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Huge drops on a lighthouse by Johnny Beerens

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On August 5th Rome’s Mayor Gianni Alemanno has proposed that all graffiti artists should remove their own work from the walls of the city. He’s also in the midst of urging the Italian government do pass a law to do the same across the country. Italy aren’t exactly known for their well behaved governance, apart from the widespread corruption, and we’re not talking British standards of corruption, some of their leaders have screwed over the country for millions, then there’s the Mafia, I mean if there’s anything that Italy should be cracking down on in the 21st Century it has to be the Scorcese-inspiring crime syndicate that has there fingers in just about every political pizza pie.

Still, if they can keep the walls clean then the tourists won’t realise exactly what’s going on and they can continue on marching around the Vatican, punting along the filthy canals of Venice and dropping their jaws at the prices of fashion in Milan. The fact is that graffiti is usually indicative of a social problem, or in the case of Italy a vast network of social problems. If you don’t stamp out corruption in business and government, and if you stop graffiti artists telling the people how it is, then the people, eventually, suffer. Political graffiti has a long and respected tradition in much of Europe and the world at large. In Italy you can find ancient "scratchings" on most of their most famous of monuments.

Right from the word go much of big business and political organisations have been in cahoots, they share a common goal and that is simply to pull the wool over the yes of the people. If the government says we’re coming out of an economic recession, and business agrees with them, the fool on the street is more likely to shell out more of their hard-earned money on crap. That’s how the economy runs, that’s just how the plutocracy rolls, they need stooges to do their bidding, and their prepared to spend every minute of the day making sure the lies they tout become the accepted truth amongst the majority of their customers/citizens.

Strangely enough in March 2009 the graffiti in Siliguri, India was banned by their Election Commission. Communist/Marxist leader of the CPM party was quoted as saying "With this type of ban, I think they are trying to curtail the democratic rights of the people who want to express their thoughts through wall graffiti. So I think this is not fair from their part because this is also one way to express the thoughts of the people".

The Italian Parliament amended its Public Safety Bill earlier this year, because of course graffiti is physically dangerous for all passers-by, their new law states that graffiti writers caught for a second offence face a possible jail term of between 6 months and 2 years and fines ranging from 1500 to 10000 Euros. Now, let me think about this, In the UK it costs approximately £37,500 per year to keep a prisoner locked up, then there’s the cost of building new prisons which reaches into the tens of millions at the very least. If Italy find themselves with hundreds of thousands of graffiti writers in jail it will probably ruin their economy for good, because after all, for the most part, imprisonment doesn’t solve the social problems that engender most crimes. Still it’s cheaper than building social housing, schools and other facilities needed for a decent standard of life for many of those left stranded by the 21st century Capitalist system of greed and avarice. If the politicians didn’t enter the arena for the sake of money and power we might all feel our respective countries are being led by decent people, perhaps even role models. But this won’t happen, decency and power don’t mix, in fact as the old saying goes, "Power Corrupts".

Italy’s Youth Minister Giorgia Meloni said recently she has started talking to the most important figures of Italian ’street art’ on how to solve the problem and differentiate between artists and vandals. The provision of public spaces will go some way to improving relations, however think about it, how often will the government allow subversive political street art and graffiti to be viewed by the public? It’s a whitewash, in more ways than one. The fact that she needs to ask shows she’s the wrong person for the job, why not try electing someone who knows jot about youth culture, or even culture for a start? Surveys have shown that for the majority of Italian youngsters graffiti represents a form of art and not an act of vandalism. So here’s her dilemma, first off some street art in Rome and next some political graffiti.

Street Art in Rome

Political Graffiti in Rome

First off the visual differences are striking, the examples of street art have some artistic merit, the graffiti has none. However badly written the graffiti, there’s no getting away from the fact that it is indeed graffiti. But beyond the surface there’s the message, the street art is slightly subversive in two of the images, but in general the message is rather vague. Whilst the examples of graffiti shown are citing political opinions in a medium and manner uncontrolled by any governmental body. If a corrupt party is elected into government and the people have no power to oust them they will vent their frustrations, they will urge others to vote for the opposition, or worse.

Street art can achieve this too, and far more effectively in many cases, but to use the criticism of art technique to differentiate reduces the power of democracy to little more than a corporate sideshow. I can understand why many would rather the walls were clean, the people content, and the government incorruptible, but being one who lives in the real world, I can assure you society doesn’t work that way. Those in power enforce their individual and for the most part extremist views under the guise of reform, the wealthy want nothing more than to protect the value of their assets, and the poor, well the poor have no say at all, they are little more than political fodder, fed lies as and when required to make up the numbers.

I’m not advocating vandalism, or inane tagging, I’m simply pointing out a powerful correlation between street art and graffiti and the right to freedom of speech. Perhaps the Italians and all of us will need to lose this most fundamental right before a majority of us realise just how important it is.

Tags: freedom of speech, graffiti Rome, political graffiti, street art Rome

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Artist: Roma

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More here.

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If you haven’t read it yet, Juxtapoz has an extremely insightful interview with artist
imminent disaster, who for the past few years has consistantly been putting up fantastic work in Brooklyn.

You can read the interview here (Part 1) and here (Part 2).

