There is a very interesting wall beside the subway entrance (Sherbourne Station) I use everyday for my commute, I have been living in this neighbourhood for about 8 years and this wall has almost been a battlefield between graffiti writers and the city trying to make it an aesthetically pleasing wall. The most recent addition by the graffiti writers to the wall has been up there for more than 6 months, and I walk by it everyday. For me the wall has a certain familiarity associated with it ever since the graffiti was added on the simple subtle letters such as “hey”, “hi”, “sup” surrounding it is pleasing to me. The piece I am talking about is the orange piece “josh” on the featured image above, clearly its not a legal one because it is over a mural, but I think it compliments it with the orange colour.
This wall borders two significantly different communities, past the wall in the North direction is one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in Toronto, Rosedale mostly full of mansions fenced off properties and South of it is more of the low income immigrant heavy neighbourhood of St. Jamestown, which is comprised of tall apartment buildings and community housing buildings The two communities are connected through the tunnel you can see in the image, the tunnel as its own history it has always been graffiti heavy and recently it has been turned into a legal wall. If I had to guess who might be responsible for this piece of graffiti on the mural I would guess he is from the St. Jamestown neighbourhood, because of the demographics I see a lot of young teens in St. Jamestown, I am assuming that the person responsible is young teen because of the nature of the piece, it is done on top of a mural that is a pretty bold move to do. Especially because of how busy the area is, there are people coming in and out of the subway very frequently.
The wall has gone through some transitions in the past couple of years, I just used the Google Maps street view tool to see the changes this wall has gone throughout the past couple of years. It used to be a blank concrete wall very gloomy, with some minor tags on it. The city covered up these tags right away, it was always maintained as the gray wall. Then sometime around summer of 2014, I assume the city has decided to approve a mural on the wall. It is a very typical “painting” type artwork of a scenery with trees and nature. Soon after the mural was completed then this piece popped up over it. The graffiti artist might have thought this mural was too tacky and decided to leave his mark upon it. The complexity of the topic whether graffiti is Art or Crime that (McAuliffe and Iveson) talk about is very apparent here in this wall, because here is a location where it exists as art and crime. The legal wall in the tunnel can be considered as art whereas the one that is written over the mural can be considered as crime. The legal wall represents graffiti as an art it allows for these graffiti writers to express themselves in public. I find it interesting that this graffiti still exists over the mural given its characteristic of illegality. The history of this wall suggests to me that it would have been covered up as soon as possible, but here it is still to this date. Maybe people who normally report illegal graffiti or maintain this space thought it was part of the legal wall. Or maybe the maintenance team thought removing it would disfigure the mural underneath it so it was left as is and just live with it.
The existence of this piece gets me thinking on how much the current society has grown accustomed to graffiti. It exists everywhere we go, on subway cars, parking lots, garbage cans, I have come to accept it as part of what defines an urban city and I believe most of the people who live in the city has come to this realization as well. This is a very generalized conclusion, because I am pretty sure if someone did a graffiti piece over a property most likely they wouldn’t be happy about it and let it sit there. I believe Toronto is progressive in its relationship with graffiti with various programs for graffiti artists to express themselves such as the legal wall in the tunnel. There are many legal walls around the city, for example graffiti alley which is downtown Toronto on queen street which has become a tourist attraction. These types of programs benefits both the artists and the citizens of the city, it portrays the more artistic side of graffiti where artists are given the resources and time to fully express their work, and the city benefits by upgrading aesthetics of the area by investing in these programs. These programs are necessary to keep in touch with the graffiti community and it does help reduce the number of illegal graffiti around the city. The graffiti done in legal walls in my opinion have a far more artistic content than the ones done illegally. This mostly because the illegal ones are done quickly and the artist doesn’t get a lot of time to spend on their work. The artistic character of graffiti portrayed by these legal walls and its acceptance by municipal governments has grown us more accustomed to its existence and I believe graffiti is here to stay whether if its legal or illegal.
