Dirty Little England or Creative Graffiti Art ? I agree with Judge Blacksell about artistic merit!

I just want to thank a particular artistically discerning Judge for recognizing that Graffiti at its highest form is a real genre of Modern and Postmodern art!

This is the information and the link to his comment:

But of course, the media in the form of the Telegraph (whatever) took the comments way out of context and bashed His Honour instead!

What I can’t stand are Art Philistines disguised as Moralists! If you do not understand the art form, please just say so! You don’t have to like it but please don’t say stupid crap like,”Oh my granny could have done this!” Yes well..unless your Granny was Georgia O’Keeffe or something….Shut up!

I don’t know why it is always some abortive mid-life crisis guy with a beard that always go on like this….I think it has something to do with lowered Testosterone levels in Abortive mid-life crisis guys who think they are intellectuals writing for a tabloid?

Anyway, here’s approximately what the Judge said:

But examining a dossier of Rowe’s work, Judge Henry Blacksell said while he understood public frustration at the damage caused by the vandals, he did not want to jail them.

He said: “I will pass the least possible sentence. These are young men and people care about them…..I don’t endorse it but I understand the adrenaline rush and the feeling it gives them and they may be isolated in their families….I don’t want to be doing this and I will be as lenient as I can be. They’ve got talent and some of Mr Rowe’s portfolio you would be proud of.”

*********”Clearly they are talented artists,” the judge added.

Prosecutor Jacques Howell told Blackfriars Crown Court how the group bragged online at the scale of their graffiti.
Cummings had a map of the capital’s rail network in his bedroom pin-pointing the raids with the words ‘you need all this and more’ written above it.

“This was a planned and prolonged campaign of damage to property of an almost industrial scale, and caused considerable cost and disruption to London Underground and national rail services,” said Ms Howell.

“It’s not simply tagging with marker pens. The scale we are talking about is the entire carriage being daubed.
“The aim is obviously to get kudos amongst the graffiti community.”

Here’s the headlines that went with it written by Art Philistines Tabloid Moralists, of course!

Graffiti gang who caused £150,000 of damage ‘should be proud of their work’, says judge A judge has imposed the “least possible sentence” on gang of graffiti vandals who attacked the capital’s tube network, saying one had a “portfolio you would be proud of”.

From Cecilia: I would like to clearly emphasize one aspects of the Judge’s comment: “They are clearly talented artists!” to let the Philistines know that while graffiti is an act of vandalism, Graffiti Art is an acknowledged and world recognised genre of Modern and Postmodern Art!  This is not because of any bias as the Fine Art side of  “Kel1st and Yu” combo, this is because the Art establishment and institutions also (in their own fashion) recognise the contribution Graffiti as a bottom-up art movement made to 20th Century Art! I find this entire discussion tedious.

Let me put it this way, courtesy of a few beautifully Bleak images from (c) Giles Evans, Uk, 2013.

When you look at the Bleakness and utter utter filthy “Dirty little England” series and you think about what that actually embodies for youths, especially working class young boys, looking for some ray of hope, some kind of positivity in this world of post-Thatcherite oppressions that may engulf their lives for forevers…..then you may understand why Graffiti art is a powerful Life-affirmation and for a long time (until recently)….a Testosterone infested Boys-Club Machismo Orgy of Male Empowerment and possibly going back to some ancient Fertility Rites of Man-hood! (Joke, people…for any Old Skool Style Masters reading this….C’mon! You know it WAS! Stop it! Don’t even try to protest about it…it WAS! hahaha! Also Don’t anyone dare to suggest I’m sounding like Camille Paglia! I’m not! So there!)

But would I have a fit if any of them try to Bromance in a mysogynistic way in front of me? lol. Ask them how “assertive” I can be…..really…:)

Anyway…it is okay to feel alienated when you have to stare at ugly, dirty scenes that had no life or passion!

Repression breeds its opposite in Youthful expressions!

