Even Taggers Draw the Line Somewhere

There's a plan underfoot in East Los Angeles to set aside areas where grafitti is encouraged. It won't work. Art doesn't exist exclusive of the circumstances that nurtured it. Take away the outlaw nature of grafitti and it's no longer the genuine article. It's ironic that people decry the contemporary art world, with its pompous mission statements, artificially inflated prices, and marketplace chicanery, and in the next breath denounce the freedom of grafitti, which for all its crude technique, limited content, and stylistic sameness is some of the only art being produced nowadays with passion, energy, and pure fun. There's also something in-your-face political about it, but without the meaningless sloganry and shopworn rhetoric that has come to dominate our political arena. Grafitti's statement is made by its very existence. Legitimizing it would cut out its heart and soul.