A gallery of walls with stuff written on

April 11, 2005 11:40 PM

Pictures of Walls. A gallery of interesting grime, complete with joy, paranoia, politics, good advice and the stupidest graffiti ever. Only one rule for submissions: "No 'proper' graffiti or nazi crap obviously." [via Bifurcated Rivets]
posted by mediareport (18 comments total)

Very nice. Here are pictures tagged "graffiti" on flickr, and the graffiti pool.
posted by muckster at 11:45 PM on April 11, 2005

I don't usually pimp my own stuff but if you like that, check this out.
posted by E_B_A at 11:49 PM on April 11, 2005

Sweet!

I've seen some pretty interesting graffiti of late in my own beloved Southeast Portland industrial district. The City's efforts to clean up or cover up graffiti in said industrial districts were also the inspiration for one of the coolest art projects I've seen in ages, the 15 minute deadpan mocumentary The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal.
posted by pieisexactlythree at 12:18 AM on April 12, 2005

Life won't be complete until graphiti is an annoyance everywhere. Where's the link to all the crying babies?
posted by HTuttle at 12:27 AM on April 12, 2005

Wow, pieisexactlythree, I saw that film on a compilation of shorts just a month or two ago. Treating city workers' blocky anti-graffiti squares as its own kind of art was a cool idea, though I thought the narration was a bit too academic to really pull off the satire. But still, it was a neat little short.
posted by mediareport at 12:46 AM on April 12, 2005

Stop. Hammertime.
posted by Herr Fahrstuhl at 3:29 AM on April 12, 2005

Classic
posted by fshgrl at 3:51 AM on April 12, 2005

I like graffiti/street art sites and this is definitely a good one. I can't stop clicking. Maybe this is what the internet does best. Thanks! I'm really grateful.
posted by Termite at 3:51 AM on April 12, 2005

In Sneaky Dee's in Toronto, someone once wrote "JERK MY COCK BITCHES" above a urinal in the men's room. Before long it had been altered to read "BOY MY COCK ITCHES", and then "BOY MY COCK NEEDS STITCHES". I always wondered about the guy who felt the need to write "JERK MY COCK BITCHES" in the one place no women would be likely to read it.

/ my entry for dumbest graffiti ever
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:10 AM on April 12, 2005

Apparently I am not alone in my predilection for photographing interesting walls. Nice to know. Thanks, mediareport.
posted by shoepal at 6:48 AM on April 12, 2005

thanks for that, i just realized how much i like people who vandalize things with words.
posted by derangedlarid at 8:01 AM on April 12, 2005

Can't find a picture of it, but someone once climbed up the water tower of Eastport NY (one stop west of the multitudinous Hamptons) to scrawl in large letters upon it,

SOUP IS GOOD FOOD

Which I always admired for some reason. There was someone with strong feelings about his meals.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:28 AM on April 12, 2005

pieisexactlythree - actually, I know a writer, who has this exact mentality. He says that buffing can be controlled for your own devious purposes. He frequently paints places that will be buffed so the buff itself forms images of his design.
posted by E_B_A at 8:43 AM on April 12, 2005

The best successive graffiti I ever saw was on a Frank Perdue ad (a New York area chicken magnate), in the late '70s. The original, advertising chicken parts rather than whole chickens, showed Frank and a sheep, with the quote "If you wanted leg of lamb, you wouldn't buy one of these, would you?"

The successive modifications:
-- word balloon around the above text, coming from the sheep's mouth.
-- "A North Dakota marriage."
-- the above angrily crossed out, and "A South Dakota marriage."
-- "American Gothic revisited."
-- "I only have eyes for ewe."

Oh my, it turns out that he just died two weeks ago. RIP Frank. It took a tough man to make a tender chicken.
posted by Aknaton at 9:56 AM on April 12, 2005

mediareport, could you be referring to the resfest year 3 dvd? I saw that, too, and I agree the narration was too academic. However, I thought it was because the narrator wasn't trying to be satirical. Maybe I'm wrong?
posted by shmegegge at 9:56 AM on April 12, 2005

Aknaton,

Perdue chickens are only a new york thing? I had no idea. I thought he was nationwide.

on preview: wait, he's dead?

Anyway, that's an amusing story and probably really crazy to see in person.
posted by shmegegge at 10:09 AM on April 12, 2005

I hate to break it to you Aknaton, but Frank Perdue was a Marylander. An Eastern Shore Marylander at that. Salisbury, MD. to be exact. This is where the corporate headquarters are and have always been. Founded by Art Perdue in 1920. Sorry.

"In 1920, the same year his son, Frank, was born, Arthur W. Perdue completed his plan for going into business for himself. He gave up a promising career as a railroad agent on the rural Eastern Shore of Maryland to manage his backyard table-egg business."

posted by shoepal at 11:29 AM on April 12, 2005

mediareport, could you be referring to the resfest year 3 dvd? I saw that, too, and I agree the narration was too academic. However, I thought it was because the narrator wasn't trying to be satirical.

Thanks, shmegegge, it was the Resfest comp. I thought it seemed obvious the filmmakers were attempting satire, but it wound up feeling a tad too pretentiously academic in a boring, rather than funny, way. The Guardian link above seems to agree about the intent:

With tongue lodged firmly in cheek, the film's narrator talks of the collaborative process between taggers and local authorities that lead to this distinctive but subliminal form of public art...

Don't get me wrong - it was a brilliant idea, done very well. It just could have used a few more jokes so it didn't feel quite so...flat.
posted by mediareport at 7:02 PM on April 12, 2005