Wherever you go, if you are in an urban area, and even in some residential or suburban areas, you can find graffiti on the walls, on floors and sidewalks, and sometimes even underneath bridge overpasses.
Taking part in some sort of graffiti event is something that I never thought I would be doing, as I saw it mostly as vandalism. But there is also a feeling of lasting, as, especially in urban areas, I see a lot of graffiti that seems to last for decades at a time. Similar to last week’s project, there is a sense of lasting with graffiti, in the face of the rapidly changing society around us.
Of course, with the coronavirus crisis at hand, this activity got somewhat nerfed in regard to what experiences it could have offered. However, I think that I actually prefer it this way; by preserving it on paper, this “graffiti” art is a lot easier to keep, and therefore preserve for a long time.
I think an aspect of graffiti art, though, is the somewhat illegal nature of it, and that this project doesn’t really capture the small sense of anarchy that comes with committing to it. Especially in urban areas, graffiti, in my opinion, is often a cry against an established order that governs these areas.
Derek Zhang's Blog 