Graffiti Art vs Vandalism

Comments debate whether graffiti qualifies as art or vandalism, particularly regarding its use on public property, signage fixes, and distinctions between creative expression and defacement.

📉 Falling 0.4x Politics & Society
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Keywords

TV US designboom.com graffiti vandalism art paint spray property tags artists tagging dull

Sample Comments

genewitch Jul 16, 2022 View on HN

this is why there's graffiti instead of canvases hung, i wager.

torstenvl Apr 7, 2021 View on HN

"it’s hard to tell where the artist’s work ends and the vandalism begins"Seems like no harm, no foul.

quirkafleeg Apr 3, 2017 View on HN

Nobody said vandalism is okay, nobody said graffiti is okay but only if done to other people's property, and this guy is not painting or stickering everything he wants, he's (non-destructively and for free) fixing bad signage.

zawaideh Apr 8, 2015 View on HN

Graffiti could be interesting ;)

BitwiseFool Feb 26, 2021 View on HN

I can't stand graffiti, please don't enable this kind of behavior.

joshuaheard Apr 18, 2014 View on HN

Just what we need, more graffiti.

baddox May 1, 2016 View on HN

Don't forget paint. The graffiti/vandalism analogy works pretty well here.

ldjb May 17, 2024 View on HN

We're talking about public property here. Many authorities have a 'no tolerance' approach to graffiti. Even if it looks nice, it will be removed. There is a belief that removing graffiti quickly discourages it. If graffiti artists find that their work won't last long, they may be discouraged from doing it in the first place. Aesthetics doesn't really come into it.

jamesbritt Oct 17, 2013 View on HN

Interesting that this is called "vandalism" and not "art".

clSTophEjUdRanu Feb 21, 2020 View on HN

I like the graffiti complaining about graffiti.