Graffiti

"I think it’s fantastic that graffiti and street artists are getting the recognition they deserve – it’s art with a social message made by anyone who’s got the bottle to spray on a wall and risk arrest."

"People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish. But that's only if it's done properly."

"Graffiti has more chance of meaning something or changing stuff than anything indoors. Graffiti has been used to start revolutions, stop wars, and generally is the voice of people who aren't listened to. Graffiti is one of those few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don't come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make somebody smile while they're having a piss."

"I largely see graffiti as a set of painting techniques that represent an individual’s artistic expression. There are 3 main types of graffiti designs: character pieces, realistic pieces, and text pieces. I most often do text pieces, of which there are 4 styles: 2D, 3D, Wild Style, and Old School. I love Wild Style the most, which involves very colorful designs. I have a personal theme that I like to involve in my work – the butterfly. That is where I derive my name from: BF stands for butterfly. I try to convey the character of a butterfly when I do my work – things like freedom and bold expression. I want to be able to freely express my ideas and feelings through graffiti. Many people see graffiti as one of four main pillars of hip hop culture. I agree with this to an extent, but for me personally, graffiti is mostly a personal pursuit of artistic expression. My perception is that in places like the USA and Korea, maybe graffiti is more readily seen as hip hop culture, but maybe in some other places like Europe, it is less defined and might be seen as more of an artistic expression."

"[The street art is] decorative, contextual, layered and artists aren’t afraid of giving their name. Graffiti is more underground, more rebel."

"It was a big joke actually. The police thought that we were more than artists—they thought we were terrorists that wanted to bomb the city. They spent three days searching us and we spent one day in custody. In the end, the mayor of the city decided to release us."

"the reasons that I like to do graffiti are: 1- with making graffiti I want to cover all bad memories of war from people’s mind, with colors to cover all bad element of war with my graffiti’s. 2- to introduce art to people with making graffiti, cause as you know afghan people has no chance to visit some art gallery or museums, or they don’t want to go to some art exhibition, so if I do art everybody will enjoy it. In outside it is for longer time and slowly people with memorize it and it will be part of their life when every day they use the same way of that wall, it doesn’t need to ticket as well, it is colorful and bringing some change and give too much color to people’s mind. 3- I could say my words with shape to people, easily, image has more effect then word, and it’s a friendly way to fight, as I am fighting, now, for women rights as well with my art. 4- I believe there are many who forget all the tragedy women face in Afghanistan that is why I use my paintings as a mean to remind the people. I want to highlight the matter in the society, with paintings reflecting women in Burqas everywhere. And I try to show them bigger than what they are in reality, and in modern forms, in shaped in happiness, movement, maybe stronger. I try to make people look at them differently."

"I grew up in a very small town, without buildings but only houses – not the best for tagging. Also I liked the atmosphere of abandoned spaces, somehow apart from the real world. A good place to practice.It was only when I moved to a bigger city and felt more confident about my paintings that I started to do it in the streets. Tagging then became a drug; I was addicted to graffiti."

"Well, it was just—it seemed like it was violence, and, like, 'cause I went by some of the stores that, like, I don't really eat at McDonald's, y'know, but a lot of people do, and so there are these people who want, y'know, they're-they're socialists but they hate people, y'know, so they go trash the McDonald's, and I just think it was just reckless violence, and they weren't tryin'a accomplish anything, and they said—he was writing something on the wall, some kind of graffiti that was just stupid and cliché, and I said, "Hey, how would you like if someone did that to your house?" and he yelled back, "Fuck you!" and these other people started yelling "Fuck you!" at me; I'm, like, "Oh," like "I'm in trouble.""

"I wanted that work to carry the most important message ... that a person mustn't sell himself. I made a chocolate bar that can't be bought, using a giant panel of concrete."

"Italy and Europe in general can boast an ancient and hugely important tradition in art. It is difficult to enter the scene if you do something new, especially if it doesn’t belong to your traditional culture. I was lucky to travel very soon at the beginning of my career, so I was able to reach relative notoriety overseas (especially in America and Canada). There, people are of course more used to graffiti and more interested in discovering and appreciating it. My work improved greatly thanks to the foreign market. The audience was more openminded and I have been able to create a stronger artistic identity thanks to them. Nowadays I am working a lot in Europe and I am starting to have interesting clients in Italy also. It’s a bit difficult, in Italy, to find places to showcase graffiti art, but I can perceive a growing attention to the movement and initiatives that promote a harmonic mix of urban architecture and wall painting."

"Graffiti is a culture where if you're shit, everyone is quick to tell you. The mark of respect for a graffiti artists is how long your "piece" and tag stay up on a wall. Out of raw respect, other artists will not paint over something they think is good, and anyone who does paint over it better be prepared for a beat-down. However, if your stuff is no good, or if you are seen as amateur, you'll quickly find the word "lame" written all over your work. The offending person would then leave their own tag on the side as a direct challenge. The only way to get even was to be good. In the days before the mainstreaming of hip-hop culture and the appreciation of artists like Banksy, this was classic counterculture stuff."

"Sure, but Germany actually provides us with graffiti lawyers. And you need to be caught in action in order for the police to arrest you."

"Graffiti is graffiti and street art is street art. Street artists are more concerned with getting a message out to the public. And it often has political and social overtones. Graffiti is about style."

"They need to learn the importance of respect. They think getting up is cool, but too many young writers out there don’t have any knowledge of graffiti’s roots."