#graffitifilm

This article talks about the production history around the film ‘Graffiti’, where I captured the different types of markings I could find in Plymouth.

I have always enjoyed graffiti. Growing up in South Africa, it was not really something I would see, especially as I was not living in a built-up city. To me, it has always felt like living in a ‘world of art’. The rebellious nature of it all was interesting too.

Originally, in November 2022, my filmmaking intentions were to become a documentarian. I wanted to focus on Plymouth in particular. As such, I started with two stories: the Sundial in city centre, and graffiti.

Both stories had the headache that, the more I learnt about the topics, the more I wanted to learn. There was always a ‘deeper’ path I could go, and as such I kept digging. Overall, this is what stopped either of these documentaries from being made — I did not know when to, or how to, stop researching.

The research I did into Plymouth graffiti was extremely rewarding. As I looked at more and more graffiti (I was practically going down every side alley hunting the stuff) the more patterns started to emerge.

I started to recognise different artists, where they were likely to tag, who they were tagging with, the drama between different artists, the groups they were a part of, how long they were on the scene, etc.

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A tangent: I call them artists, which may rub some people the wrong way: just because they don’t get permission, does not make them less of an artist. Why Banksy is famous, and not one of these people, in my mind is mostly arbitrary. They are individuals that participate in their art for the love of ‘the game’. There is no real financial incentive. Many of them do it because it is fun, therefore, I cannot think of a better moniker than ‘artist’.

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One element about graffiti that I find very interesting is how it tells a ‘city wide story’, a notation that ‘at a point, a person was here, and they did this’. Graffiti in a way immortalises a moment, and this moment in a memetics kind of way gets experienced by everyone that walks through the same area. Often, graffiti almost feels like a subliminal art entity, or a ghost. We are all seeing the longing remnants of an action, of what some would call ‘an act of vandalism’ — an explosion frozen in time. Even if the graffiti artists are often not trying to share a deep message, the thought of ‘I exist’ is a powerful one in and of itself.

I find it amusing how there is a history present in graffiti sprayed walls. Not only that, but a chronology. Older pieces faded and buried behind fresher tags. The voices of a previous generation of artists peaking through the cracks. Faint echoes of the past. This is not something unique to graffiti — if you write a note, go into the city, and squeeze it into a small opening somewhere, it could be hundreds of years until your words re-emerge, calling forward. Graffiti is just the more flamboyant version of this.

This shine and glamor manifests in a few ways. Who can get the most impressive spot? High and hard to get to, or in the public and as such hard to apply? How often do you tag? Who do you tag with?

In Plymouth, I noticed that Viro often attempted some ‘hard to reach’ locations which I too feel compelled to give credit to.

The drama in the graffiti space is something I learnt about as well through the course of making this film. Taggers would get crossed out, or covered up by others. A pattern emerged of who would do this to whom. There is also the online discourse of which taggers are seen as respected or not in the community.

(Tags crossed out by other artists)

I think my personal favourite artist in the Plymouth graffiti scene is EEK — I have no clue who they are, but we seem to frequent a few of the same places. I like how each of their pieces are slightly different. They work with stickers mostly as opposed to the other spray paint based taggers. When there is a heavy rain, many of their works seems to fall off in the rain. I have pinched a few when they were on their last legs. Sorry EEK, they are mine 👅.

Graffiti is also a domain in which all parts of the political spectrum take part. Either because they want their message to get attention by the general public, or because perhaps they felt that that their message cannot exist in other spaces, such as the internet due to censorship. Regardless of the message, they are from people who feel like their messages need to be seen.

I have engaged in some ‘counter-graffiti’, removing transphobic and political messaging that (to me) is abhorrent. It’s all part of the cycle.

Another battle I have seen, is the conversation around ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ graffiti. Plymouth Artists Together (PAT) seems to be the primary local group that does ‘legal’ graffiti, with other mural works given by the council to selected artists. Personally, I like both types. Though, there is an air of smugness around some artists ‘doing the right legal thing’ that honestly, personally makes me cringe a bit. I am not saying PAT is to blame at all. Just some of the messaging online makes me understand why a tagger would immediately tag over their hard work.

(An unused tunnel, covered in, in my opinion, really pretty graffiti — to be taken over by ‘legal’ graffiti.)

It is funny to also look at the cleaning industry that exists in Plymouth as a result of graffiti. ‘Devon Cleaning’, ‘Riolett Services’, ‘Scrub & Shine South West’ etc. The specific rules around graffiti also explains why some things appear to never be cleaned. Apparently, each private company is responsible for their own cleaning, and if your house gets tagged, you need to cover the removal cost.

(From the Plymouth.gov website.)

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This was one of the biggest pains of a video to edit: I decided to upgrade to Sony Vegas 20 — every time I cropped something the program crashed. At least 22 times the software died. I had to save religiously.