without photos on Flickr

Palermo, Cappella Palatina by Ruggero Poggianella

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La Cappella Palatina è una basilica a tre navate dedicata ai santi Pietro e Paolo. Fu fatta costruire per volere di Ruggero II e venne consacrata il 28 aprile 1140 come chiesa della famiglia reale. Le tre navate sono separate da colonne in granito e marmo cipollino a capitelli compositi che sorreggono una struttura di archi ad ogiva. Completa la costruzione la cupola, eretta sopra le tre absidi del santuario. La cupola e il campanile originariamente erano visibili dall'esterno prima di venire inglobate nel Palazzo Reale in seguito alle costruzioni successive. La cupola, il transetto e le absidi sono interamente decorate nella parte superiore da mosaici bizantini, tra i più importanti della Sicilia, raffiguranti il Cristo Pantocratore benedicente, gli evangelisti e scene bibliche varie.

I mosaici di datazione più antica sono quelli della cupola, risalenti alla costruzione originaria del 1143.

Il soffitto in legno della navata centrale e le travature della altre navate sono decorate con intagli e dipinti di stile arabo. In ogni spicchio sono presenti stelle lignee con rappresentazioni di animali, danzatori e scene di vita della corte islamica.

Danneggiata dal terremoto del settembre 2002 fu sottoposta a restauri, conclusi nel luglio 2008. Il progetto dei restauri redatto dall'architetto Guido Meli dirigente del centro regionale per il restauro della Regione Siciliana venne finanziato dal mecenate tedesco Reinold Wurth per oltre tre milioni di euro.

Le decorazioni dei mosaici rappresentano scene di carattere aulico e venatorio con grande dedizione nell'esecuzione degli animali tra cui, oltre i mitilogici centauri appaiono leopardi, pavoni, cervi, cigni sullo sfondo di una vegetazione di alberi e palme. Le rappresentazioni dai canoni sontuosi ma con accenti di rigidità, delineano la chiarissima matrice greco-bizantina dell'opera. La volta della sala risale invece al periodo successivo di Federico II, come testimoniato dalla rappresentazione dell'aquila sveva.

La Cappella Palatina si trova nel sontuoso Palazzo dei Normanni, che oggi ospita il parlamento siciliano.

La Cappella è sicuramente il luogo più celebre della città di Palermo. I lavori di costruzione iniziarono nel 1130, anno in cui fu Ruggero II fu incoronato re di Sicilia, e terminarono nel 1143.

La Cappella è importante perché rappresenta la sintesi culturale e politica operata dai Normanni. Infatti, essa fonde in modo mirabile le espressioni architettoniche più rilevanti per la Sicilia: l'europea, la siciliana, la bizantina, l'araba. La Cappella si presenta sotto forma di basilica a tre navate sorrette da colonne di granito con capitelli corinzi riccamente decorati. L'elegante mosaico bizantino presente al suo interno, che si ritroverà nella chiesa della Martorana e nel Duomo di Monreale, è stato definito come uno dei più belli e meglio conservati di tutta Italia. È ormai certo che i mosaici sono stati eseguiti in due momenti successivi: si ritiene che i più antichi risalgano agli anni intorno al 1240, mentre quelli della navata centrale dovrebbero risalire agli anni 1260-1270.

I mosaici della navata centrale riportano scene dell’antico testamento; quelli del presbiterio ricordano episodi della vita di Cristo, e quelli delle navate laterali episodi della vita di San Pietro e San Paolo. Splendidi sono i mosaici più antichi, nella cupola che sovrasta il coro: rappresentano il Cristo Pantocratore (onnipotente), circondato da angeli ed arcangeli, e i quattro Evangelisti che paiono assorti in meditazione.

I mosaici di datazione più antica sono quelli della cupola, risalenti alla costruzione originaria del 1143.

Il soffitto in legno della navata centrale e le travature della altre navate sono decorate con intagli e dipinti di stile arabo. In ogni spicchio sono presenti stelle lignee con rappresentazioni di animali, danzatori e scene di vita della corte islamica.

