a graffiti mystery

I recorded the results of my explorations of the Ashton Canal in Some Consolation: Part 2, but I deliberately avoided including the graffiti in one small location for reasons that will quickly become apparent. Most of the graffiti that I included in that report were in a relatively small area on both sides of the canal, starting almost immediately after the towpath passed under a road bridge. However, before reaching the first graffito in this location, I noticed a narrow gap in the concrete panel fence, so naturally I wondered if it led anywhere. It did!

There was a drop of about 1.5 metres to a small area choked with young trees. It was enclosed on three sides by brick walls and on the fourth by the concrete fence. And there were six well-executed graffiti, starting with this one on the concrete fence:

You will notice immediately that all six are in distinctively different styles, although the next one is a very basic design. The photo is probably improved by the shaft of sunlight:

The yellow writing on the left of the next photo appears to have been done by the artist responsible for the tag, which is highlighted in the same shade:

Because of the trees, I couldn’t get far enough away to be able to photograph the whole of the next tag, which is unusual in that individual bricks in the wall have been highlighted in white:

The rounded lines in the next tag—not a straight line anywhere—are quite common, but I’ve not been able to locate any more graffiti in exactly the same style:

This is easily the most elaborate of the graffiti here:

The word I’d use to describe it is ‘reptilian’.

And here’s the mystery: graffiti such as these are intended by the artists to be seen, which explains why so much graffiti is painted on the abutments of bridges and walls running alongside railway tracks. Indeed, the trackside out of Cologne was covered in graffiti for several miles out of the city. And three graffiti artists were killed in south London in June when they were hit by a goods train on a section of track without any refuge from such intrinsic dangers.

And here’s the rub: the graffiti that I’ve featured above are not visible from the towpath, and the opening in the fence is inconspicuous, to say the least. The six graffiti appear to have been painted by different artists, so were these examples merely practice? Was the idea to reproduce these designs in more public locations once the necessary skills had been honed?

I can’t answer these questions, although it does seem likely that the various artists knew each other and may have been part of the same ‘crew’. But they do underline the need to understand the motivation of artists if one is to fully appreciate their work. I come to graffiti with almost no knowledge of the background culture and history, although this type of graffiti appears to have originated in New York in the 1970s, when subway trains were plastered with tags. There may be links from that city with gang culture and hip-hop music, although that is mere speculation on my part. All I can do is describe what I see. And a lot of the graffiti I recorded in Manchester is well worth seeing.