‘A Quiet Riot’ is Irish artist Conor Harrington’s latest exhibition. Suitably located in Brick Lane this legal version of graffiti seems to misinterpret the real meaning of the graffiti subculture. Indeed, graffiti originated in New York as an illegal activity that renegotiated the social significance of public space and responded to the political conditions of the city. It is worth mentioning that this time the celebration of such a laudable mission is exposed at a private space interestingly called ‘Stolen Space’.
Although Harrington’s art shows some reminiscence of his graffiti episode, this has fundamentally worn off. The graffiti subculture is essentially about displaying a closed discourse in the urban public space.
Graffiti first originated in New York 1960s as a reaction against post-war urban planning and post-Fordist policies that confined parts of the population to the suburbs of the city and prevented them to participate in the city life.
The architecture of the city is a structuring medium having the ability to isolate, marginalize and classify people based on the district they inhabit. The semiologie of the city was- and still is- rapidly contested by the activity of writing one’s name on the walls. Graffiti allows public inscription literal and metaphorical. Graffiti provided the opportunity of becoming someone by participating in the visual landscape and becoming visible to the public eye. Indeed, one of graffiti’s drives is to ‘make a name’ and as a result the graffiti writer gains status, respect and fame. A (graffiti) writer once said that graffiti is a celebration of the self. Moreover, graffiti represents a system of action entailing a philosophy that is severely wiped out when the context in which it operates is alien to its original motivations.
