Revealing Graffiti
Has Kyiv declared war on street artists?
Graffiti art is a new notion in Ukraine. Still unknown in the provinces, it is not completely understood in the big cities. Graffiti can debase the most imposing building and convey a variety of emotions and information. They can also annoy the hell out of people. Not long ago, a civic group called Veteran, composed mainly of elders, declared war on graffiti. Its activists believe that the Ukrainian capital looks much better “without any drawings and inscriptions on walls and fences.” In its statement, however, the group emphasized that they are not against professional artists “working miracles on the street.” The biggest problem with graffiti today is that you can’t tell the difference between classic fence daubings and street art.
So what is graffiti art all about? It is a creative component of pop culture, or according to the scholarly definition, an avant-garde trend of the second half of the 20th century, consisting of inscriptions, drawings, and symbols painted on walls of buildings, in subway stations, on fences, and other convenient surfaces. Today, graffiti are often painted with thick marker pens and various kinds of spray paint. There are many graffiti techniques. Marking territories — painting a code name or stylized name on all stationary and mobile surfaces, which looks like Arabic to the uninitiated — has become popular in Kyiv over the past couple of years. Another graffiti trend using stencils is slowly making its appearance in Ukraine. Graffiti may be divided into three categories: names, politics, and love. The first group includes various depictions of a name (more often a nickname). These can be colorful compositions, covering entire walls, or kids’ daubings. The political category is made up of slogans and mottos (the kind that engulfed Ukraine during the presidential campaign). The love category includes inscriptions like Mike + Mary.
Graffiti originated in New York City in the mid-1960s, when large numbers, initials, and anonymous nicknames started appearing on the outer and inner walls of subway cars. Before long, such drawings spread to railway tracks and structures. The New York authorities regarded graffiti as a criminal phenomenon and fought it as best they could. They started by banning the sale of thick markers, then the most popular street artists’ implement, and then felt pens.
An essentially different kind of graffiti appeared in Paris a decade earlier, different because stencils were used. These graffiti weren’t large but conveyed an abundance of detail. Whereas US street artists used their names, their French counterparts used images. Thus, razor blades kept appearing on the walls of the new opera house in the Place de la Bastille, meant to remind passersby of the guillotine and the area’s revolutionary past. Graffiti on certain Parisian streets also served to settle territorial conflicts.
The Mayor’s Office in Kyiv proved to be smarter than its NYC counterpart of the 1970s: the municipal authorities didn’t even try to combat graffiti. The statement issued by Veteran isn’t like to change their position, although the group’s activists are counting on Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko’s support (he once let it slip that he didn’t care much for graffiti). The city administration recommended that graffiti complaints be referred to district housing departments, which are not prepared to launch an anti-graffiti struggle, even though they share Veteran’s views. “We paint over some inscriptions, but we can’t do it everywhere,” says Hanna Pylypenko, head of the Darnytsia district housing department. “Painting over spots here and there doesn’t look aesthetic and repainting an entire wall costs too much. We can’t afford it.” In fact, if they had the funds, the housing authorities would paint over all the graffiti, regardless of their artistic value and location. In the housing departments’ opinion, all drawings on walls change the faНade and this has to be duly entered in the official layout. Otherwise it’s against regulations. Perhaps graffiti artists should apply for registration first? “No one has ever offered to make proper repairs to a faНade and decorate it,” says Hanna Pylypenko, “but I think that amateurs shouldn’t try this anyway.”
Psychologists hold a different opinion. According to Olena Vlasova, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Social Psychology at Shevchenko National University, the only way to keep the original look of faНades is by legalizing graffiti: “A teenager is in the phase of individualization. Whereas before the age of 12-14 he is trying to adapt to the social environment, trying to be like others, at this stage his goal is the exact opposite. A drawing on a wall in this case is an external material carrier of inner development. Standard outlets, like being a straight-A student, are more often than not closed to such children, so they find other ways to express their individuality.
“Speaking of drawings, there is another psychological aspect. They are most often created by teenagers with artistic talent. However, creative perception, as any other creative product, is realized only when it finds social approval. It’s precisely social approval that a teenager seeks when he is drawing graffiti. In the West, they take a more civilized approach to graffiti. There, a gifted street artist may be invited to decorate a nightclub.” Olena Vlasova believes that the city administration should pay more attention to street artists, all the more so as there are plenty of ugly walls in Ukrainian cities, and graffiti may be the only way to stop horrifying the populace and the mayor’s office. “Social services could invite the city administration and teenagers to work on such ugly structures. We know that a phenomenon can be overcome by taking command of it,” says Olena Vlasova, “and graffiti are a serious social problem; it signifies not so much the defacing of buildings as the unwillingness of adults to help their children realize themselves. Socialization entails two sides and two generations, so graffiti only prove that one of the sides, the older generation, isn’t measuring up. Teenagers’ emancipation is declarative. They only say they want to be left alone; in reality, they need understanding and their behavior signals this need.”
Prof. Mykhailo Chemberzhi, People’s Artist of Ukraine and rector of the Kyiv Children’s Academy of Art, believes that “this kind of creative activity has a right to exist provided it is done professionally and elegantly...and certainly in the context of general urban-planning constructions, to avoid disharmony. Still, graffiti is not art; this is a type of creative endeavor, whereas art is a qualitative category.” This expert says that a phenomenon that occurs in a social environment, in this case on the street, must observe certain rules of the game.
Once again we are faced with the need to make a decision at the municipal level. It is the only way to discourage graffiti artists from applying their talents to ordinary buildings and architectural sites, thus satisfying the housing authorities, the Veteran activists, and creative youth.
