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Our second day at Applebee called for the only rain forecasted the entire trip, and as a result most people chose this as a rest day. Not wanting to take a rest day, or be trapped in a storm we chose an objective that was not only close to camp, but also didn't involve any commitment (so as to facilitate an easy retreat), the west ridge of Crescent spire. Eventually in the mountains weather will occur, and you will have to face it. I'm not one to shy from unfavorable conditions; so we headed out prepared to get wet and turn back. In the least would be a good scouting day, and for me a good cloudage day for photos.
We had been carefully monitoring the sky on our approach, and without a doubt in my mind rain was coming. Still, that wasn't enough to make me skip great photo opportunities in the hopes of a pre-storm summit. This is a view of Snowpatch Spire from on top of Crescent glacier. On the right is the Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col with Pigeon Spire in the background. The Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col was apparently in the best condition out of the past several years, and the trail was well travelled. Still the low snow cover left lots of exposed loose rocks which tumbled down the col frequently. I'm glad to have had an experience getting up and down that obstacle under 'good' conditions before coming back in future years. As it was I found it a terrifying experience navigating around bergschrunds on such steep terrain (un-roped).
The Bugaboos - August 12-18, 2012
Living in Squamish I am very lucky to be surrounded by excellent rock to train my technical climbing skills as well as many great peaks for scrambling. But, until last week I had never had the opportunity to combine the two skills I've been developing for years. That all changed when a friend invited me to be her partner on the yearly trip my friend group takes. Two months after the invitiation, a partner swap, and a week of careful packing and preparation I actually found myself driving east about to embark on what would be the greatest adventure of my life to date.
The moment I arrived at basecamp my lofty climbing aspiration were downgraded to starting with a 4th class route and going from there. I received tons of advice from friends that had been going for several years, but still nothing could have prepared me for the reality of being there. The ascent to Applebee basecamp, the scale of the spires, the difficulty of the glaciers, and the exposure did not translate well to maps and photos I found myself in awe and terror. Every single obstacle I encountered was more physically and mentally demanding that I could have expected.
Even though we were with a large group of friends, we were on our own when we headed out for the day and often learning as we went. As a result we learned many lessons the hard way, including when to put crampons on, when to switch into rock shoes, how hard preventing rockfall can be, and all the ways rappelling can go wrong.
It was both the single most terrifying and rewarding experience of my life. Never did I expect to learn so much in a week, or do so little actual climbing. Instead it was a wild ride of alpine obstacles, and a truly life changing experience shared with great friends old and new.
A brief summary of my adventure:
Aug 12 - Hike into Applebee base camp with 80+lbs pack full of climbing, camping, and glacier gear as well as 7 days of food, and clothes for everything from -10 to +30 degrees celcius rain and shine.
Aug 13 - Eastpost spire, combination of Northeast and Northwest ridges.
Aug 14 - Crescent Spire, W ridge. - Rained off first attempt, after self arresting and improv. anchor construction.
Aug 15 - Crescent Spire, W ridge - Successful ascent followed by rappelling disaster involving ditching a rope that was later recovered
Aug 16 - Pigeon Spire, W ridge - Got 30m up route then turned back to save terror management skills for descent back down the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col
Aug 17 - Eastpost spire again and bathing in the tarn
Aug 18 - Hike out and long drive home
Please feel free to contact me with any questions regarding my experience.
Photos from this trip were taken with a combination of my Nikon D7000, Olympus uT8000 & GoPro HD2
Between 2014 and 2018 Australia will commemorate the Anzac Centenary, marking 100 years since our nation's involvement in the First World War.
These photos are almost 10 years old to the day (7 days away) as it will soon be Anzac day 2015.
I have attended quite a few dawn services but none quite as sobering as being a foreigner, walking fields where Australian soldiers died during wartime, and were burried.
I thought it was time to post my photos from Kranji.
I got up at 4 am along with many other of my Australian Microsoft and MVP friends. Bleary eyed, fighting the fog, we found our way to the bus.
We were in a daze as we were bumped about making our way to the killing fields of Kranji.
Kranji is a suburb in northwestern Singapore, located about 22 kilometres (14 mi) from the city centre.
The Kranji War Memorial in Singapore honours the men and women from the Commonwealth who died in the line of duty during World War II.
A very appropropriate and solem place for Anzac Day 2005.
Back then I was not interested in Photography and my cameras were not that great. Still, that is not the reason for the photos. I did want to try for a perfect shot. I just wanted memories.
It was humid, dark and very quiet as the service started. Bagpipes from overhead and marching in front.
Deep within this quiet neighbourhood, lies the Kranji War Memorial, a hillside cemetery that is quite beautiful in its serenity once you get there.
Every year, a memorial service is held to pay tribute to those who gave their lives.
The memorial honours the men and women from Britain, Australia, Canada, Sri Lanka, India, Malaya, the Netherlands and New Zealand who died in the line of duty during World War II.
Here, we see more than 4,400 white gravestones lined up in rows on the cemetery’s gentle slope. Many graves hold unknown soldiers.
The Chinese Memorial in plot 44 marks a mass grave for 69 Chinese servicemen who were killed by the Japanese when Singapore fell in February 1942.
Next to the Kranji War Memorial are the Kranji Military Cemetery and the Singapore State Cemetery, where Singapore’s first and second presidents are buried.
As we walked the short flight of steps to the hilltop terrace, we saw four memorials.
The largest is the Singapore Memorial, with its huge star-topped central pylon that rises to a height of 24 metres.
This memorial bears the names of more than 24,346 Allied soldiers and airmen killed in Southeast Asia who have no known grave. You can find the register, kept by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, at the entrance.
Every year, on the Sunday closest to Remembrance Day on 11 November, a memorial service is held to pay tribute to those who gave their lives.
Next to the Kranji War Memorial is the Kranji Military Cemetery, a non-world war site of more than 1,400 burials, as well as the Singapore State Cemetery, where the country’s first and second presidents, Encik Yusof Ishak and Dr Benjamin Henry
Sheares, are buried.
The Battle of Kranji was the second stage of the Empire of Japan's plan for the invasion of Singapore during the Second World War. On 9 February 1942 the Imperial Japanese Army assaulted the north-western front of the British colony of
Singapore. Their primary objective was to secure a second beachhead after their successful assault at Sarimbun Beach on 8 February, in order to breach the Jurong-Kranji defence line as part of their southward thrust towards the heart of
Singapore City. Defending the shoreline between the Kranji River and the Johor–Singapore Causeway was the Australian 27th Brigade, led by Brigadier Duncan Maxwell, and one irregular company.
On 10 February the Japanese forces suffered their heaviest losses while moving up the Kranji River, which caused them to panic and nearly aborted the operation. However, a series of miscommunications and withdrawals by Allied forces in the
ensuing battles allowed the Japanese to swiftly gain strategic footholds, which eventually led to the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942.
The terrain around Kranji was primarily mangrove swamps and tropical forest intersected by streams and inlets. The shoreline between the Kranji River and the Johor–Singapore Causeway, nearly four kilometers long, was defended by the
Australian 27th Brigade, led by Australian Brigadier Duncan Maxwell. The 27th Infantry Brigade consisted of three battalions—the 2/30th, 2/29th, and 2/26th and was supported by the 2/10th Field Artillery Regiment, as well as one platoon from the
2/4th Machine Gun Battalion.
They were supported by one company from Dalforce (named after its commander, Lieutenant-Colonel John Dalley of the Malayan Police Special Branch), a local Chinese militia consisting of Communists, Nationalist supporters, and other
volunteers. As the war intensified, the Dalforce volunteers were given only three to four days of training and sent to the war front with elementary weapons. Lacking uniforms, the volunteers improvised by wearing a red triangle on their blue shirts to
avoid being mistaken for Japanese by the Australians.
The Allied forces at Kranji were to be assaulted by the Imperial Guards Division led by Major General Takuma Nishimura. 400 Imperial Guards had landed and taken Pulau Ubin, an island in the north-east of Singapore, in a feint attack on 7
February, where they encountered minimal resistance.
On 9 February, two divisions of the Japanese Twenty Fifth Army, led by Lieutenant General Tomoyuki Yamashita, landed on the northwestern coast of Singapore, in the Sarimbun area. Yamashita's headquarters (HQ) was in the Sultan of Johor's
palace on Istana Bukit Serene, which offered him and his officers a bird's eye view of virtually every key target in the northern sector of Singapore Island, only 1.6 kilometres (one mile) across the Straits of Johor. Sultan Ibrahim's palace was not fired
upon by the British because any damage caused would have extensive repercussions for British-Johor ties.
The primary objective of the Japanese at Kranji was to capture Kranji village; this would let them repair the demolished Causeway in order to facilitate easy flow of reinforcements and supplies down the roads of Woodlands and Mandai, and to the
rest of the island for their vanguard force. Once the leading wave of Japanese was safely ashore, the massed Japanese artillery switched their fire to the defensive positions at Kranji. Telegraph and telephone communications were destroyed in the
bombardment and communications between the front line and command HQ were broken. At 8:30pm that night, the men of the Imperial Guards Division began the crossing from Johor in special armoured landing-crafts, collapsible boats and by
swimming.
In the early hours of 10 February, Japanese forces suffered their heaviest losses during the Battle of Singapore. While moving up the Kranji River, advance landing parties from the 4th Regiment of the Imperial Guard Division found themselves
under heavy fire from Australian machine gunners and mortar teams. They also found themselves surrounded by oil slicks, which had been created by Allied personnel emptying the nearby Woodlands oil depot, to prevent its capture. A scenario
feared by Yamashita came to pass by accident; the oil was set alight by Allied small arms fire, causing many Japanese soldiers to be burnt alive. Sustaining heavy losses, Nishimura requested permission to abandon the operation. However,
Yamashita denied the request.
Maxwell, who had limited communications with his division headquarters, was concerned that his force would be cut off by fierce and chaotic fighting at Sarimbun and Jurong to the south west, involving the Australian 22nd Brigade. Maxwell's
force consequently withdrew from the seafront. This allowed the Japanese to land in increasing strength and take control of Kranji village. They also captured Woodlands, and began repairing the causeway, without encountering any Allied attacks.
Japanese light tanks, which had good buoyancy, were towed across the straits to Lim Chu Kang Road where they joined the battle at dusk. With reinforced troops and tanks advancing down Choa Chua Kang Road, the Australian troops were no
match for the tanks and fled to the hills of Bukit Panjang. The 5th Division (Imperial Japanese Army) captured Bukit Timah village by the evening of 11 February.
Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, General Officer Commanding of HQ Malaya Command, drew a defence perimeter covering Kallang aerodrome, MacRitchie and Peirce reservoirs and the Bukit Timah supply depot area to ensure the integrity
of the city's defence. One line of the north-western defence perimeter was the Jurong-Kranji defence line, a narrow ridge connecting the sources of the Jurong and the Kranji Rivers, forming a natural defence line protecting the north-west
approach to the Singapore City. (Its counterpart was the Serangoon Line, which was sited between Kallang Airfield and Paya Lebar village on the eastern part of Singapore). The troops were to defend this Line strongly against the invading
Japanese force. The Line was defended by the 44th Indian Infantry Brigade which covered milestone 12 on Jurong Road, the 12th Indian Infantry Brigade and the reinforced 22nd Australian Brigade which guarded the northern part of the Line and
maintained contact with the 44th Indian Brigade. The 15th Indian Infantry Brigade was re-positioned near Bukit Timah Road to guard the island's vital food and petrol supplies. A secret instruction to protect this area was issued to Percival's
generals.
Percival's secret orders to withdraw to the last defence line around the city only if necessary were misunderstood by Maxwell, who took this to be an order for an immediate withdrawal to the Line. As a result, the 44th Indian Infantry Brigade, the 12th
Indian Infantry Brigade and the 22nd Australian Brigade, reinforced after their withdrawal from Sarimbun beach in the north-west, abandoned the Line on 10 February. Fearing that the large supplies depot would fall into Japanese hands should
they make a rush for Bukit Timah too soon, General Archibald Wavell, Allied commander-in-chief of the Far East sent an urgent message to Percival:
It is certain that our troops in Singapore Island heavily outnumber any Japanese who have crossed the Straits. We must destroy them. Our whole fighting reputation is at stake and the honour of the British Empire. The Americans have held out in the
Bataan Peninsula against a far heavier odds, the Russians are turning back the picked strength of the Germans. The Chinese with an almost lack of modern equipment have held the Japanese for four and a half years. It will be disgraceful if we
yield our boasted fortress of Singapore to inferior enemy forces.
By 11 February, the Jurong-Kranji Defence Line was left undefended which allowed the Japanese forces to sweep through the Line to attack Bukit Timah. On the same day, Percival finally moved his Combined Operations Headquarters in Sime
Road to the underground bunker, The Battle Box at Fort Canning.
Despite their fighting spirit, the Dalforce fighters suffered from poor training and the lack of equipment. A further blow was delivered when the 27th Australian Brigade withdrew southwards. As a result, the Japanese established a stronghold in the
northern Woodlands area and secured a relatively easy passage into the island. General Wavell left Singapore for Java early on 11 February and sent a cable to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in London on his assessment of the war front
in Singapore:
Battle for Singapore is not going well... I ordered Percival to stage counter-attack with all troops possible... Morale of some troops is not good and none is as high as I should like to see... The chief troubles are lack of sufficient training in some
reinforcing troops and an inferior complex which bold Japanese tactics and their command of the air have caused. Everything possible is being done to produce more offensive spirit and optimistic outlook. But I cannot pretend that these efforts
have been entirely successful up to date. I have given the most categorical orders that there is to be no thought of surrender and that all troops are to continue fighting to the end...
By 12 February, the Imperial Guards had captured the reservoirs and Nee Soon village. The defending troops, by this time, were badly shaken. Thousands of exhausted and frightened stragglers left the fighting to seek shelter in large buildings. On
the same night, British forces in the east of the island had begun to withdraw towards the city.
On 13 February, the Japanese 5th Division continued its advance and reached Adam and Farrer Roads to capture the Sime Road Camp. Yamashita moved his HQ forward to the bomb-damaged Ford Factory in Bukit Timah. Heading southwards,
the Japanese 18th Division advanced into Pasir Panjang, where the last major battle of Singapore would be fought with the Malay Regiments at Bukit Chandu.
In 1995, the former battle sites of Kranji and the defence line were gazetted by the National Heritage Board as two of the eleven World War II sites of Singapore.
2005
Knoica Minolta
PICT0059
Despite my involvement, this movie is a tender, comic gem. An amazing cast to work alongside in Martin Landau, Bill Murray, et al., but, of course, with Tim, there exists an almost brotherly sensibility, which made the whole experience a joy. Ultimately, I feel, with the artistic freedom we had, TB produced an American classic. A love letter to a filmmaker that didn't receive many.-- Johnny Depp
After his death in 1978, Ed Wood became best known as the world's worst film director and a cult following was born. Among his biggest fans were Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.
"This is Edward D. Wood, Jr."
Ed Wood's most famous features are the autobiographical Glen or Glenda, which explores a transvestite's struggle for a normal life, and Plan 9 from Outer Space, a science fiction/horror movie that was funded by local Baptist churches and completed in 5 days. Unlike your typical director, who may take all day to shoot one scene and finish a film in months, Ed Wood might have shot 30 scenes in a single day. Usually without permits, he had to steal shots whenever and as quickly as possible. His films weren't your typical Hollywood blockbusters; they were Ed Wood opuses. As scriptwriter Larry Karaszewski explained, "There's a personality to Ed Wood films that you don't necessarily get in a lot of other people's films. A lot of bad films are simply bad movies or incompetently put together. With Ed, you get a real sense of the filmmaker behind the camera. You see an Ed Wood movie, and you know it's an Ed Wood movie because of the obsessions and the fetishes. The stuff he's throwing up on the screen is clearly his way of working something out inside of him."
In Ed Wood's eyes, every film he made would be the one to make it big. Scriptwriter Scott Alexander noted, "Where Ed's movies are distinctive is that there's such passion there. The passion is oftentimes misguided, but it's there." That's where Tim Burton's film takes flight.
Ed Wood focuses on the director's friendship with aging Bela Lugosi, who had fallen from stardom after portraying Dracula during the Silent Era and was now battling drug addiction and poverty. After a chance meeting, Ed wanted to help Bela--one of his childhood heroes--by giving him parts in his films. The friendship lasted until Bela's death 5 years later.
"Let's Shoot This F#*%@r!"
When Tim Burton received this bio-pic's script, co-written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, he dropped his other projects and got to work, hardly changing anything on the page. He remembered, "It's probably the first time ever that I got a script and said, 'Yeah, let's shoot this.'"
Studying Ed Wood's original letters, Tim and Johnny got a sense of an unwavering upbeat optimism about his work. Because of that, Johnny's performance is hilariously over-enthusiastic and joyful. His other ingredients for the character of Ed Wood included the heart of The Wizard of Oz's Tin Man, the blind optimism of Ronald Reagan, and the distinctive voice of Casey Kasem. Working with Tim again on a project that became a labor of love for all involved was just what Johnny needed to break out of the, let's say, dark place he was stuck in while filming What's Eating Gilbert Grape? "Ed was the rocket ship that took me away from that horrible, black, bleak time," he said. "This guy needed to be the ultimate optimist, dreamer, idealist. It was like being in a completely different suit or skin. It felt very good." His friend, Director Jim Jarmusch can attest: "I was staying at his house for a while when he was shooting Ed Wood, and sometimes I would pick him up from the set and we'd get dinner. It would take him three hours to stop being Ed Wood. I just wanted to slap him to get that stupid smile off his face. We'd be in this Thai restaurant and Johnny is going, 'Hey, this Pad Thai is fabulous!'"
Johnny's performance fits perfectly into Tim Burton's version of an Ed Wood film--beautifully stylized in black-and-white with all the perceived normalcy of the 1950s. "You're mixing different elements," Tim explained. "You want to get the flavor of an Ed Wood movie without being an Ed Wood exactly."
"This is perfect!"
Tim Burton's Ed Wood is one of his best. It's one of Johnny's best. It's one of the world's best! They made a movie that struck a bittersweet balance between Ed Wood's rosy vision and reality. It is at once hilarious, heartwarming, heartbreaking, and joyful.
This movie is about the love of filmmaking. In his review, Roger Ebert proclaimed that every film school in the country should show this film to their students to instill the devotion to and joy of the work. No matter what happens, everything is perfect in Ed's eyes. His love of producing and directing--getting the film in the can--was all that mattered.
The writers noted that there were several more scenes reflecting Ed's insecurities and self-doubt, but they didn't make it into the film. Larry Karaszewski explained, "Johnny and Tim grew to love Ed so much that it made them uncomfortable to give Ed those moments."
At the heart of this movie is friendship and acceptance. No one in Ed Wood's circle is "normal," yet by the end of the film you are cheering for all of them. Aside from Bela Lugosi and himself, Ed Wood's cast often included Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson (George "The Animal" Steele), ghoulish TV hostess Vampira (Lisa Marie), self-proclaimed psychic Criswell (Jeffrey Jones), and drag queen Bunny Breckenridge (Bill Murray). The "bad guys" in this movie were those embarrassed by Ed's love for cross-dressing or confused by his films' lack of continuity or retakes. But this troupe of misfits stuck together like family. And that was no clearer than in the relationship between Ed Wood and Bela Lugosi.
Brilliantly played by Martin Landau, becoming Bela Lugosi was a challenge: "What you've got here is a 74-year-old Hungarian morphine addict/alcoholic who has mood swings," Martin explained. "That would be hard enough, but it had to be Bela Lugosi, who everyone knows!" Paying homage to the actor, Martin considered this film a male love story, one between two guys who really needed and depended on each other. "You could tell that between Martin and Johnny there was a real respect and a kind of bonding that went on with them because they were both good at a certain level," Tim said. "It was exciting to see that."
"We have to go see Ed Wood!"
I had no idea who Ed Wood was at the time I saw this movie, and I don't remember how or where my family and I went to see the film. But I do remember two things: 1) There was no question that we were going to see it this time--no convincing, plotting, or pleading necessary, and 2) While watching the movie for the first time, I was worried about what my parents thought while Johnny strutted around in drag doing a strip tease among his friends in a meat packing plant. On the other hand, I was thrilled by Johnny's fearlessness to do whatever--and for Johnny, "whatever" usually guarantees the unexpected. It's a trait that remains in full force today, and one of the reasons I will always see his movies. Tim agrees, as he discussed being able to work with Johnny again on this project: "Edward Scissorhands was a character who didn't speak, and now we're dealing with a character that won't shut up. It's great to see an actor go from one thing to something completely different. There's a great energy to seeing something like that. He's just so willing to do anything that way. In fact, he usually wants to go farther than you want him to go. It's nice for other actors to see." The reviews everywhere for Tim Burton's little film were positive, even those from my own family.
Ed Wood was nominated for too many awards to list here. Among them were Johnny's third Golden Globe nomination and his win for Actor of the Year from the London Film Critics. Ed Wood earned two Oscars--one for Martin Landau's amazing performance and one for the makeup team who transformed him into Bela Lugosi.
Because of this movie, I sought out Ed Wood's own films, which I so much wanted to love as much as Tim, Johnny, and company did. But I just couldn't do it. They actually made me sad. I felt better once I found out that the writers are aware of this phenomenon: "What's interesting is that when you watch our movie, and then watch Ed Wood's films, our movie affects the Ed Wood films themselves," writer Larry Karaszewski said. "It's much harder to laugh at Ed Wood films, particularly Glen or Glenda. It feels like a piece of personal filmmaking where you feel like this guy is putting his soul onto film." It's true: Watching the real Ed Wood movies, I was excited to see all the real people who were portrayed in Tim's Ed Wood, and I was still rooting for them to do well. I probably always will.
Check it out: Once you see Ed Wood--and you should all see it--it'll happen to you too. This labor of love is contagious.
The Kitties will do anything to get this one made!
The Kitties were all for the Ed Wood homage in black and white. We had to choose a filming scene because that's what Ed loved best. Here is one of his great moments: He's dragged the crew (including Norman, Simon, and Comet) out at 3 a.m. to steal an octopus prop from a nearby studio. Now, he's plopping Bela (B.J.) in the middle of it all to stage a big fight. This will match up perfectly with the big underwater finish Ed has planned for his latest movie. Who cares that they forgot to get the octopus motor, or that Bela isn't quite underwater? This is perfect! (And only 25 more scenes to go tonight....)
What's next?
Johnny trades in his angora sweater for a mask. Next month, we'll meet the world's greatest lover, Don Juan DeMarco.
For more images from Ed Wood and Johnny Kitties, visit Melissa's Kitties' blog: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com.
The interfaith EarthKeepers II Team held a strategy meeting on April 5, 2013 at the Big Bay Point Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast in Big Bay, Michigan to plan the 30 faith community gardens.
EarthKeepers II is an Interfaith Energy Conservation and Community Garden Initiative across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Over the next two years, at least 30 interfaith community gardens will be planted that include vegetables (some fresh produce will be given to food banks) - plus native species plants.
EarthKeepers II has representatives from 10 faith communities involving 250 churches/temples in northern Michigan: Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Jewish, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist, Bahá'í, Unitarian Universalist and Zen Buddhist.
These gardens will serve as a pollinator central for all plants in the area.
Native species plants are pollinator friendly - and that is important as one-third of America's pollinators have died in the past 7 years.
The reasons for the pollinator disappearances (bees, butterflies) are varied but most of which are human related especially a new and deadly pesticide/fertilizer powder that is used to coat seeds.
Humans cannot live without pollinators.
A presentation on native species plants and pollinators was given by U.S. Forest Service Midwest Botanist Jan Schultz.
Schultz is the Head Botanist at the USFS Eastern Region (R-9) Office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and we are fortunate she is the EarthKeepers II Technical Advisor for Community Gardens
EarthKeepers II Project Coordinator Kyra Fillmore Ziomkowski explained the community garden plans at churches and temples across the U.P.
Funded by the EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, EarthKeepers II has a major goal of reducing toxins in the Great Lakes including airborne mercury - through energy conservation audits and grants for churches/temples - and educating their congregations on ways to reduce energy consumption at home - while getting financial incentives to do so.
An EarthKeepers II contractor has completed 17 of the 40 energy audits at churches/temples in the U.P. - and all will be completed by this fall, according to Delta Green Ex. Dir. Doug Russell, Executive Director, EarthKeepers II Energy Conservation Consultant.
Grants of up to $500 (in a few cases more) will be offered to these congregations to help make energy conservations repairs at the houses of worship
Those attending the Big Bay meeting included faith leaders and representatives, project organizers and the EarthKeepers II Student Team from Northern Michigan University.
Attendees included:
Longtime EarthKeeper Rev. Tesshin Paul Lehmberg of the Lake Superior Zendo, a Zen Buddhist temple located at 2222 Longyear Ave, in Marquette, MI.
906-226-6407
plehmber@nmu.edu
Guest speaker the Rev. Stephen Gauger of Calvary Lutheran Church
Rapid River, Michigan - representing the Northern Great Lakes Synod (NGLS) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) - and NGLS Bishop Thomas Skrenes.
Helen Grossman, representing Jewish Temple Beth Sholom in Ishpeming, MI
www.templebethsholom-ishpeming.org
Rev. Christine Bergquist of the Bark River United Methodist Church (UMC) and the First UMC of Hermansville - and representing the United Methodist Church Marquette District - and Rev Elbert P Dulworth, District Superintendent.
(EarthKeepers II also thanks Grant Lobb, former Mqt. Dist. Supt. (who has taken another position) and a longtime supporter of U.P. EarthKeepers projects - and we remember the late Episcopal "Earth Bishop" - Bishop James "Jim" Kelsey - who was with the EarthKeepers from our humble beginnings in 2005 - and now watches over us from above.)
Rev. Albert Valentine II of the Manistique Presbyterian Church of the Redeemer and the Gould City Community Presbyterian Church - and representing the Presbytery of Mackinac.
