honorary mentions: limitations of space

nearing the end . . .

It's weird to think that there are only a little less than two weeks until the final draft of the paper is due. After working on it for so long, I've grown kind of attached to the topic I'm working on, and even after typing the last sentence of my rough draft I still felt that there were still so many things left to be said. Here's a few examples of artwork and topics that I wanted to include in my draft, but simply did not have the space/adequate scholarly evidence for:

Banksy's Exit through the Gift Shop - the documentary that spiked my initial interest in the relationship between consumer culture and art, Banksy's oeuvre

Graffiti and art murals during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests - and their role in shaping public conscientiousness and city-wide solidarity

Grunge and street art aesthetics - how counterculture movements embrace "dirty" and "grimy" imagery to show their disenchantment with modern society

There's no limit to what can be said about street art, just as with any other form of art-- because the interpretation of art relies on the gaze and opinions of the viewer. Obviously, for every culturally significant art mural that is plastered on city walls, there are a thousand poorly drawn penises and haphazardly scribbled tags that litter our modern spaces. Some may dismiss graffiti altogether after having poor experiences with their property being marked up or having hateful words scrawled on their streets. To those people, I fully empathize with the sentiment that street art can make an otherwise good place look dirty and unkempt.

At the same time, there's something about street art that has always been so beautiful and striking to me. For me, it's like seeing "___ was here" penciled in a textbook and having the profound realization that there were generations of students before you who held that same textbook that's in your hands, equally bored and wanting to leave an impact, however small. It's a shout-in-the-dark, an anonymous confession from someone who's tired of being just another person passing through. The desire to leave behind one's mark on a place is universal to the human experience. In fact, take a look at some ancient graffiti below, from Pompeii to cave art.

Left top: Temple of Seti I at Abydos, assumed to be Sekhmet, the lion goddess, over 3,0000 years ago

Left bottom: typical Pompeii graffiti used in political campaigning, perfectly preserved from 2,000 years ago

Right: Cave of Hands, showing hundreds of stenciled hands made in prehistoric Argentina around 9,000 years ago

tagging is human nature

If we can learn anything from these ancient graffiti paintings, it's that tagging is something deeply innate to the human experience. I find the Pompeii graffiti fascinating, and if you have the time, I highly encourage you to look through some of the translations of the messages. It's hilarious and weirdly comforting to see messages like "I have buggered men," "Defecator, may everything turn out okay so that you can leave this place," (in front of the bathroom), "Epaphra, you are bald!" and my personal favorite: "O walls, you have held up so much tedious graffiti that I am amazed you have not already collapsed in ruin."

I think what makes it so fascinating to me is the fact that we think of ancient Rome as this clean, advanced place with people who were markedly different from us. But one look at their graffiti proves that the everyday people were experiencing everyday worries and constantly thinking about sex, love, hate, raunchy jokes, insults, and existentialism, just like we do. It makes me feel deeply connected to these people, even though we're thousands of years apart.

It also makes me think-- one day, thousands of years from now, will historians be looking at our graffiti to study our current society and our culture? Or, will they look to the archives of our social media posts-- the modern-day graffiti wall-- for more insight into who we were? Something that seems like an unsightly nuisance can be a goldmine for learning about the real culture, identity, and hustle-bustle of a place. In the same way, a Twitter thread, or a random inscription under a bridge can reveal the true nature of our modern-day society. So keep writing!

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