Written by Melisa Rivière
Appears exclusively in Public Art Review; Volume 17, Number 1, Issue 33, Fall/Winter 2005

Urban canvasses are often the most ephemeral and the least understood.  Graffiti art blossomed in the New York City subways in the 1970’s primarily due to the urban financial crises and fiscal abandonment from federal, state, and municipal development.  The urban ‘White flight’ era towards the suburban alternative left many behind, primarily lower class communities of color with few employment opportunities, economic instability, and little urban identity.  As a reaction to these conditions Hip Hop flourished in the form of four elements becoming what is today a vibrant cosmopolitan expression of youthful exuberance.  Graffiti, also commonly referred to as aerosol art, comprises one of the four elements of Hip Hop alongside the art of break dancing, turntablism, and rap.

Graffiti art became the written word of a city’s pulse.  Rather than view these vibrant letters and characters decorating cityscapes as a visual rhythm, city authorities convinced metropolitans that it was a sign of urban decay.  Authorities publicly denounced graffiti to create a perception of anarchy overrunning public spaces.  By advocating the ‘broken windows’ theory graffiti became associated with lawlessness and an inevitable increase in criminal offenses.  Labeled a ‘quality of life’ crime, by the early 1980’s graffiti was completely eradicated from the New York City subways.

In the few years that the graffiti flourished on the subway lines, it sparked a massive municipal, and soon after, national following.  Graffiti artists characterize their work as writing, themselves as writers, and their art form an urban literary script.  Galleries and art collectors encouraged framed versions of graffiti art, yet these paintings never quite achieved the same sort of fame as does the ephemeral city canvass.

Graffiti as an element of Hip Hop culture is about adaptation, rebellion, mentorship, respect, competition and reputation.  It is an art form that is simultaneously creative and destructive.  Its production is not limited to spray paint, but does demand a readily available means to make a generously proportioned and recognizable mark. It is an art form that withdrawn from its canvass appears equivalent to its twin, aerosol art.  But these are two different types of art forms defined more so by the canvass they appear on than their aesthetic form.

Graffiti is art produced illegally, without permission, and clandestinely.  Referring to graffiti’ as ‘aerosol art’ ignores its guerrilla characteristics, where placement, access, and setting are as important as content.  The difference between graffiti and aerosol art is not their image, but their canvass.  Aerosol art, in contrast, is produced with permission such as on commissioned murals and portrays the positive advancement of spray paint as an acceptable art medium.

The untamed nature of graffiti art expresses the acquisition of access to unauthorized space, and this merits artistic and intellectual recognition.  Graffiti art may be considered entailing the aggressive insubordination in the seizing of space.  And aerosol art is a distinctly relaxed accentuation of the paint medium.  Although aesthetically similar, these divergent art forms are created under very opposing circumstances.  Illegal art challenges established cultural values surrounding private property, organized aesthetics, social status, and identity.

“Today I am fueled on the premise of liberation work. There are two types of graffiti art. One entails the pure act, the other is of action totally in tune with power and political intent. Both types are essential to this struggle.” -EMERONE

Setting aside notions of law, order, and ownership, writing is a well-organized urban art movement with an established social structure and set of traditions.  The practice of writing has an established social construction made up of individuals, crews, and hierarchical positions ranging from toys to kings. Their behavior is governed by rules reciprocity, support, communication, and initiation.  A toy is the title given to an amateur artist, the toy must produce graffiti art to define their place within writing culture.  Eventually, with dedication, the toy becomes a writer.  Only after years of perseverance and the acquisition of ‘can control’ - the learned skill of using spray paint - are writers honored by their peers with the crowning title of king.  Many writers do not recognize artists who solely paint legal walls or canvasses. Although they may exhibit can control and artistic skill, they are not considered writers.

“Legalizing graffiti would not solve America’s problems, it would only take away what makes it such an irresistible art form.” -RUKUS

Writing comprises three standard types of graffiti art: the tag, the throw-up and the piece (short for masterpiece).  The tag is the most common type of graffiti.  A writer's tag is essentially her or his signature and when used enough, becomes the writer’s logo.  Tags are often misinterpreted as the most chaotic form of writing but are in reality very organized signatures. 

The throw-up is a quickly painted name, in "bubble" letters, in a soft rounded lettering style, most commonly done in one or two colors (a fill and a contrasting outline).  Throw-ups tend to be found in areas where access is difficult or dangerous and their placement must be done quickly and hastily. 

A piece is a large scale multi-colored production of elaborate, filled in letters (dots, dashes, stars, loops, circles, etc.).  ‘A production piece then refers to a series of pieces done by various artists tied together by one common theme.

From global to local, both graffiti and aerosol art have permeated urban canvasses side by side.  Stimulated by the spread of underground ‘zines (short for fanzine), publication of photographic documentaries such as Subway Art (1984) and films such as Wild Style (1982) and Style Wars (1984) , youth began to emulate both the art style and its strategic placement.  The form, primarily concerned with the elaboration of letters and three dimensional integrity, began fusing with new approaches. 

