Historically, Graffiti has a deep connection to it’s location, and has often arrived as a result of a city’s cultural climate. In the ‘80’s, graffiti came to have many functions in the urban city scape of New York, and was a form of vandalism that the city sought to eradicate. Ranging from gang tags, to colorful abstract imagery, to poignant societal criticisms, graffiti art became intrenched in New York’s underbelly and an important inspiration for the rise of Hip-Hop culture. Graffiti art was really a response to a city where no one felt safe and various vices were dragging it down to almost irredeemable lows. Artists could no longer just paint or have tame depictions of what was going on, there needed to be a certain extremity to properly encapsulate the seedy, tumultuous times, and graffiti became the answer. Graffiti itself is an erratic and spastic expression of ideas, using vibrant colors and an over-the-top style. The most detailed and ambitious pieces all are eye-catching and visually striking works whose style reflects both the manic depravity, and kinetic energy the time period lent to the artists. “At its loudest, graffiti writing offers a window into how lettering uses shape, line, and color to communicate. These artists, called “kings,” created a kind of typographic language of the streets”(Lee 5). However, the purpose of graffiti and its ultimate impact have seemed to change dramatically with the times. The medium has evolved to be more in line with gentrification than counter culture angst, and as a result has seen its style and purpose change dramatically. The political, conceptual, and aesthetic complexity that lies behind a familiar, and to some vulgar, artifice has been co-opted by developers and young professionals who spearhead gentrification.
This process is shown through my archival collection of graffiti and street murals in the East Village. The archive is organized to show a sort of transition into a more gentrifying part of the village, as the graffiti progressively gets more refined and artistic, and also begins to blend more seamlessly into the environment. Vendors start to allow graffiti to coalesce into their visage, almost as a tool to draw attention. The artworks take on a more corporate meaning as upscale living buildings embrace their presence and use it as a selling point to young professionals wanting to live in the gentrifying area. Graffiti itself is on its way to becoming one of these agents of gentrification and has taken on an entirely different purpose in 2018, one that was probably unforeseen when the art form came to prominence in the early ‘80’s. Ultimately, the silences that remain would come from the more guerilla, authentic graffiti artist’s whose work may not be deemed a good fit for the “new east village”, and ultimately was painted over. Some artist’s contribution to this change may be more overstated and recognized than others’, depending on how well they represent the gentrifying neighborhood’s new “personality”. This archive aims to explore this development and shed light on the evolution of graffiti art in the East Village.