http://www.graffiti.org/faq/scheepers_graf_urban_space.html

Graffiti and Urban Space

by Ilse Scheepers

Honours Thesis 2004 – University of Sydney (Australia)

“In my interaction with a Sydney writer, DOER, I found possibly the most spatially conscious (or spatially verbose) writer I have come across. He describes the attraction he feels to ‘in-between spaces’: “Places that were transgressive or… transitive… were of interest-such as abandoned warehouses…” (78). His personal story is fascinating in itself, and the amount of insight he has gained into his past and his actions completely destroys the ‘graffiti writer as mindless vandal’ myth. It is important to identify the qualities not only of the writer, but of their choice of space. In this regard, analysis and questions can be posed and thought of in the same way similar inquiries to ‘real’ artists would be framed. Choice of materials, method, inspiration and the tactile attraction to certain media: these are issues that can be applied equally to award winning artists and graffiti writers.

Ilse: what is it about the run down and abandoned areas that draw you to them?

DOER: I suppose [I like] transgressive sites in general for no other reason than they are lost and on the edge of being labeled useless. I think it also says a lot about my own experiences as a person… abandoned people, abandoned warehouses, it’s funny I think that when my dad was abandoned by society for being schizophrenic that hurt him a lot… he always encouraged me to do graffiti.

Ilse: what kinds of surfaces and areas have you painted on or in? Any that have been particularly different or that strand out on your mind?

DOER: in 1993 I liked painting on surfaces that were multilayered. What I am trying to say is that a wall in an abandoned warehouse would have tiles torn at and partially uncovered concrete. Maybe someone had lit a fire so a mark would be left on the wall… [one spot] I liked… was where a wall had been knocked out, cut wires hung from the wall and I had my work going over what was once two areas now made as one. A more recent [favourite] was on a wall that had been jackhammered, the wall staccatos. Whoever was jackhammering it did a top job.”