Graphetti: let the people be heard

The Writing On the Wall: an inquiry into the Nature of Graphetti and its Impact on a City past its Prime.
By Michael Kitz

Its been a means for self expression for over four thousand years; from the brush stokes on caves walls in Asia and South America to the pyramids of the Egyptians to the subways of New York City. Graphetti: the common man’s scripture: unconstrained and unrefined.
It’s popularity or notoriety comes in waves. Each generation fading or rising to the previous, but always there is the idea, the passion: whether it exists to mark a territory, decorate the monotony of brick, or simply illustrate the notions of our existence, like a historical record for those that do not write history books, it surrounds us, and tells its own story.
This story concentrates on a rising, a revolution of small sorts, in the industrial ghost town of Pittsburgh, where as businesses continued to fail and buildings hollow, the graphers and taggers alike found knew canvases to festoon; canvases that wouldn’t quickly be painted over or sand-blasted away; canvases that would fade with the lives of those who drew them, witnessed them, and the city in which they lived.

On meaning:
Daniel Kory “Sling”, (Food service worker; “entrepreneur”; 29yo; East Liberty): “See there’s a difference between us and the taggers. We’re Graphers. We use different colors, dimensions, that kind of shit, illustrations and stuff. You know, we’ll write things that mean something…”
“… Yeah sure: proverbs, sayings, thoughts, whatever.
Taggers though, they just want to be known. They just spray their little name on ever little thing: walls, mailboxes, garbage cans, whatever. They’re not saying anything and its not shit to look at, it s not creative, but they do it. And that’s not us.”

On craft:
Shane Mathews “Shame”(Sanitation Department; 23yo; Swissvale): You put down your base first. Well first, you usually draw it, on a piece of paper, and then you find a good spot—visible but not too visible at a time that someone’s gonna shine you, it takes some time to do it right, the way it should be done. Sometimes you’ll work on it in bits and pieces. Put down the base. Trace it. Fill it in, then shadows and glares. You don’t want to make it too obvious that it’s unfinished because you’ll get shined. You have to leave it somewhat completed-looking. Then you come back and get it done. Sometimes.

On vandalism:
Jason Karl (landscaping; 40yo; North Side): No, its not art, its vandalism. These people go around defacing things in the middle of the night. Its vandalism, that’s what it is. Its like someone coming in your house and smearing shit on the walls and pissing on your furniture and then they’re like, “what are you mad about? It’s art man, don’t you like art?” No one wants to see it and no one wants to pay them for it, so they go around and force it on us and it takes our tax money and time to clean up after these bastards. It’s disgusting. Selfish.

On the double-standard:
Rebecca (Healthcare worker; 32; Squirrel Hill): Yeah, its okay for McDonalds and Citizen Banks to cover huge billboards with their ideas and bullshit but its not okay for someone who isn’t trying to make money or gain popularity to put their visions up. I mean what is that? Just because you have money you can plaster walls and buses and everything with your opinions and propaganda and everything, but if you’re poor its vandalism? It’s totally backwards. I mean, heartless advertising is just totally okay, but someone who is trying to cover the monotony and grossness of bare brick and shit with color and stuff are somehow evil criminals. Its like you can’t express yourself unless you’re trying to sell something.

On Seventies Folk:
Paul Simon: The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls.

On etiquette:
Edward McMahon(Vendor, 49, Oakland): I don’t think it’s a problem. I just think that they should respect where it is they are painting it. I mean if it's your house or garage or building, then fine. If it’s a school, no, it doesn’t belong there. It doesn’t belong on other people’s stuff, on other peoples house. If it’s a train tunnel or a back alley, fine. The few people that go to those places can enjoy it, its quaint. It’s different. But it becomes wrong once you start doing it to public buildings and street signs and places where basically, you shouldn’t be doing it with out permission.

On Placement:
Shame: Yeah, we used go down there in the middle of the night, or whenever. And we’d glaze as much as we could. There’d be like six or ten of us. Some people go alone, but it was all so stationary and fun and there was so much room for everyone… Sometimes it would have to do with where it was going. Like if it was going up to Turtle Creek, then we’d do something that refers to Turtle Creek, like a black panther or Grandma Moses or something. Or what it carries. Like if it’s a boxcar that carries lumber and shit like that we’d make the words look like woods or we’d put a hatchet in there, like that. Mostly though, we already had our own ideas and we’d just try to find our own place for it. Then, after a while, like a couple weeks, or if somebody rubbed it out, we’d cover it up with a new one, or enhance it. Some people are political, but I don’t fool with that kind of mark. My glazes are more like proverbs, like new twists on cliches…

On tagging:
Vedder Hill “Skinny Dog”(unemployed; 20; Southside): I thought it was cool you know. Especially the ones that went places. I could tag a bus and hundreds of people would be seeing it all across the city. They’d know me out in Bloomfield even if they didn’t know who I was. They’d see it. It was cool. Tha’s what its about, notoriety. I been here, you know. This is my tag, what’s yours? --stuff like that. You know who do what and you respect it. It’s like some underground celebrity thing.

