Ask anyone their view on graffiti, and you’ll get opinions of love and hatred : some people see it as a nuisance, others a subtle artform. On the “good press” side, artists like Banksy have made graffiti an artform that is pleasing on the eye, utilising stencils to create tricky graphics with political points attached. This type of graffiti was certain to get fashionable with the masses and the artworld : pleasing to the eye, and the intellect. This kind of graffiti is now even purchased as prints on canvas, and placed on the walls of middle class households and corporate reception areas.

Nonetheless, when it comes to your down and dirty graffiti – the scally, the tagger, the gangbanger type – this type of graffiti is oftentimes seen as vandalism, a crime committed by the talentless. But is graffiti just an artform? To many individuals, it’s not just art, but a method to put your stamp on a neighbourhood, or even two fingers up at society : anti-art, anti-social, anti-establishment.

Graffiti has invariably been a secret pursuit, even though the effects are public facing. The targeted audience is often unknown. Is it for a rival gang? A message to an individual? To the public at large? Or….maybe it’s simply gratuitous and out of nothing to do.

Whatever the causes, there seems to be some kind of permanent need to spray graffiti. Some city councils have admitted that graffiti isn’t a short-term craze, so they’ve designated zones where graffiti is allowed – normally derelict areas, but from time to time busier areas like temporary boarding surrounding urban construction sites.