Gentrified Graffiti: The Los Angeles Arts District
I have always been interested in traditional forms of art - oil and acrylic paintings, sculptures, triptychs. But after learning about graffiti and street art in class this semester, they become a recent muse. This is because graffiti to me seems very dichotomous, which makes it unique; it can be both high art and low art, public and private, self-serving yet anonymous.
Last summer, I was visiting Okinawa, one of Japan’s islands that is home to a lot of traditional temples and historical artifacts. While walking down the street filled with what looked like authentic and traditional restaurants, I came upon a narrow space in between two of the building that was almost entirely covered in graffiti. It gave me such a weird and alarming feeling that I had to pause and take a picture. It was so out of place yet also very seamlessly blended into the street.
I did not know much about the history of graffiti or the significance of graffiti in Japan (or anywhere else) until I started reading about it and learning about why graffiti made me feel such a way that compelled me to take a picture. It was because the graffiti was positioned in a location - a street with many traditional restaurants. It was unexpected, which made it feel almost intrusive. However, it also felt okay to admire and preserve it there because it was in a small alleyway that most people might miss. All of these feelings were rooted from the preconceived notion, an untrue concept mostly learned from media, that graffiti is essentially bad: an illegal product of outliers.
In Los Angeles, murals have become an incredibly popular marketing tool. Murals can also be seen as a form of graffiti, for it is painting and tagging public space. However, much like the enthusiasm that was received with yarn bombing in New York, murals have become highly popular. It has become the “solution” to cleaning up graffiti. Though murals are an appropriation of graffiti and black culture, artists who paint these murals are often times commissioned by business owners or even public officials to paint over certain parts of the city. Therefore, the trend I picked up in the foreign island of Okinawa, where graffiti is only seen in areas where it receives minimal attraction, has also become applicable in Los Angeles.
As seen in the photos below, graffiti is mainly seen in areas that are not meant to be attracted by many people: parking lots, bathroom stalls, street poles, gates, and freeway dividers.
I found this empty parking [the two photos above] on the outskirts of the arts district, full of graffiti.
Another empty parking lot, and what looks like a dumpster or shed is covered in graffiti.
However, the parking lot below that was open for what looked like a restaurant at the end, was covered in murals. Even the cars that were parked in this parking lot that was 5 minutes away from the lots above showed a different type of status symbol.
However, what I also noticed while I was taking these photos on my phone was that the filters used in snapchat, as seen below, was one that appropriated graffiti. This was extremely ironic for Snapchat to have this tag available in the arts district, an area that mainly worshipped murals more than graffiti.
The photo above shows the Snapchat filter that is being used for the Artist District. I put it over a commercial building that showed a well-established mural over it, with the sign no parking.
This photo above also uses the same snapchat filter over what is seen as traditional graffiti. It mimics the filter’s design. But instead of a private and well-established building, the graffiti is seen over a porta-potty that was being used by construction workers right next to the highly gentrified area of Urth Cafe.
The photos below show how poles seem to be a popular spot for graffiti artists - maybe because most if not all of the walls in the arts district are covered in murals, leaving no space for the graffiti artists who used to tag all over the area before it became commercialized.
As well as street dividers, and sidewalks - as seen in the photos below.
An obscurely covered-up side of the wall that has been tagged with graffiti.
A barren sidewalk on the outskirts of downtown Los Angeles, also tagged with graffiti.
A dumpster, in the arts district, seen with graffiti
Graffiti is seen on the sidewalk, it is slowly fading away.
The photos below, however, show that murals are only seen in extremely visible locations that are meant to attract people. People are seen taking photos with these murals. I personally know friends who purposefully visit the Arts District to take pictures with these murals, but never with graffiti.
This mural above was painted on the same building as the popular Urth Cafe.
A common factor about murals is that you can often times see the number/location of the building. The one above shows that it is building #440.
This mural is painted over #1135
This mural, if seen closely, is painted over the building #436
This wings mural is extremely popular in the Arts District; it has become almost symbolic.
The photos below, very distinctly show that the owner of this building painted over existing graffiti.
There is definitely a huge discrepancy between the way people are perceiving graffiti and murals in downtown Los Angeles. Though most people, Snapchat included, acknowledge that graffiti is the original source for murals and the Arts District, graffiti’s are seen in only obscure locations shy from the public eye, while murals are visibly painted over commercial buildings.
Just like Okinawa, it has become rare and almost out of place for graffiti to co-exist in Los Angeles where murals have become the focal point of street art in the city. This can mostly be attributed to the commercialization and gentrification of the area: pushing original works of graffiti to the outskirts of the district, and instead of covering existing graffiti with murals. This may only add to the stereotype that graffiti is an unwelcoming and illegal form of art.