In the depths of West Auckland on a fine Saturday afternoon in early November, a small section of Henderson was bombed. Now, thankfully this had nothing to do with a military invasion or wanton destruction of private property, although, after reading this story, you may disagree. It's all about art. Or, more specifically, graffiti art.
The Corbans Winery Estate is the scene for the Levi's Burners graffiti art competition, held for the benefit of the young guys who have been on Waitakere City's Tag-Free Zone course. Local hip-hop producer and DJ DLT, of True School/Wrecognize fame, has been actively involved with schemes like this one which are aimed at getting youths off the street, out of tagging and into bombing, using spray cans to express themselves. He has worked on five or six such courses in Waitakere, Wellington and on Auckland's North Shore. Today, he is co-judging a bombing competition alongside Daniel Tipett, another practitioner of the art form. The origins for this programme came about 18 months ago, when DLT, Tipett and Otis Frizzell from MC OJ & Rhythm Slave worked with a bunch of local kids for three weeks on a big mural in New Lynn. At the end of it, the council went to work to give the kids an opportunity to carry on with their artistic endeavours, hence the course.
"I try and say things to them that I slipped on when I was younger and try and give them a few guides," says DLT, who sees himself when he was younger in a lot of these kids. "Like, take everything seriously. If you want to be treated like a human, treat others like a human first and then it will come to you. I teach them things like karma. It's straight up and down, black and white. You can't expect to go and steal a lolly today and expect to get praised tomorrow. You gotta pay for that -- and you will. I tell them to start from scratch. The first thing you do is start opening the door for your mother; let people go in front of you. You humiliate yourself; strip away all that evil stuff. Like, when you think, 'Ah, I need those Jordans', or, 'I need to be the baddest graffiti writer in town,' or, 'Ah man, I need the cool haircut', throw it all away. Give it up. I tell them, 'When you're sitting still and doing nothing, that is you, as natural as you can get, so start from there'. 'Cause some of these guys are caning a hundred miles an hour to jail; they're not even aware."
Graffiti is a term that was first used by the ancient Romans. DLT points out that it goes right back to primitive man drawing on the walls of caves. "From what I know, [modern] graffiti started with the resurgence in the late '60s, early '70s. New York had its first graffiti epidemic as a result of hip-hop in the early '70s. It hit New Zealand after a documentary called Style Wars was screened here in 1983 or early '84. I saw that and that was it, I was sold, because I was the same age as the guys I saw on the doco and I had the same feelings about society and the system, i.e. the result of being an outcast, a cultural outcast, which is a political outcast. It's a way of attacking the system that has denied you. That's what I used it for; that's how it affected me. It had little to do with self-promotion because, at that age, when I was 17, I didn't think that I was going to be capable of anything significant in society. I wasn't a cricket player; I wasn't a First XV rugby player; I didn't play the guitar. There weren't many options. It's part of what has made us politically aware. We've used the medium."
DLT describes bombing as "the written, visual art of hip-hop. A good description I've heard of it is the Puerto Rican and Latino children of New York City painting the grey concrete structures of that city into something that more resembles their own culture, which is very colourful, vibrant, bright, like a tropical forest. I liked that description 'cause that's kinda what it is. Basically, you want to put a big-ass colourful design on a horrible grey wall".
New York is the acknowledged home of graffiti art, with the subway trains proving the most popular canvases for artists in the 1970s and early '80s. However, in 1987, the Metropolitan Transport Authority replaced the old subway cars with new paint-resistant stainless steel cars. Graffiti then moved to walls and hand-ball courts. Another development during the '80s was bombing's shift from the street into the art gallery. On the one hand, you had city officials trying to eradicate graffiti; on the other, you had art dealers trying to commodify it. Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat are perhaps the most well known street 'artists' to tap into the art mainstream. As Basquiat (aka Samo) came up from tagging the subways and into the art scene, Haring, an art school dropout, was slumming it down in the bowels of New York. Another writer who went mainstream was Fab Five Freddy, who leapt from the art scene to a much wider audience, thanks to his appearance in music videos like Blondie's Rapture, which featured his writing.
This 'graff as art' development received a mixed response from writers. Some felt that putting graffiti in galleries was selling out, that taking it out of its social context was taking it away from what gave it meaning. Fab Five Freddy, one of the New York writers to go overground, disagrees: "I think it's time everyone realised graffiti is the purest form of New York art. What else has evolved from the streets?" So, while the City of New York was attempting to eradicate subway graffiti, leading to a decline in the early '80s, Haring was getting as much as $350,000 for his works.
Tagging is the most visible form of graffing. You see it everywhere these days. But what's the difference between bombing and tagging? "Nothing," states DLT. "Absolutely the same thing. Tagging is the quick version of bombing. Tagging is saying your message really fast."