Rev. Pete Andersen, a retired ELCA pastor from Marquette.
Rev. Elisabeth Zant of the NGLS ELCA Eden Evangelical Lutheran Church in Munising, MI.
Heidi Gould of
Marquette representing the Marquette Unitarian Universalist Congregation, a liberal religious community for the Marquette community
Check out the EarthKeepers II social sites (see links below) including our videos - that include beautiful pollinator and nature photos in videos by environmentalist Nancy Parker Hill.
And vegetable garden photos by Carol Michel, a garden blogger, garden writer, eccentric gardener in the Indianapolis, IN area.
Indygardener at gmail.com
May Dreams Gardens:
www.maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/MayDreamsGardens
Among those involved in the project but not mentioned above are:
Rev. Jon Magnuson, Executive Director
Nonprofit Cedar Tree Institute
EarthKeepers II Project Director
Marquette, Michigan
Nonprofit Cedar Tree Institute projects include Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project, the Manitou Project and the Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC)
Baraga, Michigan
KBIC Natural Resources Department
KBIC Solar-Powered Green House
L'Anse, Michigan
Borealis Seed Company
Judy Keast, Suzanne Rabitaille
Big Bay, Michigan
NMU EarthKeepers II Student Team:
Katelin Bingner
Tom Merkel
Adam Magnuson
10 Faith Communities:
Roman Catholic
Episcopal
Jewish
Lutheran
Presbyterian
United Methodist
Bahá'í
Unitarian Universalist
Zen Buddhist
Rev. Charlie West
EarthKeepers II Religious Communications
Obadiah Metivier
EarthKeepers II Webmaster
Owner & Creative Director of Middle Ear Media
Marquette, Michigan
Videography, Editor, Producer, and Project Volunteer Media Advisor:
Greg Peterson
EarthKeepersII@gmail.com
906-401-0109
Special thanks to the Marquette Community Gardens
www.marquettecommunitygardens.org
www.facebook.com/pages/Marquette-Community-Gardens/277739...
EarthKeepers II thanks everyone named and unnamed for their loving help with this project:
An Interfaith Energy Conservation and Community Garden Initiative Across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Restore Native Plants and Protect the Great Lakes from Toxins like Airborne Mercury in cooperation with the EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, U.S. Forest Service, 10 faith traditions and Native American tribes like the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community
Official EarthKeepers II website
Nonprofit Cedar Tree Institute in Marquette, MI
EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy (GLBTS)
Deborah Lamberty
Program Analyst
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Great Lakes National Program Office
77 W. Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL
60604-3590
Lamberty.Deborah@epa.gov
312-886-6681 (wk)
312-692-2974 (fax)
Elizabeth 'Liz' LaPlante, senior manager for the EPA Great Lakes National Programs Office in Chicago, Ill
EarthKeepers II social sites:
www.youtube.com/EarthKeepersII
www.facebook.com/EarthKeepersII
www.twitter.com/EarthKeeperTeam
pinterest.com/EarthKeepersII/EarthKeepers-II-and-the-EPA-...
pinterest.com/EarthKeepersII/Great-Lakes-Restoration-Init...
Google youtube page for EKII:
plus.google.com/u/0/b/104404714072685272630/1044047140726...
www.linkedin.com/in/gregpetersonyoopernewsman
www.facebook.com/GregJohnPeterson
www.facebook.com/EarthKeepersII
fyi:
EarthKeeper II Energy Conservation Audits finished as of 6-12-13
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Marquette, MI
St. Matthais Episcopal Church
Pickford, MI
St. James Episcopal Church
Sault Ste. Marie, MI
Temple Beth Sholom
Jewish Synagogue
Ishpeming, MI
Messiah Lutheran Church
Marquette, MI
St. Mark's Church
Marquette, MI
Grace Lutheran Church
Pembine, WI
Trinity Lutheran Church
Rhinelander, WI
Emmanuel Lutheran Church
Skandia, MI
St. James Lutheran Church
Rudyard, MI
Pickford United Methodist Church (UMC)
Pickford, MI
First UMC
Marquette, MI
Newberry UMC
Newberry, MI
Paradise UMC
Paradise, MI
Hulbert/Taquamenon UMC
Hulbert, MI
Marquette Unitarian Universalist Congregation
Marquette, MI
Lake Superior Zendo
Zen Buddhist
Aurora Dharma Temple
Marquette, MI
Thanks to our friends at the Big Bay lighthouse:
Big Bay Point Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast
#3 Lighthouse Road
Big Bay, Michigan
49808
906-345-9957 (office)
keepers@BigBayLighthouse.com
The Los Angeles Fire Department responded in automatic aid on August 27, 2011 to assist the Los Angeles County Fire Department and Los Angeles County Lifeguards in handling a collision involving a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department vehicle. © Photo by John Conkle
Lenny has a new way of drinking lately, which involves dipping his paw in the water and slurping off of it.
Press ReleaseOct. 16, 2009
Natural Fire 10 - Joint Public Affairs Office
Opening ceremony in Northern Uganda marks start to humanitarian exercise
KITGUM, Uganda – The partnership exercise named Natural Fire 10, a multinational military exercise involving five East African partner states - plus partners from the U.S. military - began Oct. 16 in northern Uganda.
Soldiers from Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and the United States opened the exercise with a ceremony attended by senior military officials from each country.
The 10-day exercise focuses on humanitarian and civic assistance, disaster relief and regional security.
“The main objective of the exercise is to test the ability of our partner militaries to work together and with other organizations,” said Capt. Ronald Kakurungu, a spokesman for the Ugandan People’s Defense Force, who are hosting this year’s exercise. “Being able to work together improves our capability to respond to complex humanitarian emergencies and further demonstrate EAC members can act as one when facing challenges.”
Roughly 550 U.S. personnel and 133 military personnel from each of the five partner nations are taking part. All together, there will be nearly 1,220 participants. Three training opportunities are going on simultaneously. Medical, dental and engineering projects will assist the local community and security partnership exercises near Kitgum which will increase the soldiers’ ability to work together.
Meanwhile, in Kampala and Entebbe, military leaders and senior civilian officials from participating countries will take part in a tabletop exercise – facing simulated emergencies in Africa. This type of exercise will sharpen senior and mid-level military leaders’ skills in their response to disasters, to offer humanitarian assistance and to prepare for pandemic situations.
Medical care will include direct care by a doctor or dentist, to include optometry and pharmacy services as well as dental extractions. Education classes on HIV/AIDS, nutrition and hygiene will also be provided. The care will be provided at Pajimo Health Center, Palabek Health Center, Mucwini Health Center and Kitgum Government Hospital.
Engineers will work together to make improvements at a high school, primary school and a hospital. Improvements include repairing or replacing roofs, window panes and doors, repairing walls, installing handicap ramps and placing a concrete floor. Engineer projects will be conducted at the Kitgum High School, Mucwini Primary School and Kitgum Government Hospital.
Natural Fire 10 closes with a ceremony Oct. 25, when all participants will return to their countries.
“These opportunities place the EAC people face-to-face with both U.S. and partner nations displaying compassion and interest in their well-being,” Kakurungu said.
Natural Fire was first held in Kenya in 1998, with U.S. partnership. Since, then it has been held every two years in East Africa. In 2000, it grew to include Tanzania and Uganda, as well as the U.S. and Kenya – a significant step for the EAC alliance. In 2006, Natural Fire expanded to include field training and humanitarian assistance. Since then, the exercise has grown to feature five partner states, with the addition of soldiers from Burundi.
In September 2009, these five EAC partners completed their first exercise together, Mlima Kilimanjaro 2009, in Tanzania. Following Natural Fire 10, in November, the EAC partners will jointly participate in an exercise in Djibouti.
U.S. Army Africa, (USARAF), the land component of U.S. Africa Command, is co-leading the exercise with the Ugandan military. USARAF is committed to partnering African nations to enhance mutual understanding and increase stability, security and peace on the continent. That includes are strong cooperation with the EAC members. USARAF’s role supports U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech encouraging partnership among African countries with the US.
"African prosperity can expand America’s. Africa’s health and security can contribute to the world’s....so I do not see the countries and peoples of Africa as a world apart; I see Africa as a fundamental part of our interconnected world – as partners with America on behalf of the future that we want for all our children" - U.S. President Barack Obama, Ghana, July 2009.
Cleared for public release.
CAPTION: Hon. Jerry Lanier, the U.S. Ambassador to Uganda, and Maj. Gen. William Garrett, Commander, US Army Africa, talk before the opening ceremony for Natural Fire 10, Kitgum, Uganda, Oct. 16, 2009.
Photo by Spc. Jason Nolte, 21st Theater Sustainment Command
To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil
Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica
Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica
The interfaith EarthKeepers II Team held a strategy meeting on April 5, 2013 at the Big Bay Point Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast in Big Bay, Michigan to plan the 30 faith community gardens.
EarthKeepers II is an Interfaith Energy Conservation and Community Garden Initiative across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Over the next two years, at least 30 interfaith community gardens will be planted that include vegetables (some fresh produce will be given to food banks) - plus native species plants.
EarthKeepers II has representatives from 10 faith communities involving 250 churches/temples in northern Michigan: Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Jewish, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist, Bahá'í, Unitarian Universalist and Zen Buddhist.
These gardens will serve as a pollinator central for all plants in the area.
Native species plants are pollinator friendly - and that is important as one-third of America's pollinators have died in the past 7 years.
The reasons for the pollinator disappearances (bees, butterflies) are varied but most of which are human related especially a new and deadly pesticide/fertilizer powder that is used to coat seeds.
Humans cannot live without pollinators.
A presentation on native species plants and pollinators was given by U.S. Forest Service Midwest Botanist Jan Schultz.
Schultz is the Head Botanist at the USFS Eastern Region (R-9) Office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and we are fortunate she is the EarthKeepers II Technical Advisor for Community Gardens
EarthKeepers II Project Coordinator Kyra Fillmore Ziomkowski explained the community garden plans at churches and temples across the U.P.
Funded by the EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, EarthKeepers II has a major goal of reducing toxins in the Great Lakes including airborne mercury - through energy conservation audits and grants for churches/temples - and educating their congregations on ways to reduce energy consumption at home - while getting financial incentives to do so.
An EarthKeepers II contractor has completed 17 of the 40 energy audits at churches/temples in the U.P. - and all will be completed by this fall, according to Delta Green Ex. Dir. Doug Russell, Executive Director, EarthKeepers II Energy Conservation Consultant.
Grants of up to $500 (in a few cases more) will be offered to these congregations to help make energy conservations repairs at the houses of worship
Those attending the Big Bay meeting included faith leaders and representatives, project organizers and the EarthKeepers II Student Team from Northern Michigan University.
Attendees included:
Longtime EarthKeeper Rev. Tesshin Paul Lehmberg of the Lake Superior Zendo, a Zen Buddhist temple located at 2222 Longyear Ave, in Marquette, MI.
906-226-6407
plehmber@nmu.edu
Guest speaker the Rev. Stephen Gauger of Calvary Lutheran Church
Rapid River, Michigan - representing the Northern Great Lakes Synod (NGLS) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) - and NGLS Bishop Thomas Skrenes.
Helen Grossman, representing Jewish Temple Beth Sholom in Ishpeming, MI
www.templebethsholom-ishpeming.org
Rev. Christine Bergquist of the Bark River United Methodist Church (UMC) and the First UMC of Hermansville - and representing the United Methodist Church Marquette District - and Rev Elbert P Dulworth, District Superintendent.
(EarthKeepers II also thanks Grant Lobb, former Mqt. Dist. Supt. (who has taken another position) and a longtime supporter of U.P. EarthKeepers projects - and we remember the late Episcopal "Earth Bishop" - Bishop James "Jim" Kelsey - who was with the EarthKeepers from our humble beginnings in 2005 - and now watches over us from above.)
Rev. Albert Valentine II of the Manistique Presbyterian Church of the Redeemer and the Gould City Community Presbyterian Church - and representing the Presbytery of Mackinac.
Rev. Pete Andersen, a retired ELCA pastor from Marquette.
Rev. Elisabeth Zant of the NGLS ELCA Eden Evangelical Lutheran Church in Munising, MI.
Heidi Gould of
Marquette representing the Marquette Unitarian Universalist Congregation, a liberal religious community for the Marquette community
Check out the EarthKeepers II social sites (see links below) including our videos - that include beautiful pollinator and nature photos in videos by environmentalist Nancy Parker Hill.
And vegetable garden photos by Carol Michel, a garden blogger, garden writer, eccentric gardener in the Indianapolis, IN area.
Indygardener at gmail.com
May Dreams Gardens:
www.maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/MayDreamsGardens
Among those involved in the project but not mentioned above are:
Rev. Jon Magnuson, Executive Director
Nonprofit Cedar Tree Institute
EarthKeepers II Project Director
Marquette, Michigan
Nonprofit Cedar Tree Institute projects include Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project, the Manitou Project and the Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC)
Baraga, Michigan
KBIC Natural Resources Department
KBIC Solar-Powered Green House
L'Anse, Michigan
Borealis Seed Company
Judy Keast, Suzanne Rabitaille
Big Bay, Michigan
NMU EarthKeepers II Student Team:
Katelin Bingner
Tom Merkel
Adam Magnuson
10 Faith Communities:
Roman Catholic
Episcopal
Jewish
Lutheran
Presbyterian
United Methodist
Bahá'í
Unitarian Universalist
Zen Buddhist
Rev. Charlie West
EarthKeepers II Religious Communications
Obadiah Metivier
EarthKeepers II Webmaster
Owner & Creative Director of Middle Ear Media
Marquette, Michigan
Videography, Editor, Producer, and Project Volunteer Media Advisor:
Greg Peterson
EarthKeepersII@gmail.com
906-401-0109
Special thanks to the Marquette Community Gardens
www.marquettecommunitygardens.org
www.facebook.com/pages/Marquette-Community-Gardens/277739...
EarthKeepers II thanks everyone named and unnamed for their loving help with this project:
An Interfaith Energy Conservation and Community Garden Initiative Across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Restore Native Plants and Protect the Great Lakes from Toxins like Airborne Mercury in cooperation with the EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, U.S. Forest Service, 10 faith traditions and Native American tribes like the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community
Official EarthKeepers II website
Nonprofit Cedar Tree Institute in Marquette, MI
EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy (GLBTS)
Deborah Lamberty
Program Analyst
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Great Lakes National Program Office
77 W. Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL
60604-3590
Lamberty.Deborah@epa.gov
312-886-6681 (wk)
312-692-2974 (fax)
Elizabeth 'Liz' LaPlante, senior manager for the EPA Great Lakes National Programs Office in Chicago, Ill
EarthKeepers II social sites:
www.youtube.com/EarthKeepersII
www.facebook.com/EarthKeepersII
www.twitter.com/EarthKeeperTeam
pinterest.com/EarthKeepersII/EarthKeepers-II-and-the-EPA-...
pinterest.com/EarthKeepersII/Great-Lakes-Restoration-Init...
Google youtube page for EKII:
plus.google.com/u/0/b/104404714072685272630/1044047140726...
www.linkedin.com/in/gregpetersonyoopernewsman
www.facebook.com/GregJohnPeterson
www.facebook.com/EarthKeepersII
fyi:
EarthKeeper II Energy Conservation Audits finished as of 6-12-13
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Marquette, MI
St. Matthais Episcopal Church
Pickford, MI
St. James Episcopal Church
Sault Ste. Marie, MI
Temple Beth Sholom
Jewish Synagogue
Ishpeming, MI
Messiah Lutheran Church
Marquette, MI
St. Mark's Church
Marquette, MI
Grace Lutheran Church
Pembine, WI
Trinity Lutheran Church
Rhinelander, WI
Emmanuel Lutheran Church
Skandia, MI
St. James Lutheran Church
Rudyard, MI
Pickford United Methodist Church (UMC)
Pickford, MI
First UMC
Marquette, MI
Newberry UMC
Newberry, MI
Paradise UMC
Paradise, MI
Hulbert/Taquamenon UMC
Hulbert, MI
Marquette Unitarian Universalist Congregation
Marquette, MI
Lake Superior Zendo
Zen Buddhist
Aurora Dharma Temple
Marquette, MI
Thanks to our friends at the Big Bay lighthouse:
Big Bay Point Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast
#3 Lighthouse Road
Big Bay, Michigan
49808
906-345-9957 (office)
keepers@BigBayLighthouse.com
Bald eagle courtship involves elaborate, spectacular calls and flight displays by the males. The flight includes swoops, chases, and cartwheels, in which they fly high, lock talons, and free-fall, separating just before hitting the ground. Usually, a territory defended by a mature pair will be 0.62 to 1.24 miles of waterside habitat.
The Student Involvement Fair, inside and outside of Social Hall, showcased the many opportunities for extra curricular enrichment both inside and outside of the NMH community.
The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was posted using a 2d. stamp in Weymouth, Dorset on Thursday the 4th. July 1957 to:
Miss Doswell,
77 Ryedale,
East Dulwich,
London SE.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Dear Miss Doswell,
We are having a nice
holiday. We had a bad
storm on Tuesday night -
thunder and lightning
all night.
Nice yesterday and
today again.
We hope you are keeping
well.
We have just had a boat
trip around Portland
Harbour.
Best wishes,
Mr. & Mrs. Voak."
Weymouth
Weymouth is a seaside town in Dorset, England, situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the River Wey on the English Channel coast. The town is 11 kilometres (7 mi) south of Dorchester and 8 kilometres (5 mi) north of the Isle of Portland. The town's population in 2011 was 52,300.
Weymouth is a tourist resort, and its economy depends on its harbour and visitor attractions; the town is a gateway situated halfway along the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site on the Dorset and east Devon coast, important for its geology and landforms.
Weymouth Harbour has provided a berth for cross-channel ferries, and is home to pleasure boats and private yachts, and nearby Portland Harbour is home to the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, where the sailing events of the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games were held.
The history of the borough stretches back to the 12th century; including involvement in the spread of the Black Death, the settlement of the Americas, the development of Georgian architecture, and a major departure point for the Normandy Landings.
Greenhill Gardens
Greenhill Gardens in the Greenhill suburb of Weymouth is a public garden positioned at the edge of the town centre, sloping up from the beach and promenade.
The Gardens were originally part of the Wilton Estate and were handed over as a gift to the local council in 1902 for 'the benefit of the inhabitants of Weymouth.'
Bennett's Shelter
Within the gardens, Bennett's Shelter, a benevolent donation made by Mayor V. H. Bennett, was constructed in 1919. The original shelter had lower wooden sections that have since been replaced by Portland stone walling, whilst the upper timber structure and tiled roof are essentially in their original form. The shelter continues to provide shelter to today's visitors.
The Schneider Trophy Weathervane
The Schneider Trophy weathervane is a memorial to the former Weymouth College student, Lieutenant George Stainforth, who set a world record air speed in a Schneider Supermarine S6B seaplane in 1931. The weather vane was originally presented to Weymouth College in 1932 as a memorial to Stainforth. Made of hardwood and covered in a copper sheath, the vane was erected above Weymouth College chapel in 1932, but moved for safety at the start of World War II.
The weathervane was later presented to the Borough Council and placed in the gardens in May 1952. In 1996, the vane had to be taken down after the effects of years of sea spray and coastal winds had taken their toll; however it was restored in 1999 by a local marine engineer.
The Floral Clock
In 1936, a floral clock with a cuckoo type chime was built by Ritchie & Sons of Edinburgh. The Company also designed the famous floral clock in Princes Street Garden in Edinburgh.
It features an adjacent clock house, holding the original mechanism that keeps the clock ticking. The clock house has two holes in the side where the noise of a cuckoo comes out.
Since its creation, it has become one of the most popular features of the gardens.
The Wishing Well
In the late 1980's, a wishing well, donated by Melcombe Regis Rotary Club, was introduced into the lower gardens, and any monies thrown into the well are collected and presented to a local charity.
The Tennis Courts
In 2006, the council were considering plans to erect a large restaurant on the tennis courts in the Gardens. This plan was received with almost universal dismay, and was subsequently shelved.
The Floral Bedding Design
Each year a large crescent shaped bed is given over to a charity or organisation which is celebrating a significant anniversary. The Gardeners painstakingly plant out thousands of tiny bedding plants, and where necessary, use coloured gravel to replicate the selected organisation's logo.
Eleanor Boucher
The gardens were highlighted on national news in the summer of 2009 when pensioner Eleanor Boucher from Glastonbury, Somerset, found a postcard from Weymouth on her doormat of the gardens.
After looking at it for a few moments she realised she was there - sunning herself in the picture taken 17 years before as a photographer snapped the shot for the postcard as Boucher and her two daughters enjoyed a family day trip to Weymouth in 1992.
Seventeen years later, her brother-in-law and his wife, who were visiting the resort, picked out the postcard by chance without noticing her in the picture.
Jenny Seagrove
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 4th. July 1957 marked the birth of the English actress Jenny Seagrove.
She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and first came to attention in the film Local Hero (1983), as well as playing the lead in a television dramatisation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Woman of Substance (1984).
Jenny starred in the thriller Appointment with Death (1988) and William Friedkin's horror film The Guardian (1990). She later played Louisa Gould in Another Mother's Son (2017).
Jenny is known for her role as the character of Jo Mills in the long-running BBC drama series Judge John Deed (2001–07). Her credits as a voiceover artist include a series of Waitrose television advertisements.
-- Jenny Seagrove - The Early Years
Jenny was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya (now Malaysia) to British parents, Pauline and Derek Seagrove. Her father ran an import-export firm, which afforded the family a privileged lifestyle.
When Seagrove was less than a year old, her mother suffered a stroke, and was unable to care for her. Seagrove attended St. Hilary's School in Godalming, Surrey, from the age of nine.
After leaving school, Seagrove attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, in spite of her parents' wishes for her to have a career as a professional cook.
Seagrove developed bulimia in her early adulthood, but recovered:
"I could feel myself tearing my stomach,
and I kind of pulled out of it. It was a
very slow process."
-- Jenny Seagrove's Career
(a) Theatre
Seagrove's theatre work includes the title role in Jane Eyre at the Chichester Festival Theatre (1986); Ilona in The Guardsman at Theatr Clwyd (1992); and Bett in King Lear in New York, again at Chichester (1992).
Jenny played opposite Tom Conti in Present Laughter at the Globe Theatre (1993); Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker at the Comedy Theatre (1994); and Dead Guilty with Hayley Mills at the Apollo Theatre (1995).
She played in Hurlyburly for the Peter Hall Company when the production transferred from the London Old Vic to the Queen's Theatre (1997); co-starred with Martin Shaw in the Parisian thriller Vertigo (Theatre Royal Windsor October 1998) and then with Anthony Andrews (also Windsor, 1998).
In 2000 she appeared in Brief Encounter at the Lyric Theatre; followed by Neil Simon's The Female Odd Couple at the Apollo (2001). Again at the Lyric Theatre in 2002 she played the title role in Somerset Maugham's The Constant Wife, followed by a revival of David Hare's The Secret Rapture in 2003, and The Night of the Iguana two years later in 2005.
Coming to the West End from a UK tour, she played Leslie Crosbie in Maugham's The Letter at Wyndham's Theatre (2007), co-starring with Anthony Andrews.
In December 2007, Jenny played Marion Brewster-Wright in the Garrick Theatre revival of Alan Ayckbourn's dark, three-act comedy Absurd Person Singular.
In 2008, she and Martin Shaw starred in Murder on Air, at the Theatre Royal, Windsor.
In 2011, Jenny once again starred alongside Martin Shaw in The Country Girl at the Apollo Theatre, playing the part of Georgie Elgin.
In early 2014, she appeared as Julia in a revival of Noël Coward's Fallen Angels. The production was produced by her partner Bill Kenwright, and also starred Sara Crowe.
In 2015, she and Martin Shaw starred in an adaptation of Brief Encounter, using an original radio script from 1947 and staged as "A live broadcast from a BBC radio studio", at the Theatre Royal Windsor.
Returning to the West End in October 2017, Seagrove played Chris MacNeil in The Exorcist at the Phoenix Theatre.
(b) Film
Jenny Seagrove starred alongside Rupert Everett in the Academy Award-winning short film A Shocking Accident (1982), directed by James Scott. Her first major film appearance was in Local Hero (1983) in which she played a mysterious environmentalist with webbed feet.
Roles in a number of films including Savage Islands (1983) opposite Tommy Lee Jones, and Appointment with Death (1988) followed.
One of her lead starring roles was in The Guardian (1990), directed by William Friedkin, in which she played an evil babysitter.
In 2017, she played the lead role in Another Mother's Son, starring as Louisa Gould, a member of the Channel Islands resistance movement during World War II, who famously sheltered an escaped Russian slave worker in Jersey and was later gassed to death in 1945 at Ravensbrück concentration camp.
(c) Television
Seagrove first came to mass public attention in the 10-episode series of the BBC production Diana (1984) adapted from an R. F. Delderfield novel, in which she played the title role as the adult Diana Gaylord-Sutton (the child having been played in the first two episodes by Patsy Kensit).
Seagrove starred in two American-produced television miniseries based upon the first novels of Barbara Taylor Bradford: as Emma Harte in A Woman of Substance (1984) and Paula Fairley in Hold the Dream (1986).
Jenny portrayed stage actress Lillie Langtry in Incident at Victoria Falls (1992), a UK made-for-television film. As the female lead, Melanie James in the film Magic Moments (1989), she starred with John Shea, who played the magician Troy Gardner with whom she falls in love.
Seagrove, along with Simon Cowell, presented Wildlife SOS (1997), a documentary series about the work of dedicated animal lovers who save injured and orphaned wild animals brought into their sanctuary.
Most of Seagrove's filmed work since 1990 has been for television. Between 2001 and 2007, she appeared as QC Jo Mills in the series Judge John Deed. She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 2003 when she was surprised by Michael Aspel.
