Topic: Resurgence of "graffiti problem" in NYC
- Apr 25, 2006 09:03pm by TheRevGetDown Location: Austin
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/25/nyregion/25mta.html
You need to be registered with nytimes.com to read the article...
Here's something I didn't know about:
"He said the most common material used by the new breed of graffiti vandals is Armor Etch-All, an etching acid sold in art supply stores that is used by craftspeople to etch into glass or other materials. To create graffiti with the acid, it is mixed with paint or shoe polish, Mr. Albert said. And when applied to subway windows, it most commonly leaves broad, sweeping, indelible marks, which subway crews cannot remove in subway yards, as they do with painted graffiti."
- Apr 25, 2006 09:53pm by Atilla_Beatsmith - [email protected]
www.myspace.com/manwithahammer Location: the Beatcave, U.S.A.
I'm not signed up and didn't read that article, but I just read on some site about how Marc Ecko was taking issue with a judge; saying that making some art supplies unnavailable to minors would be conflicting with their first amendment right to express themselves artistically...
- Apr 25, 2006 10:59pm by Skillaimbeer - "I like my beats harder than two-day old shit"
-Phife
Yeah, the etch bath is some serious schitt... but it's bringing graffiti back to the OG canvas, the trains, which I can appreciate. But as far as Vallone et. al. thinking that they can succeed where Koch and others failed in the "war" against graffiti, that's absolutely ludicrous. Not only is NYC the home of graffiti (technically... hope there's no Philly heads on here), but the focus on street bombing in NYC is now (and was then) at a level where it simply cannot be stopped, art-supply laws or not.
I think that the establishment is just heated over the fact that their anti-graffiti efforts have once again been thwarted by some ingenious writers some 20 years after the famous white elephants were introduced to the subway system. Long live innovation and long live graffiti.
And fuck Mark Ecko's "bombing Air Force 1" publicity stunt.
- Apr 25, 2006 11:22pm by E.N.Elder
On the subject of graffiti and bombing, is there anywhere around here that sells tips for krylon?
- Apr 26, 2006 12:16am by MILES - [url]http://www.MilesBonny.com/[/url] Location: KCK
yeah man,
i was fascinated by this stuff while i was still in NJ/NYC, and realized it was a new method, but I did see it used around here in Lawrence. Next level stuff.
really does it raw.
- Apr 26, 2006 01:36am by JDFlow - [url=http://www.my.rawkus.com/profile/jdflow]JDFlow on Rawkus[/url]
[url=http://www.myspace.com/jdflow]JDFlow on Myspace[/url]
[url=http://ccedistribution.blogspot.com/]Distribution & Marketing[/url] Location: Seattle
[quote:dc4fccf7c1="E.N.Elder"]On the subject of graffiti and bombing, is there anywhere around here that sells tips for krylon?[/quote:dc4fccf7c1]
Zach "[color=red:dc4fccf7c1]Lovely[/color:dc4fccf7c1]" is re-opening the skate shop in the bottoms on Union. He'll be carryin tips and Montana.
- Apr 26, 2006 02:08am by TheRevGetDown Location: Austin
For those that don't want to sign-up to nytimes here is the complete article...really you should sign-up anyway, it's free and a good source of news. I digress.
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Graffiti Back in Subways, Indelibly This Time
Of all the images from the 1970's and 1980's of a city out of control, perhaps none is etched more deeply into the public consciousness than that of the graffiti-covered subway train screeching into a station, every inch of its surface covered with a rich patina of spray-painted slashes and scrawls.
Skip to next paragraph
Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times
Opponents of a citywide ban on the possession of "graffiti instruments," including etching acid, call it an infringement on freedom of speech.
It took decades of work and millions of dollars to clean up the trains. But now officials are seeing a fresh surge of subway graffiti, in which windows are irreparably damaged with acid. Raising the specter of the bad old days, transit officials are vowing to fight a problem they say is even more menacing than the graffiti of decades past.
"Not on my watch are we going to have what John Lindsay had when he was mayor," said Barry L. Feinstein, the chairman of the Transit Committee of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, referring to the mayor who came into office in 1966 just as the craze for marking subway cars with slogans, gang names and signatures — known as "tags" — hit its stride.