Danneggiata dal terremoto del settembre 2002 fu sottoposta a restauri, conclusi nel luglio 2008. Il progetto dei restauri redatto dall'architetto Guido Meli dirigente del centro regionale per il restauro della Regione Siciliana venne finanziato dal mecenate tedesco Reinold Wurth per oltre tre milioni di euro.

Le decorazioni dei mosaici rappresentano scene di carattere aulico e venatorio con grande dedizione nell'esecuzione degli animali tra cui, oltre i mitilogici centauri appaiono leopardi, pavoni, cervi, cigni sullo sfondo di una vegetazione di alberi e palme. Le rappresentazioni dai canoni sontuosi ma con accenti di rigidità, delineano la chiarissima matrice greco-bizantina dell'opera. La volta della sala risale invece al periodo successivo di Federico II, come testimoniato dalla rappresentazione dell'aquila sveva.

La Cappella Palatina si trova nel sontuoso Palazzo dei Normanni, che oggi ospita il parlamento siciliano.

La Cappella è sicuramente il luogo più celebre della città di Palermo. I lavori di costruzione iniziarono nel 1130, anno in cui fu Ruggero II fu incoronato re di Sicilia, e terminarono nel 1143.

La Cappella è importante perché rappresenta la sintesi culturale e politica operata dai Normanni. Infatti, essa fonde in modo mirabile le espressioni architettoniche più rilevanti per la Sicilia: l'europea, la siciliana, la bizantina, l'araba. La Cappella si presenta sotto forma di basilica a tre navate sorrette da colonne di granito con capitelli corinzi riccamente decorati. L'elegante mosaico bizantino presente al suo interno, che si ritroverà nella chiesa della Martorana e nel Duomo di Monreale, è stato definito come uno dei più belli e meglio conservati di tutta Italia. È ormai certo che i mosaici sono stati eseguiti in due momenti successivi: si ritiene che i più antichi risalgano agli anni intorno al 1240, mentre quelli della navata centrale dovrebbero risalire agli anni 1260-1270.

I mosaici della navata centrale riportano scene dell’antico testamento; quelli del presbiterio ricordano episodi della vita di Cristo, e quelli delle navate laterali episodi della vita di San Pietro e San Paolo. Splendidi sono i mosaici più antichi, nella cupola che sovrasta il coro: rappresentano il Cristo Pantocratore (onnipotente), circondato da angeli ed arcangeli, e i quattro Evangelisti che paiono assorti in meditazione

St Martin, Acrise, Kent by Jelltex

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Even without attending Open House this year, I took a lot of shots during September. THis these are the shots from the sixth out of seven churches I visited on the Saturday of the Heritage Weekend, with Elham to follow in due course. But on top of these there are then the shots from the day I spent on the Marsh with John Vigar, seven more that day, and then the six Suffolk, one Essex and one Norfolk church from my road trip to Fakenham a couple of weeks back.

In short, there will be many more pictures of churches for at least a few weeks, maybe a couple of months.

Just to you know.

By now the Saturday of the heriage weekend was getting on, I left Alkham at about two, and drove along to Folkestone, up the M20 and then up the Elham Valley beyond Lyminge where the first signpost pointed across the valley and up the valley side.

This was the third time I had tried to get into St Martin, and depsite having been there before, I struggled to find it again.

The road turned then would along the top of the valley, with turn offs heading back down the valley having no signs. I thought I had gone through the village, when I did come to the welcome to Acrise sign.

Half a mile on was the crossroads, and so I knew down the gravel track to the right was the way to the church. I parked up, got the camera gear and followed a couple who were walking their dog down to the church. Sun streamed through the mature trees on either side, creating a green tunnel with the church at the end.

The church was much older than I remembered, I walked round to the porch and found the door open. In I went.

