The “Clean Train” Era: Creating a Space for the Legal Production of Graffiti

Kramer, Ronald

doi:10.1007/978-981-10-2800-7_3

Ronald Kramer²

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Abstract

Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork, this chapter explores the ways in which graffiti writing culture reinvented itself in the 1990s and opening years of the twenty-first century. It argues that while new forms of illegal graffiti have emerged, this period is also marked by the rise of legal graffiti. This latter development remains overlooked in contemporary scholarship, which tends to romanticize graffiti and often construes it as a politics of resistance. Against such interpretations, this chapter shows how those committed to painting with permission are deeply concerned about the aesthetic quality of public space and are more likely to seek social and cultural inclusion on the basis of their creative practices.

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Notes

1.
Mailer, Faith of Graffiti (1974); Castleman, Getting Up (1982); Lachmann, “Graffiti as Career” (1988); Ferrell, Crimes of Style (1993); Austin, Taking the Train (2001); Stewart, “Ceci Tuera Cela,” 161–180; Spitz, Image and Insight (1991).
2.
See especially Castleman, Getting Up (1982); Ferrell, Crimes of Style (1993); and Austin, Taking the Train (2001) on this point.
3.
Macdonald, Graffiti Subculture, 126.
4.
Macdonald, Graffiti Subculture, 149.
5.
Campos, “Graffiti Writer as Superhero” (2012).
6.
Rahn, Painting without Permission (2002).
7.
Ibid., 162.
8.
Castleman, Getting Up, 46.
9.
Ibid., 47.
10.
Ibid.
11.
Austin, Taking the Train, 65.
12.
Ferrell, Crimes of Style, 172.
13.
Ibid., 197. For variations on the graffiti-as-resistance theme that take their lead from psychoanalytic perspectives, see the brief essays of Spitz, Image and Insight, 44, 55; and Mailer, Faith of Graffiti, np.
14.
Miller, Aerosol Kingdom, 153.
15.
Ibid., 33.
16.
Ibid., 85.
17.
Ibid., 154. For a comparable view concerning the relationship between graffiti and consumer society, see the brief analysis offered by Stewart, “Ceci Tuera Cela,” 174–176.
18.
Rahn, Painting without Permission, 210.
19.
Ibid., 137.
20.
Ibid., 143.
21.
Macdonald, Graffiti Subculture, 158.
22.
Ibid., 176.
23.
MacDiarmid and Downing, “A Rough Aging Out,” 609 (2012); van Loon, “Just Writing” (2014).
24.
The former is commonly known as “scratchiti” and the latter “etch” bombing. Etch bombing involves the use of an acid that burns into glass, giving it a clouded or foggy appearance. Etch cannot be washed off like regular ink or paint and produces permanent structural damage. See Fig. 2.8 from the preceding chapter.
25.
Rein et al., “Pain in the Glass,” 8 (1996).
26.
Donohue, “Losing the War,” 24 (2002b).
27.
Haberman, “In Subways, Vandals,” B1 (1997); Haberman, “New Vandals,” B1 (1999). This is presumably a cumulative figure including the cost of materials, labor, and the revenue lost from having to take trains out of service.
28.
Haberman, “Graffiti Wars,” B1 (1995); Donohue, “TA Battle Plan,” 6 (2000a); Fairfield, “Meltdown in the Subways,” Section 14, 6 (2000); Donohue, “Shiny New Subway,” 8 (2000b); Vandam, “Clear Pane,” Section 14, 10 (2004).
29.
Author’s interview with DEMER.
30.
EWOK quoted in Murray and Murray, Broken Windows (2002).
31.
EZO also quoted in Murray and Murray, Broken Windows (2002).
32.
Rick Landman, member of Community Board 1 in New York City, quoted in Lambert, “New Blight,” Section 13, 6 (1994).
33.
The first whole train was painted in 1976 by CAINE1, MAD 103, and FLAME1; the second in 1979 by LEE and The Fabulous Five; the third in 1988 by WANE and COD crew.
34.
For graffiti on freight trains, see Gastman, Rowland, and Sattler, Freight Train Graffiti (2006).
35.
It seems that the use of spray paint is more likely to generate public concern than the use of instruments commonly associated with fine art, such as brushes. EMA has noticed the stigma associated with spray paint: “The fact that you are using spray cans that scares a lot of people.”
36.
For more on sticker culture, see Walde, Sticker City (2007).
37.
Sometimes “rollie piece” or “bucket paint piece.”
38.
These points can usefully be compared with the accounts of Snyder, Graffiti Lives (2009); and Halsey and Young, “Our Desires,” 279–280, who report similar findings.
39.
Author’s interview with NIC ONE.
40.
NIC ONE, for example, also stated that he struggled to get a hold on “size proportion from 90 to 93.”
41.
Author’s interview with DEMER.
42.
Author’s interview with BISC.
43.
LOOMIT quoted in Murray and Murray, Broken Windows (2002).
44.
Halsey and Young, “Our Desires,” 278, 290 also find that graffiti writers—even those who paint illegally—will spend approximately $50 to produce a “piece.”
45.
Snyder, Graffiti Lives (2009).
46.
Author’s interview with BEEN3.
47.
Author’s interview with EMA.
48.
Author’s interview with SONIC.
49.
Author’s interview with BISC.
50.
Author’s interview with BEEN3.
51.
Author’s interview with NIC ONE.
52.
Author’s interview with CERN.
53.
Author’s interview with DEMER.
54.
Author’s interview with PART. At the time of writing, PART has been painting graffiti for over 40 years.
55.
Author’s interview with PINK.
56.
There are various ways to position your piece on a train exterior. “Panel pieces” are below the windows and between the doors; “end to ends” are works below the windows that extend the length of a subway car; “top to bottom” pieces extend from the top of the train to the bottom, but not necessarily its length; “whole cars” cover the entire side of a subway car.
57.
Author’s interview with BEEN3.
58.
Author’s interview with SONIC.
59.
Author’s interview with PART.
60.
Author’s interview with SONIC.
61.
Author’s interview with PINK.
62.
Author’s interview with MERES.
63.
SHAME ONE quoted in Austin, Taking the Train, 178.
64.
Author’s interview with BISC.
65.
Author’s interview with EMA.
66.
Author’s interview with NIC ONE.
67.
Author’s interview with JUSE ONE.
68.
Author’s interview with PART.

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Sociology and Criminology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Ronald Kramer

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Kramer, R. (2017). The “Clean Train” Era: Creating a Space for the Legal Production of Graffiti. In: The Rise of Legal Graffiti Writing in New York and Beyond. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2800-7_3

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2800-7_3
Published: 10 November 2016
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-2799-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-2800-7
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