On city image:
Janice (Executive Assistant, 32, Shadyside): What about the people who come here? When you see graphetti and tags everywhere, you think of gangs, and crime, and all that. You think of poor people and hoodlums. You don’t need that. It’s going to hurt businesses and stuff. I mean, we’re trying to make the city grow, to prosper. If people see that we can’t keep our city clean they’re not going to trust it. It’s dirty. That’s what it is, it’s dirty.
Jesse McClaen (independent institute employee; 26; Bloomfield): I don’t really notice it, to tell you the truth. Most of it is such terrible work anyway. There are way too many amateurs out there I think. If it’s good then I am all for it, but if its not good then its just stupid.
Joe (retired, 66, Wilkinsburg): Well, its always been around and I guess its always going to be…it’s just a fact of life, some people are going to spray paint on walls, its nothing new, I’ve grown to accept it. Maybe it gets a little out of control sometimes, but for the most part, it’s very normal. I’ve lived in many places and it isn’t unique at all. I think it’s rather futile to spend too much time and money on it, what with all the other problems in the world. You learn as you get older to pick your battles, and that’s one that I don’t care very much about.

On Historical Value
Violet (college student, 20, Oakland): Its history, its historic. What graphetti a generation surrounds itself with tells about their beliefs and desires and hopes and it records what they find beautiful... It’s a voice. And it shouldn’t be just scoffed at simply because its done mysteriously or eccentrically. There are real patterns there. You’ll see fads come and go: styles and symbols. They’ll be actual conversations. Its all very fascinating if you’re open to it
Joseph Barber (Academic Advisor, 30, Edgewood): I’d say it’s somewhat historical, sure. History. I wonder if they persecuted people for it back in the days of the caveman. You know, Oog beating Ulg with a club after catching him defacing his cave with pictures of Wooly Mammoths and other obscenities.
What we have on our walls and bridges says something about who we are and where we’re at, sure…now what it says I have no goddamn idea. I’m sure in a thousand years or so they’ll have some nice theories though. Sure.
Tessa Orlyk (college student, 22, South Side): It’s about as historically significant as throwing garbage on the ground.

On the Underground:
Shame: I mean if you really want to get into it then you got graphers and taggers. But you also got sub-groups and shit of those. You got your graphers who do words and then those who do, like, illustrations and shit. The graphers all kind of know each other, respect each other’s work and shit, sometimes working together. They got an understanding you see, a respect for each other. Like, you don’t spoil no ones glaze unless its been up for at least a month, at least a month, and if its real good, like more than five colors and all that, you don’t spoil it at all, you can add to it, but you don’t spoil it.
You got theses cats that do murals with paintbrushes and shit, but there’s something legit about using real paint, it’s not underground, it’s just painting. They do it in broad daylight and no one bats an eye.,. you know. People somehow respect the paintbrush; don’t ask me why, its just more legit to people I guess. It’s usually simpler too. People understand it easier. I think people like it better when they understand it.

Jason Karl: Most of the shit doesn’t even make sense. What’s the sense in writing something that no one can read. It’s fucking idiotic. Isn’t it idiotic? Some jerks got nothing better to do.

Shame: When you talk about taggers, a lot of that shit is gang related: marking territory, communicating through codes and shit. The codes are different everywhere, but if you can read it its pretty interesting stuff. Suddenly the dumpster behind the China Buffet is telling a story. Somebody fucked over somebody else, they got marked, they got hit, somebody else is going after the hitter, someone else writes a homage to the hittee, all kinds of shit. Its cool.
Then there are the taggers that are just like rouges and shit. They go from city to city tagging the same dumbass tag everywhere. Makes them feel important I guess. I don’t know.
Then there are the Glory-hounds. They’s the taggers that just try to tag the most crazy places they can, like the tops of bridges and shit. They want you to go “Holy Shit! How’d he do that?” They get off on that.
Then you got the stencil taggers. They just, well, stencil.


Sometimes a city gets tough, and becomes determined to curb this sort of thing. They try to clean up their image, and that usually entails covering up graphetti. But they can’t just paint over it or wash it off, because it could just be replaced, and they don’t just want to deter it, they want to reduce it happening to a significant extent. They create stiffer penalties and put more emphasis on trying to catch people. They start a task force. Put out patrols on known targets. They sometimes surround the train yards and bus garages with high fences topped with barbed wire. They install cameras. They get some guards. Sometimes the guards will have dogs with them.

On the crack down:
Sling [recalling when they cracked down in New York City where he once resided]: It’s real bad when they put up those fences and shit. I mean at first we’d just cut them or climb them, but then they got cameras and dogs and shit and that just sucked. It was sad.
It becomes like an addiction or something. You need to get that new idea out again you know? You need to. I mean I tried sometimes, to like put a little bit down when I saw things parked outside the lot or a train going slow and you’d just hang on it. But it’s not the same, You know. It’s not as good. Its kid’s stuff. It’s just not satisfying as much… But there would always be walls. And they couldn’t dog them all…
It was sad, what they did, just sad. But you can only oppress people for so long until—BANG!
Ryan Heilman (Real Estate Developer; 40, Hill District): I’ve had to power wash my building four times. If I see someone doing it on my block again I’ll shoot the Motherfucker.



Walls are painted, sketched, plastered, glazed. Street lamps, mailboxes, and dumpsters: tagged. Shadow walkers looking for the perfect surface, the prime placement; armed only with a can of spray paint and a pair darting eyes. Different motives, but the same relationship to a can of compressed air and color; various people with various backgrounds, but the same degree of outlaw in the eyes of the authorities. Assorted purposes, except for one…
The opinions and thoughts on Graphetti, what it is and what it means, are as vast and motley as the Graphetti itself. If one thing is certain, it is that, like all art, Graphetti is a highly subjective and elusive medium. While on one hand it is a rich underground of expression; on the other it is the sign of a cities growing destitution and lost respect. Whether or not it and to what extent it needs to be regulated is the decision of those who live in the city. But as far as Mayor Rendell is concerned, the writing is on the wall.




(Disclaimer: many of the people interviewed only exist in the imagination of Michael Kitz)