With John Thaw she guest starred in the episode "The Sign of Four" (1987) of the series Sherlock Holmes. She also guest starred in episodes of Lewis ("The Point of Vanishing", 2009) and Identity ("Somewhere They Can't Find Me", 2010).
A few years later, she appeared in the series Endeavour (the prequel to the Inspector Morse series), in the episode "Rocket" (2013).
-- Jenny Seagrove's Personal Life
Seagrove is an animal rights activist and an advocate for deregulation of the herbal remedy industry in the United Kingdom, and promotes a vegetarian diet.
Since 1994, her partner has been the theatrical producer Bill Kenwright, chairman of Everton F.C. The couple appeared together as contestants on a charity edition of ITV1's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, winning £1,000. They also appeared together on a celebrity edition of the BBC's Pointless which aired on 3 January 2014.
Seagrove was previously married to British and Indian actor Madhav Sharma from 1984 to 1988, and then dated film director Michael Winner from 1989 until 1993.
-- Mane Chance Sanctuary
Mane Chance Sanctuary is a registered charity that provides care for rescued horses, based in Compton, Guildford. The charity aims:
"To provide sanctuary and relief from suffering
for horses, while promoting humane behaviour
to all animals and mutually beneficial relationships
with people who need them".
Mane Chance Sanctuary was established in 2011 by Seagrove, who stepped in to support a friend facing financial difficulties. Seagrove was able to secure land on Monkshatch Garden Farm, and has since grown the charity which today cares for over 30 horses using a unique system of equine welfare.
The charity's trustees include the actor Sir Timothy Ackroyd and the philanthropist Simrin Choudhrie. The chairman is James McCarthy.
In 2014, she performed a duet alongside singer Peter Howarth called The Main Chance, as part of a promotion for the Mane Chance Sanctuary.
Lonnie Donegan
Also on that day, the Number One chart hit record in the UK was 'Gambling Man' by Lonnie Donegan.
Lonnie Donegan
Also on that day, the Number One chart hit record in the UK was 'Gambling Man' by Lonnie Donegan.
Anthony James Donegan MBE, who was born in Bridgeton, Glasgow, on the 29th. April 1931, was known as Lonnie Donegan. He was a British skiffle singer, songwriter and musician, referred to as the "King of Skiffle", who influenced 1960's British pop and rock musicians.
Born in Scotland and brought up in England, Donegan began his career in the British trad jazz revival, but transitioned to skiffle in the mid-1950's, rising to prominence with a hit recording of the American folk song "Rock Island Line" which helped spur the broader UK skiffle movement.
Donegan had 31 UK top 30 hit singles, 24 were successive hits and three were number one. He was the first British male singer with two US top 10 hits.
Donegan received an Ivor Novello lifetime achievement award in 1995, and in 2000 he was awarded an MBE. Donegan was a pivotal figure in the British Invasion due to his influence in the US in the late 1950's.
-- Lonnie Donegan and Traditional Jazz
As a child growing up in the early 1940's, Donegan listened mostly to swing jazz and vocal acts, and became interested in the guitar.
Country & western and blues records, particularly by Frank Crumit and Josh White, attracted his interest, and he bought his first guitar at 14 in 1945.
He learned songs such as "Frankie and Johnny", "Puttin' on the Style", and "The House of the Rising Sun" by listening to BBC radio broadcasts. By the end of the 1940's he was playing guitar around London and visiting small jazz clubs.
Donegan first played in a major band after Chris Barber heard that he was a good banjo player and, on a train, asked him to audition. Donegan had never played the banjo, but he bought one for the audition, and succeeded more on personality than talent.
Lonnie's stint with Barber's trad jazz band was interrupted when he was called up for National Service in 1949, but while in the army at Southampton, he was the drummer in Ken Grinyer's Wolverines Jazz Band at a local pub.
A posting to Vienna brought him into contact with American troops, and access to US records and the American Forces Network radio station.
In 1952, he formed the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which played around London. On the 28th. June 1952 at the Royal Festival Hall they opened for the blues musician Lonnie Johnson.
Donegan adopted Lonnie's first name as a tribute. He used the name at a concert at the Royal Albert Hall on the 2nd. June 1952.
In 1953, after cornetist Ken Colyer was imprisoned in New Orleans over a visa problem, he returned to Great Britain and joined Chris Barber's band. The band's name was changed to Ken Colyer's Jazzmen before making their first public appearance on the 11th. April 1953 in Copenhagen.
The following day, Chris Albertson recorded Ken Colyer's Jazzmen and the Monty Sunshine Trio—Sunshine, Barber, and Donegan—for Storyville Records. These were amongst Donegan's first commercial recordings.
-- Lonnie Donegan and Skiffle
While in Ken Colyer's Jazzmen with Chris Barber, Donegan sang and played guitar and banjo in their Dixieland set.
He began playing with two other band members during the intervals, to provide what posters called a "skiffle" break, a name suggested by Ken Colyer's brother, Bill, after the Dan Burley Skiffle Group of the 1930's. In 1954 Colyer left, and the band became Chris Barber's Jazz Band.
With a washboard, tea-chest bass, and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan played folk and blues songs by artists such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie.
This proved popular, and in July 1954 he recorded a fast version of Lead Belly's "Rock Island Line", featuring a washboard but not a tea-chest bass, with "John Henry" on the B-side.
The record was a hit in 1956, but because it was a band recording, Donegan made no money beyond his session fee. It was the first debut record to go gold in the UK, and it reached the Top Ten in the United States. It also later inspired the creation of a full album, An Englishman Sings American Folk Songs, released in America on the Mercury label in the early 1960's.
The Acoustic Music organisation made this comment about Donegan's "Rock Island Line":
"It flew up the English charts. Donegan had
synthesized American southern blues with simple
acoustic instruments: acoustic guitar, washtub bass,
and washboard rhythm. The new style was called
'Skiffle'.... and referred to music from people with
little money for instruments. The new style captivated
an entire generation of post-war youth in England."
Lonnie's next single for Decca, "Diggin' My Potatoes", was recorded at a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on the 30th. October 1954.
Decca dropped Donegan thereafter, but within a month he was at the Abbey Road Studios in London recording for EMI's Columbia label. He had left the Barber band, and by the spring of 1955, had signed a recording contract with Pye.
Lonnie's next single "Lost John" reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart.
He appeared on television in the United States on the Perry Como Show and the Paul Winchell Show.
Returning to the UK, he recorded his debut album, Lonnie Donegan Showcase, in summer 1956, with songs by Lead Belly and Leroy Carr, plus "Ramblin' Man" and "Wabash Cannonball". The LP sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
The skiffle style encouraged amateurs, and one of many groups that followed was the Quarrymen, formed in March 1957 by John Lennon. Donegan's "Gamblin' Man"/"Puttin' On the Style" single was number one in the UK in July 1957, when Lennon first met Paul McCartney.
Lonnie's Skiffle rendition of Hank Snow's Country song "Nobody's Child" was also the inspiration for Tony Sheridan's blues version which he recorded with the Beatles as his backing band.
Donegan went on to successes such as "Cumberland Gap" and "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour on the Bedpost Overnight?", which was his biggest hit in the US.
Lonnie turned to music hall style with "My Old Man's a Dustman" in 1960. This was not well received by skiffle fans, and unsuccessful in America, but it reached number one in the UK.
Donegan's group had a flexible line-up, but was generally Denny Wright or Les Bennetts playing lead guitar and singing harmony, Micky Ashman or Pete Huggett—later Steve Jones—on upright bass, Nick Nichols—later Pete Appleby, Mark Goodwin, and Ken Rodway on drums or percussion, and Donegan playing acoustic guitar or banjo and singing the lead.
His last hit single on the UK chart was his cover version of "Pick a Bale of Cotton." Ironically, or perhaps appropriately, his fall from the chart coincided with the rise of The Beatles and the other beat music performers whom he inspired.
-- Lonnie Donegan's Later Career
Donegan recorded sporadically throughout the 1960's, including sessions at Hickory Records in Nashville with Charlie McCoy, Floyd Cramer, and the Jordanaires. After 1964 he was a record producer at Pye Records. Justin Hayward was one of the artists with whom he worked.
Donegan was not popular through the late 1960's and 1970's (although his "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" was recorded by Tom Jones in 1967 and Elvis Presley in 1976), and he began to play the American cabaret circuit.
A departure from his normal style was a cappella recording of "The Party's Over". Capella means a purely vocal recording with no musical backing.
Donegan reunited with the original Chris Barber band for a concert in Croydon in June 1975. A bomb scare meant that the recording had to be finished in the studio, after an impromptu concert in the car park. The release was titled The Great Re-Union Album.
He collaborated with Rory Gallagher on several songs, notably "Rock Island Line" with Gallagher performing most of the elaborate guitar work.
Lonnie had his first heart attack in 1976 while in the United States, necessitating quadruple bypass surgery. He returned to prominence in 1978 when he recorded his early songs with Rory Gallagher, Ringo Starr, Elton John, and Brian May. The album was called Putting on the Style.
A follow-up featuring Albert Lee saw Donegan in less familiar country and western vein.
By 1980, he was making regular concert appearances again, and another album with Barber followed. In 1983, Donegan toured with Billie Jo Spears, and in 1984 he made his theatrical debut in a revival of the 1920 musical Mr Cinders.
More concert tours followed, with a move from Florida to Spain. In 1992 Lonnie had further bypass surgery following another heart attack.
In 1994, the Chris Barber band celebrated 40 years with a tour with both bands. Pat Halcox was still on trumpet (a position he retained until July 2008).
Donegan had a late renaissance when in 2000 he appeared on Van Morrison's album The Skiffle Sessions – Live in Belfast 1998, an acclaimed album featuring him singing with Morrison and Chris Barber, with a guest appearance by Dr John.
Donegan also played at the Glastonbury Festival in 1999, and was made an MBE in 2000.
Donegan also appeared at Fairport Convention's annual music festival on the 9th. August 2001. His final CD was This Yere de Story.
-- Peter Donegan
Peter Donegan started touring as his father's pianist when he was aged 18. In 2019, Peter appeared on the show The Voice as a contestant, and dueted with Tom Jones with a song Lonnie had written for Tom, "I'll Never Fall in Love Again". Anthony Donegan also performs under the name, Lonnie Donegan Jr.
-- Lonnie Donegan's Private Life and Death
Donegan was the son of an Irish mother (Mary Josephine Deighan) and a Scots father (Peter John Donegan), a professional violinist who had played with the Scottish National Orchestra.
In 1933, when Donegan was aged 2, the family moved to East Ham in Essex. Donegan was evacuated to Cheshire to escape the Blitz in the Second World War, and attended St. Ambrose College in Hale Barns. He lived for a while on Chiswick Mall in Middlesex.
Donegan married three times. He had two daughters (Fiona and Corrina) with his first wife, Maureen Tyler (divorced 1962), a son and a daughter (Anthony and Juanita) with his second wife, Jill Westlake (divorced 1971), and three sons (Peter, David and Andrew) with his third wife, Sharon whom he married in 1977.
Lonnie Donegan died on the 3rd. November 2002, aged 71, after having a heart attack in Market Deeping, Lincolnshire mid-way through a UK tour. He died before he was due to perform at a memorial concert for George Harrison with the Rolling Stones.
-- The Legacy of Lonnie Donegan
Mark Knopfler released a tribute to Lonnie Donegan titled "Donegan's Gone" on his 2004 album, Shangri-La, and said that Lonnie was one of his greatest influences.
Donegan's music formed a musical starring his two sons. It was called Lonnie D – the musical took its name from the Chas & Dave tribute song which started the show.
Subsequently, Peter Donegan formed a band to perform his father's material, and has since linked with his father's band from the last 30 years with newcomer Eddie Masters on bass.
They made an album together in 2009 titled Here We Go Again. Lonnie Donegan's eldest son, Anthony, also formed his own band, as Lonnie Donegan Junior, who also performed "World Cup Willie" for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
On his album A Beach Full of Shells, Al Stewart paid tribute to Donegan in the song "Katherine of Oregon". In "Class of '58" he describes a British entertainer who is either Donegan or a composite including him.
In a 2023 video interview with Steve Houk, Al Stewart stated:
"'Rock Island Line' is a record that completely
changed the complexion of English society,
and changed my life and everybody else's".
Peter Sellers recorded Puttin' on the Smile featuring "Lenny Goonagain", who travels to the "Deep South" of Brighton and finds an "obscure folk song hidden at the top of the American hit parade", re-records it and reaches number one in the UK.
David Letterman pretended to try to remember Jimmy Fallon's name during the Tonight Show conflict between Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien, calling Fallon "Lonnie Donegan."
In the 2019 movie Judy, the actor John Dagleish portrays Lonnie Donegan, who replaces an ill Judy Garland. He is shown in the (entirely fictional) final scene generously allowing her to make one last appearance on stage.
-- Quotations Relating to Lonnie Donegan
"He was the first person we had heard of from
Britain to get to the coveted No. 1 in the charts,
and we studied his records avidly. We all bought
guitars to be in a skiffle group. He was the man."
– Paul McCartney
"He really was at the very cornerstone of English
blues and rock."
– Brian May.
"I wanted to be Elvis Presley when I grew up,
I knew that. But the man who really made me
feel like I could actually go out and do it was
a chap by the name of Lonnie Donegan."
– Roger Daltrey
"Remember, Lonnie Donegan started it
for you."
– Jack White's acceptance speech at
the Brit Awards.
-- Final Thoughts From Lonnie Donegan
"I'm trying to sing acceptable folk music. I want to
widen the audience beyond the artsy-craftsy crowd
and the pseudo intellectuals–but without distorting
the music itself." NME – June 1956
"You know in my little span of life I've come across
such a sea of bigotries and prejudices. I get so fed
up with it now. I feel I have to do something about it."
- BBC Panorama
"In Britain, we were separated from our folk music
tradition centuries ago, and were imbued with the
idea that music was for the upper classes. You had
to be very clever to play music. When I came along
with the old three chords, people began to think
that if I could do it, so could they. It was the
reintroduction of the folk music bridge which did
that." – Interview, 2002.
Vishnu (/ˈvɪʃnuː/; Sanskrit: Viṣṇu) is a popular Hindu deity, the Supreme God of Vaishnavism (one of the three principal denominations of Hinduism) and one of the three supreme deities (Trimurti) of Hinduism. He is also known as Lord Narayana and Lord Hari. As one of the five primary forms of God in the Smarta tradition, He is conceived as "the Preserver or the Protector" within the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the divinity.
In Hindu sacred texts, Vishnu is usually described as having dark complexion of water-filled clouds and as having four arms. He is depicted as a blue being, holding a padma (lotus flower) in the lower left hand, the Kaumodaki gada (mace) in the lower right hand, the Panchajanya shankha (conch) in the upper left hand and the discus weapon Sudarshana Chakra in the upper right hand.
Adherents of Hinduism believe Vishnu's eternal and supreme abode beyond the material universe is called Vaikuntha, which is also known as Paramdhama, the realm of eternal bliss and happiness and the final or highest place for liberated souls who have attained Moksha. Vaikuntha is situated beyond the material universe and hence, cannot be perceived or measured by material science or logic. Vishnu's other abode within the material universe is Ksheera Sagara (the ocean of milk), where he reclines and rests on Ananta Shesha, (the king of the serpent deities, commonly shown with a thousand heads). In almost all Hindu denominations, Vishnu is either worshipped directly or in the form of his ten avatars, the most famous of whom are Rama and Krishna.
The Puranabharati, an ancient text, describes these as the dashavatara, or the ten avatars of Vishnu. Among the ten described, nine have occurred in the past and one will take place in the future as Lord Kalki, at the end of Kali Yuga, (the fourth and final stage in the cycle of yugas that the world goes through). These incarnations take place in all Yugas in cosmic scales; the avatars and their stories show that gods are indeed unimaginable, unthinkable and inconceivable. The Bhagavad Gita mentions their purpose as being to rejuvenate Dharma, to vanquish those negative forces of evil that threaten dharma, and also to display His divine nature in front of all souls.
The Trimurti (three forms) is a concept in Hinduism "in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified by the forms of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the maintainer, preserver or protector and Shiva the destroyer or transformer." These three deities have also been called "the Hindu triad" or the "Great Trinity", all having the same meaning of three in One. They are the different forms or manifestation of One person the Supreme Being or Narayana/Svayam Bhagavan.
Vishnu is also venerated as Mukunda, which means God who is the giver of mukti or moksha (liberation from the cycle of rebirths) to his devotees or the worthy ones who deserve salvation from the material world.
ETYMOLOGY
The traditional explanation of the name Vishnu involves the root viś, meaning "to settle" (cognate with Latin vicus, English -wich "village," Slavic: vas -ves), or also (in the Rigveda) "to enter into, to pervade," glossing the name as "the All-Pervading One". Yaska, an early commentator on the Vedas, in his Nirukta, (etymological interpretation), defines Vishnu as viṣṇur viṣvater vā vyaśnoter vā, "one who enters everywhere". He also writes, atha yad viṣito bhavati tad viṣnurbhavati, "that which is free from fetters and bondages is Vishnu".
Adi Shankara in his commentary on the Sahasranama states derivation from viś, with a meaning "presence everywhere" ("As he pervades everything, vevesti, he is called Vishnu"). Adi Shankara states (regarding Vishnu Purana, 3.1.45): "The Power of the Supreme Being has entered within the universe. The root viś means 'enter into'." Swami Chinmayananda, in his translation of Vishnu Sahasranama further elaborates on that verse: "The root vis means to enter. The entire world of things and beings is pervaded by Him and the Upanishad emphatically insists in its mantra 'whatever that is there is the world of change.' Hence, it means that He is not limited by space, time or substance. Chinmayananda states that, that which pervades everything is Vishnu."
SACRET TEXTS - SHRUTI & SMRITI
Shruti is considered to be solely of divine origin. It is preserved as a whole, instead of verse by verse. It includes the four Vedas (Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda) the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas and the Upanishads with commentaries on them.
Smṛti refers to all the knowledge derived and inculcated after Shruti had been received. Smrti is not 'divine' in origin, but was 'remembered' by later Rishis (sages by insight, who were the scribes) by transcendental means and passed down through their followers. It includes the Bhagavata Purana and the Vishnu Purana which are Sattva Puranas. These both declare Vishnu as Para Brahman Supreme Lord who creates unlimited universes and enters each one of them as Lord of Universe.
SHRUTI
VAISHNAVA CANON
The Vaishnava canon presents Vishnu as the supreme being, rather than another name for the Sun God, who also bore the name Suryanarayana and is considered only as a form of Vishnu.
VEDAS
In the Yajur Veda, Taittiriya Aranyaka (10-13-1), Narayana suktam, Lord Narayana is mentioned as the supreme being. The first verse of Narayana Suktam mentions the words "paramam padam", which literally mean "highest post" and may be understood as the "supreme abode for all souls". This is also known as Param Dhama, Paramapadam, or Vaikuntha. Rig Veda 1:22:20a also mentions the same "paramam padam". This special status is not given to any deity in the Vedas apart from Lord Vishnu/Narayana.[citation needed] Narayana is one of the thousand names of Vishnu as mentioned in the Vishnu Sahasranama. It describes Vishnu as the All-Pervading essence of all beings, the master of - and beyond - the past, present and future, one who supports, sustains and governs the Universe and originates and develops all elements within. This illustrates the omnipresent characteristic of Vishnu. Vishnu governs the aspect of preservation and sustenance of the universe, so he is called "Preserver of the universe".
Vishnu is the Supreme God who takes manifest forms or avatars across various ages or periods to save humanity from evil beings, demons or Asuras. According to the extant Hindu texts and traditions, Lord Vishnu is considered to be resident in the direction of the "Makara Rashi" (the "Shravana Nakshatra"), which is about coincident with the Capricorn constellation. In some of the extant Puranas, and Vaishnava traditions, Vishnu's eye is considered to be situated at the infinitely distant Southern Celestial Pole.
Following the defeat of Indra and his displacement as the Lord of Heaven or Swarga, Indra asks Lord Vishnu for help and thus Lord Vishnu takes his incarnations or avatars to Earth to save mankind, thus showing his position as Supreme God to all of creation.
In the Puranas, Indra frequently appears proud and haughty. These bad qualities are temporarily removed when Brahma and/or Shiva give boons to Asuras or Rakshasas such as Hiranyaksha, Hiranyakashipu and Ravana, who are then able to defeat Indra in wars between Devas and Asuras. The received boons often made Asuras virtually indestructible.
Indra has no option but to seek help from Vishnu. Indra prays before Vishnu for protection and the Supreme Lord obliges him by taking avatars and generating himself on Earth in various forms, first as a water-dweller (Matsya, fish), then as an amphibious creature (Kurma avatar or Tortoise), then as a half-man-half-animal (Varaha the pig-faced, human-bodied Lord, and Narasimha the Lord with lion's face and claws and a human body). Later, Vishnu appears as human beings (Vamana the short-heighted person), Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha and finally as Kalki for performing his task of protecting his devotees from demons and anti-religious entities.
Vishnu's supremacy is attested by his victories over those very powerful entities. It is further attested by the accepted iconography and sculptures of Vishnu in reclining position as producing Brahma emerging from his navel. Brahma the creator is thus created in turn by Vishnu out of his own person. Instead Vishnu takes various avatars to slay or defeat those demons. But it is to be noted that Vishnu also provided boons to Akupresura, a bear faced demon who was destroyed by Lord Shiva.
Vishnu's actions lowered Indra's ranking among Hindu deities and led to the ascendancy of Vishnu.
Few temples are dedicated to the Sun or Suryanarayana, nor indeed Indra, nor does Indra figure largely in the Hindu religion.
Indra is almost completely absent from the deities considered as the chief or most important deity.
RIGVEDA
In the Rigveda, Vishnu is mentioned 93 times. He is frequently invoked alongside other deities, especially Indra, whom he helps in killing Vritra and with whom he drinks Soma. His distinguishing characteristic in the Vedas is his association with light. Two Rigvedic hymns in Mandala 7 are dedicated to Vishnu. In 7.99, Vishnu is addressed as the god who separates heaven and earth, a characteristic he shares with Indra.
The Rig Veda describes Vishnu as younger brother to Indra as Vamana. In Vaishnava canon the 'Vishnu' who is younger brother to Indra is identified as Vamana, Avatar of Vishnu, hence referred to as Vishnu by Vaishnavites. Vishnu is the Supreme God who lives in the highest celestial region, contrasted against those who live in the atmospheric or terrestrial regions. Vishnu is content with mere prayer, unlike almost all of the other gods who receive sacrificial offerings such as Havis, which is given using clarified butter, or Soma. Later foreign translators have view that Vedas place Indra in a superior position to Vishnu's Avatar of Vamana but in fact Vamana helps Indra by restoring his Kingdom.
An alternate translation is provided by Wilson according to Sayana:
When Thy (younger brother) Viṣṇu (Vamana) by (his) strength stepped his three paces, then verily thy beloved horses bore thee. (Rigveda 8:12:27)
Wilson mentions Griffith's possible translation as a footnote. However the following verse from Rigveda renders the above translation by Wilson more probable.
Him whose three places that are filled with sweetness, imperishable, joy as it may list them, Who verily alone upholds the threefold, the earth, the heaven, and all living creatures. (Rig veda 1:154:4)
Wilson offers an alternate translation for Rigveda 10:113:2:
Viṣṇu offering the portion of Soma, glorifies by his own vigor that greatness of his. Indra, the lord of heaven, with the associated gods having slain Vritra, became deserving of honour. (Rigveda 10:113:2)
This verse sees Vishnu as one who is glorified by his own strength, while Indra became deserving of honor after having slain Vritra only in association with other gods.
However Vishnu's praise for other gods does not imply worship. Wilson translates:
Viṣṇu, the mighty giver of dwellings praises thee, and Mitra and Varuna; the company of Maruts imitates thee in exhilaration. (Rigveda 8:15:9) (page 280)
The following verses show categorically Vishnu as distinguished from other gods in Rigveda.
He who presents (offering) to Viṣṇu, the ancient, the creator, the recent, the self-born; he who celebrates the great birth of that mighty one; he verily possessed of abundance, attains (the station) that is to be sought (by all). (Rigveda 1:156:2) (page 98)
No being that is or that has been born, divine Viṣṇu, has attained the utmost limit of thy magnitude, by which thou hast upheld the vast and beautiful heaven, and sustained the eastern horizon of Earth.(Rigveda 7:99:2) (page 196)
The divine Viṣṇu, the best of the doers of good deeds, who came to the pious instituter of rite (Indra), to assist (at its celebration), knowing (the desires of the worshiper), and present at the three connected period (of worship), shows favor to the Arya, and admits the author of the ceremony to a share of the sacrifice. (Rigveda 1:156:5) (page 99)
Jan Gonda, the late Indologist, states that Vishnu, although remaining in the background of Indra's exploits, contributes by his presence, or is key to Indra's success. Vishnu is more than a mere companion, equal in rank or power to Indra, or sometime the one who made Indra's success possible.
Descriptions of Vishnu as younger to Indra are found in only the hymns to Indra, but in a kathenotheism religion like that of the Rigveda, each god, for a time, is supreme in the mind of the devotee.
In the Rig Vedic texts, the deity or god referred to as Vishnu is the Sun God, who also bears the name 'Suryanarayana'. By contrast, the 'Vishnu' referred to in 'Vishnu Purana', 'Vishnu Sahasranamam' and 'Purusha Sooktham' is Lord Narayana, the Consort of Lakshmi. Vaishnavites make a further distinction by extolling the qualities of Vishnu by highlighting his differences from other deities such as Shiva,[citation needed] Brahma or Surya.
THREE STEPS
Hymn 7.100 refers to the celebrated 'three steps' of Vishnu (as Trivikrama) by which he strode over the universe and in three places planted his step. The 'Vishnu Suktam' (RV 1.154) says that the first and second of Vishnu's strides (those encompassing the earth and air) are visible to men and the third is in the heights of heaven (sky). This last place is described as Vishnu's supreme abode in RV 1.22.20:
The princes evermore behold / that loftiest place where Vishnu is / Laid as it were an eye in heaven.(trans. Griffith)
Griffith's "princes" are the sūri, either "inciters" or lords of a sacrifice, or priests charged with pressing the Soma. The verse is quoted as expressing Vishnu's supremacy by Vaishnavites.
