Preemptive Graffiti. A few pages back, I introduced you to a peculiarly New York phenomenon -- preemptive graffiti. This is a form of large-scale, sanctioned graffiti which serves to preempt the universally-abhorred graffiti "tags" which otherwise mar unprotected urban walls, gates, and building entrances. The graffiti mural which adorns the security gates in the photo at right was commissioned by the Dyckman Pawnbrokers on Dyckman Street just off Broadway. As you can see in the blow-up obtained by clicking on the photo, the colorful mural advertises the merchant's business and like a magic talisman, keeps away the unwanted graffiti which other shopkeepers on this block spend many dollars and hours to remove. I don't know the actual economics of preemptive graffiti, but my best guess is that it's cheaper by far to commission this form of protective advertising than to pay an employee or a contract service to remove graffiti ad nauseam.
Just a few doors east of the pawnbroker's mural seen above is the much larger "billboard", seen at left, advertising Chivas Regal scotch and the Inwood Liquor store on Dyckman Street at the corner of Broadway. Unlike the pawnbroker's mural, which was probably commissioned from a local graffiti practitioner, the liquor store billboard is clearly a commercial production done in the colors and style of graffiti art. (In the blow-up, you can just make out the © after the signature in the lower right-hand corner.) Fortunately for Inwood Liquors, the local graffitists seem to respect this artwork as much as they do "their own"; in the six or seven weeks I've been watching this billboard, not a single random "tag" appeared!
I think what interests me most about preemptive graffiti besides the obvious artistry of it, is that there seems to be a code of honor among graffiti artists -- which like "honor among thieves" seems a contradiction in terms. Apparently, the lost souls who spray-paint their tags on virtually any unattended, highly visible urban surface see themselves as artists. And as artists they refrain from mutilating the work of other artists -- perhaps in the hope of protecting their own work. And that's why Griffin Contracting, who needs reinforced cyclone fencing and barbed wire to protect their storage yard at night, doesn't need to worry about their big driveway gate. Located on Broadway across the street from Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, Griffin's gateway mural keeps itself graffiti-free.
But maybe it's not the graffiti murals that keeps the tag artists at bay, maybe it's the positive attitude of the merchants who commission them. Let's see what a positive attitude can do.
