Graffiti Exercise

The above graffiti samples that I chose to photograph were all located in the men’s bathrooms on the 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd floor of Enterprise Hall on the Mason campus. All of the photographs were taken on Saturday 2/28/09 around Midnight. Unlike much of the graffiti discussed and shown in Snyder’s book, the tool for this bathroom graffiti was simple. The only necessary outside item would have been a typical Sharpie or another basic felt-tip marker. Using the qualifications laid out by Snyder, these examples of graffiti would most like be considered “throw-ups” or “tags.” These relatively simple writings would probably be considered to be to basic and small to be considered a “piece” or masterpiece.

Chances are that the “writers” of these examples were George Mason students as this would be the group that most uses these facilities. Additionally, one would assume that these writers were males. However, there is really no clear evidence to prove that Mason students are responsible or that females entered these men’s rooms in order to create this graffiti. I think that the reason for writing in the stalls in these is that the walls and doors provide a sense of privacy and security from authorities. In this environment, the artists or writers are able to think more clearly than they would in a situation in which there were several people around them or they were at risk of getting in trouble with campus authority figures. However, the size of these writing spaces is limited not only by the physical size of the stalls but also by the amount of previous writing that has taken place in this specific spot. Interestingly, almost all of the graffiti that I found was located in the handicap accessible stalls and not in the standard sized stalls which were actually almost entirely free of graffiti. This leads me to believe that the writers are looking for a larger canvas for their graffiti.

Unfortunately, a few of the examples that I found were related to racist thought/culture. One was based on popular culture. One was just appeared to be kind of a funny drawing. And a few of the others were symbols, letters, or signs which I was not familiar with. Judging from clues within this last group of writings, I would guess that they are symbols for local groups or graffiti artists. One writing includes “VA, DC, MD.” This same writing along with another includes the text “MEEP!” Since this word or phrase is located in two of these samples, I would assume that this is the name of the artist. Much like in Graffiti Lives, these names are in different shapes, sizes, and areas within each of these writings but the inclusion of the name serves the purpose of bringing public recognition to the artist. Another similarity to the graffiti discussed in Snyder’s book was that one of MEEP’s drawings was crossed out by someone else. This could present the possibility of a “ beef” or conflict between graffiti writers or groups.

Some of the writing does not, in my opinion, clearly define the writers. However, the writing that includes Nazi symbols and phrases clearly shows a significant part of the writer. The writers of this racist graffiti hold beliefs in line with the Nazi party. I also think that the fact that they wrote their message in prominent positions with such large letters and symbols shows that their racist beliefs are a priority in their lives and that they wish to demonstrate this to others as well as spread their beliefs.