Though such solar aspects have been associated with Vishnu by tradition as well as modern-scholarship, he was not just the representation of the sun, as he moves both vertically and horizontally.
In hymns 1.22.17, 1.154.3, 1.154.4 he strides across the earth with three steps, in 6.49.13, 7.100.3 strides across the earth three times and in 1.154.1, 1.155.5,7.29.7 he strides vertically, with the final step in the heavens. The same Veda also says he strode wide and created space in the cosmos for Indra to fight Vritra. By his stride he made dwelling for men possible, the three forming a symbolic representation of the dwelling's all-encompassing nature. This nature and benevolence to men were Vishnu's enduring attributes. As the triple-strider he is known as Trivikrama and as Urukrama, for the strides were wide.
BRAHMANAS
The Brahmanas are commentaries on the Vedas and form part of the Shruti literature. They are concerned with the detail of the proper performance of rituals. In the Rigveda, Shakala Shakha: Aitareya Brahmana Verse 1 declares: agnir vai devānām ava mo viṣṇuḥ paramus, tadantareṇa sarvā anyā devatā - Agni is the lowest or youngest god and Vishnu is the greatest and the highest God.
The Brahmanas assert the supremacy of Lord Vishnu, addressing him as "Gajapati", the one whom all sacrifices are meant to please. Lord Vishnu accepts all sacrifices to the demigods and allots the respective fruits to the performer In one incident, a demonic person performs a sacrifice by abducting the Rishis (sages), who meditate by constantly chanting God's name. The sacrifice is meant to destroy Indra. But the rishis, who worship Indra as a demigod, alter one pronunciation of the Veda Mantra, reversing the purpose of the sacrifice. When the fruit of the sacrifice is given and the demon is on the verge of dying, he calls to Vishnu, whom he addresses as Supreme Godhead and "the father of all living entities including himself".
Aitareya Brahmana 1:1:1 mentions Vishnu as the Supreme God. But in the Vaishnava canon, in different ages, with Vishnu in different avatars, his relationship with the asuras or demons, was always adversarial. The asuras always caused harm, while the sages and devas or celestial beings, did penance and called to Vishnu for protection. Vishnu always obliged by taking an avatar to vanquish the asuras. In the Vaishnava canon, Vishnu never gave or granted any boons to the asuras, distinguishing him from the gods Shiva and Brahma, who did. He is the only God called upon to save good beings by defeating or killing the asuras.
Sayana writes that in Aitareya Brahmana 1:1:1 the declaration agnir vai devānām ava mo viṣṇuḥ paramus,tadantareṇa sarvā anyā devatā does not indicate any hierarchy among gods. Even in Rigveda Samhita, avama and parama are not applied to denote rank and dignity, but only to mark place and locality.
In Rigveda 1:108:9,: yadindrāghnī avamasyāṃ pṛthivyāṃ madhyamasyāṃ paramasyāmuta sthaḥ | i.e., in the lowest place, the middle (place), and the highest (place). Agni, the fire, has, among the gods, the lowest place; for he resides with man on the earth; while the other gods are either in the air, or in the sky. Vishnu occupies the highest place. The words avama and parama are understood as 'First' and 'Last' respectively. To support this claim, Sayana adduces the mantra (1,4. As'val. Sr. S. 4, 2), agnir mukham prathamo devathanam samathanam uttamo vishnur asit, i.e., Agni was the first of the deities assembled, (and) Vishnu the last.
In the Kausitaki Brahmana (7.1) Agni is called Aaradhya (instead of avama), and Visnu parardha(instead of parama),i.e., belonging to the lower and higher halves (or forming the lower and higher halves). The Vishnu Purana gives tremendous importance to the worship of Vishnu and mentions that sacrifices are to begin only with both the lighting of fire or 'Agni', pouring of sacrificial offerings to Vishnu in 'Agni' so that those offerings reach and are accepted by Vishnu. Worship of Vishnu through Yajnas (or Homams) and other rituals, will not achieve the desired result if Agni's role is neglected.
Muller says "Although the gods are sometimes distinctly invoked as the great and the small, the young and the old (Rig veda 1:27:13), this is only an attempt to find the most comprehensive expression for the divine powers, and nowhere is any of the gods represented as the subordinate to others. It would be easy to find, in the numerous hymns of the Veda, passages in which almost every single god is represented as supreme and absolute."
However this notion is not completely correct as per the following verses, which shows Rigveda describe one or more gods as subject to other god(s).
Him whose high law not Varuna nor Indra, not Mitra, Aryaman, nor Rudra breaketh, Nor evil-hearted fiends, here for my welfare him I invoke, God Savitar, with worship. (Rigveda 2.038.09)
I invite to this place, with reverential salutations, for my good, that divine Savita, whose functions neither Indra, nor Varun.a, nor Mitra nor Aryaman nor Rudra nor the enemies (of the gods), impede. (Rigveda 2.038.09)
SMRITI
VISHNU SMRITI
The Vishnu Smṛti, is one of the later books of the Dharmashastra tradition of Hinduism and the only one that focuses on the bhakti tradition and the required daily puja to Vishnu, rather than the means of knowing dharma. It is also known for its handling of the controversial subject of the practice of sati (self-immolation of a widow on her husband's funeral pyre). The text was composed by an individual or group. The author(s) created a collection of the commonly known legal maxims that were attributed to Vishnu into one book, as Indian oral culture began to be recorded more formally.
BHAGAVATA PURANA
Vishnu is the only Bhagavan as declared in the Bhagavata 1:2:11 in the verse: vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam yaj jnanam advayam brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti sabdyate, translated as "Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this non-dual substance as Brahman, Paramātma and Bhagavan."
VISHNU PURANA
In the Vishnu Purana (6:5:79) the personality named Parashara Rishi defines six bhagas:
aiśvaryasya samagrasya vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ
jñāna-vairāgyayoś caiva ṣannāḥ bhaga itīṇganā
Jiva Gosvami explains the verse in Gopala Champu (Pūrva 15:73) and Bhagavata Sandarbha 46:10:
jñāna-śakti-balaiśvarya-vīrya-tejām.sy aśeṣataḥ
bhagavac-chabda-vācyāni vinā heyair guṇādibhiḥ
"The substantives of the word bhagavat (bhagavat-śabda-vācyāni) are unlimited (aśeṣataḥ) knowledge (jñāna), energies (śakti), strength (bala), opulence (aiśvarya), heroism (vīrya), splendor (tejas), without (vinā) objectionable (heyair) qualities (guṇādibhiḥ)."
SANGAM LITERATURE
Tamil Sangam literature (300BCE to 500CE) mentions mAyOn, or the dark one, as the supreme deity who creates, sustains and destroys the universe. Paripadal 3 describes the glory of Thirumal in the most superlative terms.
Paripadal by kaduvan iLaveyinanAr:
"thIyinuL theRal nI poovinuL naaRRa nI kallinuL maNiyu nI sollinuL vaaymai aRaththinuL anbu nI maRaththinuL mainthu nI vEthaththu maRai nI boothaththu madhalu nI vencudar oLiyu nI thingaLuL aLiyu nI anaiththu nI anaiththinut poruLu nI"
The last line states that Lord Vishnu is the supreme deity who is the inner controller (Antaryamin) of the entire universe. This is one of the Lord's glories, which is first mentioned in Vedas and later propounded by Alwars in Prabhandams and Sri Vaishnavaite Acharyas in various commentaries
The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple and Vishnu, Lakshmi is mentioned in Tamil works of literature of the Sangam era, including the epic Silapadikaram (book 11, lines 35–40):
āyiram viritteḻu talaiyuṭai aruntiṟaṟ
pāyaṟ paḷḷip palartoḻu tētta viritiraik kāviri viyaṉperu turuttit tiruvamar mārpaṉ kiṭanta vaṇṇamum
On a magnificent cot having a thousand heads spread out, worshipped and praised by many, in an islet surrounded by Kaveri with bellowing waves, is the lying posture of the one who has Lakshmi sitting in his chest.
THEOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES
The actual number of Vishnu's auspicious qualities is countless, although his six most-important "divine glories" are:
Jnana (Omniscience); defined as the power to know about all beings simultaneously;
Aishvarya (Sovereignty), derived from the word Ishvara which means unchallenged rule over all;
Shakti (Power or Energy), the capacity to make the impossible possible;
Bala (Strength), the capacity to support everything by will and without any fatigue;
Virya (Vigour), the power to retain immateriality as the Supreme Spirit or Being in spite of being the material cause of mutable creations;
Tejas (Splendor), which expresses self-sufficiency and the capacity to overpower everything by spiritual effulgence.
Other important qualities attributed to Vishnu are Gambhirya (inestimatable grandeur), Audarya (generosity), and Karunya (compassion). Natya Shastra lists Vishnu as the presiding deity of the Sṛngara rasa.
The Rigveda says: Vishnu can travel in three strides. The first stride is the Earth. The second stride is the visible sky. The third stride cannot be seen by men and is the heaven where the gods and the righteous dead live. (This feature of three strides also appears in the story of his avatar Vamana/Trivikrama.) The Sanskrit for "to stride" is the root kram; its reduplicated perfect is chakram (guņa grade) or chakra (zero-grade), and in the Rigveda he is called by epithets such as vi-chakra-māņas = "he who has made 3 strides". The Sanskrit word chakra also means "wheel". That may have suggested the idea of Vishnu carrying a chakra.
FIVE FORMS
In Shree Vaishnavism, another school dating from around the 10th century AD, Vishnu assumes five forms:
In the Para Form, Para is the highest form of Vishnu found only in Sri Vaikunta also called Moksha, along with his consort Lakshmi, (and Bhumi Devi and Nila devi, avatars of Lakshmi) and surrounded by liberated souls like Ananta, Garuda, and a host of Muktas (liberated souls).
In the Vyuha form, Vishnu assumes four forms, which exercise different cosmic functions and controls activities of living beings.
In the Vibhava form, Vishnu assumes various manifestations, called Vibhavas, more popularly known as Avataras from time to time, to protect the virtuous, punish evil-doers and re-establish righteousness.
In the Antaryami; "Dwelling within" or "Suksma Vasudeva" form, Vishnu exists within the souls of all living beings and in every substance.
In the Arcavatara or Image manifestation, Vishnu is visible and therefore easily approachable by devotees since Para, Vyuha, Vibhava and Antaryami forms can only be imagined or meditated upon because they are beyond our reach. Such images can be
Revealed by Vishnu, for example, a self-manifested (Swayambhu) icon (murti), e.g. The Mahavishnu Temple at Tirunelli, The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam, The Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple, etc.; or
Installed by Devas or celestial beings such as such as Guruvayur Temple installed by Vayu; or
Installed by humans, and consecrated according to Vaishnava Agama shastras or scriptures such as Lord Jagannatha of Jagannath Temple (Puri) at Puri.
RELATIONS WITH OTHER DEITIES
SHIVA
The three gods of the Trimurti clan are inseparable and in harmony in view of their common vision and universal good. They are perfectly ideal in all respects.
Both Asuras and Devas played supportive roles in this story by keeping company with Vishnu in his incarnated forms. Hanuman is a vanara who is completely dedicated to Rama. He gives Vishnu company and obeys his command, while playing an important part in Rama's life. He is regarded in Vaishnava canon because it is through blessings that Hanuman is born. Thus, Hanuman, Vishnu's constant companion, with his idol appearing temples of Rama, Krishna and Narasimha, i.e. all of Vishnu's avatars, is considered by Vaishnavas.
Syncretic forces produced stories in which the two deities were shown in cooperative relationships and combined forms. Harihara is the name of a combined deity form of both Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva (Hara). This dual form, which is also called Harirudra, is mentioned in the Mahabharata.
LAKSHMI
Vishnu's consort is Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth (also known as Maya). The Samvit (the primary intelligence/dark matter) of the universe is Vishnu, while the other five attributes emerge from this samvit and hence Maya or dark energy of the universe is Lakshmee is his ahamata, activity, or Vishnu's Power. This power of God, Maya or Shakti, is personified and has multiple names: Shree, Lakshmi, Maya, Vishnumaya or Mahamaya. She is said to manifest as Kriyashakti, (Creative Activity) and Bhutishakti (Creation). This world requires Vishnu's creativity. He therefore needs Lakshmi to always be with Him. Her various avatars as Lord Vishnu's consorts are Varahavatar (Bhoodevi) or Bhoomi, Ramavatar Seeta, Krishnavatar Rukmini)
SARASWATI & GANGA
According to Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Lord Vishnu had three wives Lakshmi, Saraswati and Ganga. Due to their constant quarrelsome nature among them. Once Ganga tried to be close with Vishnu, this rebuked Saraswati but Lakshmi tried to pacify them but faced a curse rather. As per the curse, Lakshmi to appear as Tulasi. Sarawati cursed Ganga to run as a river in the world and Saraswati was cursed to run as a river in the netherworld. After this, Lord Vishnu transformed and became Brahma and Shiva to pacify Saraswati and Ganga.
GARUDA
Vishnu's mount (Vahana) is Garuda, the eagle. Vishnu is commonly depicted as riding on his shoulders.
ICONOGRAPHY
According to various Puranas, Vishnu is the ultimate omnipresent reality and is shapeless and omnipresent. However, a strict iconography governs his representation, whether in pictures, icons, or idols:
He has four arms and is male: The four arms indicate his all-powerful and all-pervasive nature. His physical existence is represented by the two arms in the front, while the two arms at the back represent his presence in the spiritual world. The Upanishad Gopal Uttartapani describes the four arms.
The Shreevatsa mark is on his chest, symbolizing his consort Lakshmi.
He wears the auspicious "Kaustubha" jewel around his neck and a garland of vaijayanti flowers (Vanamala). Lakshmi dwells in this jewel, on Vishnu's chest.
A crown adorns his head: The crown symbolizes his supreme authority. This crown sometimes includes a peacock feather, borrowing from his Krishna-avatar.
He wears two earrings: The earrings represent inherent opposites in creation — knowledge and ignorance; happiness and unhappiness; pleasure and pain.
He rests on Ananta, the immortal and infinite snake.
Vishnu is always to be depicted holding four attributes:
A conch shell or Shankha, named Panchajanya, is held by the upper left hand. It represents Vishnu's power to create and maintain the universe. Panchajanya represents the five elements or Panchabhoota – water, fire, air, earth and sky or space. It also represents the five airs or Pranas that are within the body and mind. The conch symbolizes that Vishnu is the primeval Divine sound of creation and continuity. It also represented as Om. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna avatara states that of sound vibrations, 'He is Om'.
The Chakra, a sharp, spinning, discus-like weapon, named "Sudarshana", is held by the upper right hand. It symbolizes the purified spiritualized mind. The name Sudarshana is derived from two words – Su, which means good, superior, and Darshana, which means vision or sight; together. The Chakra represents destruction of ego in the awakening and realization of the soul's original nature and god, burning away spiritual ignorance and illusion, and developing higher spiritual vision and insight to realize god.
A mace or Gada, named "Kaumodaki", is held by the lower right hand. It symbolizes that Vishnu's divine power is the source of all spiritual, mental and physical strength. It also signifies Vishnu's power to destroy materialistic or demonic tendencies (Anarthas) that prevent people from reaching god. Vishnu's mace is the power of the Divine within us to spiritually purify and uplift us from our materialistic bonds.
A lotus flower or Padma is held by the lower left hand. It represents spiritual liberation, Divine perfection, purity and the unfolding of Spiritual consciousness within the individual. The lotus opening its petals in the light of the Sun is indicative of the expansion and awakening of our long dormant, original spiritual consciousness in the light of god. The lotus symbolizes that god is the power and source from which the universe and the individual soul emerges. It also represents Divine Truth or Satya, the originator of the rules of conduct or Dharma, and Divine Vedic knowledge or Jnana. The lotus also symbolizes that Vishnu is the embodiment of spiritual perfection and purity and that He is the wellspring of these qualities and that the individual soul must seek to awaken these intrinsic Divine qualities from Vishnu by surrendering to and linking with Him.
To this may be added, conventionally, the vanamaala flower garland, Vishnu's bow (Shaarnga/Kodand) and his sword Nandaka. A verse of the Vishnu Sahasranama stotram states;vanamālī gadhī shārngī shanki chakri cha nandaki / shrīmān nārāyaņo vişņo vāsudevo abhirakşatu//; translation: Protect us Oh Lord Narayana who wears the forest garland,who has the mace, conch, sword and the wheel. And who is called Vishnu and the Vasudeva.
In general, Vishnu's body is depicted in one of the following three ways:
Standing on a lotus flower, often with Lakshmi, his consort, beside him on a similar pedestal.
Reclining on the coiled-up thousand-hooded Shesha Naga, with Lakshmi seated at his feet; the assemblage rests on the "Kshira Sagar" (ocean of milk). In this representation, Brahma is depicted as sitting on a lotus that grows out of Vishnu's navel.
Riding on the back of his eagle mount, known as Garuda. Another name for Garuda is "Veda atma"; Soul of the Vedas. The flapping of his wings symbolizes the power of the Divine Truth of Vedic wisdom. Also the eagle represents the soul. Garuda carrying Vishnu symbolizes the soul or jiva atma carrying the Super soul or Param atma within it.
AVATARS
Ten avatars (dashavatara) of Vishnu are the most prominent: Apart from the most prominent incarnations there are believed to more.
The most commonly believed incarnations of Vishnu are:
Matsya, the fish that kills Damanaka to save the vedas and also saves Manu from a great flood that submerges the entire Earth.
Kurma, the turtle that helps the Devas and Asuras churn the ocean for the nectar of immortality.
Varaha, the boar that rescues the Earth and kills Hiranyaksha.
Narasimha, the half-lion half human, who defeats the demon Hiranyakashipu.
Vamana, the dwarf that grows into a giant to save the world from King Bali.
Parashurama, "Rama of the battle axe", a sage who appeared in the Treta Yuga. He killed Kartavirya Arjuna's army and clan and then killed all the kshatriyas 21 times.
Rama, the prince and king of Ayodhya who killed the Demon King Raavan.
Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu, who takes part in the Mahabharata epic. Krishna is worshipped as the Supreme Avatar of Vishnu (Supreme Personality of Godhead) in Gaudiya-Vaishnava philosophy.
Buddha, the ninth avatar of Vishnu.
Kalki, the tenth Avatar of Vishnu and said to be the harbinger of the end Kali Yuga. This avatar of Vishnu is yet to come.
Some versions of the above list include Hayagreeva among the Dashavataras while some include Buddha as ninth avatar of Vishnu. Another 22 avatars are given in Chapter 3, Canto 1 of the Bhagavata Purana, although it states that "the incarnations of the Lord are innumerable, like rivulets flowing from inexhaustible sources of water".
BEYOND HINDUISM
SIKHISM
Guru Granth Sahib of Sikhism mentions Vishnu, one verse goes:
The true Vaishnaav, the devotee of Vishnu, is the one with whom God is thoroughly pleased. He dwells apart from Maya. Performing good deeds, he does not seek rewards. Spotlessly pure is the religion of such a Vaishnaav; he has no desire for the fruits of his labors. He is absorbed in devotional worship and the singing of Kirtan, the songs of the Lords Glory. Within his mind and body, he meditates in remembrance on the Lord of the Universe. He is kind to all creatures. He holds fast to the Naam, and inspires others to chant it. O Nanak, such a Vaishnaav obtains the supreme status.
BUDDHISM
While some Hindus consider Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu, Buddhists in Sri Lanka venerate Vishnu as the custodian deity of Sri Lanka and protector of Buddhism. Lord Vishnu is also known as upulvan, or uthpala varna, meaning "Blue Lotus coloured". Some postulates that Uthpala varna was a local deity who later merged with Vishnu while another belief is that Uthpala Varna was an early form of Vishnu before he became a supreme deity in Puranic Hinduism. According to Chronicles "Mahawamsa", "Chulawamsa" and folklore in Sri Lanka, Buddha himself handed over the custodianship to Vishnu. Others believe that Buddha entrusted this task to Sakra(Indra) and Sakra delegated this task of custodianship to god Vishnu. In contrary to vedic Hinduism, in assimilation of Hindu god Vishnu into Sinhalese Buddhism, Vishnu becomes a mortal being and a Bodhisattva aspiring Buddhahood. Additionally, Vishnu is considered as the god of home and hearth representing mercy, goodness, order and stability. Many Buddhist and Hindu shrines are dedicated to Vishnu in Sri Lanka. In addition to specific Vishnu "Kovils" or "devalayas", all Buddhist temples necessarily house shrine rooms (Devalayas) closer to the main Buddhist shrine dedicated to Vishnu. John Holt in his groundbreaking study examines the assimilation, transformation, and subordination of the Hindu deity Vishnu within the contexts of Sri Lankan history and Sinhala Buddhist religious culture. He then explores the role and rationale of medieval Sinhala kings in assimilating Visnu into Sinhala Buddhism. According to Holt the veneration of Vishnu in Sri Lanka is evidence of a remarkable ability, over many centuries, to reiterate and reinvent culture as other ethnicities have been absorbed into their own. Though the Vishnu cult in Ceylon was formally endorsed by Kandyan kings in early 1700s, Holt states that vishnu images and shrines are among conspicuous ruins in the medieval capital Polonnaruwa. In Buddhist mythology, when Vishnu failed to traverse the universe in three steps, he was given the title "Ardha Vishnu (Half-Vishnu)" and when Vishnu banished demons from the Vaishali (Vishala)in India, he became "Mulu Vishnu or Whole Vishnu". The extreme significance of god Vishnu in Sinhala society is reflected in recitals of the traditional "Offerings to dwarfs and crossing the door frame (bahirwayanta dola pideem saha uluwahu peneema)" that starts with Sri Vishnu invocation.In the recitals,mentioning of the aspiring Buddhahood of Vishnu which is of prime importance to Buddhists and wishes for him to live five thousand and more years highlight the central role of Vishnu in the psyche of Sri Lankan Buddhists.
OTHERS
James Freeman Clarke, Richard Leviton, James Cowles Prichard, and others have noted the similarities between Vishnu and Ancient Egyptian God Horus.
During an excavation in an abandoned village of Russia in the Volga region, archaeologist Alexander Kozhevin excavated an ancient idol of Vishnu. The idol dates from between the 7th and 10th centuries. In the interview Kozhevin, stated that, "We may consider it incredible, but we have ground to assert that Middle-Volga region was the original land of Ancient Rus. This is a hypothesis, but a hypothesis, which requires thorough research"
THOUSAND NAMES OF VISHNU
Vishnu's many names and followers are collected in the Vishnu Sahasranama, (Vishnu's thousand names) from within the larger work Mahabharata. The character Bheeshma recites the names before Krishna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, praising him (Vishnu) as the supreme god. These Sahasranama are regarded as the essence of all Vedas by followers of Vaishnavism, who believe sincere chanting of Vishnu Sahasranama results in spiritual well-being and a greater awareness of God.
The names are generally derived from the Anantakalyanagunas (meaning: infinite auspicious attributes).
According to the Siddhartha-samhita there are twenty-four forms of Lord Vishnu. The twenty-four forms are
Vasudeva
Sankarshana
Pradyumna
Anirudha
Keshava
Narayana
Madhava
Govinda
Vishnu
Madhusudana
Trivikrama
Vamana
Sridhara
Hrishikesha
Padmanabha
Damodara
Purushottama
Achyuta
Narasimha
Janardana
Hari
Krishna
Adhokshaja
Upulvan, Uthpala Varna - In Sri Lanka, Vishnu is also referred to as Upulvan ( Blue Lotus Coloured)
WIKIPEDIA
Photo: Shortamatic
Portraits of Hope's unprecedented Los Angeles coastline public art and civic project involving more than 10,500 kids, adults and volunteers, which visually transformed all 156 Los Angeles County beach lifeguard towers on 31 miles of beach – including Malibu, Will Rogers, Santa Monica, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance, Palos Verdes, and San Pedro. www.portraitsofhope.org
Summer of Color -- A Portraits of Hope Project
Portraits of Hope's LA County Public Art and Civic Project – LA County Lifeguard Towers
Conceived and Developed by Ed Massey and Bernie Massey, Founders of Portraits of Hope
156 Los Angeles County Lifeguard Towers
31 Miles of Beach and Coastline
10,500 Children and Adults
118 Participating Schools, Hospitals, Social Service and Civic Institutions
350,000 Sq. Ft of Paintings
Youth and Program Sessions in Greater LA
Project-based learning: interdisciplinary contemporary issues and civic
education and leadership sessions for schools, grades 2 -12
Creative therapy sessions for
hospitalized children and persons with
disabilities; including cancer, orthopedic ailments, burn trauma, brain and neck injuries, visual impairments, and other serious conditions
6-month program and collaborative
phase
5-month Los Angeles County beach public art
exhibition
Close Cooperation with LA County Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Don Knabe and the LA County Department of Beaches and Harbors and LA County Lifeguards
Special thank you to Image Options, Laird Plastics and Recycling, Ford Motor Company
Benjamin Moore Paints, Skinny Cow, Verseidag Seemee US, EFI Vutek, Morley Builders, Vista Paint, The Weingart Foundation, CornerstoneOnDemand, Drumstick, Chris Bonas, Casa Del Mar, Tim Bennett, Andy Boyle, Nazdar Coatings, Adina Beverages, Robert Gore Rifkind
Foundation, Helen and Peter Bing, Loren Philip Photography, Starbucks Volunteer Services,
Subversive Nature Designs, MACtac, The Barnes Family, Hasbro Studios, Wooster Brush, The Bachelor, UCLA, Mark Benjamin, Susan Kohlmann, Tomarco Fastening & Anchoring Solutions, AAA Flag & Banner, Jenner & Block, A.V.I. Construction, The Newberg Family, Debra Ricketts, The Penske Family, The Davidow Charitable Fund. Annie Barnes, UCLA Freshmen and Transfer Students, USC-UNICEF, LMU Students
Press ReleaseOct. 16, 2009
Natural Fire 10 - Joint Public Affairs Office
Opening ceremony in Northern Uganda marks start to humanitarian exercise
KITGUM, Uganda – The partnership exercise named Natural Fire 10, a multinational military exercise involving five East African partner states - plus partners from the U.S. military - began Oct. 16 in northern Uganda.
