Editing Graffiti (section)

=== Radical and political ===

[[File:M2109 Iraq War Protest (Black Bloc Element).jpg|thumb|upright=1.05|[[Black bloc]] members spray graffiti on a wall during an [[Protests against the Iraq War#March 21, 2009|Iraq War Protest]] in Washington, D.C.]]

Many analysts and art critics see artistic value in some graffiti and recognize it as a form of [[public art]]. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles graffiti is an effective tool of social [[emancipation]], or for the achievement of a political goal.<ref name="thimar">{{cite web |author=Martin Thiele |author2=Sally Marsden |date=25 January 2002 |title=P(ART)icipation and Social Change (.doc file) |url=http://www.jss.org.au/media/docs/participation.doc |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050615155724/http://www.jss.org.au/media/docs/participation.doc |archive-date=15 June 2005 |access-date=11 October 2006 |format=DOC}}</ref>

In times of conflict graffiti has offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and has been an effective tool for establishing dialog. The [[Berlin Wall]] was extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures related to the oppressive [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] rule over the [[East Germany|GDR]].

Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the [[anarcho-punk]] band [[Crass]], who conducted a campaign of stenciling [[anti-war]], [[anarchism|anarchist]], [[feminism|feminist]], and [[Anti-consumerism|anti-consumerist]] messages throughout the [[London Underground]] system during the late 1970s and early 1980s.<ref name="souther">{{cite web|publisher=Southern Records |title=Crass Discography (Christ's reality asylum) |url=http://www.southern.com/southern/label/CRC/09400a.html |access-date=11 October 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060912012809/http://www.southern.com/southern/label/CRC/09400a.html |archive-date=12 September 2006 }}</ref> In [[Amsterdam]], graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered in names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat".<ref name="stockho">{{Cite web |url=https://www.fria.nu/artikel/20057 |title=SFT: Ny dokumentär reder ut graffitins punkiga rötter |date=7 October 2007 |first=Jacob |last=Kimvall |language=sv}}. Dr Rat died in 1981 of an overdose at the age of 20 and was somewhat of an underground hero.</ref> To document the graffiti, a punk magazine was started that was called ''Gallery Anus''. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s, there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.

[[File:Anarchy police.jpg|thumb|Police car graffitied with the anarchist [[circle-A]] symbol]]
The student protests and general strike of [[May 1968 in France|May 1968]] saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as ''L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire'' ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and ''Lisez moins, vivez plus'' ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.

Billboards and other consumer advertising have been the target of graffiti. From 1978 to 1994 tobacco, alcohol and other advertising was regularly painted over in Australia by the group Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions (BUGA UP). At one point, up to fifty billboards were altered a week, with the group specialising in altering advertising slogans and images to change their meaning.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cadambi |first=Anjali |date=2021-09-30 |title=Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions (BUGA UP) campaigns against tobacco advertising, Australia, 1978-1994 |url=https://commonslibrary.org/billboard-utilising-graffitists-against-unhealthy-promotions-buga-up-campaigns-against-tobacco-advertising-australia-1978-1994/ |access-date=2025-04-09 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref>

{{quote box|align=right|width=220px|quote=I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.|source=—Sandra "Lady Pink" Fabara<ref name=chang>{{cite book |title=Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation |last=Chang |first=Jeff |author-link=Jeff Chang (journalist) |year=2005 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-312-30143-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cantstopwontstop00chang/page/124 124]|title-link=Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation }}</ref>}}

The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the [[subvertising]], [[culture jamming]], or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of [[Street Art]], a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.<ref name="ziptopia-switch">{{cite web|url=https://www.zipcar.com/ziptopia/city-living/temporary-street-art-changing-the-graffiti-game|title=Temporary Street Art That's Changing The Graffiti Game|work=Ziptopia|first=Steven|last=Harrington |access-date=26 August 2018}}</ref><ref name="huffpost-streetart">{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-english/street-art-its-not-meant-_b_5610496.html|title=Street Art: It's Not Meant to be Permanent|work=Huffington Post|first=Ron|last=English|date=6 December 2017|access-date=26 August 2018}}</ref>

Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as [[Alexander Brener]], have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest.<ref name=voice>{{cite news|newspaper=Village Voice |title=Border Crossings |url=http://www.villagevoice.com/art/0030,levin,16706,13.html |date=1 August 2000 |access-date=11 October 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061107150218/http://www.villagevoice.com/art/0030%2Clevin%2C16706%2C13.html |archive-date=7 November 2006 }}</ref>
The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the [[Space Hijackers]] did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political [[imagery]].<ref name="tanyabaxter-Gallery">{{cite web|url=http://tanyabaxtercontemporary.com/banksy#!Banksy_Flying_Copper__screen_print_on_paper__100_x_70_cm|title= Banksy |work=Tanya Baxter Contemporary Gallery|access-date=26 August 2018}}</ref><ref name="haynes-banksy">{{cite web|url=http://www.haynesfineart.com/artists/Banksy--|title= Banksy |work=Haynes Fine Art|access-date=26 August 2018}}</ref>

Berlin human rights activist [[Irmela Mensah-Schramm]] has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing [[Neo-Nazism|neo-Nazi]] and other [[Far-right politics|right-wing extremist]] graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=Ramsel|first=Yannick|date=8 January 2021|title=Die Hakenkreuzjägerin|work=Der Spiegel|url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/irmela-mensah-schramm-beseitigt-rassistische-graffiti-und-aufkleber-die-hakenkreuzjaegerin-a-00000000-0002-0001-0000-000174784623}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite news|last=Cataneo|first=Emily|date=12 April 2018|title=The Berliner Who Evaded Arrest|work=Off Assignment|url=https://www.offassignment.com/articles/emily-cataneo}}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" caption="Political graffiti around the world">
File:Graffiti - No To Vaccine - Ystad-2021.jpg|[[Anti-vaccine activism|Anti-vaccine]] graffiti with [[orthodox cross]] at the Catholic Church in [[Ystad]], 2021
File:Anti Iraqi war graffiti by street artist Sony Montana in Cancun, Mexico.jpg|Anti-Iraq war graffiti by street artist Sony Montana in [[Cancún]], Mexico (2007)
File:Vote for Filip Filipovic.jpg|Wall in [[Belgrade]], Serbia, with the slogan "Vote for [[Filip Filipović (politician)|Filip Filipović]]", who was the [[League of Communists of Yugoslavia|communist]] candidate for the [[mayor of Belgrade]] (1920)
File:The separation barrier which runs through Bethlehem.jpg|An interpretation of ''[[Liberty Leading the People]]'' on the separation barrier which runs through [[Bethlehem]]
File:BerlinAnhalterBunker.jpg|WWII bunker near [[Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof|Anhalter Bahnhof]] ([[Berlin]]) with a graffiti inscription ''Wer Bunker baut, wirft Bomben'' (those who build bunkers, throw bombs)
File:Amsterdam Grafitti Freedom Lives When the State Dies.png|[[Anarchism|Anarchist]] graffiti on the train line leading to Central Station in [[Amsterdam]]
File:Riia-002.JPG|"Let's JOKK" in [[Tartu]] refers to political scandal with the [[Estonian Reform Party]] (2012).
File:Pieksämäki - Kekkos-graffiti IMG 0227 C.JPG|Stencil in [[Pieksämäki]] representing former president of Finland, [[Urho Kekkonen]], well known in Finnish popular culture
File:Keep your rosaries graffiti.jpg|[[Female graffiti artists|Feminist graffiti]] in [[A Coruña]], Spain, that reads ''Enough with rosaries in our ovaries''
File:Berliner Mauer.jpg|[[Berlin Wall]]: "Anyone who wants to keep the world as it is, does not want it to remain"
</gallery>