Graffiti art & the city: from piece-making to place-making

Graffiti and Street Art have received varying research treatment from artist, subcultural,ethnographic and crimogenic perspectives which are reflected in the literature on individual graffiti and street artists, gangs and genres, with a growth in art monographs and coffee table style pictorials. The productionist dialectic between graffiti as vandalism and as ‘art’ (including in galleries) has not considered the wider aspects of the role and place of graffiti and street art in the city; responses from city authorities, local communities, visitors and property owners; and how different places and city cultures receive and react in different ways, including graffiti and street art now used in placemaking, branding and destination strategies. This includes the growth of graffiti and street art commissioning agencies and organisations, often established by former graffiti and street artists employed by clients (e.g. retail, advertising firms, local authorities) and legitimised spaces and walls for safe experimentation. The cultural content of graffiti and street art also reflects local conditions and contexts, whether protest/political, territorial, vernacular (e.g. local events, history) or playful in nature.

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