Art and Censorship by Jen Pappas

Personally, I like graffiti. Not the territorial gang throw ups or crudely scrawled obscenities on bus stops and public trash bins, I mean real graffiti. The colorful splashes of street art and murals where typography is taken into careful consideration and urban surroundings are worked in with the image to further enrich its message. I like silkscreened stickers pasted on telephone poles and political stencils spray painted on the sidewalks. I even enjoy the occasional poem inked in haste on the stalls of a public bathroom.

Yet somewhere along the way, in powerful countries like the United States and the U.K., this unique form of self-expression was deemed an eyesore, a menace and a felony. From 2006 to 2007, graffiti-related arrests rose by 28 percent in New York City alone. It is now typical to find cans of spray paint held under lock and key at your local hardware store. Graffiti artists are regularly harassed, assaulted and booked into custody by police officers trying to save our streets from a little color.

Before going any further, let it be known that I am by no means condoning gang-related tags or any malicious defacement of freshly painted buildings because the kids were bored. I’m simply drawing a line between the current laws and regulations against street art and the censorship of one’s creative mode.

Recently, I spent some time in the gritty little port town of Valparaiso, Chile. This historical city is South America’s answer to San Francisco, itself a beacon of world-class street art and innovative envelope-pushing. Valpo, as the locals call it, is a timeless collection of skinny homes and buildings painted every color of the rainbow and stuck haphazardly into the hillsides like some kind of lunatic patchwork quilt. Along with the chromatic buildings and legendary past for everything colorful; urban sculptures, block-long murals, paintings, stencils and quirky text cover every surface imaginable.

The entire city is one giant canvas. Not only is the sheer volume of open art overwhelming, it’s embraced by the community. In Valpo, street art is not a crime, it’s a way of life- a way to share one’s visual aesthetic and message with anyone who happens to walk by.

One early afternoon, I was on my way to get a cup of coffee when I came across a graffiti artist in action. He was standing in a narrow, brick-lined alley about four blocks from the central post office and historical navy buildings. His spray cans were lined up on a dumpster behind him and he was standing back ever so slightly from the wall, sizing it up.

All around him, people were hurrying by on their way to work or the produce market, for coffee or to lunch. Buses whizzed by. Taxis honked and pigeons lurked. Somewhere in the distance, several different car alarms could be heard. The city went on breathing and humming, and there he was, soaking it in subconsciously, getting ready to give it all back on this one particular wall.

The essence of public art is just that: public. It’s not intended for individual consumption or private collections. It’s not always beautiful or even significant, but neither are the cities or landscapes that inspired these works of art in the first place. It’s about creativity, inspiration and the ability to express oneself out in the open, with broad strokes and dubious borders. The people of Valparaiso have never been censored in this regard, thus the city outwardly reflects their every passion, whim and unique sense of humor.

Yes, in general terms, graffiti often depreciates a neighborhood and is considered a symbol of violence or crime. But the same can be said about litter, billboards or even dog crap for that matter- things prevalent in every town and city in the world. But unlike street art, I have yet to see any artistic merit in a pile of garbage or dog poop.

Despite its growing popularity and the influx of street art in fashion and pop-culture, graffiti artists continue to be deemed public deviants and a menace to society. As a result, much of their large-scale talent and socio-political commentary goes unseen. But walk the streets of Valparaiso and you will see a different story. You will know both the city and the people who make it hum- past, present and future, inside and out.

opinion by Jen Pappas