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An atmospheric church hidden away in the undergrowth of the `big house`. The large round headed windows are seventeenth century, and are filled with dark nineteenth century glass. The extraordinary chancel arch dates from the thirteenth century, but incorporates earlier deeply cut mouldings, assembled to create a unique and atmospheric piece. The manorial pew, complete with table dated 1758 and tiny eighteenth century schoolchildren's chairs, stands on the south side. The chancel was `very well restored` in the nineteenth century, and it is the character of that period that prevails at the east end.

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Acrise

t Martin’s Church, Acrise, dating back some 900 years, continues to retain the simplicity and atmosphere of its original early Norman construction. Comprised of a nave and chancel, topped by massive wooden tie beams and king posts, it lies quietly hidden from the road. Approached through an avenue of trees, rooks seemingly act as sentinels, protecting the small church and ancient yard they have chosen as their home.

Acrise owes its name to the abundance of oaks that grew on the high ground in the area – oak rise. There are still many old oak trees to be found within the parish, which even today has only a small population of around two hundred people. Listed in the Domesday Book (1086) as being held by Ansketel of Rots from Bishop Odo of Bayeaux, it comprised one manor, woodland and a church.

St Martin’s was probably built by Ansketel shortly after the Domesday entry and replaced an earlier Saxon church. Whilst much of the work is now hidden by later 14th century alterations, parts of original windows and priest’s door remain testimony to the early Norman origin.

The church was dedicated to the popular St Martin who was born in Hungary in 316AD, serving as a Roman army officer before turning to Christianity. Outside the town gates of Amiens he famously gave half his military cloak to a beggar in whom he saw Christ. Subsequently, in a dream, he saw Christ wearing the garment. Baptised, Martin devoted himself to promoting rural monasticism throughout Western Europe.

Records show that there was a painted image of St Martin within the church. This would have been a reminder to the medieval parishioners that ‘Martinmas’ (11th November) was a key time of the year, being the day for hiring new servants and salting meat for the winter. Some say that you can still see traces of the painting to the side of the chancel arch.

Numerous very striking wall monuments dating back to Elizabeth I illustrate a strong association with the families that lived locally and at the adjacent manor house, Acrise Place. Notably, the Papillons resided there for some two hundred years from 1666 – the year of the great fire of London They were intimately connected with St Martin’s and would have sat in the unusual box shaped ‘Squires pew’, present to this day.

The musicians’ gallery was restored in 1824 and although no record exists of when it was originally constructed, tiny chairs (circa 1805), still in use, remain from when it accommodated the Sunday school. A magnificently carved and painted Royal Coat of Arms (circa 1690), from the reign of William and Mary, hangs in front of the gallery.

Substantially unaltered since the 14th century, St Martin’s has played its part in the history of the last millennium but never more so than in 1214. Then it would probably have been the first church in the land to ring out its bells to mark the end of the Pope’s six long years of Interdict. King John, camped nearby on Barham Downs with an army of soldiers, awaited a French invasion. England had been ex-communicated for John’s refusal to appoint the Pope’s choice as Archbishop of Canterbury, with the consequence that priests were unable to christen, marry nor bury their flock.

The French king, Phillip, saw his opportunity to enter into a crusade and invade these shores. John thwarted the plan by offering the crown of England, in exchange for the lifting of the Interdict, to the Pope’s Legate at Hoad’s Farm, a mile distant from St Martin’s. Church bells rang out across the whole country at the news and undoubtedly, St Martin’s would have been the first to ring a peel.

It is only possible to touch briefly on the history of St Martin’s, with its roots stretching back to the last time England was conquered. It stood its ground in 1944, playing its part when Acrise was home to British, American and Canadian troops preparing for the D Day landings. St Martin’s continues to stand, unbowed, a tribute to the craftsmen that fashioned it all those centuries ago.

So come and walk up the tree-lined avenue, listen as the rooks chatter a welcome and enter through the door as countless generations have done before. Pause, reflect and step back into history.

www.stmartinsacrise.co.uk/history.html

the Cawood 3 by David DelaGardelle

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Forged without the aid of any modern power tools by David DelaGardelle and Andy Davis, the Sword of Cawood is a historical reproduction of an existing historical sword which was found in the late 19th Century at the River Ouse near Cawood Castle. The Castle was an ancient Lord's stronghold in North Yorkshire.

