THE G-WORD

Why does the CIA praise graffiti as a colorful
symbol of the optimism and hope of the Western
World while officials in many cities describes the
same phenomenon as a criminal activity and a representation
of unsafety and social Problems?

Graffiti is a word used to denote a complex system
of actions and things, which is often described as a
singular phenomenon. Graffiti has been understood
and evaluated in many ways, often opposing each
other. Graffiti may therefor both be evoked as one
of the most influential art movements on the planet,
and dismissed as something that destroys private
property and turns a neighborhood into slum. It is
hailed as a modern day childhood adventure and
denounced as gang related criminality.

In his Ph.D. thesis The G-Word, art historian and
former graffiti writer Jacob Kimvall studies different
ways of describing and framing graffiti in four
historical and cultural contexts: The graffiti writing
on the Berlin wall; the Zero Tolerance on graffiti
in Stockholm during the 1990s; The interactions
between subcultural graffiti and the cultural and
commercial interest of the institutional art world in
the 1970s and 80s; The collecting, organizing and
publishing of images by graffiti enthusiasts.

The G-Word visualize how different institutions,
public and commercial interests have acted to influence
and affect the understanding of graffiti as both
art, crime and a broad socio-cultural phenomenon.