The graffiti piece you are discussing is very interesting, especially because it covers a legal painting. Because it covers the legal mural, it did surprise me that your opinion is that the graffiti should stay. i did not expect this when I started reading. You argue that graffiti is here to stay whether it is legal or not. I wonder if this includes all graffiti, or only in this case, because it fits the legal painting in colour and it is not an offending piece. In other words, where do you think the border lies whether a piece should stay or go?
I find it interesting to note that you believe that the person who painted this is a male from St Jamestown. I am curious as to what makes you believe that a male from Rosedale would not paint this graffiti there? Also, the fact that they have not removed this graffiti is something that makes me wonder why. Like you mentioned, maybe they do not want to remove the mural that is underneath, but then does that make it okay to go around spraying over mural that are legal?
I really enjoyed reading your post! Your comparison between what the space used to look like vs. what it looks now is so interesting. At first I thought the person in the tunnel was the graffiti artist!
I found it kind of ironic that the city was keen to the remove graffiti on the wall before it became a mural. Do you think authorizing a mural is the city's way of discouraging graffiti on that particular wall?
I am curious to know whether or not you see this graffiti as an improvement to an otherwise "typical" mural, as you described it. Do you personally think the graffiti makes the space more alive and interesting or does it negatively impact the space for you?
After our short conversation in class about your chosen graffiti, I was curious to read your blog post. In relation to the above comments, I really liked how you showed the history of the area over the years. It really helped me paint a clear understand of the area’s revolution of graffiti. As you mentioned in class, I found it very interesting to see how an illegal piece could remain on a legal mural for this long. Although it is located on a legal wall, the mural is the primary piece of art. When I saw these photos, I felt that “JOSH” was intruding a dignified area because it does not fit the overall feeling of the mural. Even though it is a form of art expression, is it right to keep “JOSH” on these walls? The colour used does blend into the mural which gives it a less intimidating feel in addition to the name “JOSH” and word choices. In a sense, it feels like the artist is welcoming you to this space which makes it much more approachable in comparison to other pieces. As per our conversation, you do happen to know who drew this piece and his other works. Do you know what his real intentions were when he drew this piece? Why do you think he chose this specific location?
Sorry Iris, I meant to say all graffiti is here to stay not just this one. I was just highlighting the fact that there will always be graffiti in an urban city whether it is legal or not, I believe graffiti will never be eradicated. I was just highlighting the fact the programs like these legal walls shows the acceptance of graffiti as an art form by the city. I think the border for whether a piece should stay or go depends on the people who share the space it is in, if it doesn’t bother anyone then it will stay.
osantos, I believe that person who painted is a male from St. Jamestown, first because of the piece itself the words spell out “JOSH”, secondly growing up in this area for a while I have witnessed many graffiti artists paint around the neighbourhood. But you are right it could be from a Rosedale, but I strongly believe it is from St. Jamestown based on my experience. I don’t think it is okay to go around spraying over legal murals it is rude to draw over someone else work but it is still here and it has been there for so long, I at this point just consider it part of the mural.
gheorghe I do believe the mural was authorized to control the graffiti on that wall, because the the tunnel was a authorized legal wall before the wall. I am guessing the mural was the City’s way of saying graffiti stays in the tunnel not on this wall. I think the piece does make the wall a little more alive, like I’ve mentioned before this wall has always been active between the city and graffiti artists. The relationship between those two parties still remains to be displayed on this wall, first time I saw the mural I was impressed and wowed then the graffiti came on and then I smiled because it looked a little more familiar.
trancy it doesn’t bother me that the piece is there because it describes the history of that wall for me, just being part of the space for so long. As I replied to Iris, I don’t have an opinion on whether it is right to stay or not, I believe that is decided by everyone that shares the space. If it bothers enough people then it will come down but it has been up there for more than 6 months now. No I do not know the real intentions behind this piece he isn’t very expressive or open about his works. I believe he chose this location because it is most visible one in the neighbourhood, because everyone takes the subway, I believe he wants to recognition for his work and this piece sends a really bold message over the mural.