Throughout history much has been unknown about the original sword and its owner. It is extremely unique in the sense that it is a sword on the cusp of two eras. On the one hand it follows the traditional Viking age sword style with its lobed shaped pommel and short stout grip. But on the other hand it has a distinctly medieval crossbar with its wide curved shape. The original sword also carries inscriptions that run down the blades fuller and is made up of a number of capital letters which do not form any known words. On one side they are in Roman script and on the other they are in Lombardic script. It is believed that these letters stood for words which in turn represented a phrase or saying that possibly held great spiritual power of sorts to the swords owner. Many historians speculate that each letter in combination may refer to a verse out of the book of Psalms or some other verse out of the Old Testament of Scripture.

Because so much is still unknown about the original sword it holds a great mythic and legendary quality among the people of its homeland in Yorkshire and far beyond to this day.

This reproduction of the Cawood sword crafted by us at the Mad Dwarf Workshop was a project undertaken with the serious aim of producing it as authentically and traditionally as possible. While we by no means were able to use the exact historical tools the ancient smiths would have used on the original, we still aimed to craft it as authentically as possible, avoiding modern tools at any cost.

The exact measurements and specifications that we used to make sure this sword was as accurate as possible were kindly provided by New Zealand swordsmith Peter Lyons, who has handled the original sword and documented its specs.

Stats:

OAL: 37"

Blade Length: 32"

Point of Balance: 7 1/2" from guard

Wood type: figured antique & reclaimed walnut.

Guard and Pommel: 200+ year old wrought iron from an anchor chain out of England.

Steel type: 200+ year old wagon spring steel, 150+ year old steel from an antique English saw blade, and high carbon 1085.

(all steels were tested by hardening and tempering to see if they met standards for a sword blade prior to use)

To see more please visit our website at:

maddwarfworkshop.com/

FORD Mustang 289_DSC0066 by Ruggero Poggianella

All rights reserved. Please, do not use my photos/videos without my written permission. Please note that the fact that "this photo is public" doesn't mean it's public domain or a free stock image. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. If you wish to use any of my images for any reason/purpose please contact me for written permission. Tous droits reservés. Défense d'utilisation de cette image sans ma permission. Todos derechos reservados.

La Ford Mustang è un'autovettura sportiva statunitense prodotta dalla Ford Motor Company dal 1964. Si tratta di uno dei prodotti più venduti dell'industria automobilistica mondiale, imitata da molti costruttori e tuttora in produzione. La sua struttura originaria derivava dalla Ford Falcon. Fortemente voluta dal manager della società dell'epoca Lee Iacocca, poteva essere considerata una piccola muscle car equipaggiata di un motore da 2,8 L di cilindrata, erogante una potenza di 105 CV (78 kW). La presentazione della Mustang coincise perfettamente con la prima ondata della generazione dei cosiddetti Baby Boomers, cioè di quei giovani nati subito dopo la fine della seconda guerra mondiale. Questi giovani si affacciavano sul mondo del lavoro in un contesto di un'economia forte. A questa generazione nessun costruttore di automobili aveva pensato e pertanto non esistevano modelli di auto indirizzati specificatamente a loro.

Fu Iacocca ad identificare questo settore del mercato e a proporre loro una vettura giovane e sofisticata.

La Ford però in quel periodo risentiva di una situazione economica difficile dovuta agli scarsi risultati, e seguente dismissione, della Edsel avvenuto alla fine del 1959. Quando Iacocca propose la sua nuova vettura si trovò di fronte una direzione, con al vertice Robert McNamara, poco propensa ad imbarcarsi in una nuova rischiosa avventura. Iacocca però perseverò ed ottenne il via libera per la produzione alla metà del 1962. Gli vennero concessi 18 mesi per progettare e realizzare la vettura che sarebbe divenuta la Mustang. Alla fine il progetto venne portato a termine in un tempo inferiore e utilizzando un budget minore di quanto preventivato. La chiave di volta di questo successo fu data dalla decisione di utilizzare il maggior numero possibile di componenti meccaniche già prodotte dalla Ford. Per quanto riguardava il design della vettura ci si basò sul manuale interno spingendo al massimo la tecnologia produttiva dell'epoca.

