Graffiti

In thinking about the reading assigned for this week I was interested in how common these etchings were, how accessible they were to the public, how these satirical images covered the city’s walls, and mocked everyday, urban life. However, I could not relate to these images, as is common with use of caricature and satirical images they often speak to contemporary and current moments of life, culture, and politics- and I am not Hogarth’s contemporary. The satire was lost on me, I do not know of the change in theatre, culture, and arts of that particular place in that particular time. I just finished reading Lolita in which Humbert refers to his neighbor as a pear-head, a joke that would have been entirely lost on me if I had not recently learned of the terms intentions and history. That said, there is an artist that is currently painting the walls of London with satirical images once again, he is speaking to a culture and a politics that I can relate to. He is Bristol born graffiti artist that goes by the pseudonym Banksy. His work is considered controversial due to the subject matter, the fact that it is painted on both public and private establishments around the world, and of course that it is graffiti. His works are a commentary on current issues such as surveillance, consumerism, recycling/ environmental, and are often political in nature.