Graffiti Against The System

G.A.T.S.

For me, in regards to graffiti, my personal feelings and how the line of demarcation drawn between "art" and straight up "vandalism" is defined, seems subtle to the point of unidentifiable. Yet, when I see a tag on a mirror or some other surface in some poor business, my feelings are hard and nearly complete.  The cost of a mirror could pay for some parking ticket or other unnecessary fine from the city.  It could feed the family for a week, pay a bill that has been delinquent for months...or even to have just the option of giving back to an employee in some form, for integrity's sake.

WTF is the political symbolism in destroying another person's property?
The freedom to cause uncensored harm?
My mind looks for reasons... maybe it's because they're assholes-the business owner of whatever- in which case would be a matter of retaliation...no surprise or talent need be.

And when an artist makes rise to a certain level of Idea, be it by claim or legend, a bar of expectation is reached and must be maintained if the "people" are to continue the Faith found in the presented leadership.
And when they fail, we fail as a people who find inspiration in that ranging dare speaking to the depths of hope and highest beliefs within.

Two months ago my heart sank upon discovering art  in the restroom of a small cafe in San Francisco.  On a mirror was a piece by GATS.  And though tags on the mirrors of innumerable restrooms of innumerable private or public locales are nothing new, in my mind I felt torn as GATS symbolized some sort of transcendent push and cause towards a greater purpose.  I wasn't even sure why I had always been attracted to the work.   I blogged about the encounter.

In Life, every event shapes our experiences to come and even the view of what once was.   That day, I had to turn my head in the other direction from graffiti and hold my opinions for another time; to allow a skewed view of the medium would be a great misfortune and a movement in the direction of closed heart.

Today I reread that post and clicked on the link which provided a Google Image search of GATS. Head shaking in confusion, I was drawn to look further for any explanation; his work spoke of so much more depth.  I just needed to find meaning. I want to believe graffiti is more than artist-delinquents hiding behind a mask of social and political freedom in order to speak to some fad demographic.

Eventually the search produced this:

The Voice of Art

Born Into Law...

Tempered to Adhere

Mechanized  Rusting Marking Time

Clinging Toxic Concrete

This Poem is in its Cage

Each Letter is a fence.

The bleeding sum of my conditioning

To the Border of Yours.

A Sun's Wealth in a Fortress.

The Weight of Excess Rests on Fragile Clouds

Laughing at Your Pitiful Subway Fare.

Glass Shatters

Descending Shards Pin Skin to

The Bounty of Dismantling.

The City is Ours.

-Roberto Miguel

Maybe that tag on the Cafe mirror was an earlier piece.  Maybe it wasn't. Characters rise and fall and rise and fall again.  The impact that our actions make can and will have everlasting marks.  Their aim is to shape the world around us.  A great  movement and the results achieved are never negated  by the mistakes of the future; to err is human.  I dream of something greater than I that I have not yet become a part of.   G.A.T.S. and his fellow collaborators have pushed past the realm of courage and occupy the state of revolutionary.  For me, such achievements are humbling, for which, I am grateful.