Fu utilizzata anche, all'epoca, la nuova tecnologia che permetteva di ottenere superfici vetrate curve con assenza di distorsioni. Come detto la piattaforma di partenza era quella della Falcon. Il telaio però venne completamente rivisto per adeguarlo alle caratteristiche della nuova vettura. Fu aggiunto anche un innovativo sistema strutturale, detto Torque Box, che permetteva di incrementare la rigidità, la solidità e la maneggevolezza della vettura, rispetto a quelle dell'epoca, facilitandone nello stesso tempo la produzione. In pratica questa componente diventava un singolo pezzo da realizzare. Anche il lancio pubblicitario della Mustang fu un grande successo. La vettura venne presentata al New York Fair il 17 aprile del 1964. Due giorni dopo, 19 aprile, venne presentata in contemporanea sulle tre televisioni americane. La risposta del pubblico fu enorme ed immediata e si verificò un quasi terremoto in tutte le concessionarie Ford del paese. L'idea iniziale che portò alla realizzazione della Mustang si deve a Donald N. Frey e a Lee Iacocca, allora general manager della Ford. Il primissimo concept della vettura, denominata Ford Mustang I, fu realizzato in appena 100 giorni e debuttò il 7 ottobre 1962, durante il GP degli Stati Uniti a Watkins Glen (New York). Profondamente diverso dal modello che nacque in seguito, era una spyder a due posti con motore centrale, lunga appena 3.919 millimetri e larga 1.549 mm. Infatti, nelle prime intenzioni di Iacocca, l'auto doveva fare concorrenza alla Chevrolet Corvair Monza. Il motore utilizzato fu il 1498cc V4 della Ford Taunus, in versione da 109cv. Per "saggiare" la risposta dei potenziali acquirenti, i vertici Ford promossero dei tour dimostrativi nei college, ricercando una clientela giovane; tuttavia, la risposta del pubblico fu poco entusiasta, così l'auto rimase allo stadio di concept car, e il progetto dovette ricominciare da capo, arrivando poi all'auto che si conosce oggi. Il design dell'auto venne affidato a David Ash e a Joseph Oros, dello studio di design della Lincoln – Mercury, marchi di proprietà della Ford, che risultarono vincitori di una gara interna voluta da Iacocca. La versione base doveva essere costituita da una vettura hardtop sulla quale sarebbe stato montato un motore a sei cilindri in linea. La cilindrata di questa unità motrice era di 2,8 L mentre la potenza sviluppata raggiungeva i 105 hp (78 kW). La trasmissione doveva essere affidata ad un cambio manuale a tre marce. Il prezzo di vendita della prima Mustang doveva essere di 2.368 dollari USA dell'epoca ma alla fine quest'ultimo crebbe di alcune centinaia di dollari. Il design della Mustang ricevette molti riconoscimenti e premi. Il suo muso lungo, che ricordava la Lincoln Continental, il suo abitacolo corto e un tocco di stile internazionale che faceva pensare alle Ferrari le valsero nel 1964 il prestigioso premio quale Motor Trend Car of the Year e, prima vettura a riceverlo, il premio “Eccellenza” nel design proposto dalla Tiffany. Nello stesso anno la Mustang fu anche la pace-car alla 500 miglia di Indianapolis. Nonostante il suo progetto fosse indirizzato a farla identificare come vettura sportiva nella realizzazione della Mustang si era ampiamente fatto ricorso a componenti di altre vetture della Ford. Così sospensioni e trasmissione provenivano dalla Ford Falcon e dalla media Ford Fairlane. La piattaforma utilizzata era quella della Falcon del 1964 con sezioni laterali scatolate e con cinque elementi di rinforzo saldati. Sebbene la lunghezza della Mustang e della Falcon fosse identica, 4,613 m, l'interasse della Mustang era più corto, 2,743 m. Anche la larghezza differiva di poco, la Mustang era di 86 mm più stretta della Falcon, mentre quasi identica rimase la carreggiata delle due vetture. La Mustang pesava a secco 1.170 kg per la versione che montava il sei cilindri in linea e 1.360 kg nella versione dotata di motore a V8. Come per la Falcon e la Fairlane la Mustang adottava lo schema delle sospensioni indipendenti all'anteriore e lo SLA (Short-Long-Arm), con molle