Soldiers from Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and the United States opened the exercise with a ceremony attended by senior military officials from each country.
The 10-day exercise focuses on humanitarian and civic assistance, disaster relief and regional security.
“The main objective of the exercise is to test the ability of our partner militaries to work together and with other organizations,” said Capt. Ronald Kakurungu, a spokesman for the Ugandan People’s Defense Force, who are hosting this year’s exercise. “Being able to work together improves our capability to respond to complex humanitarian emergencies and further demonstrate EAC members can act as one when facing challenges.”
Roughly 550 U.S. personnel and 133 military personnel from each of the five partner nations are taking part. All together, there will be nearly 1,220 participants. Three training opportunities are going on simultaneously. Medical, dental and engineering projects will assist the local community and security partnership exercises near Kitgum which will increase the soldiers’ ability to work together.
Meanwhile, in Kampala and Entebbe, military leaders and senior civilian officials from participating countries will take part in a tabletop exercise – facing simulated emergencies in Africa. This type of exercise will sharpen senior and mid-level military leaders’ skills in their response to disasters, to offer humanitarian assistance and to prepare for pandemic situations.
Medical care will include direct care by a doctor or dentist, to include optometry and pharmacy services as well as dental extractions. Education classes on HIV/AIDS, nutrition and hygiene will also be provided. The care will be provided at Pajimo Health Center, Palabek Health Center, Mucwini Health Center and Kitgum Government Hospital.
Engineers will work together to make improvements at a high school, primary school and a hospital. Improvements include repairing or replacing roofs, window panes and doors, repairing walls, installing handicap ramps and placing a concrete floor. Engineer projects will be conducted at the Kitgum High School, Mucwini Primary School and Kitgum Government Hospital.
Natural Fire 10 closes with a ceremony Oct. 25, when all participants will return to their countries.
“These opportunities place the EAC people face-to-face with both U.S. and partner nations displaying compassion and interest in their well-being,” Kakurungu said.
Natural Fire was first held in Kenya in 1998, with U.S. partnership. Since, then it has been held every two years in East Africa. In 2000, it grew to include Tanzania and Uganda, as well as the U.S. and Kenya – a significant step for the EAC alliance. In 2006, Natural Fire expanded to include field training and humanitarian assistance. Since then, the exercise has grown to feature five partner states, with the addition of soldiers from Burundi.
In September 2009, these five EAC partners completed their first exercise together, Mlima Kilimanjaro 2009, in Tanzania. Following Natural Fire 10, in November, the EAC partners will jointly participate in an exercise in Djibouti.
U.S. Army Africa, (USARAF), the land component of U.S. Africa Command, is co-leading the exercise with the Ugandan military. USARAF is committed to partnering African nations to enhance mutual understanding and increase stability, security and peace on the continent. That includes are strong cooperation with the EAC members. USARAF’s role supports U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech encouraging partnership among African countries with the US.
"African prosperity can expand America’s. Africa’s health and security can contribute to the world’s....so I do not see the countries and peoples of Africa as a world apart; I see Africa as a fundamental part of our interconnected world – as partners with America on behalf of the future that we want for all our children" - U.S. President Barack Obama, Ghana, July 2009.
Cleared for public release.
CAPTION: Lt. Col. Michael Cortez, Commander, 21st Theater Sustainment Command Special Troops Battalion, braces for the down draft from a landing CH-47 Chinook, Kitgum, Uganda, Oct. 16, 2009.
Photo by Spc. Jason Nolte, 21st TSC PAO
To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil
Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica
Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica
Ajaccio, Corsica, France.
These trees have been pollarded. Pollarding is a pruning system involving the removal of the upper branches of a tree which promotes a dense head of foliage and branches. The practice has occurred commonly in Europe since medieval times and takes place today in urban areas worldwide, primarily to maintain trees at a predetermined height.
One consequence of pollarding is that pollarded trees tend to live longer than unpollarded trees because they are maintained in a partially juvenile state and because they are not as susceptible to wind and ice damage.
©AVucha 2015
On Friday, August 28th at 9:53am, the Richmond Township Fire Protection District responded to the intersection of Rt. 173 and Keystone Rd. for a two vehicle, t-bone style, accident involving a dump truck. Fire crews required heavy extrication equipment to free the driver, who was subsequently flown via Flight For Life to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville. Preliminary investigations indicated the small Dodge sedan was traveling northbound on Keystone Rd. when the driver proceeded through the intersection and got struck on the passenger side by a dump truck traveling westbound on Rt. 173. The driver of the truck was evaluated on scene but did not require any medical attention. The driver of the sedan is being identified only as a teenager. The accident is under investigation by the McHenry County Sheriff's Office.
This photograph is being made available only for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial material, advertisements, emails, products, promotions without the expressed consent of Alex Vucha. For inquiries: avuchanewsphotos@hotmail.com
Students got a chance to explore some of Lafayette’s organizations, clubs, and programs during the Involvement Fair on the Quad. The College boasts more than 200 opportunities for students to become involved in campus life, including academic honor societies, cultural and social organizations, community outreach, arts programs, sports clubs, and living groups. The fair is sponsored by Student Government and the Office of Student Leadership and Involvement.
Photos by Zachary Hartzell
Sept. 8, 2015
The PantherPalooza Student Involvement Fair was held on the Library Quad on August 30, 2022. (Dominic Baima)
Kamera: Nikon FE2
Linse: Nikkor-S Auto 35mm f2.8 (1974)
Film: Kodak 5222 @ ISO 400 -1EV
Kjemi: Xtol (stock / 9 min. @ 20°C)
Monday 30 December 2024: My New Year resolutions for 2025:
1. Do not buy or use any goods or services coming from Israel or their Occupied Palestinian Territories. Boycott Israel - the most racist, fascist, immoral and genocidal apartheid country in the world.
For me, this is a simple operation and will only involve my total boycott of the Israeli online genealogy platforms MyHeritage and Geni. I have no interest in any other consumer product coming out of Israel. But many of you may have heard of Ahava Dead Sea products coming from the Occupied Territories. Don’t buy it, don’t use it.
2. Do not buy or use any American goods or services as far as it is humanly possible today. They only use their income for WAR. The only way to stop this MADNESS is to stop buying and using their goods and services. Money to the USA is money to Israel.
This task is not as simple as boycotting only Israeli goods and products, but I will do my best - just like the USA has done it’s best in supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, providing Israel with weapons and incredible amounts of money, abusing their powers in the UN Security Council, working against international law and justice, supporting apartheid and never ever actually supporting or working to establish a Free Sovereign Palestine.
Israel seems to have become a way for all the corrupt American politicians in their archaic 'democratic' system to get an extra income under the table, directly stealing from the people, and for the American War Industries to thrive and grow; it is a Perpetuum mobile where US politicians donate money to Israel and where Israel in return use those money given to buy off US politicians [tax-deductible] and buying their weapons to slaughter Palestinians.
Americans get their money back [but first, some commercials] [without paying taxes] [under the table] and the Israelis get their fascist religious extremist zionist dreams come true. Incidentally, Israel's bizarre dreams of grandeur are closely linked to the American voters' archaic dreams of extremist christian zionist Eschatology. These people all belong in the Bronze Age.
USA has for so many years since the end of the Cold War been endangering all of Europe’s security by abusing the NATO alliance (this abuse started back in 1999 with the bombing of Yugoslavia!) presiding over a European proxy war with Russia via Ukraine - a war that now even involves North Korea (WTF!) and has killed hundreds of thousands of lives in Europe and flooded Western Europe with refugees once again! It needs to stop, and our own nations and politicians who are hostages to the American gangster regime can do no other - so therefore I can no longer justify MY feeble hard-earned money feeding this warmongering genocidal nation. It has to stop, and the only way I can make a miniscule difference is by boycotting American goods and services.
- First on my list: Mark Zuckerberg (1984) and his his Facebook and all of Facebook's subsidiaries through Meta. Easy. Done. Nothing!
- Second on my list: Larry Page (b. 1973) and Sergey Brin’s (b. 1973) Google and Alphabet Inc. - this is not so easy. This company with their search engine, Gmail and their subsidiary companies like YouTube and Android have infested the whole world. Instead of Google's search engine I have been using DuckDuckGo for years - but this is also an American company so my search will go on for something more safe and European.
As for Gmail, I am using Swiss Proton Mail instead but I have yet to to make the cut final. I hope I will be able to do so during the course of 2025.
As for YouTube, I have no clear alternative right now that is not American.
Android is easy - I never used it. But instead of Android I use Apple - which I feel is safer - but here is the problem - it is an American company. Maybe the solution is to go full-on dumbphone and get a Swiss Punkt. I might in fact do that.
What do you really need an American ‘smartphone’ for anyways? Life is analogue.
More American companies and platforms to boycott:
- Amazon Inc. - I can get most of my (paper) books and other stuff I usually buy on Amazon locally anyways. Amazon is a convenient marketplace, that's true - but it’s American and I’d rather suffer a little inconvenience just to not let the Americans get my money.
- eBay - again, such a great platform and marketplace for (in my case) photographic camera equipment and whatnot - but then again - if I could buy directly from Japanese camera stores with ease and no American involvement I would do so in a heartbeat without using American eBay. Let’s hope the Japanese evolve their international trade in this regard.
As for FILM there's plenty of European film providers; hey, we were first with film and photography anyways and have long traditions still thriving and living here. But I do love Kodak 5222. This is a problem - but at least I only use European chemicals these days. Foma and Tetenal.
- PayPal - also a very convenient platform to use, but goddamned this is the brainchild of Elon Musk (b. 1971) and I’ll do my very best to never support that fascist bastard. You’ll never see me driving an American car either, and certainly not a Tesla. Most unethical car ever.
- Airbnb - an American company that makes it easy to rent a room or a house for anyone in all those illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories - it's just as sick as if American tourists through a 'tourist agency' could come and live in Nazi german confiscated Norwegian flats, houses and cottages to relax or just 'experience' Nazi occupied Norway in 1941. This is exactly what Airbnb is making possible in the Occupied Palestinian Territories these days - and I shall never, ever use Airbnb.
OK, that’s a lot but we’re not finished yet.
- Disney - Easy. They destroyed Star Wars. Done!
- Pepsi and Coca-Cola - Done. Never again. There are many other local alternatives. Easy!
- McDonald’s and Burger King - Done. Easy. Probably the worst hamburgers in the world anyways.
So when it comes to consumer products that you get in the general store, there are two really big and awful companies that I will do my best to never buy their products ever again. These two companies are the American-owned Mondelez International and the Swiss company Nestlé together with all their subsidiaries and brands.
Things not to buy (applicable to me):
- Douwe Egberts coffee (Mondelez)
- Toblerone chocolate (Mondelez)
- Heinz products (Mondelez)
- L’Oréal and ALL their subsidiary products Garnier, Maybelline, Biotherm, Lancôme, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Kérastase, Guy Laroche, Redken (Nestlé)
- Nespresso (Nestlé)
- Nescafé (Nestlé)
- Nesquik (Nestlé)
- Nestea (Nestlé)
- Smarties chocolates (Nestlé)
- After Eight chocolate (Nestlé)
- Maggi products (Nestlé)
- Purina dogfood (Nestlé)
[and Friskies catfood for those of you with cats - also Nestlé]
- Freia chocolate products (Mondelez) [The chocolate that could never ever ever be sold to Sweden otherwise we would lose our independence AGAIN - but which could easily be sold to America instead. Remember all those Edvard Grieg Freia commercials?]
- Friele coffee (Mondelez) in Bergen which also produce ALL the norwegian COOP cooffee products and ALL the swedish Gevalia coffee brand products
- Marabou candy and ALL their chocolate products (Mondelez)
Allright, so already quite an extensive list and that’s not half of it.
Therefore at the end, I want to inform you all about the Boycat app - the Ethical Shopping and Boycott Companion. Use it.
And if you have more suggestions of Israeli and American companies, products and services to boycott, do let me know. I’m eager ears.
PS: I am fully aware that Flickr is American. There are many good things coming out of America. I hope in 2025 USA can change their ways.
In contrast to the chilly reception at West Peckham, Hadlow was a delight. Though it did involve a bit of a wait, as there was a wedding on. The poor couple we met outside had been invited to the wedding, but that week's updated advice meant guests inside the church had been cut from 30 to 15, so they lost out.
We talked as they waited, and told me some of the history of the town, the church and the castle next door. And of the Hop-picker's Memorial in the churchyard, which I went out to photograph.
There was no guarantee that we would be let in once the wedding was over, and once they did troop out, and the photographs taken, I thought that the west door would be locked and the hours wait wasted.
But it swung open, and the poor vicar was getting the chairs ready for the next day's service, and mentioned several years in seminary all to be a furniture mover.
I explained the project, and asked if I could take shots, explaining I would be quick and when he was done I would leave. But he was fine, let me take my time and showed me detail I would have otherwise missed.
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The first record of a church in Hadlow was in 975.[2] This church would probably have been a wooden building. In 1018, the early church was replaced by a building of stone. In the 12th century, the church was rebuilt and extended by Richard de Clare, then lord of the Manor of Hadlow. De Clare granted the church to the Knights Hospitallers in 1166. The Knights Hospitallers later had a preceptory at nearby West Peckham, which was their local administrative base. From the Norman Conquest until the 18th century, Hadlow did not have a resident Lord of the Manor, being held under Tonbridge Castle.[3] It is thought that the tower was raised and the spire added in the 15th century.[4] Little money was spent on the maintenance of the church, although some 15th- and 16th-century bequests are recorded. Thomas Walter, Yeoman bequeathed 20s in 1448 "To make a window on the north side of the church by the altar of Our Lady". John Tatlyngbery bequeathed 10 marks "For repair of the great door of the church". In 1456, Richard Bealde bequeathed 13s 4d "For repair of the tower of Hadlow church".[5] In 1461, Dionysia Ippenbury left 3d for masses to be said each year for 12 years.[6] In 1465, William Palle, yeoman left a cow to the church. It was to be sold and "the profits therefrom to be devoted to the maintenance of a lamp in the chancel".[5] In 1509, Thomas Fisher, yeoman bequeathed £20 "for making a new rood loft". The rood screen may not have been in existence long, although it was mentioned in bequests dated 1510 and 1513.[7] The church remained under the ownership of the Knights Hospitallers until 1540, when the order was dissolved by Henry VIII.[3] In 1533, Henry Fane left two chalices valued at £4.[6]
The west door is inscribed "WB 1637 ES". The tower and steeple were repaired in that year. The churchwardens were Walter Barton and Essau Simmons.[7] In 1791, the clock was installed in the tower. It was made by John Thwaites of Clerkenwell.[8] At the beginning of the 19th century, the church was in disrepair. In 1847, the chancel was rebuilt and the vestry added. In 1853, the south porch was blocked up. The north aisle was added in this year at a cost of £470, which was raised by public subscription. A private gallery was erected by Walter Barton May, owner of Hadlow Castle. This had its own private access and was located at the west end of the nave. In 1885, an altar reredos was erected to the memory of Sir William Yardley and his wife Amelia. Yardley was a former judge in the High Court of Bombay, India. In 1936, the gallery was removed.[5] Work on the doorway at the west of the church in 1936 exposed some small crosses carved in the stonework. These are attributed to Nicholas de Hadloe and his son, who lived at Hadlow Place. They were carved to commemorate their safe return from the Third Crusade in 1189.[4] St Mary's was listed on 20 October 1954. It is currently Grade II* listed.
St Mary's is mostly constructed from ragstone, with some ashlar detail and quoins of Tunbridge Wells sandstone. The church is built in the Early English and Decorated style. The chancel roof is of slate, while the nave and aisle roofs are tiled. The spire is covered in shingles. The stained glass windows date from the 19th and 20th centuries,[9] the most recent of which is "The Visitation" created by Francis Skeat in 1956.
In 1919, the Coverdale Chair was presented to St Mary's by T E Foster MacGeagh of Hadlow Castle. The chair is so-named because it was owned by Miles Coverdale, Bishop of Exeter, who made the first translation of the Bible into English. In 1954, the chair was transferred to Rochester Cathedral, but it was returned to St Mary's in 1967.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Mary%27s_Church,_Hadlow
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The lowy of Tunbridge: Hadlow
HADLOW.
THE BOROUGH OF HARDLOW, within the lowy of Tunbridge, contains the parish of Hadlow, with the church, except a small district of the northern part of it, which is in the hundred of Littlefield.
THE PARISH of Hadlow is of large extent, joining to West Peckham northward, and to the river Medway, its boundary southward; to the west it extends to the Northfrith woods and the parish of Tunbridge. It is far from being a pleasant situation, being a flat low country, much covered with large and spreading oaks, and broad hedge rows; the soil is in general a stiff clay, much of which is very swampy and wet; towards the upper part of the parish it is but poor, being very panny, and in some places inclining to gravel; lower down it is much more fertile, and bears good corn, and is kindly for hops, of which there are many plantations, which have much increased of late years. Near the river the grass lands are very rich, and capable of fatting beasts of a large size. The rivulet called the Sheet, which flows from Plaxtool by Oxenhoath, crosses this parish, joining the river Medway, a little above Brandt bridge, near which at Hartlake bridge, at the east end of this parish, is what is here called a flowing bolt, being an ingenious contrivance to pen up the water to a certain height, by which means it is capable of being let out in dry seasons, to flow over and moisten the adjoining meadows, which is at that time of the greatest advantage to them. The high road from Maidstone through Mereworth to Tunbridge, crosses this parish over Hadlow common, at the northern boundary of it, whence it goes through the town or village of Hadlow, between which and the river is Fish-hall and Hadlow-place, and more eastward the small hamlets of Goldwell-green, Barnes, and Mill-street.
On the bank of the Medway, at the west end of the parish, is a wharf and landing place, called Hadlow-stairs, for the lading and unlading of timber, coals and other merechandize.
A fair is yearly held in Hadlow town on WhitMonday.
IT APPEARS from the survey of Domesday, that this place was part of those vast possessions with which William the Conqueror enriched his half-brother Odo, bishop of Baieux, whom he afterwards made earl of Kent, under the title of whose lands it is thus entered there.
Richard de Tonebridge holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Hastow. It was taxed at six sulings. The arable land is twelve carucates. In demesne there are three, and forty-seven villeins, with fifteen borderers, having fifteen carucates. There is a church and ten servants, and two mills of eleven shillings, and twelve fisheries of seven shillings and six-pence, and twelve acres of meadow, Wood for the pannage of sixty hogs. In the time of king Edward the Consessor, and afterwards, and now, it was and is worth thirty pounds. Eddeva held it of king Edward.
In the reign of king Henry III. the seignory of this manor was claimed by the archbishop of Canter dury, and an agreement was entered into in the 42d year of it, between archbishop Boniface and Richard de Clare, earl of Gloucester and Hertford, concerning the customs and services which the archbishop required of the earl, on account of the tenements which the latter held of him in Tunebregge, Hanlo, &c. that is, the manors of Tunebregge and Hanlo, together with the whole lowy of Tonebregge, whence the archbishop required of the earl that he should do him homage, the service of four knights fees, and suit to his court at Canterbury, and that he should be the high steward of him and his successors, at their great feast, whenever it should happen that the archbishop should be inthroned.
The above-mentioned Richard de Clare, earl of Gloucester and Hertford, dying at Eschemerfield, in this county, in the 46th year of the reign of king Henry III. anno 1261. Gilbert, earl of Gloucester and Hertford, his son, succeeded him in this manor, and whose son of the same name, earl of Gloucester and Hertford, dying in the 7th year of Edward II. anno 1313, without surviving issue, his three sisters became his coheirs. (fn. 1) Upon which the manor of Hadlow, with the adjoining manor and castle of Tunbridge, and others in these parts, seem to have been allotted to the share of Margaret, the second sister, wife of Hugh de Audley, who in her right became possessed of this manor, and in the 11th year of king Edward III. was, in respect of this marriage, in parliament created earl of Gloucester.
Margaret, countess of Cornwall and Gloucester, died in the 16th year of that reign, and her husband, earl Hugh, outliving her about five years, died then possessed of this manor by courtesy of the realm, and leaving by her an only daughter and heir Margaret, then the wife of Ralph Stafford, lord Stafford. He before the end of that year obtained a special possession of all the lands of her inheritance, and among them of this manor, and in his descendants, earls of Stafford, and afterwards, by creation, dukes of Buckingham, of high estimation for the great offices of state which they held in the different reigns in which they lived. This manor continued down to Edward, duke of Buckingham, who in the 13th year of Henry VIII. being accused of conspiring the king's death, was found guilty, and beheaded that year; and although there was an act passed for his attainder, yet another act passed likewise for the restitution in blood of Henry his eldest son, but not to his honors and lands, which remained forfeited to the crown, and the king in his 16th year, granted the manors of Hadlow and Northfrith, aud several messuages, tenements, parks, &c. in the parishes of Hadlow, Shipborne, and Tunbridge, late belonging to Edward, duke of Buckingham, attainted, to Sir Henry Guildford, comptroller of his household, to hold by knight's service.
Sir Henry Guildford had greatly signalized himself by his valour against the Moors in Spain, and being first knighted, afterwards created a knight banneret, and made master of the horse. In the 17th year of king Henry VIII. he was made one of the chamberlains of the exchequer, and next year was elected a knight of the garter, being only thirty-nine years of age at the time of his election. (fn. 2)
On his death in the 23d year of king Henry VIII. this manor seems to have reverted to the crown, where it remained till king Edward VI. in his 4th year, granted the manor and park of Hadlow to John Dudley, earl of Warwick, who was afterwards created duke of Northumberland, and he by indenture, in the 7th year of that reign, inrolled in the Augmentation-office, sold this manor, among other premises, to the king, in exchange for lands in several other counties. (fn. 3)
The manor of Hadlow remained in the crown till the accession of queen Elizabeth, who in her 1st year granted it, together with the park called Northfryth, to her kinsman, Henry Carey, lord Hunsdon, to hold in capite; and he seems to have given it before his death to his eldest son, Sir George Carey, who possessed it.
in the 25th year of that reign, and on his father's death in the 38th year of it, succeeded to the title of lord Hunsdon. He died in the 1st year of king James I. without male issue, upon which this manor came to his next brother John, who succeeded him likewise as lord Hunsdon, and died in the 15th year of James I. and his eldest son Henry, lord Hunsdon, soon afterwards conveyed this manor by sale to James Faircloth, M. D. of London, who alienated it to George Rivers, esq. of this parish, second son of Sir George Rivers, of Chafford, in this county, whose son Edward Rivers, esq. was of Fishall, in this parish, and dying possessed of this manor in 1660, was buried near his father in this church. His successor alienated it in the reign of king Charles II. to Jeffry Amherst, gent. and he in the year 1699 sold it to Mr. John France, who dying without male issue, his two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, became his coheirs; the eldest of whom married Walter Barton, gent. and the youngest George Swayne, gent. On his death, the former by settlement succeeded to this manor, as did his son Mr. John Barton, (by the entail in the same settlement, on his father's decease) and his son Walter who has since taken the name of May, is the present proprietor of it.
This manor holds a court leet and court baron, which seems to be entirely independent of the court leet of the manor of Tunbridge, for in 1759 a constable of Tunbridge was chosen at the court leet of that manor, and as such claimed jurisdiction over the parish of Hadlow; but on a trial had on a suit concerning it, at the Lent assizes for this county in 1761, it was proved, that the courts leet of Tunbridge and Hadlow had no connection with each other, and a verdict was found accordingly.
HADLOW-PLACE is a seat and estate in this parish, which, in all probability, gave both name and residence to a family of no small note in antient time.
John de Hadloe, a descendant of Nicholas de Hadloe, was among those gentlemen of this county, who attended king Edward I. in his expedition into Scotland, in the 28th year of his reign, and for his remarkable service there, at the siege of Carlaverock, was made knight banneret by that prince. The Hadlows bore for their arms, three crescents, to which was afterwards added, seven cross-croslets, in token of some exploit or expedition against the Saracens in the holly land; a usual mark of honor in those times. This addition was most likely granted to Nicholas de Hadloe, who is in the list of those Kentish gentlemen, who were with king Richard I. at the siege of Acon, in Palestine.
How long Hadlow-place remained in the above mentioned family I do not find; but most likely till it was alienated to that of Vane, aliasFane. Henry Fane, the eldest son of John Fane, esq. of Tunbridge, was possessed of it in the reign of king Henry VII. and was sheriff in the 23d year of it. (fn. 4) He died in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. anno 1538, leaving no issue by Alice his wife, sister of John Fisher, gent. of this parish. By his will he gave this manor-place, in which he then dwelt, with all his lands in Hadloe and Capel, to his kinsman Ralph Fane, son of Henry, his father's youngest brother, in tail male, remainder to each of the sons of his youngest brother, John Fane, successively in like tail. (fn. 5)
¶Ralph Fane was afterwards knighted at the siege of Bulleyn in 1544, and for his gallant behaviour at the battle of Musselborough, in the 1st year of king Edward VI. was made a knight banneret; but in the 6th year of that reign, being found guilty of high treason, he was executed. He died without issue, and Hadlow-place, with the adjoining lands, by virtue of the above entail, came to Henry Fane, the eldest son of John Fane, deceased, the youngest brother of Henry, of Hadlow, before-mentioned, who was of Hadlow-place; being concerned in Sir Thomas Wyatt's insurrection, he was attainted, but the queen pardoned him on account of his youth, and his estates were restored to him; his son Henry, wrote himself, as his ancestors had formerly done, Vane, which his posterity have continued to do ever since. He removed his residence to Raby-castle, in the bishopric of Durham, and was afterwards knighted, from which time he acted a conspicuous part in public affairs, and was greatly favored by king Charles I. (fn. 6) But in the year 1642, the king being offended at his forwardness in the prosecution of the earl of Strafford, he was removed from his place of secretary of state, and from the privy council, and became one of the most malicious of the king's enemies, soon after whose death he alienated this seat, with the estate belonging to it in this parish, to Mr. Thomas Petley, of Filston, in Shoreham, who at his death gave it to his son, Ralph Petley, by his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of Ralph Cam, of London, and he removed from Shoreham to Riverhead, in Sevenoke, where he afterwards resided, and in his descendants resident there this estate continued down in like manner with that seat to Ralph Robert Carter Petley, esq. who died in 1788, leaving his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Petley surviving, who is the present possessor of this estate. (fn. 7)
HADLOW is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and deanry of Malling.
The church, which stands on the east side of the town, in Hadlow borough, is dedicated to St. Mary. It is a small building with a low pointed steeple at the west end. There is a monument in it for Sir John Rivers and his lady. It was part of the possessions of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, commonly called the knights hospitallers, so early as the reign of king John; for in the last year of it, anno 1216, Benedict, bishop of Rochester, at the presentation of the prior and brethren of that hospital, admitted and instituted Adam de Fontibus to this church, saving to the prior and brethren the antient pension of two shillings yearly paid to them from it; and the right likewise of the church of Rochester in all matters, and the right of those who were accustomed to take tithes in this parish, separated from the mother church.
Thomas de Inglethorpe, bishop of Rochester, in 1287, appropriated this church, then vacant, and of the patronage of the prior and brethren, to them and their house, for ever; reserving a competent vicarage in it, which he decreed should consist of all the small tithes, oblations, obventions, and all other matters belonging to the altarage, excepting the tithe of the hay of the parish; and he decreed, that the vicar should have one acre of land, where he might conveniently build a house, and two acres of meadow, fit to be mowed, of the demesne of the church; and that he should sustain the ordinary burthens of the church, viz. the procurations of the archdeacon, and should pay yearly to the rector of the church of Adintone, eighteen pence, which the rector of the church of Hadlo used to pay to it, time out of mind; and that the prior and brethren should pay to the prior and convent of Rochester five shillings yearly, as had been accustomed to be paid to them from this church from antient time.
On the establishment of the preceptory in the adjoining parish of West Peckham by those knights, this church was allotted as an appendage to it; in which state it continued till the general dissolution of their hospital in the 32d year of king Henry VIII. when that order was suppressed by an act specially passed for the purpose, and all their lands and revenues given by it to the king. At which time the parsonage or rectory of Hadlow, appears to have been esteemed a manor.
King Edward VI. July 16, in his first year, granted the rectory and advowson of Hadlow, to Sir Ralph Fane, and lady Elizabeth Fane his wife, to hold in capite by knights service. (fn. 10) On Sir Ralph Fane's death, lady Elizabeth Fane, his widow, became possessed of it, and soon afterwards alienated one part of it, by the description of the manor of the rectory of Hadlow, together with all houses, glebes, tithes, and other appurtenances, lying in Hadlow-ward in this parish, to Thomas Roydon, esq. of East Peckham, whose daughter and coheir Elizabeth, married William Twysden, of Chelmington, who became in her right possessed of this manor and rectory; and his descendant, Sir William Jarvis Twysden, bart. lately sold it to Mr. Walter Barton, who is the present pos sessor of this tithery, with the manor and appurtenances belonging to it.
¶The other two parts of the rectory of Hadlow, consisting of the tithes of this parish, in the tithe wards of Goldwell, alias Coldweld and Stair, as well as the advowson, remained (after the above-mentioned alienation to Roydon) in the possession of lady Eliz. Fane, who in the 1st and 2nd year of king Philip and queen Mary, alienated the remainder of the parsonage of Hadlow to Henry Fisher, and he, in the first year of queen Elizabeth passed it away to Richard Smithe, who next year alienated it to John Rivers; his son, Sir George Rivers, possessed this parsonage, as well as the advowson of the church, which seems to have passed with it from lady Fane, and his eldest son, John Rivers, esq. was created a baronet, and in the 21st year of king James I. procured an act of parliament to disgavel as well his lands as those of Sir George Rivers, his father, and to settle the inheritance of them upon himself and his heirs by dame Dorothy his wife, daughter of Thomas Potter, esq. of Westerham. His grandson and heir, Sir Thomas Rivers, bart. son of James Rivers, esq. who died in his life time, in 1657 conveyed that part of this parsonage, which consisted of the tithes arising within the ward of Stayer, to Edward Rivers, esq. son of George Rivers, esq. of this parish, next brother to Sir John Rivers, created a baronet as above-mentioned, and he died possessed of it in 1660, and was buried in this church. His son, George Rivers, esq. possessed it near seventy years, and then dying, by will gave it to his god-son, George Rivers, esq. of the Inner Temple, who in 1737, reserving to himself a life estate in this tithery, sold the reversion of it to Stephen Hervey, esq. of London, and he soon after Mr. Rivers's death, in 1777, conveyed the fee of it to Mr. Robert Simmons, of Hadlow, who gave it by will to his nephew Mr. William Simmons, the present possessor of this part of the parsonage of Hadlow.
The remaining part of the parsonage of Hadlow, consisting of the tithe within Goldwell, commonly called Colweld-ward, passed afterwards into the possession of Wm. Lea, gent. of Hadlow, whose granddaughter, Mrs. Eliz. Leavens, of Hadlow, in 1701, conveyed it to Mr. John Weekley, of Town Malling, who in 1738 gave it by will to his brother, Mr. George Weekley, late of Ware, in Hertfordshire, on whose death in 1777 it descended to his only daughter and heir, Miss Jane Weekley, since whose death this tithery has been sold by her devisees to Mr. Thomas Swayne, of Tunbridge, the present possessor of it.
THE ADVOWSON of the vicarage of Hadlow seems to have continued in the Rivers family, till the death of Sir George Rivers, in 1734, when, on disputes arising concerning the devise of his estates, they were put into chancery, and after several decrees and process at law, this advowson, among his other estates, was in 1743 ordered by the court to be sold, (fn. 11) and it was accordingly conveyed to the Rev. Arthur Spender, vicar of this parish, who died in 1750, and his son Arthur, dying unmarried, it came to his brother, Mr. John Spender, of Northamptonshire, who sold it not long since to Mr. Monypenny, who is the present patron of it.
It is valued in the king's books at 13l. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 6s.
The income of this vicarage greatly depends on the hop-plantations in this parish, which have been some years so advantageous as to increase the income of it to 240l. per annum.
In 1608 the communicants in this parish were in number three hundred and seventy-six.
Relief, or relievo rilievo, is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb relevo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane. What is actually performed when a relief is cut in from a flat surface of stone (relief sculpture) or wood (relief carving) is a lowering of the field, leaving the unsculpted parts seemingly raised. The technique involves considerable chiselling away of the background, which is a time-consuming exercise. On the other hand, a relief saves forming the rear of a subject, and is less fragile and more securely fixed than a sculpture in the round, especially one of a standing figure where the ankles are a potential weak point, especially in stone. In other materials such as metal, clay, plaster stucco, ceramics or papier-mache the form can be just added to or raised up from the background, and monumental bronze reliefs are made by casting. There are different degrees of relief depending on the degree of projection of the sculpted form from the field, for which the Italian appellations are still sometimes used. The full range includes high relief (alto-rilievo), where more than 50% of the depth is shown and there may be undercut areas, mid-relief (mezzo-rilievo), low-relief (basso-rilievo, or French: bas-relief /ˌbɑːrɪˈliːf/), and shallow-relief or rilievo schiacciato, where the plane is scarcely more than scratched in order to remove background material. There is also sunk relief, which was mainly restricted to Ancient Egypt. However the distinction between high relief and low relief is the clearest and most important, and these two are generally the only terms used to discuss most work. The definition of these terms is somewhat variable, and many works combine areas in more than one of them, sometimes sliding between them in a single figure; accordingly some writers prefer to avoid all distinctions. The opposite of relief sculpture is counter-relief, intaglio, or cavo-rilievo, where the form is cut into the field or background rather than rising from it; this is very rare in monumental sculpture.
Reliefs are common throughout the world on the walls of buildings and a variety of smaller settings, and a sequence of several panels or sections of relief may represent an extended narrative. Relief is more suitable for depicting complicated subjects with many figures and very active poses, such as battles, than free-standing "sculpture in the round". Most ancient architectural reliefs were originally painted, which helped to define forms in low relief. The subject of reliefs is for convenient reference assumed in this article to be usually figures, but sculpture in relief often depicts decorative geometrical or foliage patterns, as in the arabesques of Islamic art, and may be of any subject.
Rock reliefs are those carved into solid rock in the open air (if inside caves, whether natural or man-made, they are more likely to be called "rock-cut"). This type is found in many cultures, in particular those of the Ancient Near East and Buddhist countries. A stela is a single standing stone; many of these carry reliefs.
TYPES
The distinction between high and low relief is somewhat subjective, and the two are very often combined in a single work. In particular, most later "high reliefs" contain sections in low relief, usually in the background. From the Parthenon Frieze onwards, many single figures have heads in high relief, but their lower legs are in low relief; the slightly projecting figures created in this way work well in reliefs that are seen from below (see Moissac portal in gallery). As unfinished examples from various periods show, raised reliefs, whether high or low, were normally "blocked out" by marking the outline of the figure and reducing the background areas to the new background level, work no doubt performed by apprentices (see gallery). Hyphens may or may not be used in all these terms, though they are rarely seen in "sunk relief" and are usual in "bas-relief" and "counter-relief". Works in the technique are described as "in relief", and, especially in monumental sculpture, the work itself is "a relief".
BAS RELIEF OR LOW RELIEF
A bas-relief ("low relief", from the Italian basso rilievo) or low relief is a projecting image with a shallow overall depth, for example used on coins, on which all images are in low relief. In the lowest reliefs the relative depth of the elements shown is completely distorted, and if seen from the side the image makes no sense, but from the front the small variations in depth register as a three-dimensional image. Other versions distort depth much less. It is a technique which requires less work, and is therefore cheaper to produce, as less of the background needs to be removed in a carving, or less modelling is required. In the art of Ancient Egypt and other ancient Near Eastern and Asian cultures, and also Meso-America, a very low relief was commonly used for the whole composition. These images would all be painted after carving, which helped to define the forms; today the paint has worn off in the great majority of surviving examples, but minute, invisible remains of paint can usually be discovered through chemical means.
The Ishtar Gate of Babylon, now in Berlin, has low reliefs of large animals formed from moulded bricks, glazed in colour. Plaster was sometimes used in Egypt and Rome, and probably elsewhere, but needs very good conditions to survive – Roman decorative plasterwork is mainly known from Pompeii and other sites buried by ash from Mount Vesuvius. Low relief was relatively rare in Western medieval art, but may be found, for example in wooden figures or scenes on the insides of the folding wings of multi-panel altarpieces.
Low relief is probably the most common type of relief found in Hindu-Buddhist arts of India and Southeast Asia. The low reliefs of 2nd-century BCE to 6th-century CE Ajanta Caves and 5th to 10th-century Ellora Caves in India are noted for they were carved out from rock-cut hill. They are probably the most exquisite examples of Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain arts in India. Most of these low reliefs are used in narrating sacred scriptures, such as those founds in 9th century Borobudur temple in Central Java, Indonesia, that narrating The birth of Buddha (Lalitavistara). Borobudur itself possess 1,460 panels of narrating low reliefs. Another example is low reliefs narrating Ramayana Hindu epic in Prambanan temple, also in Java. In Cambodia, the temples of Angkor are also remarkable for their collection of low reliefs. The Samudra manthan or "Churning of Ocean of Milk" of 12th-century Angkor Wat is an example of Khmer art. Another examples are low reliefs of Apsaras adorned the walls and pillars of Angkorian temples. The low reliefs of Bayon temple in Angkor Thom also remarkable on capturing the daily life of Khmer Empire.
The revival of low relief, which was seen as a classical style, begins early in the Renaissance; the Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini, a pioneering classicist building, designed by Leon Battista Alberti around 1450, uses low reliefs by Agostino di Duccio inside and on the external walls. Since the Renaissance plaster has been very widely used for indoor ornamental work such as cornices and ceilings, but in the 16th century it was used for large figures (many also using high relief) at the Chateau of Fontainebleau, which were imitated more crudely elsewhere, for example in the Elizabethan Hardwick Hall.
In later Western art, until a 20th-century revival, low relief was used mostly for smaller works or combined with higher relief to convey a sense of distance, or to give depth to the composition, especially for scenes with many figures and a landscape or architectural background, in the same way that lighter colours are used for the same purpose in painting. Thus figures in the foreground are sculpted in high-relief, those in the background in low-relief. Low relief may use any medium or technique of sculpture, stone carving and metal casting being most common. Large architectural compositions all in low relief saw a revival in the 20th century, being popular on buildings in Art Deco and related styles, which borrowed from the ancient low reliefs now available in museums. Some sculptors, including Eric Gill, have adopted the "squashed" depth of low relief in works that are actually free-standing.
Mid-relief, "half-relief" or mezzo-rilievo is somewhat imprecisely defined, and the term is not often used in English, the works usually being described as low relief instead. The typical traditional definition is that only up to half of the subject projects, and no elements are undercut or fully disengaged from the background field. The depth of the elements shown is normally somewhat distorted. Shallow-relief or rilievo stiacciato, used for the background areas of compositions with the main elements in low-relief, was perfected by the Italian Renaissance sculptor Donatello. It is a very shallow relief, which merges into engraving in places, and can be hard to read in photographs.
HIGH RELIEF
High relief (or altorilievo, from Italian) is where in general more than half the mass of the sculpted figure projects from the background, indeed the most prominent elements of the composition, especially heads and limbs, are often completely undercut, detaching them from the field. The parts of the subject that are seen are normally depicted at their full depth, unlike low relief where the elements seen are "squashed" flatter. High-relief thus uses essentially the same style and techniques as free-standing sculpture, and in the case of a single figure gives largely the same view as a person standing directly in front of a free-standing statue would have. All cultures and periods in which large sculptures were created used this technique in monumental sculpture and architecture.
Most of the many grand figure reliefs in Ancient Greek sculpture used a very "high" version of high-relief, with elements often fully free of the background, and parts of figures crossing over each other to indicate depth. The metopes of the Parthenon have largely lost their fully rounded elements, except for heads, showing the advantages of relief in terms of durability. High relief has remained the dominant form for reliefs with figures in Western sculpture, also being common in Indian temple sculpture. Smaller Greek sculptures such as private tombs, and smaller decorative areas such as friezes on large buildings, more often used low relief.
Hellenistic and Roman sarcophagus reliefs were cut with a drill rather than chisels, enabling and encouraging compositions extremely crowded with figures, like the Ludovisi Battle sarcophagus (250–260 CE). These are also seen in the enormous strips of reliefs that wound round Roman triumphal columns. The sarcophagi in particular exerted a huge influence on later Western sculpture. The European Middle Ages tended to use high relief for all purposes in stone, though like Ancient Roman sculpture their reliefs were typically not as high as in Ancient Greece. Very high relief reemerged in the Renaissance, and was especially used in wall-mounted funerary art and later on Neo-classical pediments and public monuments.
In Hindu-Buddhist art of India and Southeast Asia high relief can also be found, although it is not as common as low reliefs. Most of Hindu-Buddhist sculptures however also can be considered as a high relief, since these sculptures usually connected to a stella as the background to support the statue as well as provides additional elements such as aura or halo in the back of sculpture's head, or floral decoration. The examples of Indian high reliefs can be found in Khajuraho temple, that displaying voluptuous twisting figures that often describes the erotic Kamasutra positions. In 9th-century Prambanan temple, Central Java, the examples are the high reliefs of Lokapala devatas, the guardian of directions deities.
SUNK RELIEF
Sunk or sunken relief is largely restricted to the art of Ancient Egypt where it is very common, becoming after the Amarna period of Ahkenaten the dominant type used, as opposed to low relief. It had been used earlier, but mainly for large reliefs on external walls, and for hieroglyphs and cartouches. The image is made by cutting the relief sculpture itself into a flat surface. In a simpler form the images are usually mostly linear in nature, like hieroglyphs, but in most cases the figure itself is in low relief, but set within a sunken area shaped round the image, so that the relief never rises beyond the original flat surface. In some cases the figures and other elements are in a very low relief that does not rise to the original surface, but others are modeled more fully, with some areas rising to the original surface. This method minimizes the work removing the background, while allowing normal relief modelling.
The technique is most successful with strong sunlight to emphasise the outlines and forms by shadow, as no attempt was made to soften the edge of the sunk area, leaving a face at a right-angle to the surface all around it. Some reliefs, especially funerary monuments with heads or busts from ancient Rome and later Western art, leave a "frame" at the original level around the edge of the relief, or place a head in a hemispherical recess in the block (see Roman example in gallery). Though essentially very similar to Egyptian sunk relief, but with a background space at the lower level around the figure, the term would not normally be used of such works.
COUNTER RELIEF
Sunk relief technique is not to be confused with "counter-relief" or intaglio as seen on engraved gem seals - where an image is fully modeled in a "negative" manner. The image goes into the surface, so that when impressed on wax it gives an impression in normal relief. However many engraved gems were carved in cameo or normal relief.
A few very late Hellenistic monumental carvings in Egypt use full "negative" modelling as though on a gem seal, perhaps as sculptors trained in the Greek tradition attempted to use traditional Egyptian conventions.
SMALL OBJECTS
Small-scale reliefs have been carved in various materials, notably ivory, wood, and wax. Reliefs are often found in decorative arts such as ceramics and metalwork; these are less often described as "reliefs" than as "in relief". Small bronze reliefs are often in the form of "plaques" or plaquettes, which may be set in furniture or framed, or just kept as they are, a popular form for European collectors, especially in the Renaissance.
Various modelling techniques are used, such repoussé ("pushed-back") in metalwork, where a thin metal plate is shaped from behind using various metal or wood punches, producing a relief image. Casting has also been widely used in bronze and other metals. Casting and repoussé are often used in concert in to speed up production and add greater detail to the final relief. In stone, as well as engraved gems, larger hardstone carvings in semi-precious stones have been highly prestigious since ancient times in many Eurasian cultures. Reliefs in wax were produced at least from the Renaissance.
Carved ivory reliefs have been used since ancient times, and because the material, though expensive, cannot usually be reused, they have a relatively high survival rate, and for example consular diptychs represent a large proportion of the survivals of portable secular art from Late Antiquity. In the Gothic period the carving of ivory reliefs became a considerable luxury industry in Paris and other centres. As well as small diptychs and triptychs with densely packed religious scenes, usually from the New Testament, secular objects, usually in a lower relief, were also produced.
These were often round mirror-cases, combs, handles, and other small items, but included a few larger caskets like the Casket with Scenes of Romances (Walters 71264) in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. Originally there were very often painted in bright colours. Reliefs can be impressed by stamps onto clay, or the clay pressed into a mould bearing the design, as was usual with the mass-produced terra sigillata of Ancient Roman pottery. Decorative reliefs in plaster or stucco may be much larger; this form of architectural decoration is found in many styles of interiors in the post-Renaissance West, and in Islamic architecture.
WIKIPEDIA
Rathfarnham Castle.
Origins:
The earlier Anglo-Norman castle which was replaced by the present building was built on lands which were confiscated from the Eustace family of Baltinglass because of their involvement in the Second Desmond Rebellion. It defended the Pale from the Irish clans in the nearby Wicklow Mountains. It is believed the present castle was built around 1583 for Yorkshireman, Adam Loftus, then Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Protestant Archbishop of Dublin. Originally a semi-fortified and battlemented structure, extensive alterations in the 18th century give it the appearance of a Georgian house.
The castle consisted of a square building four stories high with a projecting tower at each corner, the walls of which were an average of 5 feet (1.5 m) thick. On the ground level are two vaulted apartments divided by a wall nearly 10 feet (3.0 m) thick which rises to the full height of the castle. On a level with the entrance hall are the 18th century reception rooms and above this floor the former ballroom, later converted into a chapel.
Rathfarnham was described as a "waste village" when Loftus bought it. His new castle was not long built when in 1600 it had to withstand an attack by the Wicklow clans during the Nine Years War (Ireland).
Civil war:
Archbishop Loftus left the castle to his son, Dudley and it then passed to his son Adam in 1616. During Adam's ownership, the castle came under siege in the 1641 rebellion. It was able to hold out against the Confederate army when the surrounding country was overrun. Adam Loftus opposed the treaty of cessation in order the stop the fighting between the Irish Confederates and the English Royalists. Consequently, he was imprisoned in Dublin Castle.
During the subsequent Irish Confederate Wars (1641-53), the castle changed hands several times. From 1641 to 1647, it was garrisoned by English Royalist troops. In 1647, Ormonde, commander of the Royalists in Ireland, surrendered Dublin to the English Parliament and Parliamentary troops were stationed at the castle until 1649 when a few days before the Battle of Rathmines, the castle was stormed and taken without a fight by the Royalists. However, the Roundheads re-occupied it after their victory at the Battle of Rathmines. It has also been reported that Oliver Cromwell held council there during his campaign in Ireland before going south to besiege Wexford. Adam Loftus, who recovered his castle and lands under Cromwell, sided with the Parliamentarians and was killed at the Siege of Limerick in 1651.
After the English Civil War, the Loftus family retained ownership of the castle. In 1659, Dr. Dudley Loftus, great grandson of Archbishop Loftus, took over the castle. During his lifetime, Dudley held the posts of Commissioner of Revenue, Judge Admiralty, Master in Chancery, MP for Kildare and Wicklow and MP for Bannow and Fethard. His body is interred at St. Patrick's Cathedral.
The eighteenth century:
The property then passed by marriage to Philip Wharton. The young man lost his money in the South Sea Bubble and in 1723 the castle was sold to the Right Hon. William Connolly, speaker of the Irish House of Commons for £62,000. In 1742, the castle was sold to Dr. Hoadly, Archbishop of Armagh, and on his death four years later it passed to his son-in-law Bellingham Boyle. In 1767, he sold the property to Nicholas Hume-Loftus, second Earl of Ely, a descendant of Adam Loftus, the original builder of the castle.
The castle in 1774
Nicholas died within a few years, probably as an indirect result of great hardships which he had suffered in his youth, and the estate passed to his uncle, Hon. Henry Loftus, who was created Earl of Ely in 1771. In commemoration of regaining ownership, the Loftus family constructed another entrance for the castle in the form of a Roman Triumphal Arch. The arch can still be viewed from nearby Dodder Park Road. Henry Loftus, Earl of Ely was responsible for much of the conversion of the medieval fortress into a Georgian mansion and employed renowned architects Sir William Chambers and James 'Athenian' Stuart to carry out these works. The mullioned windows were enlarged and the battlements replaced by a coping with ornamental urns. A semi-circular extension was added to the east side and an entrance porch approached by steps, on the north. The interior was decorated in accordance with the tastes of the period and leading artists, including Angelica Kauffmann were employed in the work. Writers of the period who visited the house have left extravagant descriptions of its splendour.
Henry died in 1783 and was succeeded by his nephew Charles Tottenham. He subsequently became Marquess of Ely as a reward for his vote at the time of the Union.
The nineteenth and twentieth centuries:
In 1812, the family leased the estate to the Ropers and removed their valuable possessions to Loftus Hall in Wexford. The lands and castle were then used for dairy farming and fell into disrepair. To quote a contemporary account from 1838: "Crossing the Dodder by a ford, and proceeding along its southern bank towards Rathfarnham, a splendid gateway at left, accounted among the best productions of that species of architecture in Ireland, invites the tourist to explore the once beautiful grounds of Rathfarnham Castle, but they are now all eloquently waste, the undulating hills covered with rank herbage, the rivulet stagnant and sedgy, the walks scarce traceable, the ice-houses open to the prying sun, the fish-pond clogged with weeds, while the mouldering architecture of the castle, and the crumbling, unsightly offices in its immediate vicinity,…The castle, so long the residence of the Loftus family, and still the property of the Marquis of Ely, subject, however, to a small chief rent to Mr. Conolly, is an extensive fabric,.....The great hall is entered from a terrace, by a portico of eight Doric columns, which support a dome, painted in fresco with the signs of the Zodiac and other devices. This room was ornamented with antique and modern busts, placed on pedestals of variegated marble, and has three windows of stained gloss, in one of which is an escutcheon of the Loftus arms, with quarterings finely executed. Several other apartments exhibited considerable splendour of arrangement, and contained, until lately, numerous family portraits, and a valuable collection of paintings by ancient masters. But, when it is mentioned, that this structure has been for years a public dairy, and the grounds to the extent of 300 acres (1.2 km2) converted to its uses, some notion may be formed of their altered condition.
In 1852 it was bought by the Lord Chancellor, Francis Blackburne whose family resided there for three generations. The property developers Bailey & Gibson acquired the castle in 1912 and divided up the estate. The eastern part became the Castle Golf Club, the castle and the southwestern portion were bought in 1913 by the Jesuit Order and the northwestern part was devoted to housing.
The Jesuits are an order renowned for their education and one of them; Father O'Leary S.J. constructed a seismograph. This machine could detect earth tremors and earthquakes from anywhere in the world and for a time, Rathfarnham Castle became a source of earthquake information for the national media.
To the north of the castle was a long vaulted chamber formerly known as Cromwell’s Court or Fort. This was apparently a barn or storehouse erected as part of the castle farm and had narrow loopholes in its 5-foot (1.5 m) thick walls. In 1922, it was incorporated into the new retreat house, to which it formed the ground story and its character concealed from the outside by a uniform covering of cement plaster.
