[Brighton] Graffiti Tagging - who is doing it and why?

[Official Old Man]

Dunno about anywhere else, but in Brighton town many independent shops with roll down shutters pay street artists to paint some pleasing artwork on aforesaid roll down shutters, which is then largely respected by taggers. Does no harm to anyone and generally looks pretty decent.

Loving the jungly looking artwork on the footbridge over Falmer station BTW that appeared over the summer months. Art for art's sake?

I'm one of those 'independant' shops. My shutter had graffiti splattered all over it, looked bad. Then a local lad asked if he could paint something pretty on it, obviously I said yes as he was doing it for free. Since then no one has written anything on top of has artwork.

 

[KZNSeagull]

I'm one of those 'independant' shops. My shutter had graffiti splattered all over it, looked bad. Then a local lad asked if he could paint something pretty on it, obviously I said yes as he was doing it for free. Since then no one has written anything on top of has artwork.

That's good. I watched the documentary about Phil Lynott last night and someone has tagged the murals of him in Dublin ffs.

 

[WATFORD zero]

I'm one of those 'independant' shops. My shutter had graffiti splattered all over it, looked bad. Then a local lad asked if he could paint something pretty on it, obviously I said yes as he was doing it for free. Since then no one has written anything on top of has artwork.

Some years ago, Mrs Wz had someone ask if they could paint a blank wall outside her office. She said yes and they did a beautiful jungle scene and then over sprayed with a new one every 6-12 months always asking before they started. They did a really good job and were obviously very talented.

Tagging is just demonstrating to everyone that you are a talentless, stupid t**t trying to get attention

 

[Justice]

No one seemed to mind when Bruno’s face was spray painted all over a wall.

 

[BN9 BHA]

No one seemed to mind when Bruno’s face was spray painted all over a wall.

Slightly different to someone spraying ‘CREW’ in wonky letters on a phone box.

 

[PeterT]

Slightly different to someone spraying ‘CREW’ in wonky letters on a phone box.

But he was just reaching out and helping people, allegedly.

 

[BN9 BHA]

But he was just reaching out and helping people, allegedly.

He’s done well if someone gullible enough to believe that story has got him off

 

[Swansman]

Graffiti is nice. It has always been obvious that the "I'm going to be very upset about you painting on this grey concrete wall because I want it to be clean and beautiful" really are just complaining for the sake of complaining or because they are living incredibly stale and dull lives themselves and identify with the nondescript concrete wall.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Graffiti is nice. It has always been obvious that the "I'm going to be very upset about you painting on this grey concrete wall because I want it to be clean and beautiful" really are just complaining for the sake of complaining or because they are living incredibly stale and dull lives themselves and identify with the nondescript concrete wall.

Nice?

 

[Swansman]

Nice?

Did you go and enjoy the beauty of that thing on a daily basis before someone tagged it?

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Did you go and enjoy the beauty of that thing on a daily basis before someone tagged it?

Thank f*** most of the world is populated by half sensible people

 

[Bakero]

Graffiti Tagging - who is doing it and why?

Albanians?

 

[Bakero]

Graffiti Tagging - who is doing it and why?

Albanians?

Tagging is obviously shit but Brighton has some great graffiti. https://www.visitbrighton.com/things-to-do/attractions/street-art

 

[BN9 BHA]

Did you go and enjoy the beauty of that thing on a daily basis before someone tagged it?

Well there is a message on the bin if you look under the childish tags, it’s about keeping Brighton and Hove tidy.
I just used the bin photo as an example of the tags (and it’s from the news story) many historic buildings in Brighton that are nice to look at also get tagged unfortunately.

I believe shop owners in the area get fined if they don’t clean graffiti from the walls and shutters of their buildings.

 

[Algernon]

Did you go and enjoy the beauty of that thing on a daily basis before someone tagged it?

You're correct, it looks much better after the scribble.
The youth of today eh?

 

[Swansman]

Well there is a message on the bin if you look under the childish tags, it’s about keeping Brighton and Hove tidy.
I just used the bin photo as an example of the tags (and it’s from the news story) many historic buildings in Brighton that are nice to look at also get tagged unfortunately.

I believe shop owners in the area get fined if they don’t clean graffiti from the walls and shutters of their buildings.

Tidy...
The main beauty with graffiti isn't the art itself (which is in many cases quite poor), but the amazing concept of people noticing and interacting with the surroundings.
Kids today dream of Hollywood, they watch their screens and go into fantasy worlds. That some still do the opposite and go out with a couple of friends and tag things or steal apples from backyards or have a jam on the sidewalk or whatever... is just fantastic. Whenever I walk into nature and find a Coca Cola can I almost get a tear in my eye and start thinking about how nice it is that someone had a fun, good time at a beautiful place. A tidy city is a dead city where the city itself and the people are too stale and disinterested to actually notice and interact with surroundings.

 

[faoileán]

Bored kids who haven't been taught to respect other peoples belongings. Need a bloody good hiding.

When once in a blue moon they are caught they are often not kids; they are resentful adults who will never own property and illustrate (literally) their resentment by defacing other people's. Brighton Council launched a graffiti strategy a few years ago but it was completely ineffectual and obviously City Clean don't consider it their territory...

 

[faoileán]

If it's offensive or on public property then the council will remove it; https://new.brighton-hove.gov.uk/rubbish-recycling-and-streets/streets/what-do-about-graffiti. A lot of the tagging isn't deemed offensive or on council owned property, in which case it is up to the land-owner.

Getting caught tagging is a small fine for the first offence. Community service (hopefully removing tagging) for future offences.

But that response from the council is completely useless. If they won't take ownership for cleaning it up they should enforce the property owners to do so...

 

[Brovion]

No one seemed to mind when Bruno’s face was spray painted all over a wall.

They did the second time!. But that is rather the point, street art (which is what the Bruno mural was) is great and is usually appreciated, it's the mindless tagging that pisses people off, it's like littering.

 

[Swansman]

But that response from the council is completely useless. If they won't take ownership for cleaning it up they should enforce the property owners to do so...

There is only one proven way to beat graffiti: to gentrify the area or city. Remove all creative, playful people and replace them with boring, rich people.

Quick removal and zero tolerance doesn't work. Stockholm had the harshest anti-graffiti policy of any city in Europe: every single little tag had to be reported to the police, photographed and removed within 24 hours.

It did not decrease the amount of graffiti, it cost tax payers and property owners hundreds of millions, and was abandoned after about 20 years. Similar results in some American cities where they've tried this approach.