montate sul braccio superiore. Le sospensioni posteriori erano del tipo Hotchkiss con l'assale montato su molle. I freni erano quelli standard della Falcon: a tamburo da 229 mm di diametro per la versione sei cilindri e da 254 mm per la versione dotata di V8. Lo sterzo era caratterizzato da un rapporto di riduzione di 27:1 ed erano necessarie 5 rotazioni complete del volante per raggiungere il massimo angolo di sterzata. Poteva però essere montato, come optional, anche uno sterzo più diretto, con rapporto di 21,7:1, che migliorava le prestazioni in questo campo, anche se a prezzo di un maggiore sforzo fisico da parte del conducente. Molto del fascino della Mustang derivava dalla lista degli optional disponibili che rendeva possibile realizzare quasi una vettura su misura per ogni cliente. Erano disponibili diverse tipologie di trasmissioni: quattro marce manuale e tre marce automatico Cruise-O-Matic. Come motori era possibile montare un sei cilindri in linea da 4,2 L e da 164 Hp (122 kW) oppure un motore da 4,7 L da 210 hp (157 kW). A partire dal giugno del 1964 divenne disponibile la versione K-Code da 271 hp (202 kW) del motore. Quest'ultimo faceva parte di un kit nel quale erano comprese molle delle sospensioni più dure, ammortizzatori più rigidi, barre anti-rollio anteriori, ruote più larghe e sterzo manuale. Questo kit ad alte prestazioni era l'optional più costoso della gamma Mustang e nel 1965 ne furono montati solo 7.273 su un totale di 680.992 Mustang vendute. Altri optional erano costituiti dal differenziale autobloccante, cerchi ruota e relative coperture di disegno più elaborato, freni più potenti, aria condizionata, consolle centrale, tetto in vinile, diversi impianti radio, sedili e diversi altri accessori. Verso la fine del 1965 divennero disponibili, sempre a richiesta, i freni a disco anteriori. Furono poi aggiunti dei pacchetti specificatamente rivolti agli interni, Interior Decor Group o Pony Interior. Naturalmente il prezzo di acquisto della vettura, basso inizialmente, saliva con queste personalizzazioni di diverse centinaia di dollari che rendevano la Mustang una delle vetture con il più alto margine di profitto per i concessionari e per la ditta stessa. Due erano le tipologie di carrozzeria disponibili: decapottabile e hardtop. Fu con il model year 1965, cioè dopo soli cinque mesi dalla presentazione del modello, che vennero introdotti i primi importanti cambiamenti. Per prima cosa venne rivista la gamma dei motori disponibili. Venne tolto il 2,8 L che fu sostituito da un 3,3 L che forniva 120 hp (89 kW) a 4.400 giri al minuto. Con l'introduzione del modello 1965 venne eliminato anche la versione che montava il 4,2 L che fu rimpiazzata da due nuovi modelli dotati del 4,7 L (289inch) V8. La prima, di ingresso alla gamma, con carburatore doppio corpo e 200 hp (149 kW) di potenza. La gamma continuava con un modello dotato di carburatore a quattro corpi che forniva 225 hp (168 kW) per concludersi con il modello ad alte prestazioni, o HiPo, che invece era rimasto invariato. Altra importante variante fu l'introduzione della carrozzeria fastback, cioè due porte più portellone posteriore. Con questo modello ci fu anche il passaggio, avvenuto su tutta la produzione Ford, dai generatori a corrente continua (DC) Dinamo a quelli a corrente alternata (AC) Alternatore e venne introdotto anche il nuovo pacchetto optional GT, o ad alte prestazioni, nel quale erano compresi sia il precedente pacchetto HiPo che altre componenti. Questo kit era disponibile con i motori da 200 e da 225 hp e con tutte le tipologie di carrozzeria, dal cabrio, soft top, hard top e coupé. Il modello 1966 della Mustang vide l'introduzione di modifiche minori negli allestimenti e di alcuni nuovi optional. Questi ultimi erano rappresentati dalla trasmissione automatica anche per le versioni più potenti, nuovi colori per gli interni e per la carrozzeria, un sistema audio Stereosonic ad otto tracce e con ricezione in AM oltre ad una delle prime radio AM/FM disponibili su una vettura. Il modello 1967 fu il primo a