"There's still a negative public image about it," says Merk, one of the Levi's Burners contestants, who has been bombing since the '80s. "I've had trouble with those guys out in Mt Albert -- Grey Power. They hate taggers 'cause all they see is their white picket fences with tags on them and that's all they know. But there is a deeper side to it than what they've seen. And there's the police in there too; mainly people in power."
Why has tagging received such a negative image, then? "'Cause they wreck so much stuff!" laughs Merk. "Tagging is just vandalism. I used to tag. Still do, now and again, if I feel the need to. I don't go all out, like some of the kids do. I'd rather be doing pieces than tagging. You put more energy and effort into it and get a better outcome. Tagging is where everyone begins. They see something like this [indicates his piece] and go, 'Ah yeah, I can do that'. But everyone has to start somewhere. All these young kids, they all started off the same way I did. I got in trouble for this but now you can make money out of it. This course, it's dope. I wish I had the same thing when I was young. These kids, they're way more positive now than what they would be if they didn't have it. They could get into some creative jobs through this; graphic art or whatever. This is a good beginning for them."
Truce, who is on the Tag-Free Zone course, gives me the run down on tagging. "In New Zealand, there's two types of taggers. There's a writer tagger and there's a tagger. Tagging is gang-related, as in they just want to hook up their gangs and be known. They want to take over turf, so by way of taking over that turf they leave their tags; like, 'We've been here'. But the writers are about keeping them up, so they won't die. Everyone's got to keep knowing them and respecting them, you know, 'cause they're there. Once their tag has gone and they've stopped writing, then they just die and nobody wants to know that dude. So what keeps a writer up and good inside himself, is someone coming up to him and saying his name and giving him respect. That's a writer. The taggers that are gang-related just want fame. They're not after respect or anything. But a writer will just want respect from another writer. That's what a writer's meant to do. Ours is art; theirs is the gang. They want to die; we want to live. We'll keep on living because we'll do our art, until we're old and can't do it no more. But gangs want to do their tags and they can die the next day, just because of their tag.
"With graffing, everyone's doing it," continues Truce. "That's why young kids get into it. The reason why we do it is 'cause it's another way of expressing what we feel. It's something we enjoy doing, besides working. It's like another way of beating the system, doing something we love which the system don't."
A few other guys I spoke to on the Tag-Free Zone course mentioned the trouble tagging causes. "It's like trouble between everybody," admits one. "Tagging makes fights, cops, go to prison... If you get caught tagging by a cop, soon as you get back to the cells, they just give you the hell bash. You think they'd go after proper criminals. We're not criminals. We're just trying to express our art, express what we believe in. That's not right, aye. It's the only way guys like us can get famous. You have to own, like, a fuckin' BMW to get noticed around here. You gotta be a serial rapist or something like that to be famous. But not us. We express our art. That's our own way of getting fame. Other guys, they do stupid stuff like cause fights all the time."
Graffing and tagging are still widely perceived in the public eye as vandalism. Dot Barrington, the Waitakere City scheme's coordinator, says public reaction to the boys' work varies. "Some people want to cut their fingers off. I can sympathise with that. A little can of spray paint can do up to $10,000 damage. Then there are others who think it's great. What this course is about is telling these kids you can be whatever you want to be, you just have to want it. It's not just about self-esteem, it's about doing it for yourself."
Over the 18 months the scheme has been going, the guys on the Tag-Free Zone courses have done more than 44 murals throughout Waitakere City, including a tile mural in Parr's Park. Barrington says that they've had about 60 kids through the course. "Only two have left; gone back to crime," she reveals. "They got caught by the police. Just getting these kids to turn up is an achievement. One of the kids, Rats, has been on the course for a few months and he turns up. He doesn't turn up for anything, not even parole, so that's a big step."
Rats has had his share of run-ins with the long arm of the law. He's been caught tagging a couple of times now. "Last time, I ended up on 60 Minutes and the front page of the Herald twice!" he says, bemused. "I was actually doing a real one [a graff piece] when I got caught. They got me for GRIM; I actually tag RATS. So they did me for RATS, really. They gave me 200 hours for unlawful damage. I only got 30 hours the first time. I should have only got a $150 fine the second time. 'Cause I made such a big mess around Auckland, they made a big deal out of me.
They charged me for tagging but that wasn't tagging. The judge even said it wasn't tagging. But 'cause they knew who I was, they're gonna do me for the bigger crime."
