Grafitti
By Carlos Rodriguez (Mare 139)
Have we manifested the Blade Runner reality?
Has the consequence of
toppling down fascism and
communism erected a more gentler and kinder fascism and communist state?
Has
the government crossed
too far into your life and how far will you go to cross the government?
I am
a young maturing man with a
less threatening objective in life in the scope of all the horrible shit out
there i.e. crooked politicians, rouge
cops, gangbangers, drug runners etc.....
I love graffiti, I learned it at the
age of 11 and mastered it in my
mid 20's. Its the longest committed relationship I have ever had and the most
creatively nurturing.
Amongst all the chaos and bleak conditions surrounding me in the South Bronx
I secretly existed in an
underground environment that perpetuated one of the most significant social
and creative art movements
in the world. In this world there was an understanding that though you were
breaking the law you were
also exercising your diminishing right to free speech.
Though graffiti had minimal political objectives it was born out of
political & economic strife by the
under represented poor ghetto children of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and
Philadelphia. New York
has always had crooked and shifty politics (as well as my new home Los
Angeles), so the fact that these
conditions would bear a revolution of militant and creative retaliation is of
no surprise to me.
Unfortunately it is reaping its consequence as I hear it on the news, hear it
on the radio and read it on the
net....your views and talents must be monitored, controlled or obliviated.
This takes me back to the
Russian Revolution of the early 1900's, it would be of great surprise to
research this and see that artist
back then united on a political and creative front to call out their
oppressors, they even painted end to end
whole car trains that traveled the country. Though in my age I can say I find
better uses for the art than a
great many (taggers and throw up writers) I am not in any position to be so
arrogant to say they are
wrong or that they shouldn't do it because I would be a hypocrite to the
cause of revolution. Everyone has
their place and reasoning in this game and we each will bear the same cross
regardless how successful or
not you become because we are or were graffiti artists born from that seed
that Taki 183 brought to light.
The surge of new graffiti has burden us with a social and political
outcasting that will not likely go away,
we are scape goats to bigger and more horrible disobediences
created by THE MAN. And yes THE MAN is very calculated he recruits against
you campaigning on the
blemished side of your face and will not show the beautiful and creative side
of your spirit he will not
show how a flower can grow out of concrete and rubble he will not show the
discipline and honor amongst
yourselves, no he will cast you unpatriotic, rebellious and crude natured.
SO! In spite, we still grow as a
sub culture creating our own forums our own networks and our own community
and economy...
GLOBALLY! What we need now are revolutionaries of thought and practice. Your
best tool as a writer is
your writing skill your ability to convey, so to me it makes perfect sense to
incorporate social and political
messages with your tags or murals. There is a silent war that raging and
waging inside and outside of us,
the climate of the world has changed dramatically and the more and more you
excercise your god given
rights the more often your government wants to control it.
Graffiti has dualities and will exist the way it has forever, it is
creative and it is reckless but now
graffiti needs an agenda of social and critical thinking. Though this change
may be too much for some
under informed writers those that know should lead the way before its too
late because as we mature and
our energies fade away there for certain will fade
away our freedom of expression.
there's a war raging within me
the likes of a subway battle I could not win
there is a dark tunnel within me
with tracks snaking endlessly into the dark
there before god I walk into to destiny
some day here they'll find the rest of me
if only time was taken not taken away
they would understand the reasons I spray.
mare 139
1997
Let Mare 139
know your thoughts on
his statement..
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