Not far from the Golf Club House was an attractive little temple built of stone and brick, another relic of Lord Ely’s occupation of Rathfarnham. Although rather out of repair, if restored, it would have added much to the charm of this part of the links. Unfortunately, by decision of the committee, it was demolished in 1979.
In 1986, the Jesuits sold Rathfarnham Castle but before leaving, they removed the stained glass windows, made in the famous Harry Clarke studios, from the chapel and donated them to Tullamore Catholic Church which had been destroyed by fire in 1983. The other windows were donated to Our Lady's Hospice, Harold's Cross and Temple Street Children's Hospital, Dublin.
Preservation:
The castle was sold to Delaware Properties in 1985 and it was feared that it was facing demolition. After immense public pressure to save the building, it was purchased by the state in 1987 and was declared a National Monument. Currently, by the Office of Public Works, there is an extensive refurbishment going through the castle but it is still open to the public during the summer months (5th May - 12th October). The Castle is presented as a castle undergoing active conservation, where visitors can see, at first hand, tantalising glimpses of layers of its earlier existence uncovered during research.
The Oliver Road Floods. A letter sent to Cyril Smith by the then Secretary Fred Lineham highlighting the flooding problems at Oliver and Auckland Road sites. He says It took some time, but it was most enjoyable as I had to research quite extensively.
This may appear a bit rambling in places, as I am trying to remember six years on, three years of research involving over a thousand maps and related papers. I used materials from Valance House, Passmore Edwards, Metropolitan Water Board, Essex County Records, Bazalgette's own papers, Inland Waterways Library and local Parish Records plus Vestry House and London Records.
To understand the drainage system at Oliver Road, you have to take in a very much wider area than just the site. On the site itself you have to consider three points:
1.The complex system of the original underground streams.
2.The work done by Bazalgette during the Great Stink.
3.The extra piping laid due to the building of the Leyton Sewerage Works, the remains of which are at the lower end of the site.
Now all of this is totally complicated by the fact that most of the work was never incorporated into our local ground maps. An example of how this happened is as follows. Two brothers, one a Leyton Council official, the other a Leytonstone Council official were nominated by their respective Parish Councils to ensure that the London Drain would pass through their Parish and not the others as you got many Brownie Points by having the prestigious London Drain running under your high street. Both brothers kept their plans about their person at al times and when the Drain was awarded to Leytonstone, our lad in a fit of pique, stole his brother's papers and burnt them. In retaliation, the other brother hired two local hard men to duff up his brother and steal his papers, but the local police (I am sure it could not have been Frances Road Station) chased and caught the villains but before they were apprehended they fed the papers to a goat to lose the evidence. These papers contained details of all the local streams with flow rates, all the original piping and land drainage. This is why all of the very complex streams and pipes are not on the Water Board's ground maps of our site.
You are dealing with very ancient waterways here, as originally, our site area was at the edge of a great marsh east of London. A number of streams run down from the high forest areas of Epping and Wanstead, by way of Whipps Cross. For instance the Hollow and Eagle Ponds feed the Fillebrook Stream which runs alongside the Auckland Road Site. Another historical point, is that it was around here that Alfred blocked some rivers and streams to form extra marshland in order to keep the Danes at bay. There are two high points in this area, one at what is now Ruckholt Road. Ruckholt being a derivation of Rock Halt and this was an outcrop in the marshland area, fortified by an early Viking who used it as a power base to rule the marsh area, the second high point is at the present junction of Osier Way and Oliver Road. It was here that the Passmore Edwards team found a Neolithic Settlement, ideally placed between two main stream inlets to the marsh area. A minor stream flowed along the course where Windsor Road is today and joined up with one of the main streams which came through the Thornhill Road area, while the second main stream, this the one which we are interested in, flowed through Wilmot Road. These two main streams are mentioned by Julius Caesar, as when the locals Brits at Ilford were giving him trouble, overnight, he crossed the Ley with a strong force and crossing our two streams with difficulty, as he had cavalry with him and the banks were very steep, marched overland and set up his attack formation at the top of what is now Ilford Hill. When the local Brits got up the following morning, they found the Roman Army ready to fight. The Brits surrendered at once. During the 1800's there was quite a severe earthquake in Essex and this resulted in the Thornhill and Windsor Road streams being diverted along Oliver Road and running down to where the Fillebrook Stream was running. To avoid the major flooding that this caused an open land drain was run alongside the old Fillebrook. It is this which causes the flooding outside the Orient's Ground during heavy rainstorms. If the portcullis at the exit of the Fillebrook where it runs into the main Dagenham Ditch, which is on the Auckland Road Site is not kept clear, there will be a feed-back of flood water along the Fillebrook and the open land drain cannot expend its excess water into the stream, so it then comes up through the drains outside of the Orient's Ground. I realised this fifteen years ago when the Oliver Road site was always flooding in the rainy season. I undertook to keep the portcullis clear and the flooding stopped during the period. Sometime after I left the Sites I began to hear on the local wireless traffic reports of the flooding starting up again, it caused some inconvenience at the Rememberance Day march. When I wrote to the Waltham Forest Council about this I was informed that as I was not in the Borough it did not concern me.
We can now concentrate on the main Wilmot Road stream which os the one affecting the Oliver Road Site. I will say again that this is an ancient stream, it used to run past a Roman villa, the remains of which can still be seen in the grounds of the old Trades Hall where Church Road joins the High Road. It was burnt down by Boudicca when the Iceni revolted against the Romans In the first Century. In the area of Wilmot Road, it used to be an open stream backed onto by a number of local nurseries. The stream disappeared underground just this side of the old Oliver Road. Underground, it followed the contours of the underlying clay convolutions and broke up into three small waterways. One ran down towards the Bowling Green area, a second ran towards the Ive Farm area and this fed the watercress beds which were run by the Leyton Boatmen or marshmen. The central flow, the major one, is the one that runs through the Oliver Road Estates and feeds the pond in the allotment site. This was known since very early times as Jesus Christ's Cup because it was always flowing and always pure. Cedric the Hermit lived by it for seven years. It is possible that this is the pond at which King Harold drank when he was on his way from London to his power base at Waltham. He used to leave London, walk through the marsh area to the site of an old Iron Age fortress, which used to be where the present Drapers Field is today. He used to pick up the Waltham Road and just along it he used to practise the old Anglo-Saxon ploy of the defensive Shield Wall. Afterwards he used to drink at a 'magical spring' and then proceed on his way to Waltham. So the King Harold pub in the Leyton High Road may be quite significant as the place where he joined the Waltham Way. The Oliver Road Allotment Site was built around this spring as there was certain always to be water available for the plants.
This system ran without a hitch for many of hundreds of years until an engineer named Bazalgette was instructed to lay a sewer system for London in order to eliminate the stench that overhung London due to the many open sewers and streams full of debris that criss-crossed the capital. Bazalgette devised a plan to build 82 miles of underground, intercepting, contra-cleaning sewers, fed by water pumping stations that required a constant head of water being fed into them. At the same time the Burgers of West ham had petitioned the High Court about the sewerage that was floating down into their area from the increasing population of Leyton. Streams such as the Channelsea and Ley Duct were being blocked with sewerage and disease was abounding in these areas. Bazalgette realised that he would have to control all of the waterways running into his system if it was to work and he would have special difficulties in the Leyton area. The only place where a Sewerage Works could be built eventually was on marshland area, now the Auckland Area. Doing so would destroy the watercress beds of the Marshmen. He started work by getting his gang of Irish navvies to cut a V-shaped ditch south of Oliver Road, following the course of the main Jesus Christ's Cup stream and built a culvert, or rather a double culvert to ensure that the stream would always flow at a constant rate. To avoid an overflow, he dug a drop-hole so that the water from the Cup instead of flowing into the Dagenham Brook, would fall into an underground cross stream, known as the Etloe Pipe, as it was this stream that Etloe House used as its water supply. It's position, the drop-hole is on Plot 54 where the man-hole cover is now. This underground stream, the Etloe Pipe, was earmarked for use at a later stage as Bazalgette was to concentrate on the "Big Stink" works, for use with the proposed Leyton Sewerage Works and if you can get hold of a map of Leyton for 1894 Old Ordnance Survey Map Godfrey Edition, London Sheet 32, it will give you an overall layout of the area, from which you can deduce to a very close mark the runways of the streams and various pipes. When it became obvious that the watercress beds were being destroyed, the Marshmen took quite a poor view of it and attacked the Irish Navvies. As cutlasses and muskets were used by both sides, there was quite a loss of life. The battle started at Wilmot Road and then went down Oliver Road to where the Orient Ground now stands. As the mortuary was were the Council tip used to be (Bywaters) it was the ideal site for the battle. The Government of the day did not want any of this to get out because of the fear of a general up-rising throughout the country about living conditions, so the Guards were brought in and stationed at Etloe House and the old Trades Lodge in the High Street. A D-notice was put on the news of the battle and all plans for the area were made top secret and even if you look into Bazalgette's private papers, they are blank where Leyton is concerned while all of the other areas are written up in detail. But I actually spoke with a near eye-witness to the battle and it was he who put me onto this line of investigation, it was Mr Lovely, who had a plot on Auckland Road. He was ninety three when he died and he had lived in Leyton all of his life. His father and grandfather were Marshmen and his father had a cutlass slash down his face as a result. It was a shame that I only found out about his wealth of local history a few weeks before he died, as he had facts like the battle which only he knew then.
After Bazalgettes had left and the London Sewer System was working, work then started on the Leyton Sewerage Works. The drop-hole was expanded and the Etloe Pipe was replaced with an open underground culvert, which I believe you can still see today on Plot 67. This lined up with the Rake Tanks that were installed and shown quite plainly on the 1894 map from which you can deduce the path taken by the culvert. An extra drain was run along the lower banking of the Dagenham Brook on the allotment side, to carry away excess water that built up outside the Sewerage Works. It appears that the stream that leads towards Ive Farm from the Wilmot Road branch also started to flow and this was lead into the extra drain and an inspection hatch was put in the area around Plot 1 at the site. A water measuring station was put across the Dagenham Brook to record any increase in flow as any overflow could have flooded the new railway sidings that were being built.
We can now come up to modern times and it appears that the constructors of the old tower blocks were very lucky not to cause major flooding when they were pile driving the foundations. The first flood happened when they connected the main water supply up incorrectly and turned it on, this was the first flood that took off the top soil in the top corner plots as it followed the original course of the waterway that fed the watercress beds. Jesus Christ's Cup still kept its normal flow during this flood. When the tower blocks were about to be demolished is when the serious flooding started. We began to get seepage into all the top plots and the jesus Christ's Cup increased in flow rate. It was obvious that the heavy pounding equipment had done some form of damage when the foundations of the blocks were worked on. Straight away everyone denied that they were responsible. Bovis blamed it on the plot holders over watering the allotments and sent me a booklet on proper use of water in gardening. Ave Arup threatened me with legal action if I implied that they or any of their sub-contractors were responsible. That was when I had the story published on the front page of the Guardian. We got no support from the Council who sided with Bovis. I thought it quite unusual at the number of Council Officers, who finished up working for Bovis and the Housing Action Trusts, who agreed when in the council, unofficially, that there was a problem and denied with great gusto that there was nothing wrong when working for the Trusts. This was the start of three years investigation until I found out what had happened. For three years we lost the use of the plots at the top of the site and eventually I surmised that the pounding by Bovis had collapsed the culverts put in by old Bazalgette. The initial cutting off of the Jesus Christ's Cup was when the collapse stopped the supply and the increased flow was when the flow had found its way into the Ive Farm system and then fed back into the channel past the obstruction. I wrote out quite a long report and did detailed maps, photos taken from the firm's helicopter and even Geo-physics readings showing waterways but as there was considerable money involved it was thrown out. This was the infamous meeting where I knocked out two teeth of the Council Officer who tore up my report and threw it at me. My knuckle still aches today when the cold catches it.
The matter was only resolved when an Ave Arup engineer, the only decent one there, Jim Collins, and who was about to retire, came to the site to sort the matter out. This was not any goodwill on the part of Ave Arup, it was because they were still trying to get the Euro-Trak to run into Stratford. Jim and myself had a meeting at 9.30 in his office in the estate and we spent till 10.15 looking at my paperwork and plans. At 11.15 Jim started the first of two bore holes, the second bore hole came slap down on the collapsed culvert. It took two hours after lunch to open up a trench and by 6.30 the collapse had been cleared and steel sheets laid over the damaged area. By the next morning all of the flooding had stopped and the Jesus Christ's Cup was back to its normal flow. Three weeks later, a letter was sent to the Council Allotments' Committee from Bovis, Ave Arup's contractors - the flooding had stopped and their view that the flooding would eventually right itself had been proved correct. They claimed that they had saved the Council a hundred thousand pounds by not taking up the 'ramblings of a madman', myself, over this matter. A letter of thanks was sent by the Committee to the contractors.
During the flooding and when the Cup was overflowing, I suggested that we could modify the Cup and take the overflow directly into the drop hole as this is where any overflow originally went. But I was advised that it could be a protected structure, as it was part of the Victorian system. So I had the Council telling me that a structure that they claimed did not exist could not be tampered with as it was protected.
I will send a couple of rough drawings with as much information on them as I can remember, but to understand the situation properly you should send to Alan Godfrey, 57-58, Spoor Street, Dunston, Gateshead for the map I have quoted earlier on. Another address to get the map from is Paterson Printers, 12, Ladygate, South Shields. Better still call in at Smiths and ask them to order it for you. I think that you will find the ISBN number is 0 85054 032 1. I can remember it as it was very close to my old Works Number.
The cause of the increased flow of the Jesus Christ's Cup stream is now very deeply bedded under the new housing. The Council are going to deny all responsibility, the constructors will show you maps that prove it could not have been them, so I think the best way is to incorporate an overflow and buried runway directly into the drop hole. If the runway is laid along the natural soakaway that opens into the drop hole, then there will be minimum damage to any old structure. A deep trench between the pond and the drop hole should expose quite clearly the soakaway.
As my fingers are now just going numb and I think that I have put down all that I can remember. I'll read through it and if it is too did-jointed then I will type it out again, but if it is readable I will leave it as it is, warts and all.
Fred Lineham
©AVucha 2014
On March 3rd at 6:21pm, Woodstock Fire/Rescue was dispatched for a motor vehicle accident involving a Woodstock Police Officer at Route 14 and Dean St. The officer was extracted from his squad car and was transported via OSF Life Flight to St. Anthony Medical Center in Rockford.
Woodstock, Illinois
News obtained from the Northwest Herald:
WOODSTOCK – A Woodstock police officer had to be extricated from an unmarked squad car and flown to a hospital Monday after a three-vehicle accident.
At 6:24 p.m., a 15-year-old male motorist from Woodstock, driving on a learner's permit, was waiting to turn left from westbound Route 14 onto Dean Street. When he turned left, he struck an unmarked Woodstock squad car, which was traveling eastbound on Route 14. The squad car then hit a vehicle facing north waiting on Dean Street.
Officer Eric Schmidtke was driving a Ford Interceptor and had to be extricated from the vehicle. He was transported to Woodstock Hospital, and subsequently flown to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Rockford, according to a press release from the McHenry County Sheriff's office.
He was released from the hospital late last night, according to McHenry County Sheriff's Deputy Aimee Knop.
The traffic signal for eastbound and westbound Rt. 14 was green at the time of crash, the release said.
Because of the extra equipment in the squad car, such as the computer, radio and weapons, it took longer to conduct the extrication, Ryan said.
The juvenile driver and his adult passenger were taken to Centegra Hospital – Woodstock, where they were treated and released, Knop said.
The names of the juvenile and others involved in the crash were not released.
Eastbound Route 14 was shut down for about two hours after the accident, Ryan said.
The sheriff's office is investigating the crash because a Woodstock officer was involved.
Knop said the juvenile was cited for failure to yield when turning left at an intersection. She said everyone involved was wearing a seat belt, and alcohol and drugs do not appear to be a factor.
The officer was believed to be performing normal driving, Knop said.
Rathfarnham Castle on a sunnier day.
Origins:
The earlier Anglo-Norman castle which was replaced by the present building was built on lands which were confiscated from the Eustace family of Baltinglass because of their involvement in the Second Desmond Rebellion. It defended the Pale from the Irish clans in the nearby Wicklow Mountains. It is believed the present castle was built around 1583 for Yorkshireman, Adam Loftus, then Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Protestant Archbishop of Dublin. Originally a semi-fortified and battlemented structure, extensive alterations in the 18th century give it the appearance of a Georgian house.
The castle consisted of a square building four stories high with a projecting tower at each corner, the walls of which were an average of 5 feet (1.5 m) thick. On the ground level are two vaulted apartments divided by a wall nearly 10 feet (3.0 m) thick which rises to the full height of the castle. On a level with the entrance hall are the 18th century reception rooms and above this floor the former ballroom, later converted into a chapel.
Rathfarnham was described as a "waste village" when Loftus bought it. His new castle was not long built when in 1600 it had to withstand an attack by the Wicklow clans during the Nine Years War (Ireland).
Civil war:
Archbishop Loftus left the castle to his son, Dudley and it then passed to his son Adam in 1616. During Adam's ownership, the castle came under siege in the 1641 rebellion. It was able to hold out against the Confederate army when the surrounding country was overrun. Adam Loftus opposed the treaty of cessation in order the stop the fighting between the Irish Confederates and the English Royalists. Consequently, he was imprisoned in Dublin Castle.
During the subsequent Irish Confederate Wars (1641-53), the castle changed hands several times. From 1641 to 1647, it was garrisoned by English Royalist troops. In 1647, Ormonde, commander of the Royalists in Ireland, surrendered Dublin to the English Parliament and Parliamentary troops were stationed at the castle until 1649 when a few days before the Battle of Rathmines, the castle was stormed and taken without a fight by the Royalists. However, the Roundheads re-occupied it after their victory at the Battle of Rathmines. It has also been reported that Oliver Cromwell held council there during his campaign in Ireland before going south to besiege Wexford. Adam Loftus, who recovered his castle and lands under Cromwell, sided with the Parliamentarians and was killed at the Siege of Limerick in 1651.
After the English Civil War, the Loftus family retained ownership of the castle. In 1659, Dr. Dudley Loftus, great grandson of Archbishop Loftus, took over the castle. During his lifetime, Dudley held the posts of Commissioner of Revenue, Judge Admiralty, Master in Chancery, MP for Kildare and Wicklow and MP for Bannow and Fethard. His body is interred at St. Patrick's Cathedral.
The eighteenth century:
The property then passed by marriage to Philip Wharton. The young man lost his money in the South Sea Bubble and in 1723 the castle was sold to the Right Hon. William Connolly, speaker of the Irish House of Commons for £62,000. In 1742, the castle was sold to Dr. Hoadly, Archbishop of Armagh, and on his death four years later it passed to his son-in-law Bellingham Boyle. In 1767, he sold the property to Nicholas Hume-Loftus, second Earl of Ely, a descendant of Adam Loftus, the original builder of the castle.
The castle in 1774
Nicholas died within a few years, probably as an indirect result of great hardships which he had suffered in his youth, and the estate passed to his uncle, Hon. Henry Loftus, who was created Earl of Ely in 1771. In commemoration of regaining ownership, the Loftus family constructed another entrance for the castle in the form of a Roman Triumphal Arch. The arch can still be viewed from nearby Dodder Park Road. Henry Loftus, Earl of Ely was responsible for much of the conversion of the medieval fortress into a Georgian mansion and employed renowned architects Sir William Chambers and James 'Athenian' Stuart to carry out these works. The mullioned windows were enlarged and the battlements replaced by a coping with ornamental urns. A semi-circular extension was added to the east side and an entrance porch approached by steps, on the north. The interior was decorated in accordance with the tastes of the period and leading artists, including Angelica Kauffmann were employed in the work. Writers of the period who visited the house have left extravagant descriptions of its splendour.
Henry died in 1783 and was succeeded by his nephew Charles Tottenham. He subsequently became Marquess of Ely as a reward for his vote at the time of the Union.
The nineteenth and twentieth centuries:
In 1812, the family leased the estate to the Ropers and removed their valuable possessions to Loftus Hall in Wexford. The lands and castle were then used for dairy farming and fell into disrepair. To quote a contemporary account from 1838: "Crossing the Dodder by a ford, and proceeding along its southern bank towards Rathfarnham, a splendid gateway at left, accounted among the best productions of that species of architecture in Ireland, invites the tourist to explore the once beautiful grounds of Rathfarnham Castle, but they are now all eloquently waste, the undulating hills covered with rank herbage, the rivulet stagnant and sedgy, the walks scarce traceable, the ice-houses open to the prying sun, the fish-pond clogged with weeds, while the mouldering architecture of the castle, and the crumbling, unsightly offices in its immediate vicinity,…The castle, so long the residence of the Loftus family, and still the property of the Marquis of Ely, subject, however, to a small chief rent to Mr. Conolly, is an extensive fabric,.....The great hall is entered from a terrace, by a portico of eight Doric columns, which support a dome, painted in fresco with the signs of the Zodiac and other devices. This room was ornamented with antique and modern busts, placed on pedestals of variegated marble, and has three windows of stained gloss, in one of which is an escutcheon of the Loftus arms, with quarterings finely executed. Several other apartments exhibited considerable splendour of arrangement, and contained, until lately, numerous family portraits, and a valuable collection of paintings by ancient masters. But, when it is mentioned, that this structure has been for years a public dairy, and the grounds to the extent of 300 acres (1.2 km2) converted to its uses, some notion may be formed of their altered condition.
In 1852 it was bought by the Lord Chancellor, Francis Blackburne whose family resided there for three generations. The property developers Bailey & Gibson acquired the castle in 1912 and divided up the estate. The eastern part became the Castle Golf Club, the castle and the southwestern portion were bought in 1913 by the Jesuit Order and the northwestern part was devoted to housing.
The Jesuits are an order renowned for their education and one of them; Father O'Leary S.J. constructed a seismograph. This machine could detect earth tremors and earthquakes from anywhere in the world and for a time, Rathfarnham Castle became a source of earthquake information for the national media.
To the north of the castle was a long vaulted chamber formerly known as Cromwell’s Court or Fort. This was apparently a barn or storehouse erected as part of the castle farm and had narrow loopholes in its 5-foot (1.5 m) thick walls. In 1922, it was incorporated into the new retreat house, to which it formed the ground story and its character concealed from the outside by a uniform covering of cement plaster.
Not far from the Golf Club House was an attractive little temple built of stone and brick, another relic of Lord Ely’s occupation of Rathfarnham. Although rather out of repair, if restored, it would have added much to the charm of this part of the links. Unfortunately, by decision of the committee, it was demolished in 1979.
In 1986, the Jesuits sold Rathfarnham Castle but before leaving, they removed the stained glass windows, made in the famous Harry Clarke studios, from the chapel and donated them to Tullamore Catholic Church which had been destroyed by fire in 1983. The other windows were donated to Our Lady's Hospice, Harold's Cross and Temple Street Children's Hospital, Dublin.
Preservation:
The castle was sold to Delaware Properties in 1985 and it was feared that it was facing demolition. After immense public pressure to save the building, it was purchased by the state in 1987 and was declared a National Monument. Currently, by the Office of Public Works, there is an extensive refurbishment going through the castle but it is still open to the public during the summer months (5th May - 12th October). The Castle is presented as a castle undergoing active conservation, where visitors can see, at first hand, tantalising glimpses of layers of its earlier existence uncovered during research.
On Scene of a Injury Accident Involving a Olathe Police Department Vehicle at Harrison Street and Dennis Avenue in Olathe on January 31, 2015 at 2050 hours.
Picture ID# 6546
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
Well, that was a fun weekend at UPfest! Despite an inauspicious start involving a lack of accommodation and a tendon severing washing up accident which effectively left the team a man down we still somehow managed to get the job done. Giving ourselves a complicated 3 in 1 mural was probably not the best idea but ‘best idea’ sometimes isn’t our forte.
Given we were short handed we thought it best to take our time and use both days to complete ‘Lovestruck’. Day 1 was mural 1. Three repeated heads with a white, greyscale and skin tone colour scheme and a colourful freestyle background. Day 2 started with the laborious task of applying tape to half the mural then repainting it entirely with red, yellow and blue hued faces and a new background. Mural 2 complete. Then comes the fun part and it’s time for the dramatic tape removal ceremony and for frankenmural 3 to be revealed. Hugo’s graceful rendition of this time honoured performance even garnered a spontaneous round of applause from the crowd of onlookers. I’d like to know if any other artists got a round of applause this weekend? Do we win UPfest?
Many thanks to Lindsay and her family for putting us up for the night and even cooking us a bacon sandwich in the morning. It was very much appreciated. As was the excitable Corgi puppy.
Cheers
id-iom
"Hash Trash #1472
Bewilderbeast and Pre Laid CumTrail; and Silent But Deadly as a completely unreliable Parental Supervisor (at least her involvement meant the Religious Advisor could stay...)
In the anals of Agana Hash history there have been many notable runs that have started at the Pacific Daily News building in Hagatna...this was not one of those trails though it will go down in history. This hash trash is being written immediately so I can stop thinking about it as soon as possible. Trail ran on pavement past the court house and the Angel "Welcome to Guam, now leave" Santos Memorial Latte Stone Park. True trail ran down toward the Attorney General's building (now sans "Eric the Eagle"). A check sent the pack up the powerline into Fort Apugan park - down the fence toward Naval Hospital's front gate and then into Agana Heights. The front pack of Likes It Longer, Amelia Airfart, Tonya Hardon, etc. were loving this stupid road running bullshit as we descended into the White Lady Bridge valley and crisscrossed swamp lands until we hit the Fonte River. The problem with athletes is that they run like hell on the road and then come to a screeching halt when they hit the bush. Likes It Longer demonstrated how to regroup the pack as she laboriously picked her way through the brush and hounds slammed into each other as they went from run to athlete in just a few moments. Little Running Shit in his tiresome loincloth opted to run Agana style past and soon we were hashing again. Bored with trail, I went for the river where lo and behold the stupid hares had put on-ons in yellow biodegradeable tape...now I'm all for more environmentally sensible hash flagging - but fucking yellow in a jungle? Are you kidding me?? It blended in with eighty percent of the foliage and matched the poop stripes on Little Running Shit's ass cloth. Giving up being FRB is hard for some hounds, but the first chance I got I bolted...listening to Amelia Airfart talking about his new bike was killing me. Up on Snake Road again we headed south only to run into fucking on-on's again. These damn hares were ruining my fly.
