Wicaksono 1

Michael Bimo Wicaksono

Professor Swindle
English 122
7 July 2015
Walls of Freedom.
Graffiti is believed to be one of the first forms of art in the world. The idea of our
ancestors who created ancient cave paintings were the same as the artists of today.
Whether its done on the side of a cave or the side of a building, there isnt much
distinction. Both intended to conduct a public awareness of some issues in the society.
Graffiti could be a reflection of the youth culture in an urban environment, a protest to the
government, or a moral message to society. However, its existence recently becomes
controversial since it often related with vandalism. It is important to distinguished
between graffiti as an art and random airbrush tags in the wall that dont have a permit
from the wall owner which considered as vandalism. Technically, according to George
Stowers from University of Miami; graffiti is considered an art since ..it requires planning
and imagination and contain artistic elements such color and composition in order to
produce narrative in it (1) while simple tags on the wall do not have aesthetic or narrative
in it. The huge difference between graffiti and vandalism is about manner; graffiti gives
positive impact to society while vandalism is in reverse. Therefore, graffiti should be
legalized since it gives positive impacts to society.
The major reason why some people are against graffiti is because it has an
expensive cost of cleanup. It is true that graffiti is costly to cleanup; for example, in the
city of San Jose, CA, according to graffitihurts.org this city spent $2 million for graffiti
removal in 2006. However, the huge cost of graffiti is about how we manage it; we

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actually could make a lot of money by graffiti. In Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia,
graffiti is a huge business which is profitable for society, companies, graffiti artist, and the
government. As a home of 9.6 million inhabitants, street advertisements is a growing
business in this city. Since the rent cost of billboards keeps rising, some companies
manage to use a blank space on the wall to advertise their products. They rent a blank
space on someones houses or buildings which much cheaper than billboard rent and
they hire a group graffiti artist to make a graffiti that advertised their products. The house
or building owners in Jakarta could get some extra money by renting their wall. The
community of graffiti artist in Jakarta also get a lot of benefits from this advertisements;
they make a lot of money while they performing their talent. Moreover, the municipality of
Jakarta also gets some benefits from this graffiti advertisement since they get extra
revenue from the advertisement tax that paid by companies in every single graffiti
advertisements in Jakarta.
Besides monetary benefits, graffiti is a tool for society to express their aspirations.
As stated on the First Amendment we all have a right of freedom of speech which
allows us to criticize our government without fear of being arrested. However, we could
get arrested if we caught make a graffiti since it categorized as a vandalism. It still
unclear for how long our government will violate our rights; nonetheless, graffiti could be
an effective way to criticize our government. The existence of graffiti itself in the United
States is a part of law violation that barely seen by the public. Therefore, everyone that
draws a graffiti is a way for them to protest our government and raise attention from
public. For example, a graffiti artist draws a graffiti that shows a police brutality. All people
who saw this graffiti will be more conscious about the police brutality issue. The
government will also be more aware of since more people are getting conscious about
this issue and they will take action to fix this problem.

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Another problem of graffiti is that they often correlated with bad neighborhoods.
According to Noel Sanchez from the University of Florida, points out most of the area that
have a dense amount of graffiti usually have a high rate of crime. However, it depends on
how we manage to use graffiti whether as a medium of positive activities or negative
activities. Graffiti could be positive activities for teenagers to spend their free time
especially for them in the lower socioeconomic community. Graffiti could give them an
opportunity to express their creativity that could keep them away from negative activities
such violence and drugs. According to Daniel Kinnoch writer of challegefuture.org; graffiti
will keep teenager busy at their free time and could enhance their creativity by sharing
their thought about freedom, politics, or simply their school life. As an example;
according to Brian Littlely of The Advertiser, in city of Adelaide, South Australia; the city
council sets aside free walls in public spaces to allow poor or disadvantaged youth to
express themselves and enhance the aesthetic of public spaces at the same time. Free
walls project in Australia is a good example of how graffiti could impact disadvantaged
youth in a positive way; they can express themselves legally without fear of being
arrested or associated with a bad influence. Imagine that if every city in the world have a
free walls for disadvantaged youth to express themeselves in a positive way, there will
be a major decline of crime rates that associated with disadvantaged youth.
Despite all its negative outlook, graffiti have an abundance of positive impacts to
society. The legalization of graffiti could enhance society in economic aspects, political
aspects, and social aspects. Therefore, graffiti should be legalized since it could enhance
society in many aspects especially for those who live in the urban environment.
Works Cited
How Does Graffiti Hurts ? Graffiti Hurts.,2015.Web.6 July 2015

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Kinnoch, Daniel. Graffiti walls enhance creativity. Challenge Future.,5 September 2012.
Web.6 July 2015
Littlely, Brian. Spray it again, Sam - Topham Mall graffiti wall re-opens. The Advertiser.,
19 August 2012.Web.6 July 2015.
Sanchez, Noel. Graffiti: Art through Vandalism. University of Florida.,15 November
2007.Web.6 July 2015
Stowers, George. Graffiti Art: An Essay Concerning The Recognition of Some Forms of
Graffiti As Art. University of Miami., 1997.Web.6 July 2015.