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From: anonymous
Date: 28 Oct 2010
Time: 12:55:20 -0500
Thats because there is a big difference between 'graffiti' and what has been commonly labelled 'street art'. Artists such as Banksy typically fall under the latter category. Graffiti is stylistically inherent of spraypainting one's name. It typically doesn't embrace any other medium or imagery, nor does it attempt to comment on economic issues or brighten an average person's day. The main point of graffiti is getting your name/ tag out there as much and as boldly as possible. Graffiti writers scribble over other people's graffiti due to an underlying 'turf war' that exists within the world of graff. Outsiders aren't meant to understand, but basically, there exists a largely hierarchical infrastructure between individual graffiti writers and graffiti crews. Now enter 'street art'. Street art, although it certainly emerged from graffiti in many respects, is also considerably rooted in the traditional art world... especially now more than ever before, as no-name artists are using 'street art' as a platform to jump-start self-indulged bandwagon fame. This is so far from the philosophy of graffiti, which, at its core, is not interested in crossing over to the traditional art world, just as it is not interested in authority, full stop. Needless to say, there is a considerable amount of 'beef' between graffiti writers and street artists, and that is why you may see both graffiti and street art scribbled over most of the time.