Urban Hiking: Atlanta Graffiti Art
Graffiti is often considered an eye sore. For many, it signifies the “bad” areas of town - places to avoid when you’re walking alone late at night. Most communities fight to prevent it, believing it lowers the perceived quality (i.e. prosperity and safety) of a neighborhood. Graffiti has long been considered the territorial pissings of gangs and transients. Personally, I hardly notice it anymore. In Atlanta, graffiti is so prevalent, it’s easily ignored. It blankets vast portions of our concrete jungle, blending seamlessly into the gritty urban backdrop of city living.
However, today, I joined a group of “urban hikers” here in Atlanta and gained a brand new appreciation for the art of graffiti. The group was made up of about thirty people. Together we enjoyed a lovely Saturday morning touring our local area and actually looking at the graffiti many of us tune-out in the normal grind of our daily lives. When you’re really looking, you find that there’s something incredibly artistic happening in the colorful, cartoonish, often indecipherable words and images that are generally mistaken for mere signs of urban decay.
Now, I’m not talking about every profanity-laced tag you see on the side of the highway. As I learned today, there’s a kind of hierarchy in graffiti and yes, some of it amounts to little more than territorial pissings. However, some pieces are quite obviously much more. Many might easily be viewed as social commentaries - expressions of the modern condition or some kind of collective artistic rebellion.
Interestingly, there’s also a hierarchy within the artists’ community. In fact, the younger newbies will typically find their work quickly covered up by those who have “paid their dues.” Our tour guides today, two well-versed graffiti artists, had a keen eye for recognizing each artist’s individual write-style or signature script. They pointed out some particular pieces that were done by world-famous graffiti artists - those who have achieved nearly untouchable status in the hierarchy. Subsequently, our leaders also pointed out several works done by, presumably, overzealous neophytes which they predicted would be quickly covered by those who outrank them.
And while you may consider it an act of vandalism, there’s also a code of ethics respected by most graffiti artists. According to our tour guides: No churches, no banks, no schools and no homes. In the same breath, however, one of our leaders acknowledged that the last item on the list may again be in play. The spiraling economy has left many abandoned houses (no longer “homes”) which have become tempting blank canvases. Clearly, in art and social commentary, sometimes the medium is the message.
I thought I’d share some of the pictures I took along the way. Please keep in mind that I rarely pick up a camera (though I’m trying to get better about that) so I apologize for the completely unremarkable framing, lighting and whatever else stands out as glaringly amateur. I’ve also included a few notes about what’s what and where (I think) we are.
We started off in Reynoldstown on Memorial Drive by the old Depot and basically followed the BeltLine for a while.
I believe this HUGE stretch of graffiti is on Wylie Street. The pics don’t really show just how long this wall is. But it’s pretty amazing. It’s always been a hot-spot for taggers and for a long time, it was covered in profanity and the kind of stuff no one wants in their neighborhood. A few years ago, Wonder Root, a non-profit organization got a grant to improve this area. They invited some of the best graffiti artists in the world to help turn the community eye sore into this amazing stretch of modern art. This helped keep the neighborhood “flavor” but made the wall much nicer to look at.
At the entrance to Krog Tunnel in Cabbagetown…
Inside the tunnel…Okay, the graffiti is really cool but I’m still glad to have been with a big group of people walking through here. This tunnel has always kind of freaked me out, even in a car. On foot, I would NEVER venture alone!
