Spraygun Hidden

This online exhibition looks at how graffiti can transform a place through multiple acts of rebellion.

Each scene starts with a building. Look closely, and you will see the bricks, render, frames, handles, grills and locks of the structure. Then, at some point, a writer will leave a tag. Once that space has been claimed, other work will follow. Before long, that space becomes a canvas, painted and over-painted; a site of expression where ownership is forgotten.

Graffiti is an act of reclamation. Cities can be places of sharp division: public vs private. Graffiti blurs the line. Individuals and groups spontaneously seize the opportunity to make their mark, assert their identity, and resist the enforcement of old divisions.

Counterintuitively, I have adopted a rigorous visual typology to capture graffiti's anarchic energy. By employing a formal, deadpan perspective and capturing each image with the camera plane strictly perpendicular to the substrate, I echo the language of fine-art archiving or traditional studio portraiture. This presentation of the "illicit" in a formal context is intended to force a re-evaluation of the subject matter.

Each photograph captures a specific moment in the history of each space. Each piece of graffiti grew from a first mark. These pieces will change again as other artists add to the work. The empty wall, the first tag, each ambitious work, all inform the next. This is feedback as art, loops of rebellion, reclaiming the city.