For a common Dabawenyo, he might think of those images and lettering scratched along the public walls of Matina Town Square down to NCCC Mall of Maa as mere forms of vandalism, which have nothing to do to his community but only made the city walls look filthy. But for an artist who left those marks, his writings and drawings are not defacement, but an expression of himself and a message for us to take instead.
Those marks, which are considered as street arts, are evolving custom of an ancient art called graffiti. The earliest forms of graffiti date back to 30,000 BCE in the form of prehistoric cave paintings and pictographs using tools such as animal bones and pigments. No wonder why anthropologists made use of graffiti as their basis in studying the lives of ancient people. Other than that, this old art evolves in later centuries and played significant roles.
The modern graffiti occur in ‘60s where notorious lines like “The progress of the country depends upon what you’re holding now!” found in various male rest rooms has started to caught the attention of the public.
A Lifestyle
Today, the principle of expressing one’s self, which is the core reason why these anonymous individuals are marking on public walls, has never changed. For graffiti artists, this activity is a lifestyle.
“Whenever we go bomb (writing on public walls), we could feel this so called satisfaction. Marking city wall’s personally satisfies my urge to leave marks. It is my way of expressing my emotions, myself…” said Maze of DCK (not his real name), a graffiti artist in the city.
Others have their own purpose why they paint or draw on streets. They choose to because for them it is a way of gaining popularity since their works steal attention, though they may not be identified, at least they can proudly say to themselves that they own those markings.
More than that, graffiti builds their identity and strengthens their self-esteem. Maze stressed that the street walls are the places where they could freely voice out their sentiments. Most especially regarding social issues and politically inclined matters.
“This is the best way we could tell the government of what we think of them, of how we are dismayed of their rotten actions.”
Basically, graffiti as an art goes beyond personal expression, it even sends a message –a form of activism. But it is undeniable that no matter how they explained themselves, there are a lot of Dabawenyos who doesn’t like to see their so-called masterpieces in our vicinity. But despite of this strong opposition, they continue to strike a chord that sooner or later the public will accept their art.
“I consider graffiti as an art. It’s usually bounded on random bursts of creativity. Hence, it doesn’t really follow a unifying concept. But for the artist, there’s always a deeper meaning to it.” said Jamira Martinez, a student who is fond of graffiti.
A Threat
The Local Government considered the activity as a threat for the city’s image as clean and reputable. The painted words, which some of them are indecent, added conflict for towards the artists.
Most of the citizens considered that their artworks created siege mentality, that it damages not only the physical appearance of the community but also its spirit.
“I don’t know why they vandalized vulgar words. Those are highly improper. Everyone could read those… especially the children” commented by Cyril Almanzor, a concerned citizen.
Though graffiti artists put exemptions like they don’t paint on the walls of churches, schools, private cars and buildings since they respect these institutions and private estates. But the problem is that as long as the establishment is government owned, it will never be excluded from their activities.
Tourism has even its concern about it. They look at it as a possible cause of environmental degradation and one of the adversaries in pursuing tourist spots’ protection.
Legal Issues
Our city has already an existing ordinance against vandalism. According to the order, graffiti is considered as a form of defacement.
“Personally, I find those graffiti beautiful, however the act of writing on public walls without permission is a direct violation of the ordinance.” said Ian Garcia of Davao City
Tourism Office.
He even added that they couldn’t promote illegal vandalism in the city. “Its beauty should not be the sole basis for promotion… they could be pleasing but there are exceptions.”
In other provinces of the country, graffiti is starting to win acceptance. Like in Cebu, it has been considered as a tourist attraction. Various creative markings and paintings on street walls are highly appreciated such of UBEC Crew’s works. They are professional graffiti artists’ who are hired to put life on the dull walls of Cebu.
The Dilemmas
In our case, this could not happen. For Dabawenyo graffiti artists, etching the city streets knowing that it is illegal fulfills the spirit of the art. The thrill of marking the wall, knowing that the city police offcials could put them to jail is an added value of why these young Dabawenyos are hooked at it.
“The notion that it is illegal added thrill and fun. Though legalizing graffiti could be okay, but we rather choose not to legalize it. The marking of places have their own stories. There, we find deeper meanings of our pieces” Maze added.
He even stressed that further prohibition would only make things worse. “We will never stop. No one could stop us. This is more than an expression as I said.”
It will be very difficult for us to judge and even mitigate the conflicting principles and values being protected between the Dabawenyo graffiti artists and of our city government. But the end of the day, we are human beings, which are entitled of our own way of expression. The performing artist does it on stage; the stars does it in front of the rolling camera; the journalist does it in his column while graffiti artist does it on our city streets –saying to the world that “hey! I was here!”
But the pragmatic side will always tell us, the right to express in not absolute, we could explicitly shout what we want and do what we want. As long as we’re not destroying anybody’s property and we’re not disrupting state’s laws, and then feel free –we’re living in democracy anyway.
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