Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Bomb the System


On the graffiti tip,
I just happened to watch Bomb the System last week, so it's sort of coincidental that I went on a graffiti tour this past weekend.
Bomb the System is an extremely independant film, which follows a semi-famous graffiti artist tagging up New York while being tracked down by a couple shady cops. Blest and his two pals Buck50 and Lune go on a rampage in the city after Lune is roughed up by the cops.
What's cool about this film is that it exposes the underground world which passers-by only see as drippy paint scribbles on the bus; the dark, middle-of-the-night creepers who deface perfectly good bus stops, and the genius' who create masterpieces on a public wall only to have it painted over by some shitty-painter's bullshit tag.
In the end, it questions the whole point of street graffiti culture. Is it pointless to spend hours, risk freedom, risk your life to create art which is inevitably going to disappear? Is it selling out to have a message? Is it pussy to go mainstream?

Above all, when I look at some tagger's initials, or a really cool sticker design stuck on the back of a stop sign... I'll take notice.

No comments: