Virtuoso graffiti is effacement as it modifies what was already there. Graffiti both can deface and efface reality. Effacement is a stretch of the imagination as it looks like in some cases that reality is virtualised though it is a modification of the existing space at heart. That would be how I would describe work by Drik from Germany. That is the main goal though some choose more or less effective means to describe these portals. What would be the point of these works otherwise? Some don’t let imagination come to play at all and describe a digitally inspired design. Not digital in style but digital in clean modern graphic design styles that are dominated by digital processes and standards. Some aerosol work can look like a ‘sticker’, it is perfectly formatted with illusionistic space and sign writing motifs.

Another way of looking at this efface deface dichotomy is to think of a battle with reality. Everyone has to live within an engineered and designed world of function and form. Many professions deal directly with building and designing many facets of what we come to recognise as our homes or part of our commute and work environments. Some people feel disconnected or disenfranchised. Others just want to be a nuisance or recognised for a talent that they convey in commercial or non commercial places. The large scale works that graced the New York subway throughout the 70s and 80s were battling with reality. They changed their environment for the better. Though at times the level of visual noise was more dissident than artistic. All of the work though was about modification. It was a surface modification yet it made a huge impact on environments that could be described as so functional that they lacked humanism. They were in essence anti-human.