22, 2016 by

There are layers of writing throughout the city: i leave the train to the sight of formal, informational guidance, clean cut voices telling me where the stairs are, where the exit is, where the toilets are and what to do … Continue reading →

Posted in Graffiti | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Brighton Rock: Reckless and Homeless

Posted on February 15, 2016 by

You can’t walk far in Brighton without finding graffiti: the sanctioned and sponsored art form type, decorating electrical boxes and shopfronts, the porto-art inhabiting alleyways and laid on hoardings, and the raw, visceral cries sprayed on garage doors, derelict rooftops … Continue reading →

Posted in Exploration, Graffiti, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

San Francisco: Hinterland

Posted on October 8, 2015 by

I don’t know if it’s called ‘fly tipping’ here, but it was noticeable that, under the concrete flyways, between the monumental arches, at the dead end of endless tracks, the rubbish was piled high. Ironic really that the yard next … Continue reading →

Posted in Graffiti, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Layers of Culture: can you see the Graffiti?

Posted on March 16, 2015 by

Back in Amsterdam: from the window i see smoke curling up from the chimney on the houseboat. It drifts lazily in the morning breeze, barely visible in the grey light. I wonder idly about life on a barge: many of … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Culture, Graffiti | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Democratised voices: the intent of graffiti

Posted on January 26, 2015 by

There are classes of voice: levels of authenticity and volume. From formal, highly produced, vetted, authorised, famous, sanctioned and pervasive through to the suppressed, denied, desperate rants scratched in wood and walls. The voices that shout beside railway tracks, festoon … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Graffiti | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments