Chaos in Graffiti
Back in 1991 in London I saw a short documentary by the BBC about ‘Taggers’ and the state of graffiti in the capital. Of course, 'street art' has subsequently taken off, but then it was in the same class as piercings, tattoos and other sure-fire signs of delinquency. It’s actually on YouTube, which is unusual…
From "Drawing The Line" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZc0kLb7mHc
From "Drawing The Line" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZc0kLb7mHc
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| The moment it all kicked off |
At one point the camera fell on some art on a bridge, and one of the rozzers commented that it said ‘Chaos’. And this made quite an impression on me. Much later, I toyed with the text with a view to setting a tattoo.
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| First incarnation of the tattoo, based around a star |
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| Final incarnation |
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| That would be me |
In looking for some inspiration, I unearthed a fair amount of ‘Chaos’ in graffiti and much, much later, when Google became a thing, it transpired that this word had been reproduced frequently, everywhere. Just Google ‘Chaos Graffiti’ and you’ll see what I mean.
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| A few of the better image results from the Chaotic World at Large |
Here are the best examples from around the world, IMHO, that I have retained from 1998 until now. My favourites are the those on trains... and I would know how difficult that is to pull off. At any rate, some shots are taken by myself here in Cape Town, some are not online but I’m sure many of them are. However, all of them say just one thing…
and now... not trains
And now you can even do a tutorial on YouTube if you have Chaos specifically in mind...
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| Chaos Tuts on YouTube |