subire delle riprogettazioni importanti e che vide l'ingresso nella gamma del motore Big block V8. Il modello che funse da base per l'introduzione di questo motore fu quello dotato del 4.7 L. Su questa vettura venne montato il motore a V da 6,4 L (391inch) che forniva 320 hp (239 kW), già montato sulla Ford Thunderbird. Con il model year 1968 venne introdotto il motore Supercobra da 6,5 L. Venne usata una versione limitata a 335 hp (250 kW) e non quella originale da 410 hp (305 kW). L'anno successivo venne introdotta la muscle car Boss 429, una vettura costruita a mano e creata per ottenere l'omologazione NASCAR. Questa vettura fu disponibile solo nel biennio 1969 – 1970. La carrozzeria era simile alla fastback ed era stata denominata dalla Ford Sport Roof. Gli interni, lussuosi, erano denominati Mach 1. Per i colori la Ford si mantenne su schemi sobri, rispetto a quelli sgargianti dell'epoca. Altre caratteristiche che permettevano di riconoscere questa vettura erano le decalcomanie Boss 429 poste su entrambi i parafanghi anteriori, le ruote Magnum 500 da 15 pollici (380 mm) di diametro con gomme Goodyear Polyglass e la presa d'aria realizzata sul cofano. Per ottenere maggiori benefici nelle competizioni, e con le tariffe assicurative, la potenza del motore era stata limitata a 375 hp (280 kW). Però era possibile ottenere con poche modifiche effettuate direttamente in fabbrica (montaggio della testata in alluminio con camera di combustione emisferica e sostituzione della guarnizione della testata con un mix di O-ring e altre guarnizioni – sostituzione impianto di scarico e rimozione del limitatore all'aspirazione) un incremento di 75/100 hp (56/74 kW). Se la vettura veniva portata a questo livello di prestazioni non erano più disponibili l'aria condizionata e la trasmissione automatica. Nello stesso periodo per ottenere le omologazioni nella Trans-Am fu creata la Boss 302 nella quale la Ford cercò di unire la potenza di una muscle car con la maneggevolezza di una vettura sport. Su questa vettura era montato il 4,8 L V8 del 1968. Su questo motore furono montate le testate del futuro 5,8 L (351inch) che verrà presentato nel 1970 con la denominazione di Cleveland. La potenza erogata dal motore era di 290 hp (216 kW) mentre la trasmissione era del tipo manuale a quattro marce. Originariamente la vettura doveva essere denominata Trans-Am ma la Ford fu battuta dalla Pontiac che applicò la stessa denominazione ad una versione speciale della Firebird. L'aspetto estetico della vettura era stato curato da Larry Shinoda e la vettura venne soprannominata Baby Boss. Nei primi due anni di produzione furono vendute quasi 1.5 milioni di Mustang, stabilendo così il nuovo record delle vendite. Le vetture venivano prodotte negli stabilimenti di San Josè (California), Dearborn e Metuchen (New Jersey). Le altre case automobilistiche si trovavano nella condizione di non poter reagire. La General Motors produceva la Convair Monza, una vettura a motore posteriore che poteva competere con la Mustang ma le cui vendite rimasero sempre molto lontane da quelle realizzate dalla vettura Ford. Fu solo nel 1967, con la presentazione della Chevrolet Camaro e della Pontiac Firebird, che la GM poté contare su dei modelli comparabili alla Mustang. La AMC presentò, nel 1968, la sua Javelin e in seguito la AMX, una due posti capace di elevate prestazioni. La Chrysler aveva presentato qualche settimana prima della Mustang la sua Barracuda che però non ottenne lo stesso successo della sua concorrente, anche se in seguito divenne una delle più potenti Muscle-car disponibili. In Germania la prima serie fu venduta col nome T5, poiché Mustang identificava un veicolo commerciale della Krupp, e venne acquistata prevalentemente dai militari americani stanziati nel paese. Dopo la fusione tra la Lincoln e la Mercury, ambedue marchi del gruppo Ford, un'altra Mustang fece la sua apparizione: la Mercury Cougar. Questa vettura altro non era che un Mustang di fascia alta. Presentata nel 1967 ottenne nello stesso anno il premio quale Motor Trend Car.

