Psychadelic
3rd Avenue, 4th Street, East Village
This one is important. The coloring scheme is magnificent: purple, yellow and black. the poster is purple, with a light blue to orange-pinky sunset background displayed behind the envisioned apartment block. You can even see that the poster has begun to peel in the top right corner, only to reveal another, lighter purple. The apartments are silvery and nicely add another layer for the tags placed over them.
Over this, there's some silver texta work presumably all by the same writer; and some gold texta work running down the right-hand side. The central motif however is the black swirl. It really is quite beautiful, and its confident trippy swirl harmonises the rich and psychedelic colors around it. This black tag serves as central and strong element to bring all the other disparate elements together. And the yellow paint over it just adds morecolor and movement.
The layering of these texts allows us to see the chronology (the time-line or Tag-Line) that these layers emerged. First there was the silver; then the gold (vying for limited space); then the sprayed black tag; and finally the yellow. The actual time that passed between each of them is harder to trace. But together these levels of color and text has a cumulative effect of psychedelic layers, and competitive harmony.
Over this, there's some silver texta work presumably all by the same writer; and some gold texta work running down the right-hand side. The central motif however is the black swirl. It really is quite beautiful, and its confident trippy swirl harmonises the rich and psychedelic colors around it. This black tag serves as central and strong element to bring all the other disparate elements together. And the yellow paint over it just adds morecolor and movement.
The layering of these texts allows us to see the chronology (the time-line or Tag-Line) that these layers emerged. First there was the silver; then the gold (vying for limited space); then the sprayed black tag; and finally the yellow. The actual time that passed between each of them is harder to trace. But together these levels of color and text has a cumulative effect of psychedelic layers, and competitive harmony.
Labels: East Village, Tag
posted by Ez at 8:59 PM
13 Comments:
I am passionate about photography but now I think I'm beginning to love this new combination. Thanks to yr website - the graffit pics are great for me to look at, adore and learn.
We dont get this from where I come from cos we just cant and we dont.
I wanted to interact with the graffiti throughout the city, and leave my mark without necessarily becoming a writer myself. I have found a way: negotiating the city, wandering around, and capturing images of those things that interest me most. Photography is a lifestyle.
I think u did a brilliant job without speech. Period.
Hope to see more of your creative work.
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"This one is important. The coloring scheme is magnificent: purple, yellow and black. the poster is purple, with a light blue to orange-pinky sunset background displayed....the central motif....." are you effin serious??????? jesus. you sound liek a 50 year old lilly prof trying to explain graff to blue hair old ladies that were bussed in from idaho to the graffiti museum which caters to tourists. seriously, stop. and @ farah...there is this wonderful sight called flickr...go there and you will see both people that have a love for photography AND, for the most part are authentic....and to say "we don't get het this coz we cant is a total crock of shote. that is the entire point of graff...because you can!!! i don;t know where your from but i an sure there is somebody in your town that gets up...find that person....
Actually Farah is from Singapore, where Graffiti has never made serious inroads. One event from 1993 has probably scared off a few potential writers. The police arrested a student from Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay , questioned him and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty for vandalizing the car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Singapore Vandalism Act, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of 3,500 Singaporean dollars (US $2,233 or GB £1,450), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests.
Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on May 5, 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six lashes of the cane, but the then President of Singapore Ong Teng Cheong agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
Flickr is a great source for finding and viewing images. You'll find way more pics of graff on Flickr than here, but it was esaier for me to put texts in this format.
As for sounding like a professor, I have deliberatly taken a semi academic stance. This blog is just my humble interpretation of graffiti and I like viewing and presenting it as a form of archeology or anthropology. I'm actually not really trying to capture the wildness of graff. It's more like I'm presenting the concept of that wildness to those interested. I realize not everyone, particularly people in the culture, will appreciate it. But that's why I say on the header "this is my trip into New York Graffiti." Peace.
no piece. @farah. so you are in a culture that really comes down on graf...well, while caning is mid-evil (hahaha) i personally know several people that have spent months in jail for graff. that's the thing, if you are in you have to be willing to be arrested every day of your life. @ ez, i see where you are going with this, you are gonna "teach" graff culture to students at the polytechnic...the only possible thing that could save you is that MAYBE you will "teach" someone who rebels against you and will turn into a great writer and add soemthing to the culture/scene...that's the spin i would put on it...
ez - you've said it all, thank you. Micheal Fay was the only silly legend caught and he was history - no one followed his steps cos its SINGAPORE. anonymous - you're right "if you're in, you gotta be willingly prepared to be jailed everyday of your life" I am in but I will never put my life to that "jailed" level yet.
Where I come from.. we dont see streets filled of graffit pics, or spraying paints with just a simple color code. Unfortunately here, for those who sees graffiti as an art, u cant cant explore yr creative mind anywhere instead all u can freaking do is just read about it or jump into the neighbouring countries who cares less of vandalism and they start cracking there. For me.. to find such website is great even if it means my graffiti only starts off on a piece of paper.
the struggle continues...
wats good EZ stumbled upon yo page here, ill stuffs on the real. Yo there are graff writers in Singapore blood, back den you have to noe the "street heads" to get yo ways around the street culture, im a graff head myself, been writing fo over 12yrs now, i write Scope reppin homegrown crew Operation Art Core OAC, and also New Yorks notorious KIngs Destroy crew. Hit me up if u happen to come to the lion city again, id be glad to show u around the den bruv, check me at myspace.com/scope_one
PS:- Also Fay wasnt a writer, his just a dickhead underaged punk literaly vandalising stuffs for no reason. Just made us look bad.
Nice post I Like your site very well and continue to do so. I have bookmarked your site.
Singapore Shops.
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