After getting passed again by all the athletes, I walked into the Chinese mom and pop store and bought a couple of beers and a bottle of water. When I came out the trail didn't turn toward the beach (which would have made it a complete freakin' loss) but turned uphill and ran behind the Pacific War Museum. Sharing is caring - so I gave a beer to flyer Bloody Q-Tip and took off. The pack at this point had devolved in roaming groups of flyers, true trailers, and those of us somewhere in between.
Trail continued uphill to Murray Road on a slow slog past the old dam and upstream. Limestone crags and features entertained the now ass dragging puppies as they gained altitude. Constant criticism of the hares continued until we realized this was Bewilderbeasts Revenge on the FRB's - he would surely cut the trail in half with an Eagle-Turkey split but that never happened. At religion later it was revealed that there was in fact two trails - they just forgot to tell anyone, mark the eagle/turkey split, or make it findable...hmmm....
Trail did more road running past the fire station on Nimitz Hill, past Flag Circle, and turned back into the bush across from Top O' The Mar. After slogging through a section that it was obvious the hares had been completely lost on -we arrived at the power lines. Once again, no check, just a continuation of stupid hash setting as the trail ran across and into the river valley. The FRB's all looked at the trail and laughed. Fuck these hares - they are just going to come out up hill...yep, trail came out at Fonte River dam's entrance trail - so we skipped that portion. Next up, another trail heading into the bush to the left - this was also stupid and thus avoided. We arrived at the former COMNAVMAR, former Guam High, now under construction to be Joint Region Marianas building to find fresh flour. Too fresh as it turns out since Tonya Hardon and Likes It Longer had run down the hare and pantsed him at his on-home.
Hashers dribbled in for the next two hours. Trail was listed at 5.3 miles or so...FRB's and flyers may have ran more or less. Religion at the powerline overlooking Maina would have been great if Mother Nature hadn't decided to unleash all of the rain she hadn't spilled throughout the day upon the pack. While moving my car to let BeanDad, Rip Van Wanker, and Hulk Hogan out; the peddle stuck and next thing I knew I was in...Yona.
Haj Sex ET
Scribe"
NG60HJU North East Ambulance Service Ford Focus paramedic car spotted at Haymarket Bus station Newcastle upon Tyne on Wednesday 22nd August 2012 Responding to collision involving NK61CYL Ariva bus and car
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
Sandia technologist Kevin Brenner and another volunteer worked together to plant tomatoes on a beautiful spring day in Corrales.
Photo by Bret Latter.
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
©AVucha 2014
On March 3rd at 6:21pm, Woodstock Fire/Rescue was dispatched for a motor vehicle accident involving a Woodstock Police Officer at Route 14 and Dean St. The officer was extracted from his squad car and was transported via OSF Life Flight to St. Anthony Medical Center in Rockford.
Woodstock, Illinois
News obtained from the Northwest Herald:
WOODSTOCK – A Woodstock police officer had to be extricated from an unmarked squad car and flown to a hospital Monday after a three-vehicle accident.
At 6:24 p.m., a 15-year-old male motorist from Woodstock, driving on a learner's permit, was waiting to turn left from westbound Route 14 onto Dean Street. When he turned left, he struck an unmarked Woodstock squad car, which was traveling eastbound on Route 14. The squad car then hit a vehicle facing north waiting on Dean Street.
Officer Eric Schmidtke was driving a Ford Interceptor and had to be extricated from the vehicle. He was transported to Woodstock Hospital, and subsequently flown to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Rockford, according to a press release from the McHenry County Sheriff's office.
He was released from the hospital late last night, according to McHenry County Sheriff's Deputy Aimee Knop.
The traffic signal for eastbound and westbound Rt. 14 was green at the time of crash, the release said.
Because of the extra equipment in the squad car, such as the computer, radio and weapons, it took longer to conduct the extrication, Ryan said.
The juvenile driver and his adult passenger were taken to Centegra Hospital – Woodstock, where they were treated and released, Knop said.
The names of the juvenile and others involved in the crash were not released.
Eastbound Route 14 was shut down for about two hours after the accident, Ryan said.
The sheriff's office is investigating the crash because a Woodstock officer was involved.
Knop said the juvenile was cited for failure to yield when turning left at an intersection. She said everyone involved was wearing a seat belt, and alcohol and drugs do not appear to be a factor.
The officer was believed to be performing normal driving, Knop said.
Edna Martinez, left, and Alex Hickman load boxes into vehicles at Roadrunner Food Bank’s mobile food pantry outside the AMC movie theater.
Photo by Craig Fritz.
The Winter Carnival Council and Collis Center for Student Involvement sponsored an ice sculpture contest again this year. The 20 competing teams were judged on the design and fit with the theme of Winter Carnival. Prizes were offered to first, second, and third place. (Photo by Jeff Woodward)
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The Meeting Place sculpture at St Pancras International Station, standing nine metres tall on the main concourse of the Victorian station, ahead of where the international services from Paris and Brussels arrive.
“Under the clock at St Pancras” has been a traditional meeting place for Londoners since the station opened in 1868, and this bronze sculpture, by British artist Paul Day, stands directly beneath St Pancras' main timepiece. It is intended to “reflect the romance of train travel as it used to be," while around the pedestal is a frieze of figures both meeting and departing. “I think that is an interesting slice of life and in a way the relief around the base has to be a rich tapestry about people getting together again after being apart,” said Paul after the statue was unveiled in 2007. “All separation involves a suspended moment when one wonders, is this forever?"
Taken in St Pancras, London, England on April 3, 2011.
This was the re-enactment of some gun battle or festival celebrating something involving lots of guns, extremely loud bangs, lots of smoke and men dressed in costume that we found ourselves caught up in. I took far more photos than there are here and come to think about it, I have videos to edit yet.
We decided to go for a city break rather than sun in Tenerife again this September. Other than a few days in the North East we haven’t been away since last March and wanted a change and hopefully some sun. The problem is getting flights from the north of England to the places we want to go to. We chose Valencia as we could fly from East Midlands – which was still a pain to get to as it involved the most notorious stretch of the M1 at five in the morning. In the end we had a fairly good journey, the new Ryanair business class pre-booked scheme worked quite well and bang on time as usual. It was dull when we landed with storms forecast all week, the sky was bright grey – the kiss of death to the photography I had in mind. I was full of cold and wishing I was at work. It did rain but it was overnight on our first night and didn't affect us. There has been a drought for eleven months apparently and it rained on our first day there! The forecast storms didn't materialise in Valencia but they got it elsewhere.
You May notice discrepancies in the spelling of some Spanish words or names, this is because Valencian is used on signs, in some guide books and maps. There are two languages in common use with distinct differences. There may also be genuine mistakes - it has been known!
Over the course of a Monday to Sunday week we covered 75 miles on foot and saw most of the best of Valencia – The City of Bell Towers. The Old City covers a pretty large area in a very confusing layout. There was a lot of referring to maps – even compass readings! – a first in a city for us. The problem with photography in Valencia is that most of the famous and attractive building are closely built around, some have poor quality housing built on to them. Most photographs have to be taken from an extreme angle looking up. There are no high points as it is pan flat, there are a small number of buildings where you can pay to go up on to the roof for a better view and we went up them – more than once!
The modern buildings of The City of Arts and Sciences – ( Ciutat de Las Arts I de les Ciencies ) are what the city has more recently become famous for, with tourists arriving by the coachload all day until late at night. They must be photographed millions of times a month. We went during the day and stayed till dark one evening, I gave it my best shot but a first time visit is always a compromise between ambition and realism, time dictates that we have to move on to the next destination. I travelled with a full size tripod – another first – I forgot to take it with me to TCoAaS! so It was time to wind up the ISO, again! Needless to say I never used the tripod.
On a day when rain was forecast but it stayed fine, albeit a bit dull, we went to the Bioparc north west of the city, a zoo by another name. There are many claims made for this place, were you can appear to walk alongside some very large animals, including, elephants, lions, giraffe, rhino, gorillas and many types of monkey to name a few. It is laid out in different geographical regions and there is very little between you and the animals, in some cases there is nothing, you enter the enclosure through a double door arrangement and the monkeys are around you. It gets rave reviews and we stayed for most of the day. The animals it has to be said gave the appearance of extreme boredom and frustration and I felt quite sorry for them.
The course of The River Turia was altered after a major flood in the 50’s. The new river runs west of the city flanked by a motorway. The old river, which is massive, deep and very wide between ancient walls, I can’t imagine how it flooded, has been turned into a park that is five miles long. There is an athletics track, football pitches, cycle paths, restaurants, numerous kids parks, ponds, fountains, loads of bridges, historic and modern. At the western end closest to the sea sits The City of Arts and Sciences – in the river bed. Where it meets the sea there is Valencia’s urban Formula One racetrack finishing in the massive marina built for The Americas Cup. The race track is in use as roadways complete with fully removable street furniture, kerbs, bollards, lights, islands and crossings, everything is just sat on the surface ready to be moved.
We found the beach almost by accident, we were desperate for food after putting in a lot of miles and the afternoon was ticking by. What a beach, 100’s of metres wide and stretching as far as the eye could see with a massive promenade. The hard thing was choosing, out of the dozens of restaurants, all next door to each other, all serving traditional Paella – rabbit and chicken – as well as seafood, we don’t eat seafood and it constituted 90% of the menu in most places. Every restaurant does a fixed price dish of the day, with a few choices, three courses and a drink. Some times this was our only meal besides making the most of the continental breakfast at the hotel. We had a fair few bar stops with the local wine being cheap and pleasant it would have been a shame not to, there would have been a one woman riot – or strike!
On our final day, a Sunday, we were out of bed and down for breakfast at 7.45 as usual, the place was deserted barring a waiter. We walked out of the door at 8.30 – in to the middle of a mass road race with many thousands of runners, one of a series that take place in Valencia – apparently! We struggled to find out the distance, possibly 10km. The finish was just around the corner so off we went with the camera gear, taking photos of random runners and groups. There was a TV crew filming it and some local celebrity (I think) commentating. Next we came across some sort of wandering religious and musical event. Some sort of ritual was played out over the course of Sunday morning in various locations, it involved catholic priests and religious buildings and another film crew. The Catholic tourists and locals were filling the (many) churches for Sunday mass. Amongst all of this we had seen men walking around in Arab style dress – the ones in black looked like the ones from ISIS currently beheading people – all carrying guns. A bit disconcerting. We assumed that there had been some sort of battle enactment. We were wrong, it hadn’t happened yet. A while later, about 11.30 we could hear banging, fireworks? No it was our friends with the guns. We were caught up in total mayhem, around 60 men randomly firing muskets with some sort of blank rounds, the noise, smoke and flames from the muzzles were incredible. We were about to climb the Torres de Serranos which is where, unbeknown to us, the grand, and deafening, finale was going to be. We could feel the blast in our faces on top of the tower. Yet again there was a film camera in attendance. I couldn’t get close ups but I got a good overview and shot my first video with the 5D, my first in 5 years of owning a DLSR with the capability. I usually use my phone ( I used my phone as well). Later in the day there was a bullfight taking place, the ring was almost next to our hotel, in the end we had other things to do and gave it a miss, it was certainly a busy Sunday in the city centre, whether it’s the norm or not I don’t know.
There is a tram system in Valencia but it goes from the port area into the newer part of the city on the north side, it wouldn’t be feasible to serve the historic old city really. A quick internet search told me that there are 55,000 university students in the city, a pretty big number. I think a lot of the campus is on the north side and served by the tram although there is a massive fleet of buses as well. There is a massive, very impressive market building , with 100’s of stalls that would make a photo project on its own, beautiful on the inside and out but very difficult to get decent photos of the exterior other than detail shots owing to the closeness of other buildings and the sheer size of it. Across town, another market has been beautifully renovated and is full of bars and restaurants and a bit of a destination in its own right.
A downside was the all too typical shafting by the taxi drivers who use every trick in the book to side step the official tariffs and rob you. The taxi from the airport had a “broken” meter and on the way home we were driven 22 km instead of the nine that is the actual distance. Some of them seem to view tourists as cash cows to be robbed at all costs. I emailed the Marriot hotel as they ordered the taxi, needless to say no answer from Marriot – they’ve had their money. We didn’t get the rip off treatment in the bars etc. that we experienced in Rome, prices are very fair on most things, certainly considering the city location.
All in all we had a good trip and can highly recommend Valencia.
Relief, or relievo rilievo, is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb relevo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane. What is actually performed when a relief is cut in from a flat surface of stone (relief sculpture) or wood (relief carving) is a lowering of the field, leaving the unsculpted parts seemingly raised. The technique involves considerable chiselling away of the background, which is a time-consuming exercise. On the other hand, a relief saves forming the rear of a subject, and is less fragile and more securely fixed than a sculpture in the round, especially one of a standing figure where the ankles are a potential weak point, especially in stone. In other materials such as metal, clay, plaster stucco, ceramics or papier-mache the form can be just added to or raised up from the background, and monumental bronze reliefs are made by casting. There are different degrees of relief depending on the degree of projection of the sculpted form from the field, for which the Italian appellations are still sometimes used. The full range includes high relief (alto-rilievo), where more than 50% of the depth is shown and there may be undercut areas, mid-relief (mezzo-rilievo), low-relief (basso-rilievo, or French: bas-relief /ˌbɑːrɪˈliːf/), and shallow-relief or rilievo schiacciato, where the plane is scarcely more than scratched in order to remove background material. There is also sunk relief, which was mainly restricted to Ancient Egypt. However the distinction between high relief and low relief is the clearest and most important, and these two are generally the only terms used to discuss most work. The definition of these terms is somewhat variable, and many works combine areas in more than one of them, sometimes sliding between them in a single figure; accordingly some writers prefer to avoid all distinctions. The opposite of relief sculpture is counter-relief, intaglio, or cavo-rilievo, where the form is cut into the field or background rather than rising from it; this is very rare in monumental sculpture.
Reliefs are common throughout the world on the walls of buildings and a variety of smaller settings, and a sequence of several panels or sections of relief may represent an extended narrative. Relief is more suitable for depicting complicated subjects with many figures and very active poses, such as battles, than free-standing "sculpture in the round". Most ancient architectural reliefs were originally painted, which helped to define forms in low relief. The subject of reliefs is for convenient reference assumed in this article to be usually figures, but sculpture in relief often depicts decorative geometrical or foliage patterns, as in the arabesques of Islamic art, and may be of any subject.
Rock reliefs are those carved into solid rock in the open air (if inside caves, whether natural or man-made, they are more likely to be called "rock-cut"). This type is found in many cultures, in particular those of the Ancient Near East and Buddhist countries. A stela is a single standing stone; many of these carry reliefs.
TYPES
The distinction between high and low relief is somewhat subjective, and the two are very often combined in a single work. In particular, most later "high reliefs" contain sections in low relief, usually in the background. From the Parthenon Frieze onwards, many single figures have heads in high relief, but their lower legs are in low relief; the slightly projecting figures created in this way work well in reliefs that are seen from below (see Moissac portal in gallery). As unfinished examples from various periods show, raised reliefs, whether high or low, were normally "blocked out" by marking the outline of the figure and reducing the background areas to the new background level, work no doubt performed by apprentices (see gallery). Hyphens may or may not be used in all these terms, though they are rarely seen in "sunk relief" and are usual in "bas-relief" and "counter-relief". Works in the technique are described as "in relief", and, especially in monumental sculpture, the work itself is "a relief".
BAS RELIEF OR LOW RELIEF
A bas-relief ("low relief", from the Italian basso rilievo) or low relief is a projecting image with a shallow overall depth, for example used on coins, on which all images are in low relief. In the lowest reliefs the relative depth of the elements shown is completely distorted, and if seen from the side the image makes no sense, but from the front the small variations in depth register as a three-dimensional image. Other versions distort depth much less. It is a technique which requires less work, and is therefore cheaper to produce, as less of the background needs to be removed in a carving, or less modelling is required. In the art of Ancient Egypt and other ancient Near Eastern and Asian cultures, and also Meso-America, a very low relief was commonly used for the whole composition. These images would all be painted after carving, which helped to define the forms; today the paint has worn off in the great majority of surviving examples, but minute, invisible remains of paint can usually be discovered through chemical means.
The Ishtar Gate of Babylon, now in Berlin, has low reliefs of large animals formed from moulded bricks, glazed in colour. Plaster was sometimes used in Egypt and Rome, and probably elsewhere, but needs very good conditions to survive – Roman decorative plasterwork is mainly known from Pompeii and other sites buried by ash from Mount Vesuvius. Low relief was relatively rare in Western medieval art, but may be found, for example in wooden figures or scenes on the insides of the folding wings of multi-panel altarpieces.
Low relief is probably the most common type of relief found in Hindu-Buddhist arts of India and Southeast Asia. The low reliefs of 2nd-century BCE to 6th-century CE Ajanta Caves and 5th to 10th-century Ellora Caves in India are noted for they were carved out from rock-cut hill. They are probably the most exquisite examples of Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain arts in India. Most of these low reliefs are used in narrating sacred scriptures, such as those founds in 9th century Borobudur temple in Central Java, Indonesia, that narrating The birth of Buddha (Lalitavistara). Borobudur itself possess 1,460 panels of narrating low reliefs. Another example is low reliefs narrating Ramayana Hindu epic in Prambanan temple, also in Java. In Cambodia, the temples of Angkor are also remarkable for their collection of low reliefs. The Samudra manthan or "Churning of Ocean of Milk" of 12th-century Angkor Wat is an example of Khmer art. Another examples are low reliefs of Apsaras adorned the walls and pillars of Angkorian temples. The low reliefs of Bayon temple in Angkor Thom also remarkable on capturing the daily life of Khmer Empire.
The revival of low relief, which was seen as a classical style, begins early in the Renaissance; the Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini, a pioneering classicist building, designed by Leon Battista Alberti around 1450, uses low reliefs by Agostino di Duccio inside and on the external walls. Since the Renaissance plaster has been very widely used for indoor ornamental work such as cornices and ceilings, but in the 16th century it was used for large figures (many also using high relief) at the Chateau of Fontainebleau, which were imitated more crudely elsewhere, for example in the Elizabethan Hardwick Hall.
In later Western art, until a 20th-century revival, low relief was used mostly for smaller works or combined with higher relief to convey a sense of distance, or to give depth to the composition, especially for scenes with many figures and a landscape or architectural background, in the same way that lighter colours are used for the same purpose in painting. Thus figures in the foreground are sculpted in high-relief, those in the background in low-relief. Low relief may use any medium or technique of sculpture, stone carving and metal casting being most common. Large architectural compositions all in low relief saw a revival in the 20th century, being popular on buildings in Art Deco and related styles, which borrowed from the ancient low reliefs now available in museums. Some sculptors, including Eric Gill, have adopted the "squashed" depth of low relief in works that are actually free-standing.
Mid-relief, "half-relief" or mezzo-rilievo is somewhat imprecisely defined, and the term is not often used in English, the works usually being described as low relief instead. The typical traditional definition is that only up to half of the subject projects, and no elements are undercut or fully disengaged from the background field. The depth of the elements shown is normally somewhat distorted. Shallow-relief or rilievo stiacciato, used for the background areas of compositions with the main elements in low-relief, was perfected by the Italian Renaissance sculptor Donatello. It is a very shallow relief, which merges into engraving in places, and can be hard to read in photographs.
HIGH RELIEF
High relief (or altorilievo, from Italian) is where in general more than half the mass of the sculpted figure projects from the background, indeed the most prominent elements of the composition, especially heads and limbs, are often completely undercut, detaching them from the field. The parts of the subject that are seen are normally depicted at their full depth, unlike low relief where the elements seen are "squashed" flatter. High-relief thus uses essentially the same style and techniques as free-standing sculpture, and in the case of a single figure gives largely the same view as a person standing directly in front of a free-standing statue would have. All cultures and periods in which large sculptures were created used this technique in monumental sculpture and architecture.
Most of the many grand figure reliefs in Ancient Greek sculpture used a very "high" version of high-relief, with elements often fully free of the background, and parts of figures crossing over each other to indicate depth. The metopes of the Parthenon have largely lost their fully rounded elements, except for heads, showing the advantages of relief in terms of durability. High relief has remained the dominant form for reliefs with figures in Western sculpture, also being common in Indian temple sculpture. Smaller Greek sculptures such as private tombs, and smaller decorative areas such as friezes on large buildings, more often used low relief.
Hellenistic and Roman sarcophagus reliefs were cut with a drill rather than chisels, enabling and encouraging compositions extremely crowded with figures, like the Ludovisi Battle sarcophagus (250–260 CE). These are also seen in the enormous strips of reliefs that wound round Roman triumphal columns. The sarcophagi in particular exerted a huge influence on later Western sculpture. The European Middle Ages tended to use high relief for all purposes in stone, though like Ancient Roman sculpture their reliefs were typically not as high as in Ancient Greece. Very high relief reemerged in the Renaissance, and was especially used in wall-mounted funerary art and later on Neo-classical pediments and public monuments.
In Hindu-Buddhist art of India and Southeast Asia high relief can also be found, although it is not as common as low reliefs. Most of Hindu-Buddhist sculptures however also can be considered as a high relief, since these sculptures usually connected to a stella as the background to support the statue as well as provides additional elements such as aura or halo in the back of sculpture's head, or floral decoration. The examples of Indian high reliefs can be found in Khajuraho temple, that displaying voluptuous twisting figures that often describes the erotic Kamasutra positions. In 9th-century Prambanan temple, Central Java, the examples are the high reliefs of Lokapala devatas, the guardian of directions deities.
SUNK RELIEF
Sunk or sunken relief is largely restricted to the art of Ancient Egypt where it is very common, becoming after the Amarna period of Ahkenaten the dominant type used, as opposed to low relief. It had been used earlier, but mainly for large reliefs on external walls, and for hieroglyphs and cartouches. The image is made by cutting the relief sculpture itself into a flat surface. In a simpler form the images are usually mostly linear in nature, like hieroglyphs, but in most cases the figure itself is in low relief, but set within a sunken area shaped round the image, so that the relief never rises beyond the original flat surface. In some cases the figures and other elements are in a very low relief that does not rise to the original surface, but others are modeled more fully, with some areas rising to the original surface. This method minimizes the work removing the background, while allowing normal relief modelling.
The technique is most successful with strong sunlight to emphasise the outlines and forms by shadow, as no attempt was made to soften the edge of the sunk area, leaving a face at a right-angle to the surface all around it. Some reliefs, especially funerary monuments with heads or busts from ancient Rome and later Western art, leave a "frame" at the original level around the edge of the relief, or place a head in a hemispherical recess in the block (see Roman example in gallery). Though essentially very similar to Egyptian sunk relief, but with a background space at the lower level around the figure, the term would not normally be used of such works.
COUNTER RELIEF
Sunk relief technique is not to be confused with "counter-relief" or intaglio as seen on engraved gem seals - where an image is fully modeled in a "negative" manner. The image goes into the surface, so that when impressed on wax it gives an impression in normal relief. However many engraved gems were carved in cameo or normal relief.
A few very late Hellenistic monumental carvings in Egypt use full "negative" modelling as though on a gem seal, perhaps as sculptors trained in the Greek tradition attempted to use traditional Egyptian conventions.
SMALL OBJECTS
Small-scale reliefs have been carved in various materials, notably ivory, wood, and wax. Reliefs are often found in decorative arts such as ceramics and metalwork; these are less often described as "reliefs" than as "in relief". Small bronze reliefs are often in the form of "plaques" or plaquettes, which may be set in furniture or framed, or just kept as they are, a popular form for European collectors, especially in the Renaissance.
Various modelling techniques are used, such repoussé ("pushed-back") in metalwork, where a thin metal plate is shaped from behind using various metal or wood punches, producing a relief image. Casting has also been widely used in bronze and other metals. Casting and repoussé are often used in concert in to speed up production and add greater detail to the final relief. In stone, as well as engraved gems, larger hardstone carvings in semi-precious stones have been highly prestigious since ancient times in many Eurasian cultures. Reliefs in wax were produced at least from the Renaissance.
Carved ivory reliefs have been used since ancient times, and because the material, though expensive, cannot usually be reused, they have a relatively high survival rate, and for example consular diptychs represent a large proportion of the survivals of portable secular art from Late Antiquity. In the Gothic period the carving of ivory reliefs became a considerable luxury industry in Paris and other centres. As well as small diptychs and triptychs with densely packed religious scenes, usually from the New Testament, secular objects, usually in a lower relief, were also produced.
These were often round mirror-cases, combs, handles, and other small items, but included a few larger caskets like the Casket with Scenes of Romances (Walters 71264) in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. Originally there were very often painted in bright colours. Reliefs can be impressed by stamps onto clay, or the clay pressed into a mould bearing the design, as was usual with the mass-produced terra sigillata of Ancient Roman pottery. Decorative reliefs in plaster or stucco may be much larger; this form of architectural decoration is found in many styles of interiors in the post-Renaissance West, and in Islamic architecture.
WIKIPEDIA
Villagers in Mahounou, in Daloa, Côte d’Ivoire
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Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
An ancient interaction involving some dude and some other dude and a long penis. The Egyptians definitely enjoyed their nudity. Many of the women are depicted bare chested with erect nipples and the pharoahs usually wore only a crown and a "royal kilt" A.K.A. ancient miniskirt. That explains Cairo's current population of 25 million.