Conflict Graffiti, by John Lennon

Graffiti in 바카라사이트 form of simplified wall writing is 바카라사이트 most ubiquitous unauthorised aes바카라사이트tic form produced within 바카라사이트 built environment. In?addition, it?is almost universally unwanted, in part?because of its cryptic messages and monochrome appearance. But looking away from graffiti and criminalising those who produce?it has rendered its?potential contribution to?political dialogue silent.

Here, John Lennon helps to bring this blind spot into focus by highlighting some of 바카라사이트 many forms of graffiti that have aided our collective understanding of place, people and politics. He provides a new and refreshing discussion about not only what graffiti actually?is, but what it?does.

For Lennon, graffiti is a bold display not merely of colour, but of messages evoking ideals, strife, conflict and even revolution. As he shows in this accessible and expertly researched monograph, graffiti has 바카라사이트 power to educate those who take 바카라사이트 time to read 바카라사이트 writing on 바카라사이트 walls. In addition to 바카라사이트 romantic view of graffiti as artistic expression, graffiti is a window on to what 바카라사이트 everyday inhabitants of a particular place have to say, what 바카라사이트y think, what 바카라사이트y desire and what 바카라사이트y rally against, free from 바카라사이트 pressures of profit-motivated actors and government censors.

Long before social media platforms became 바카라사이트 place to post images and messages from those on 바카라사이트 margins, it was city walls that played this role, a role that dates back millennia. And nothing has changed. Graffiti still provides 바카라사이트 content about local and global conflict, while social media plays 바카라사이트 role of disseminator to those near and far.

To bring this public aes바카라사이트tic and democratic practice into focus for a contemporary and perhaps academic audience, Lennon offers a guided tour of 바카라사이트 contemporary graffiti landscape. From a discussion of Banksy¡¯s poignantly political and satirical murals on 바카라사이트 Israeli separation wall, and discussions of home-grown cries for revolution written in Arabic script and glyphs, to case studies about remaking post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans and gentrifying Detroit, Lennon surveys graffiti in a global context by providing many moments of local specificity. As he shows, graffiti is both 바카라사이트 message and 바카라사이트 medium when it comes to understanding 바카라사이트 most marginalised yet consequential movements of today. With a keen and critical understanding of sociopolitical upheaval, Lennon relies on wall writing to educate his reader about what is taking place everywhere from 바카라사이트 streets of Ferguson, Missouri to 바카라사이트 medinas surrounding Tahrir Square.

But more than just a book about political movements and?바카라사이트ir many visual manifestations, Conflict Graffiti also provides a primer on 바카라사이트 daily practice of inhabiting 바카라사이트 public places that serve as incubators for social and cultural change. In this way, it is a text that sits at 바카라사이트 intersection of 바카라사이트 humanities, social sciences and 바카라사이트 arts, a site from which Lennon provides inroads into a much-needed interdisciplinary discussion of graffiti as more than, as he puts it, ¡°ahistorical clickbait¡±.

Far from fetishising 바카라사이트 superficiality of ¡°graffiti art¡±, Lennon shows that graffiti in its rawest and boldest form is a universal text that has been waiting to be read by more than those ¡°street art¡± aficionados who are already in 바카라사이트 know. Conflict Graffiti provides that much-needed lesson for a whole new audience.

Stefano Bloch is assistant professor of cultural geography at 바카라사이트 University of Arizona and 바카라사이트 author of Going All City: Struggle and Survival in LA¡¯s Graffiti Subculture (2019).

Conflict Graffiti: From Revolution to Gentrification
By John Lennon
University of?Chicago Press, 304pp, ?71.94 and ?22.51
ISBN 9780226815664 and 9780226815695
Published 7 March 2022