Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Pictures of Walls
From time to time I find a website that I genuinely like, but am totally unable to explain why. Pictures of Walls is one such site. The name of the page doesn't have some kind of amazing existential and obscure-Pink-Floyd-reference type meaning. It is literally a bunch of photos (153 at last count) of walls. Not just any walls though - graffitied walls.
I am not sure why, but I have always been a bit of a fan of graffiti. Let me clarify this by breaking graffiti into several basic categories - tags, art and ravings.
Tags, for the most part, are utter shite. Simply a squiggle of paint on a surface somewhere - they mean very little to all but very few, they are generally ugly and have no real merits whatsoever. I don't consider this graffiti, tags are just vandalism with paint cans. Some tags can transcend this, but I would file these in the 'art' category.
Art can be anything from obscure faces peering from walls to some of the coolest pictures you will ever see. Anywhere. Period. There is some great stuff out there if you look - you would be amazed at what you can see on the average train journey. Even though I have, for the most part, left my arts-student, left-wing past behind, I do enjoy some of the political and social commentary out there too. This kind of stuff isn't so bad in my opinion, and generally looks more interesting than the average blank wall.
Ravings however are something that I love. Usually the only positive thing about visiting a public toilet (alone) besides the relief is the writing on the walls and doors. Seriously. But these things appear everywhere. Normally smaller and less obtrusive than the tags and art, you can find anything from real pearls of wisdom from spraycan-wielding sages to some of the most random and amusing bits of reading on Earth. No really. Nothing brings up a grin more than a bit of cheekiness on an otherwise dull wall.
All that I just blathered about aside, check out Writing on Walls. No, seriously. It rocks.
I am not sure why, but I have always been a bit of a fan of graffiti. Let me clarify this by breaking graffiti into several basic categories - tags, art and ravings.
Tags, for the most part, are utter shite. Simply a squiggle of paint on a surface somewhere - they mean very little to all but very few, they are generally ugly and have no real merits whatsoever. I don't consider this graffiti, tags are just vandalism with paint cans. Some tags can transcend this, but I would file these in the 'art' category.
Art can be anything from obscure faces peering from walls to some of the coolest pictures you will ever see. Anywhere. Period. There is some great stuff out there if you look - you would be amazed at what you can see on the average train journey. Even though I have, for the most part, left my arts-student, left-wing past behind, I do enjoy some of the political and social commentary out there too. This kind of stuff isn't so bad in my opinion, and generally looks more interesting than the average blank wall.
Ravings however are something that I love. Usually the only positive thing about visiting a public toilet (alone) besides the relief is the writing on the walls and doors. Seriously. But these things appear everywhere. Normally smaller and less obtrusive than the tags and art, you can find anything from real pearls of wisdom from spraycan-wielding sages to some of the most random and amusing bits of reading on Earth. No really. Nothing brings up a grin more than a bit of cheekiness on an otherwise dull wall.
All that I just blathered about aside, check out Writing on Walls. No, seriously. It rocks.
# posted by Nils @ 4:22 PM 