Without figures by Stephen Dowle

3 19

Burlington Danes School, in west London, was built 1936-7 to a design by the Modernist practice Burnet, Tait & Lorne. The structure is brick cladding on a reinforced concrete frame.

I arrived to photograph it at about 3.30 in the afternoon. At the gates stood a man in a para-military uniform. "Security" no doubt. When I returned from a reconnaissance of the side of the building he had gone. "Good", I thought. However, within a few minutes two of the teaching staff appeared. My obvious curiosity about the building attracted their attention.

"Can I help you?"

I explained that I had hoped, if there were no objection, that I might take a photograph. Actually I was being nice. The building was fully visible from the street and I was going to take a photo whether they liked it or not. My interlocutor, a nice middle-aged lady, said that she thought it would be alright so long as none of the students were in view. I groaned inwardly ...and noted the unspoken insinuation. I noted too that she had said "students", where I would have preferred to say "schoolchildren" and wondered, not for the first time, to what extent the problem of "paedophilia" (strictly speaking a meaningless and illiterate word ...but let that pass) is the result of the mad and wicked modern insistence that childhood is something to be rushed through as quickly as possible and that children should take on the appurtenances of adulthood at the earliest possible age. A growing trickle of pupils was now emerging from the school's doorway. "It should be all clear in about fifteen minutes", said the nice lady. I had been walking for several hours and was in need of refreshment. Over her shoulder I saw a large pub on the opposite side of the road. "I'll come back later", I said.

Nearly half an hour later, after partaking of some fortified cordial waters, I returned to the school gate. My nice lady had disappeared and there were now three male teachers. Oh well. Might as well brazen it out. I took two paces inside the gate and raised my camera.

"Excuse me".

I repeated my explainer about wanting to take a photograph of the building.

"Have you been given permission?"

"No", I replied, "I could take an almost identical photograph from the pavement, in which case no permission would be necessary, but there is a slightly better view from here".

The three teachers conferred. Once again I was told that I could take a photo as long as no student was in the picture. "We even have to get written permission from the parents to take photographs of the students for school purposes", he added.

To be fair he was perfectly polite and correct. You have to feel a little bit sympathetic towards anyone placed in the position of having to defend a policy which he probably thinks just as idiotic as you do. What nonsense it is! If I had an unwholesome interest in taking photographs of children there would be nothing to stop me from doing it in a public place. I'd have to be a complete fool to turn up at the gates of a school to take them. Of course, patrolling the school gates makes no difference whatsoever. It merely shifts potential problems to another place. It's all about the avoidance of legal liability.

Street Art/Graffiti, Voronezh, Russian Federation. by PHOTOGRAPHY by DM & DBM.

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Graffiti 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

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.

Loki Street Art/Graffiti, Ulverston, Russian Federation. by PHOTOGRAPHY by DM & DBM.

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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".