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Graff 3000: Taking It "Legit" by James Kalm

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm a white guy approaching middle age. In the spring of 1983 I was busted and held overnight in the Tombs on charges of defacing public property. The arrest was a great resume enhancement and changed my career and life for the better. I met Patti Astor before she starred in Wild Style, and have been observing the graffiti wars from the periphery for decades. I recently visited the Norman Rockwell Museum and experienced a life-affirming event. I don't know why I threw in the last part but I did say full disclosure.

Anyway, while visiting a recent art show on the Lower East Side ( N Y 2 K ) I had an opportunity to catch up with the work of several friends and acquaintances. I was struck by the changes that had taken place in the styles and techniques of the "writers", or as some call them, the "graffiti" artists. Maybe this was some great stuff, or maybe I was just suffering from caffeine euphoria. In any case, what started out as an idea for an article rapidly expanded into what will hopefully be an ongoing series. The original premise was "What is the future of graffiti?" The nature of graffiti is analogous to quantum mechanics: the mere attempt to view the phenomenon changes the dynamics.

I began the investigation by interviewing a witness and friend who showed many of the "Old School" kids while they were still trying to go "All City," bombing the yards and running from the heat. Rich Collichio operated 51X out of his basement apartment on St. Mark's Place during the boom days of the East Village. Some of the names he showed were: Fab 5 Freddy, Futura 2000, Dondi, Crash, Zephyr, and Revolt. After closing 51X, he and partner Tracy Zungola opened Livestock, showing Lee and Futura among others.

Expressing his views of where graf was going in the future, Rich answered, "It's a weird thing. As soon as you think graffiti is dead it raises its ugly head. It was a big part of the Hip-Hop and Rap scene and it’s now been picked up by the skate punks. A lot of the Old School guys who are now in their late thirties and early forties have moved on to a more commercial market, putting their tags on lines of gear and web sites. These guys feel that having one’s tag go by on a T-shirt is as good as having it go by on a train. Guys like Zephyr and Crash are developing new ideas but some of the collectors want classic "Old School" stuff. Europeans like Philip Obachouski have maintained interest even when New Yorkers haven't. There's always going to be an element of "pop" in the work because a lot of these guys were the kids who sat in school and drew pictures of Superman over and over again."

Crash is a graffiti writer who has, since the early eighties, made consistent inroads in the fine art milieu. During a conversation when asked to respond, his answers were as follows: "Well, first of all you've got to be fearless. I felt that it was a means of communication. I just took what I knew to the trains. Now I see people using computers and the Internet to send designs around the world. Some guys are painting cross-country freight trains so it's exposing kids in the heartland to graffiti. People are becoming more open to it. Even Levi's and Nike have picked up on the style. We're living in the advertising age so we're totally surrounded by images that are being absorbed. The style is changing fast, but I don't think it will ever lose the value of the letter, Fame is the most primal part of it. The desire for the biggest, the best, the most." The fame thing seems to be a consistent desire of the writers.

A long time practitioner and graffiti spokesman who toured Japan during the release of the film Wild Style, Daze is a journeyman. Along with a collaborative group, Tats Cru, he still tries to get out and paint five to ten murals a year. "A lot of people in the art world are talking about the Internet and the digital world. It's an interesting tool and could be the subway line of cyberspace but it doesn't replace the tangibility of being out there, the physical thing of using your body. As they get older, guys are getting technically better and manufacturers are developing more colors, but there are some younger guys who are just crude. They're just out to bomb. We were making the letters to be read from left to right, that’s "Old School". Now guys are putting letters all over the place because they didn't have a chance to see what we were doing. The laws have changed now so you do your piece, take a photograph, and that's your proof. Some guys are subverting the establishment and using the media to "Get up". In the early eighties lots of people were showing graffiti. Now in New York no one is, so a lot of older guys have gone on to commercial stuff like clothing and album covers. Europe has always been more supportive of the movement. Crash and I were shown at the Museum of Modern Art in Nice. We don't have to keep up with the art world, the art world has to keep up with us." I'd like to thank all the people who contributed time and effort to these articles. Next month: "New School, Old School."