Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Take on kids who write on subway ads




There was an article in the Times this week about the increase in graffiti that communities are dealing with even as their budgets for removal have shrunk. You can make an argument for graffiti as an expression of urban frustration and a generation's ability to reach a wider audience. But what bothers me is that 99% of what you see today is nothing more than pollution whether it is the tags on the signs above the BQE which only say "Rambo" or "Pony Boy", the scratchffiti or the 'commentary' written on the signs of the subway walls, i am surrounded by pointless noise. This is not art, it is not a valid form of expression it is nothing more than vandalism.

I hear of great graffiti artists whose work now hangs in galleries as opposed to the outside walls and I can appreciate it even if it means the grittiness is gone The problem with all of this is that it has inspired a new generation to vandalize buildings cloaked in the concept of art while truly only participating in vandalism.
But nothing shows how stupid our kid's have become as when you see the typical vandalism of the subway ads
Today I walk down the stairs to see an advertisement about immigration and assimilation of a Filipino women with the phrase "asian hore low class" scribbled underneath it.

Now I am sure this is just can be written off as kids being kids and we'll avoid any commentary involving the irony of a critic of an immigrant with gross misspellings but when some snot-nosed kid completes his social commentary by defacing her picture or plight by calling a woman a prostitute with the phrase "low class" you just had to snicker.

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