Picture details: Taken along St. James Street, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad
It's a tag or be tagged world out there! The picture above shows an entire wall of a building tagged and how many citizens walk past these illustrations not curious about the meaning behind it. Did you know that it is unlawful for individuals to deface public or private property with graffiti? (Ord. 1756, eff., 7-16-04) Apparently the person or persons that tagged this building along St. James Street didn't...or did they now.
As we know there are many forms of graffiti which all do the same- resist political, legal and religious authority. (Ferrell 1993, pg.34) This posts seeks to gain an understanding as to why individuals participate in these activities. Are they just repressed artists? Did they just run out of sketch pads and canvases? Sadly, no.
They do it for the thrill of it! According to Ferrell (1993, pg 37), the experience of tagging is defined by an adrenaline rush from creating art in illegal environments. It's about the danger of it, tagging knowing there's a possibility of getting caught and penalized. You may even ask yourself at this point, how do they tag these walls with such large murals and not get caught? The answer is crystal clear, they do it at night. They use the darkness to evade surveillance thus having fewer restrictions.
In addition to the adrenaline rush they receive, many taggers engage in these activities to achieve some sort of spatial control. (Ferrell 1993, 35) In urban areas, where there are strict ordinances in place against loud music, alcohol consumption levels and so on, many young taggers may find that tagging a public space, makes it there own little private space. The words they tag may not make complete sense to us ( see picture above) but to them, its their mark. Not only do they make a space their own but within their community of taggers, it gives them sub cultural status as the larger the tag the more impressive. Many of their pieces are executed in hopes that not only is it seen by the public but that it is judged by other taggers.
Now we can have a little more insight that the taggers around Trinidad aren't just doing it because they ran out of paper, its because in their own sub community, tagging gives them status in a an urban world that is systematic and excludes them, it gives them their own space and what some may call a sick obsession with adrenaline. So the next time, you're walking down St. James and see words tagged on walls, i hope you remember this post.
Related articles:
- http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,189023.htm
References:
- Ferrell, Jeff. Crimes of style. New York: Garland, 1993.
- http://trinidad.co.gov/pages/pd_grtf/graffiti.pdf
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