The Black Cat: Poetry in Spanish Graffiti

The Hapless Hobo: 9th Jul 2008 - 21:12 GMT

By the way, let me take this opportunity to write a little blurb about my opinions on graffiti...

Graffiti can range from classless, ugly scrawls on buildings to high art...whatever it is, however, it is the responsibility of the artist to make sure that whatever he or she is doing is a) legal and b) done with the permission of the property owners. Sadly, much of what goes on fails to meet either requirement, and while it may be art, while it may be beautiful, it is unethically created.

Any thoughts on this?

Peter: 9th Jul 2008 - 23:23 GMT

weve had the discussion re: graf versus vandalism on here like 500 times, and its surprising how every other person has their own specific definition of the term "graffiti", to the point where it becomes a largely semantical (and overly-opinionated) debate in which the property owners generally end up angrily lashing out and the writers end up defending their habit under the aegis of expression and unrestricted visual communication.

i am of the opinion that if its a legal/permission/"ethical" piece, its "art" (or "aerosol art" or "street art" or whatever), not graffiti.

i mean, look up "graffiti" in any dictionary, and the most common definitions are generally implicit of its outlaw nature. and the irony that most laypersons arent sensitive to is that most bombers are as much (or more) attracted to the duality of graf's creation/destructive elements as they are to the "art" element.

this is a nice post, though. thanks. lets see some more!

Hapless: 10th Jul 2008 - 04:24 GMT

See, I wouldn't know about the debate, I'm relatively new here...in fact, this was, I think, the first topic I've created. I have heard about the dual nature element that you've mentioned before...interesting how attractive extremes and contradictions can be to our minds. The subjective nature of the word "graffiti" has not occurred to me, but it is food for thought.

Anyway, I took God-knows-how-many photos of graffiti while in Spain. Should be posting some more in the coming days.

Peter: 10th Jul 2008 - 04:50 GMT

we love us some graffiti (of any sort) on cn, so post away! were more into nice flicks than semantical discussions around here anyway :)

got any trucks/vans? one of my favorite ongoing graf series on here is the "graf trux" at citynoise.org/search/graf_trux...

Hapless: 10th Jul 2008 - 19:28 GMT

Very interesting. I didn't see any trucks, but I'm definitely going to keep my eyes open now.

colavitos ghost: 12th Jul 2008 - 20:27 GMT

"diario" usually just means "diary" or sometimes "agenda" (like a little notebook where you write down your plans.

the only commonly-used word i know for "newspaper" is "periódico".

(not like it really matters. sorry for being annoying.)

Hapless: 13th Jul 2008 - 06:41 GMT

No, Colavitos, thanks for the input! I knew it had to be something like that. I appreciate the correction. I'm not very skilled in the Spanish language, so I need all the help I can get. :)

Rene Garcia: 29th Aug 2008 - 12:53 GMT

The word "diario" has different meanings, one of them being "newspaper", but it also means "diary" and "daily", the correct use for this sentence being "daily".
This is a better translation of the poem
Black Cat

With you I speak daily
being the dream
Dictionary of my thoughts
Open book!
With your eyes,
I see the confused clarity
converted to light
Let us discover the life
of your forms
Deform us