July 31, 2008

Venice Beach graffiti, Melrose Avenue graffiti supplies.

In Venice Beach, California, the graffiti is institutionalized on a set of concrete walls, layered with new paint daily:

Graffiti

I don't know if it's also considered legitimate to spray paint the palm trees, but why not? There are plenty of unpainted palm trees, and no one seems to mind.

Graffiti

Here's a dazzling display of graffiti supplies in a store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles:

Graffiti

Can we have some deep analysis of the reprocessing of imagery that was once racist — and is perhaps not still racist when used by the right people in the right way? I'm talking about "Mr. Black":

Graffiti

7 comments:

Sprezzatura said...

All this VB stuff.

I sure hope there's a picture of the canals in there too. It may be informative for folks to know where the name "Venice" came from.

Triangle Man said...

According to Google: Mr. Black is one of a line of Italian made "nitro-based" covering inks. Also available are Mr. Red, Mr. White, Mr. Silver, and Mr. Gold.

You could almost do a sequel to Reservoir Dogs with that lineup.

Bissage said...

There are plenty of unpainted palm trees, and no one seems to mind.

If I ever catch any son-of-a-bitch spray painting a tree I will break his fingers.

If he's too big for me I will hunt him down later with Treebeard and the Lorax.

I'm not joking.

ricpic said...

Only those not assaulted by graffiti on a daily basis find it amusing.

blake said...

I don't know. It radically changes the dynamic.

How badass can tagging be when you can shop for supplies on Melrose?

Albatross said...

I have to agree with ricpic. The first time your own house gets tagged, your tolerance for graffiti goes way down.

blake said...

You get your house tagged? Where do you live? Detroit?