I never saw the point of graffiti when growing up. Now, as with many things, my attitude comprises varying shades of grey rather than black and white.
Scrawls, names and ‘A loving B’ are pure vandalism. I have had to clean off enough of these to put me off them for life. Names or tags with a range of colours may have some brief interest period but still remain well into the dark grey of vandalism.
I remember reading about graffiti near Paddington station in London which read ‘Far Away is Close at Hand in Images of Elsewhere’ and thinking that this was acceptable. It was still defacing someone else’s property but to brighten my dark opinion, it was a form of street ‘Thought for the Day’ for the passengers.
I recently saw the street art on plywood which was blocking up a disused building on South Mall. Human’s tendency to amend rules came into play. In my mind this was acceptable as it appeared art rather than scrawls and also it was on temporary surface.
No doubt my opinion on graffiti will shift nearer black or white the longer I continue with this blog. In the meantime, until the South Mall property is redeveloped, I will enjoy the image of Enda Kenny and Michael Noonan.