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You know those people who wished they’d never needed to leave school? Some become school teachers, others will try and continue on in the education system, degrees, masters degrees and so on. It’s a little like the weird relationship that builds up between some kidnappers and their victims, spending so much time together they form a weird bond whereby the kidnapee can end up trying to explain their captors reasons for committing the crime. The fact is that a lot of us are institutionalised, I could take it further and say that from my own personal experience, I have met residents of mental health homes who never wanted to leave. Even if the reality proposed by us makes no sense through a process of conformity, the proliferation of cultural norms,  calls for mindless subjection. Backed up by threats of ridicule or even ostracization of those unwilling to abide by the subconscious mass, we finally amalgamate into societies over the short term. Over the longer term if enough "deviants" to the cultural norm amount to an opposing force, they will form a concurrent belief system which will eventually either target or be the target of an ideological war. Hence religion.

Individuality should be sacred, however there’s a lot in our history to prove to ourselves just how much we are like sheep, we herd together, we seek the comfort of others of our kind, we bleat. Once the population grows we begin to divide into smaller and smaller groups, which we the human race designate by colour, creed and geographical location. Within these sub-cultures more and more complex behavioural patterns, culturally biased opinions as well as language differentiation. If one does not conform to this status quo one is classed as an outsider, a foreigner, mentally ill, or subversive. The programming of our race has led to high percentage of humans losing confidence in themselves and their position in life, for those who do have an innate ability for cultural absorption can physically, economically and socially take advantage of them. This is when things get really messy.

There are a lot of people who believe it is merely a matter of education, many in high-powered business will have at some point or other employed the services of personal consultants to improve their dress sense, their physical appearance, their voice, their body language and much more. The mechanisation of man won’t involve some fantastical vision of bio-technology and artificial intelligence, it’s happening right now, and it in our brief present, this snapshot of eternity it seems almost imperceptible. Man is becoming a drone, a corporate slave programmed to do its employer’s bidding, without thought, without question, automatically for no more reward than a list of numbers stored in a file on a banking server.

The point is that most people, deep down, don’t know who to be – they know a lot about life, they know what they like, but they don’t like what they have or are and so they end up trying to pretend to be someone or something they’re not, Some people won’t ever know or maybe they just don’t want to, but some need a kick start, a reminder of what, who, why and where. I don’t go in for religion as such, not organised religion anyway, I will build myself my own personal belief system every few years and then spend the next three or four pulling it apart. From those remains, the ideas and feelings that have stood me in good stead, those that don’t are in the reject pile which probably only gets a look in on special occasions, or perhaps just nightmares.

Either way there are plenty of people who don’t want to immerse themselves in themselves, they might not have the time or inclination, but mainly they’re just scared. Scared of themselves if you like. Most of the time it just takes a few choice words to put them on the right track, that’s how Gurus have made a good living from delivering the obvious for thousands of years. But you don’t need a guru, it’s like the argument that all the recreational drugs you’ll ever want are already there – secreted in your brain, any illicit substance you take is just a trigger not the gun itself. The same goes for knowledge, just the tiniest but oh so most pertinent piece of information delivered in the right manner, made-to-measure, can change your life.

I was trawling blogs today and came across an article at Vidafine about The School of Life, and somehow I think this place might just be onto the right idea. Vidafine’s blog featured this photo of the school which really pulled me in:-

"The mundane is to be cherished"…

Here’s a quote from Helen Keller – "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart". It’s how you feel that affects what you think, see, hear, touch, taste, smell. You feel angry the world is angry with you, if you feel tired the world slows down, if you want to die no one cares, and if you want to be left alone, you won’t get a minute’s peace. The School Of Life’s aims allow people to take control of their lives in a new way, no formulas, no mantras, no glib sound bites to mesmerize yourself through one day to the next, just common truths.

They offer a range of strange but not bewildering services, including courses on a diverse range of subjects such as Love, Politics and Play. Educational holidays, one of which is entitled A Voyage in Epicuriosity which essentially shows you how food, the consumption of and the experience of consumption itself can affect your life. Historical and social aspects of foodstuffs and their place in our lives, offering gastronomic expeditions to kitchens, laboratories and specialist food shops across London to back up their case. There are conversation breakfasts and dinners, the idea slightly reminds me of a Monty Python sketch but who knows, if it’s early or late you might be more open to new ideas, or old ones formerly discounted.

The idea of offering non-religious sermons intrigues me too. Employing the services of cultural mavericks from all walks of life, expect the same degree of Baptism by fire but from an alternative cultural perspective. Asides all this are plenty more events, larger gatherings and such, they even have psychotherapy sessions on hand, both individual and group. I may need to book in for some of those myself, I just noticed I read psychotherapy as psychometry rather a few times there. Perhaps it’s a message from the other side – quick get me a Ouija board. Then again I could just be tired here.

I don’t know, is S.O.L leading the way or simply confusing the issue? Still a nice poster all the same. Cherish the mundane, it might be all you will ever have. Still if you can rise above the general malaise, do so and help those less fortunate than you to develop a deeper understanding of our existence, an intolerance for futility, an egoless ego if you like. We, I , everyone needs some of that right now, those on top are getting too fat to carry their own weight, and this consumer-led conformist self-dictatorship is turning staler every minute.

Tags: art, life, London, philosophy, school of life, weird

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