The permeation of graffiti art in the Midwest brought with it hybrids of styles merging East and West Coast techniques including the New York block letters, the Miami shine and the Los Angeles outline. Surprisingly the Twin Cities offered a perfect brewing ground.  Although lacking the standard subway surface, it is a city built upon the remnants of the industrial revolution, rich with river bridges, abundant in flour mills and flush with train yard lay ups.  The Twin Cities presented artists a new dimension with which to push the form.

Twin Cities’ graffiti history went through two phases, the early days which I identify as the “old school” movement (1982 – 1992) defined by external aesthetic influences followed by the “MSP Free Style” phase (1992 – 2000) marked by a unique locally established illustrative lettering style which then diffused back to the greater metropolises.

Most writers agree that the first tag to show up in Minneapolis was KARAKAS (A.K.A. KAS or KARO). The first documented piece was by VIPER on the North Side in 1982, it read ‘HIP HOP.’ VIPER sparked a simple lettering style of phrases rather than names, like BUSTIN’ FRESH and COLD STUPID that caused emulation throughout the North Side. Around that same time South Side had a key writer named JEK who brought a distinctive Brooklyn approach to Minneapolis. One of his apprentices was REY who later brought up SMAK, the first writer to claim ‘all city’ fame. SMAK. By getting his moniker up throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul SMAK undoubtedly changed the game.

“Kids were already doin’ it in New York, I just invented different ways to make it big here. With a chalk board eraser that I put in the washing machine, sewed back together to make a large tip, stuffed into a bottle and poured ink into, I invented myself.” -SMAK

Some of the more influential ‘Old School’ Minneapolis crews to impact writing included ATR (Artistic Terminal Rebels), CAB (Crazy Ass Bombers), DS2 (Death Squad 2), FBI (Fresh Bombers Inc.), LBS (Latin Bomb Squad), MBBO (Minneapolis B-Boy Organization), MSP (Minneapolis Skate Posse), SMA (Societies Modern Artists), PTC (Prime Time Crime), and WSC (Wild Style Crew).

1992 marked the insurgence of the second phase of the Minneapolis scene.  AKB and MAS crews formed in the early part of this era, two of the most representative crews both at local and national levels.  Writers started communicating amongst each other, they formally organized the first ‘all city’ graffiti writer’s meeting at which TCM (Twin Cities’ Massive) was born under the leadership of TRUE 54 and SELF of AKB.  TCM was to be an allegiance of writers throughout the Twin Cities who still pertained to their own crews but also pushed TCM.  This was the first and only attempt to unify the local graffiti art movement, it lasted a little over a year.  Writers continued to absorb influences from abroad yet simmered a particularly unique and very clean lettering style noteworthy of the Twin Cities.  Around the same time artists began to excel at aerosol painting.  At first artists encountered minimal authoritative persecution and the first official legal wall to exhibit aerosol art was founded by MESH of MAS crew called by many the ‘Wall of Fame.'  Many historical pieces showcased on the Wall of Fame, from EWOK’s ‘Sumthang Under Kover’ and MOPE’s Jeannie out of a bottle to a ‘SCENE’ piece by EROS celebrating the Minneapolis style.

Due to various Minneapolis and St. Paul anti-graffiti agendas such as the ‘Don’t Deface My Space’ campaigns and the implementation of aerosol rehabilitation program to deter youths from using spray paint, all types of graffiti, illegal as well as permissioned were attacked.  By the end of summer 1994, the Wall of Fame and many other canvasses went white.  Although writers constantly challenged this, white canvasses prevailed time and again and a piece’s life span went from a few months to perhaps days.  This didn’t stop the movement, but made it difficult to be seen by outsiders.

In the last decade the Twin Cities’ writers have re-encountered and revolutionized the mobile canvass by painting graffiti art on train cars of national routes lines.  Some aerosol mural teams have prevailed and some deteriorated.  Of those which deteriorated but deserve mention as commissionable art teams was Fluid Intelligence, made up of the best Twin Cities’ writers. Amongst one of the surviving groups is Juxtaposition Arts, a non-profit youth focused visual arts organization that provokes and pushes aerosol art into new hands through youth instruction. 

Of celebratory mention are the groundbreaking global networks of aerosol art that have manifested in the Twin Cities.  The anonymity portrayed in graffiti leaves little room for assuming Queens are painting behind the anonymity of the spray can.  Since there are fewer female aerosol artists they are forced to look beyond the local sphere for feminine role models.  Rather than inhibiting women, this has in turn stimulated national and international webs upon which the Twin Cities has taken a lead.  This summer 2005 as a part of B.Girl.Be: A Celebration of Women in Hip Hop at Intermedia Arts, national and local ladies including LADY PINK, ZORI4, SILOUETTE, PHEM9, TOOFLY, ASIAONE, LADY K FEVER, and Midwest women came together to paint. They took the forefront and the cans to create one of the largest aerosol murals done solely by women in the history of spray paint.