Reflections on Graffiti

This work, based on a case study, performs a series of reflections on the plastic qualities of graffiti and, hence, its artistic nature. An extensive description: This proposal integrates different facets of an interdisciplinary analysis conducted on the graffiti expressions of the Santa María la Ribera neighbourhood in Mexico City, on of the biggest cities in the world that is suffering, as any other large city, from enormous visual contamination. These nocturnal manifestos, captured on large and small backgrounds, are a reason for social controversy. Graffiti entails, for some, an expression of aesthetic nature. Plastic characteristics are awarded to it and it is acknowledged in many art schools around the world as one more genre of contemporary art. As a contrast to this thought, there is social criticism toward these manifestations that undoubtedly affect the environment and alter a community's interaction in different ways. From this perspective, graffiti are considered cultural aggression, occult delinquency that is pursued under different modalities of crime in many places around the world. The interpretation of the meaning and transcendence of visual manifestations that have neither academic structures nor social determinants is important because it allows establishing points of view and critical criteria against everyday visual experiences that have no conceptual support. This research opens up an interesting discussion on anonymous graphics, their technical and plastic characteristics, reiterations, meanings and, as a whole, their sense.