The more a conservative social, cultural and economically depressed world tries to suppress Creativity in their youths, the more rebellion you will see in the Art form of the next generation! That is how Art works!

Art allows the world to deal with its shadow, all the things it tries to stuff down.

^Yu: So if boring farts don’t want more Vandalism, I personally suggest you go and engage your own Mass Unconscious in More Dionysian Orgies of creativity! It worked well for the greatest Tang poet/calligraphers/writers of Ancient China! They Got drunk, had sword fights, met up with a few dancers and scribbled poems on Walls in remote mountain areas so they can say “Get stuffed!” to the Emperor’s court!  

I may not condone the acts of violence, drunken stupidity, boys club rants but I certainly do not want to ever be without a Tang dynasty poet (any one of them!) They were also really freaking useless, immature and possibly a bit horny…..but HELL they were TALENTED! I am sorry it sounds really unfair…but sometimes being Artistically Talented over-rides other more mundane stuff in life because the Arts when it executed very very well, furthers the human race in direct and explicable ways!

 Sorry, deal with it, that is Culture! You will all remember Mozart but you probably won’t ever remember the people Mozart owed money to, stole from, whose wives he shagged, the people he insulted with profanities…..and the lists go on…..

I am not saying as artists, we should all behave like obnoxious shit-heads, but it is amazing how often I find myself saying : “Sometimes all I have to do is say YES to an exhibition and then sit back and wait for the drama to come! It always shows up if it is a REAL art show!”

So why does anyone of you expect Graffiti artists to behave like nice little choir boys dressed in their Sunday best out escorting their mothers to Sunday Schools ?

The world needs to realise, compared to Institutionally renowned artists from other Fine Arts tradition who also behaved badly in the past (see Leonardo and all that illegal grave-digging …pervert!), those Graffiti boys are just behaving like …well misbehaving Artists! It’s what we are all like, deep down…it manifest differently….

Judge Henry Blacksell is not some sort of knee-jerk liberal “sparing the rod and spoiling the child”….his Honour is probably just knowledgeable about his Art history and is not an Art philistine like the aforementioned mid-life crisis telegraph writer expressing moral indignation blah-blah!

So I’ve come the end of my weekly rant and I leave you with this notion:

Would you rather see Art like this from my venerable friends the old School Graffiti Artists or would you rather see “Dirty Little England” as seen through the lens of photographer Giles Evan?

You decide, I don’t care….but in whatever manner  you decide, all I expect is that you educate yourselves! I hope you will aim to be  Judge Henry Blacksell and veer away from being yet another repressed Art philistine!  Thanks!

Before I get a tirade of people whinging ….just let me say that x3 guys will still be going to jail ….and that is also what happens to vandals (even on a lighter sentence by the judge!)….but should this be a reason to discount the Artistic merit of their work?

I’m a huge advocate for judging artwork on their own merit.

Sure they are still a bit rough around the edges, but I’ve seen what some of the Graffiti boys from the previous generation grew into…..so why does society have to be so Draconian?

Is England going to send Graffiti boys off to the New world as convicts? Sorry, mate to tell you this…but Australia is full of talented artists already! 🙂

Actually I only noticed them because of this picture and I know who they remind me of…..don’t you?

It is always so weird for me to think about: The useless punks of today may become the Style “Whinge” Masters of tomorrow (don’t get me started…lol.)….well..lets see if they have the balls to turn it all around, avoid all the pitfalls ….it is most of all a test of their CALLING as Artists! 

Works by SMT

2 comments on “Dirty Little England or Creative Graffiti Art ? I agree with Judge Blacksell about artistic merit!”

1. Revi Leischner

   February 13, 2013

   

   Someone in my Facebook group shared this site with us so I came to check it out. I’m enjoying the reading. I will be tweeting this to my followers! Wonderful blog and amazing style and design.

   LikeLike

   Reply
   • ceciliawyu

     January 26, 2015

     

     Thank you for being so positive. 🙂

     LikeLike

     Reply

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