A graffiti piece also just popped up in the British paper, The Guardian. Fascinating in its subtle differences in tone and understanding from the more commercial LA Times piece.
The interesting part for me:
"There is also a violent edge to graffiti's visual approach. Sometimes the illegibility of graffiti text is part of what makes it feel threatening. The scene has always played with the language of war and conflict: painting is called bombing, while writing your name is a tag, echoing soldiers' dog tags. The friction between writers and the authorities - which in the UK has become increasingly heated as government legislation becomes increasingly strict - is a form of war. The artists become guerrillas and spies fighting to create art; as a result, graffiti often takes over the non-spaces of the city - train yards, backlots and odd hidden walls. It is only here that individualism and identity is allowed to exist."
The whole piece is here.
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To all interested parties, I would highly recommend the films Wild Style and Style Wars.
Also this quote from the Guardian article reminded me of the new movie Children of Men, which features two stencil pieces by the artist Banksy:
"Graffiti makes the tension between the individual and the city visible. As urban spaces become ubiquitously commodified and surveillance rises to Orwellian standards, humans sacrifice their identity. The self is secondary to the social whole."
Cuaron's use of the Banksy pieces is definitely in line with the Guardian article's notion that "street interventions reflect the human desire to assert individual existence in a world where power often goes hand in hand with pay packets."
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