"I've seen it on every line, on almost every train," said Andrew B. Albert, chairman of the New York City Riders Council, a state-sponsored advocacy group, who said the acid-based graffiti first appeared on subway windows about six months ago. Mr. Albert is a nonvoting member of the Transit Committee, which met yesterday.
He said the most common material used by the new breed of graffiti vandals is Armor Etch-All, an etching acid sold in art supply stores that is used by craftspeople to etch into glass or other materials. To create graffiti with the acid, it is mixed with paint or shoe polish, Mr. Albert said. And when applied to subway windows, it most commonly leaves broad, sweeping, indelible marks, which subway crews cannot remove in subway yards, as they do with painted graffiti.
Transit officials said that most subway windows are vulnerable and pose an expensive problem because they cost up to $130 each to replace. Only the newest of subway cars, acquired since about 2000, are resistant to the new generation of graffiti, because their windows are protected with Mylar, a plastic coating that can be peeled off and replaced.
Charles F. Seaton, a spokesman for New York City Transit, the arm of the transportation authority that oversees the subways, said yesterday that one option being explored is to apply Mylar coating to all subway car windows, but that the cost and effectiveness had not been determined.
Lawrence G. Reuter, the president of New York City Transit, told Mr. Feinstein's committee that his staff would report next month on how the subway cars were being defaced and what could be done about it.
Mr. Feinstein instructed transit officials to find out whether the etching acid posed a hazard to riders, as well as windows. Anyone who touches it before it is embedded in glass or dries could be burned, he said.
Mr. Albert said he knew of no cases of riders being burned, but the hazard may be serious because the current graffiti vandals tend to make their marks on trains that are in service. Their predecessors in the 1970's were more likely to sneak into subway yards and deface stationary trains when no passengers were nearby.
Another difference is that the new subway graffiti usually looks like a crude scrawl, rather than the detailed writing or representational art that was common in the graffiti of years past and has shown up again on the sides of buildings from Williamsburg to the South Bronx. The crude etching-acid graffiti is also easily distinguished from the messages that vandals have long carved into subway windows using knives or sharp objects.
The city's resurgent graffiti problem, on buildings as well as subways, has not escaped the notice of City Hall. In December, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed into law a ban on possession of "graffiti instruments," including etching acid, by anyone under 21. Besides etching acid, the ban covers such things as aerosol paint and broad-tipped indelible markers, which are used by graffiti vandals on buildings.
Opponents of the city ban have said it infringes on freedom of speech. Yesterday, according to The Associated Press, a lawyer said he would file suit today in federal court in Manhattan to challenge the ban as "overly broad." The lawyer, Daniel Perez, said he was representing seven high school and college students who are supported by Marc Ecko, a fashion designer.
Mr. Albert said that volunteers with his group would conduct spot checks at art supply stores across the city to see if merchants are promoting sales of the etching acid.
"We want to see if it is right out there on the counter," he said.
- Apr 26, 2006 06:40am by phism
etch is some fucked up shit. from what i hear, if you get it on you, you don't feel it until it's too late... it sinks past the skin before it starts really reacting.
i have a few ideas for doing things a little differently... but i don't really have time to actually get up. maybe after i graduate.
- Apr 26, 2006 06:58pm by FlareThaRebel - http://www.myspace.com/anticrew
http://www.youtube.com/anticrewtv
http://www.cdbaby.com/anticrew2
"Ignorance is not something to shout"
-FlareThaRebel Location: Kansas City, Missouri
LONG LIVE GRAFF ART!!!!
- Apr 26, 2006 08:46pm by D-Crew - -- D-Crew's Young Ace
http://coldchilling.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/acethalegend
http://www.myspace.com/dcrew
http://www.soundclick.com/dcrewrecords Location: Kansas City
i never had the talent to do graf 😥
- Apr 26, 2006 11:34pm by Atilla_Beatsmith - [email protected]
www.myspace.com/manwithahammer Location: the Beatcave, U.S.A.
I love graff art
- Apr 27, 2006 02:08am by phism
i try not to call it art. to a lot of writers, it's not. depends on who you're talking about.
but it [i:45a70e896c]is[/i:45a70e896c] important as a cultural phenomenon.
