The Writing on the Wall

Writing on public walls is an ancient means of human expression, dating back 37,000 years to caves in France, but an editorial in yesterday's Northwest Arkansas Times is worth the thought that the writer invested in considering the local graffiti phenomenon. In trying to understand motive, the editorialist suggested boredom, anger, or just being stupid. "The first reaction we had about these attacks against our community was anger. Then it struck us. The people who thought it would be funny to ruin public property were, in some way they’ve learned, trying to communicate with a population that isn’t listening — even if they didn’t consciously think about it that way."

Still, continued the piece in a less insightful way, "we hope the authorities catch them and put them to work cleaning up the various messes they’ve created, among other things. Beyond that natural desire, however, we hope the individuals responsible can be shown that expressing themselves isn’t a crime, but that they need to find a more creative, and legal, outlet for their emotions in the future." That condescending suggestion ignores the shrinking public sphere and the fact that people get arrested for wearing anti-war t-shirts at the mall, that Wal-Mart has people arrested for soliciting signatures in the parking lot or protesting at stockholders meetings, that the UA administration tries to limit religious speakers on campus, that the UA threatened legal action against a joker who designed a t-shirt poking fun at Houston Nutt, that high school students now have almost no freedom of speech on or off campus, and that not everyone who has something worth saying can afford the ad rates in the Times.

It is significant that the editorial hinged on the fact that "Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, J. B. Hunt Transport Services Center, and the Willard Walker Pavilion had all been struck." The editor appears to believe that graffiti on the exterior of UA buildings, unlike wealthy corporate moguls’ names affixed on those buildings, creates an unsightly chaotic atmosphere. If these artists have a message, let them give millions for another business building or pay thousands for space on the Bud Walton scoreboard. Otherwise, STFU.

People way smarter than me have argued that the contemporary graffiti subculture is a system of action that renegotiates the social significance of public space in Fayetteville and on the UA campus. Someone spray painting my house might make me think otherwise, but graffiti is an artistic form of expressing thoughts, wishes, ideas, and peaceful protest -- a subversive form of communication that cannot be handily reduced to simple vandalism.

Even though I can't fully appreciate it, graffiti can perform a valuable symbolic resistance and defend a cultural space by introducing and bringing attention to alternative voices in our community. Whose community? It suggests that our city is everyone's territory, not just the rich and famous Donrey/Hunt/WalMart crowd, the glad-handers at the Chamber, the badged bullies posing as bike cops, the handsomely paid college administrators at the country club, the obscenely compensated coaches on the take for displaying corporate logos, the comfortable residents of Candlewood, or even the local editors in the employ of the corporate media chains.