oh, Vienna


In the meantime, local artists appear to have taken with great aplomb to the paper building. A largely derelict property has been coated in paper and our local graffitists* have already begun work on it. Within 24 hours, already someone had expressed the opinion that “K**** M****** is a Tramp”. Oliver was quite right – all it takes is someone to write ‘cunt’ and they’d withdraw art funding for this type of thing near-instanteously. E is of the opinion that graffiti is a form of art. For me, it’s mere vandalism. Because art is greater than writing your name on a wall : that’s writing. Anyone can write. Not anyone can write anything meaningful. Not everyone can create art.

*is that a word?

Art has to mean something, at the very least in the mind of the author, and almost always, art has to have meaning and impact in the mind of the viewer. What art is intended to mean isn’t quite as important as what art actually means. Is it? After all, if art is created in the woods, and no one hears it – is it still art?

Is writing “K***** M****** is a Tramp” art? No. Never in a million years. It’s a brainless unthinking insult. Graffitti at best. The meaningless scrawl of those who mistake saying something with having something to say. Anyone can say something. What is important is not saying something, but saying something worth listening.



Whats the point? What does it mean? I’d never create anything unless it meant, at least, something to me. I’d probably not publish it until it was likely to mean, at least, something to someone else. If it meant nothing to me… oh, Vienna.

Graffitti is not art. Graffitti is vandalism. If you’re an artist, buy your own canvas and sell it to someone, make it a piece of art that won’t be overwritten in a days time. (Did you know, the Achtung Baby ‘baby’ existed for only 48 hours before it was painted over?) Graffitti is meaningless if it doesn’t mean anything to anyone. Art should be a way of exploring the world, putting life through a lens and creating something new out of that, helping people see the world a way they’ve never seen it before, adding fresh insights to life in this modern world, making reality a different, larger place we can explore as if it were a new, different reality. Art isn’t there to enable you to spray paint monsters on walls and tell the world that “K**** M****** is a Tramp”

Some people mistake saying something with having something to say. The two are worlds apart.
- posted by Mark @ 11:04 pm