Another one of the young graffers tells me about what happens when the police catch up with you. "The consequence now if you get caught tagging, you go to the army," he insists. "My mate got taken away for 16 weeks; in prison for tagging. That's what made me stop and want to do this. I seen my mates on the course and I just bucked my ideas up and got into doing this. Come to the course; go and do factories; ask factory people if you can do their fences 'cause it's better than tagging. Makes it look tidier And people, they just love this shit. They say, 'How'd you do this? You got talent'. We got talent. We learn how to do it. You give a can to someone who's never used one, they go do some lines and they realise how hard it is. "I've just started doing this," he continues. "I've been doing for two months now. My first piece I did was in Glen Eden, by the train station. It came out the bomb. I was real rapt. I was like, look, 'It's my first piece! I coulda done better!' But I kinda rushed it. It's a bit dangerous 'cause you're real paranoid and shaking, watching out for people who are watching you. It's better when you get permission from the people, then you can relax, take your time."
In today's graffiti art competition, they've only got one hour to do a piece which some said felt a bit rushed. Usually, a big piece can take half a day, sometimes longer. Talking to these kids, you get a sense that this isn't just 'pick up a can and point'. There's definitely considerable skill involved, as evidenced by the amazingly talented work on view. "This is art," boasts Truce. "Nobody could do this, you know? Like, no normal old Joe that comes from art class can do this. This is something that we, like, specialised in. Real art comes from the heart."
"I still hold tagging and graff as my backbone," says DLT; "as much as my own culture, which is Maori. That is two different realms. Hip-hop is my realm in modern urban society and my Maori tanga. That's why I'm a hip-hopper because it's very similar. It runs parallel, like my family's culture. It's expression; it's revolution; it's all of those things that make you a better person. Not a rich person in a money sense but, mentally, it enriches you, makes you appreciate other people's art."
What's the future for graff?
"Graffiti is never going to go away," said DLT at the graffiti art awards presentation the night of the competition. (Third prize went to Orphan, second went to Fatso and the winner was Merk). "Once we get rid of the ghetto, then the tagging will stop. This is a start. Waitakere started it. All the other councils around the country are starting to pick up on what Waitakere City are doing. It's gonna happen throughout the whole Motu. There'll be tons of graff artists."
You can take that as a declaration, if not of war, then at least that you are going to get bombed -- and soon!
Props to DLT, Dot Barrington and all the kids on the course.
Graffiti Glossary
Bomb
To cover an area with your tag or throw ups, i.e. to go out bombing.
Bubble letters
A type of graffiti font, often used for throw up letters because of their rounded shape which allows for quick formation.
Burn
To beat the competition with your style. Also refers to a really good piece, one that 'burns'.
Burner
A very good piece. A burner is a piece that has good, bright colours, good style (often in wildstyle) and seems to 'burn' off the wall.
Crew
A loosely organised group of writers who also tag the crew initials along with their name.
Dis
To insult. Comes from 'disrespect'.
Dope
'Cool!'
Flicks
Photos of graffiti. A writer's only permanent record of their work. Also called 'flix'.
Getting up
Originally used in New York in reference to successfully hitting a train, now it means to hit up anything, anywhere, with any form of graffiti.
Graff, Graffing
Short for graffiti, as in graff artist.
Piece
A graffiti painting. Short for masterpiece, perhaps?
To piece
To paint graffiti. Not just tagging but creating a piece
Props
Respect. Comes from 'proper respect'
.
Tag
A writer's signature, done with a marker pen or spraypaint. It's the writer's logo, his/her stylised personal signature.
Throwup
Over time, this term has been applied to many different types of graffiti.
Throwups can be from one or two letters to a whole word or a whole roll call of names. Throwups are generally only one or two colours, no more.
Throwups are either quickly done bubble letters or very simple pieces using only two colours.
Wack
Substandard or incorrect. Anything that looks cheesy or weak.
Badly formed letters. Dumb tags
.
Wildstyle
A complicated construction of interlocking letters. A hard style that consists of lots of arrows and connections. Wildstyle is considered one of the hardest styles to master and pieces done in wildstyle are often completely indecipherable to non-writers.
Writer
Practitioner of the art of graffiti.
Glossary info sourced from http://www.graffiti.org
check em out for a comprehensive history of graffiti art.
Also see www.grafcafe.com a site put together by two former writers. It includes a link to the Krylon spraypaints safety data sheet, with the instructions "stay alive - click here".
This site achieved some notoriety when it received major media coverage after the Boston Police Department who used the crew database at their site to bust writers.
Det. Joseph Bankowski, a self-described "47 year old cybercop", says he liked the site so much he downloaded every piece of information he could from it. This part of the site has since been disabled.
The internet is also becoming a new outlet for writers to expose their work globally. www.bronxmall.com is a community-based site that originates from the New York's Bronx and features links to graffiti works in that area @ bronxsidewalks.