Magicats – Witches cats
12 October 2024
Magicats – Why do witches have cats? The popular image of a witch wearing a
On Tuesday 14 July 2020, the famous graffiti artist Banksy posted a video of his latest work on his Instagram account. Among other things, it featured a rat sneezing blue spray paint onto the window of a London Underground train. (Gross, ed) The message read, ‘if you don’t mask – you don’t get’. Banksy’s work is worth A LOT of money, it can sell for millions, but Transport for London (TfL) quickly scrubbed the art from its carriage. You see, some people love graffiti, but other people loathe it. Even when the message is helpful and the artist is world-famous, it is still a crime, and is often seen as an unwelcome attack on private property. But what do you think? Would you be surprised to find out that graffiti actually has a history dating back thousands of years? What if I told you that we historians kind of LOVE it? Well… the old stuff anyway!
Some of the earliest known graffiti was discovered on cave walls on Sulawesi Island, Indonesia. Sulawesi was inhabited by early humans more than 40,000 years ago, during the Palaeolithic period. Some of the oldest examples are stencilled handprints (we showed you how to recreate these in the Humankind issue, July/August 2018). There are also paintings of animals, plants and people, showing how these communities lived together and hunted for food. As well as these painted images, there are pictures called petroglyphs, which were scratched directly into the rock.
The ancient Greek, Roman, and Maya civilisations also painted, drew, or scratched words and pictures onto the walls of public places. Some of these markings include people’s own names (basic mistake, if you ask me. Ed). Some of them are political protests. Some are very rude comments (ooh er!), and others remain a complete mystery. The walls of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii are covered with scrawled greetings and insults, bringing to life the voices of people who lived there 2,000 years ago.
Ancient graffiti is valuable to archaeologists and historians because it tells us so much about how ordinary people really lived, what they thought, what they wrote and even where they travelled. Historic buildings all over the world still contain extraordinary examples. The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, contains graffiti thought to have been made by a Viking named Halvdan, who used runic letters to write ‘Halvdan was here’.
Medieval graffiti is also extremely common in churches around Europe. Some feature symbols of protection against bad spirits, others include pictures of ships travelling to faraway lands. In the county of Norfolk, England, a survey of more than 650 medieval churches revealed over 26,000 old graffiti images!
Wow, that’s one busy Banksy.
They weren’t all by one person.
Oh.
It wasn’t until the early 1960s that the art we identify as modern graffiti began to appear. The very first spray paint can was invented in 1949. Combining paint tin with paintbrush, it was not only easy to carry, it was also easy to hide! Gangs sprayed signs to mark their territories. Individual graffiti artists painted their own unique symbols (tags) wherever they could. By the end of the 1960s the trend had reached New York, and from there, an entire subculture of graffiti began to reach around the world. Galleries and collectors quickly caught on. Jean-Michel Basquiat became known for his paintings and graffiti art in Manhattan during the 1970s and 80s. He died in 1988 at the age of just 27, but in May 2017 one of his paintings sold at the auction house Sotheby’s for a whopping $110.5 million.
It wasn’t until the early 1960s that the art we identify as modern graffiti began to appear. The very first spray paint can was invented in 1949. Combining paint tin with paintbrush, it was not only easy to carry, it was also easy to hide! Gangs sprayed signs to mark their territories. Individual graffiti artists painted their own unique symbols (tags) wherever they could. By the end of the 1960s the trend had reached New York, and from there, an entire subculture of graffiti began to reach around the world. Galleries and collectors quickly caught on. Jean-Michel Basquiat became known for his paintings and graffiti art in Manhattan during the 1970s and 80s. He died in 1988 at the age of just 27, but in May 2017 one of his paintings sold at the auction house Sotheby’s for a whopping $110.5 million.
The word ‘graffiti’ comes from the Italian word graffiato meaning ‘scratched’. That, in turn, came from the Greek word graphien which meant ‘draw’, ‘scratch’ or ‘write’.
Graffiti isn’t just for highly talented individuals like Banksy or Basquiat. Around the world, community murals have become a way to bring people together. Some, like the Berlin Wall and those that relate to the longstanding conflict in Northern Ireland, carry political messages. Others are simply intended to celebrate a shared history or make a space beautiful for the people who live there. One great example is the Floyd Road Mural, which was created in 1976 by a group of artists known as The Greenwich Mural Workshop. Now over 40 years old, the mural reminds people what can get done when communities work together towards a common aim.
In Bogota, Colombia – a city that was once one of the most violent in the world – street art has turned some once impoverished and violent slums into beautifully decorated ‘barrios’ which tourists visit. These places really tell the story of Colombia’s recent tumultuous history.
The record for the largest mural spray painted by a team was created in Brazil in 2016 and it measures over 3,000 m2.
Although graffiti continues to be controversial, artists are actively embracing digital technology to create virtual art that has a temporary effect. You can now discover graffiti just by scanning a QR code and watching as it appears on the screen of your smartphone, computer, or even smart glasses! Artists are even developing and experimenting with technology such as LEDs, lasers, and projectors that can digitally impose graffiti art onto buildings.
Digital technology saved the day in 2020, when Cheltenham Paint Festival had to be dramatically downsized because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead of painting onto actual walls, artists were invited to create virtual murals, which can be viewed online.
Graffiti as an art form is expressive and adaptable. It has endured for thousands of years and is quick to embrace new technology. Not only does it tell historians surprising things about the past, we’re excited to see how it will change in the future.
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Words: Frances Durkin. Illustration: Takayo Akiyama
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