Graffiti in global and local space Cover Image

Graffiti w przestrzeni globalnej i lokalnej
Graffiti in global and local space

Author(s): Agnieszka Schilling
Subject(s): Anthropology, Customs / Folklore, Media studies, Visual Arts, Communication studies, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Rural and urban sociology, Sociology of the arts, business, education, Social Norms / Social Control
Published by: Szkoła Wyższa Psychologii Społecznej
Keywords: popular culture; graffiti; subculture; visual art; urban art; globali­zation; writers;

Summary/Abstract: Graffiti is both a hermetic artistic work and a kind of visual communication. It can be treat­ed either as an independent subculture of writers or as a visual element of the hip­hop subcul­ture. The graffiti artists create a global subcul­ture in which some local characteristics, such as sociolects and microhistories, may be found. Broadening the scope of this phenomenon is connected with its homogenization as well as the hybridization of culture and the imperial­ism of the American cultural models. This ar­ticle is an attempt to explain what graffiti is in the global and local context. It comprises a de­scription of the selected issues, such as globali­zation and commercialization of this phenome­non, its place in the cyberspace and the world of art. This article has been written based on the studies concerning this phenomenon, ethno­logical qualitative research conducted between 2009 and 2011 as well as the currently conduct­ed (since 2011) anthropological research con­cerning the iconography of the contemporary youth subcultures.

  • Issue Year: 36/2013
  • Issue No: 02
  • Page Range: 140-151
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Polish