Ship of Fools: Graffiti

Thread: Graffiti Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

I was reading this article on medieval churches' graffiti, and it put me in mind of a few things:

The urge to draw, and also to caricature is ancient. Some cave art probably qualifies as the first graffiti. And in an age where people couldn't write, they drew. I once saw a Victorian photo of a street in London's East End where the wall was covered in graffiti - not a single written word, as presumably all those doing it were illiterate, but all drawings and cartoons, and some very well drawn.

Some ancient graffiti still survive. There are the rudenesses on the walls in Pompeii, and somewhere in Hertfordshire there's a carved inscription that says "At last the end of the Black Death."

And as per the article, if you look at the cloisters in Salisbury Cathedral, you'll find some bored churchgoer, centuries ago, carved the outline of a little dog into one of the stones.

So - any interesting old graffiti that you know of, in your church, or elsewhere?

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

For a few months in my hometown, early 90s, there was anti-Christian graffiti scrawled all over the downtown.

"There are billions of gods more powerful than Jesus."

"Billions of powerful gods shall burn out the eyes of Jesus."

And other variations on that theme. I also found a business card that someone had printed up, with a long paragraph stating the same general stuff in the same language.

A friend of mine figured it was suburban kids, but a local street preacher told me it was a dischargee from the psych hospital. The rambling nature of the business card inclines me toward the latter theory.

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :

Christianity's relationship with graffiti goes back a long way.

The most embarrassing was when a member of another congregation took it into his head to use graffiti as an evangelism tool. Full marks for bright ideas but the execution was as amateurish as to negate any usefulness at all. Normally these were done in chalk and the symbolism was so obscure I think most people who noticed them thought them the scribbles of a rather out of control toddler.

Jengie

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

At a construction site in Los Angeles several years ago, someone had painted JESUS SAVES FROM HELL in large letters on a temporary wall.

Someone else added O DOLLY REVIVALS to complete the sentence.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Reminds me of the election slogan: VOTE FOR DUFFY - AND IRELAND to which had been added 'S DEAD WILL RISE AND CURSE YOU.

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :

A few years ago the sign on entering Redruth in Cornwall had been changed from 'Welcome to Redruth' to 'You're Welcome to Redruth'.

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

I love the graffito that says:

Things I hate:
1. Graffiti
2. Irony
3. Lists

Posted by M. (# 3291) on :

My nephew told me of one. A pair of doors. One had that sign on it 'This door is alarmed'. Someone had written on the other, 'This one's just mildly irritated'.

M.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

An old piece of graffiti found on the big advertising hoardings you see along roads, when Mars were using the slogan "A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play" except this hoarding only had:
"A Mars a day helps ..."
and someone had helpfully added "teeth decay."

Posted by Jane R (# 331) on :

There are two stones with Viking inscriptions in Carlisle Cathedral. They seem to have put glass over the one next to the main door and stuck a notice above it; when we went to look at it (over 20 years ago now) it was hidden behind the postcard stand and the cathedral guide didn't know about it. He came over to find out why we were moving the postcard stand and peering at the wall behind it!

I expect it's in all the cathedral guidebooks now, but back then we only knew about it because we had a cathedral guidebook published in 1914.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

And of course there are runes all over at Maes Howe.

Posted by Cottontail (# 12234) on :

I am reliably informed that the Viking runes at Maes Howe contain the line, "Thora is a slag", which is kind of reassuringly predictable.

I was also told about a piece of navy graffiti from the old days, where underneath Wrens' Entrance, some wag had written, Indeed they do!

Posted by Pyx_e (# 57) on :

I love witty graffiti and have a collection of JPEGs. However the best I ever saw myself was not witty or even clever but it was perfect.

Loads of work lorries were parking on a small piece of grass opposite a building development. One night some irate neighbour (I guess) wrote in green spray paint on the white plywood site hoardings:

"The piece of grass opposite is not a f**cking lorry park so stop parking your f**king lorries on it you f**cking c**ts."

Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :

Near where I live there's a railway bridge that attracts a lot of graffiti "tagging". Frankly, it brightens the place up, but of course the council keep sending people to paint over it with dull grey paint.

As of last week, the only thing on the bridge was an indignant "STOP PAINTING OVER MY ART".

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

quote:
"The piece of grass opposite is not a f**cking lorry park so stop parking your f**king lorries on it you f**cking c**ts."

Not graffiti, but in the same general thematic vein...

On one of my trips back home, there was a guy who'd play the bagpipes every night in a park near a residential section of downtown(Canada has a substantial community of "stage Scots").

One night, the guy was marching around the park around 10:00 PM, and someone driving by in a car and screamed "SHUT THE **** UP YOU ****ING LOSER!!"

What I loved was that the heckler didn't even give the piper the honour of an ethnic or cultural slur, it was just an impersonal, no-frills string of obsecene insults.

[ 21. July 2014, 15:24: Message edited by: Stetson ]

Posted by St. Gwladys (# 14504) on :

30+ years ago, I worked at Old Windsor and occasionally went into London by bus. One of the flyovers had a piece of graffiti which seemed apt - "Good morning lemmings".

Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on :

There was a famous one at Ladbroke Grove in the 60s, which was like that. It ran for a long distance along the tube track, on a low wall, and read something like, 'Work, eat, sleep, don't you ever get tired of this meaningless hamster wheel that you are treading, so that a brutal capitalism can sustain itself?' Actually, it was even longer than that.

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

Somewhere in Sarf Lun'non, on the wall of a school. "MANKIND SHALL BECOME EXSINCT"

And the Vikings did Hagia Sophia as well. On the lines of "Guthrum was here". Somehow one doesn't imagine them having that level of literacy.

Double meaning intentional.

Posted by OddJob (# 17591) on :

For a long while (probably a couple of years or more) in the 1980s a high, prominent wall close to the exit from King's Cross Station displayed the slogan in letters about two feet high: 'JESUS IS COMING SOON'. I wonder if it was written by a trespassing Christian in those days of more gung-ho evangelism, or alternatively by somebody despairing of secular politics of the day and of no particular religious persuasion. Maybe it was written lawfully by the wall's owner.

Posted by cheesymarzipan (# 9442) on :

there's a random piece of advice/graffiti on a road near me - all is says is 'BRUSH YOUR TEETH'

[ 22. July 2014, 11:50: Message edited by: cheesymarzipan ]

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

There used to be a double graffito on The Ffestiniog railway just outside Blaenau Ffestiniog.

"Free Wales" to which was added "with every 5 gallons."

But Graffiti is old, even the Egyptians did it.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

The Vikings also got as far as Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, and some were bored enough during one of the services to carve "Olaf the Viking woz 'ere" or the equivalent into one of the marble balconies, which you can still see today.

I can only think it must have been an exceptionally dull service.

Posted by no prophet (# 15560) on :

Here's one of the better graffiti on a church.

street art appeared a week ago on the door of the abandoned church they own.

"The portrait of an aboriginal youth with long braids is a welcome addition to the rundown building "

Posted by Pyx_e (# 57) on :

my current fav

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

My current favourite is on a discontinued block (conversion or new build) of flats in Poplar and apparently a Banksy (it's on his website). I must go back and take a better picture, because there's another amazing piece of graffiti around the corner from there, too.

[ 22. July 2014, 14:44: Message edited by: Curiosity killed ... ]

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

Ariel

I woz there first.

Posted by no prophet (# 15560) on :

Both of these are great! I'm having a double chuckle just now. Thanks.

quote:
Originally posted by Pyx_e:
my current fav

quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
My current favourite is on a discontinued block (conversion or new build) of flats in Poplar and apparently a Banksy (it's on his website). I must go back and take a better picture, because there's another amazing piece of graffiti around the corner from there, too.

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by OddJob:
For a long while (probably a couple of years or more) in the 1980s a high, prominent wall close to the exit from King's Cross Station displayed the slogan in letters about two feet high: 'JESUS IS COMING SOON'.

I've seen that elsewhere with the added words 'look busy'.

Posted by BessHiggs (# 15176) on :

Locally, someone has been putting graffiti on stop signs on the back roads. My 2 favorites are: STOP being ugly and STOP drop and roll.

but then I'm easily amused [Big Grin]

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

In the 1960s someone with a stencil left the message STAMP OUT BAD KARMA on all the sidewalks in the area of Harvard Square.

Moo

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

A friend of mine is a very good graffiti artist. Only images though, no text.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

On a "Do not pass" sign I've seen added underneath "Go. Do not collect $200."

Posted by Bob Two-Owls (# 9680) on :

An old piece of graffiti near the Scots/Irish area in Derby read "GOURANGA" but before long someone crossed it out and sprayed "GOU CELTIC" over the top.

Posted by Earwig (# 12057) on :

A famous, if rather odd, bit of graffiti in York is the sign that reads "Ah good the sea". It's been there in a lane by the University for at least the last 15 years, repainted fresh at times.

Posted by Signaller (# 17495) on :

Back in the 70s "NICHOLAS PARSONS IS THE NEO-OPIATE OF THE PEOPLE" appeared on a wall on a roundabout near Harrow. It stayed there undisturbed for decades until it just faded away.

Unlike its subject, who just goes on and on...

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Earwig:
A famous, if rather odd, bit of graffiti in York is the sign that reads "Ah good the sea". It's been there in a lane by the University for at least the last 15 years, repainted fresh at times.

There's something vaguely similar in a side street in Oxford behind one of the colleges, with the outline of a stegosaurus and "Remember what happened to the dinosaur!". Nobody knows who drew it there, or why, but it's repainted periodically, and has been, for at least 35-40 years. (Intriguingly, there's also a blue stegosaurus behind it with the legend "I did, and look what happened to me".)

In recent years the college wall it was on was rebuilt to put a gate in, and the dinosaur was temporarily decapitated. The college had the head repainted.

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :

I've always liked this one on a wall in Oxford. Apparently it's been there for forty-plus years, and it's very noticeable that someone repainted it when the new doorway was put through the wall a few years ago!

AG

ETA - Ha! How's that for a cross-post?

[ 23. July 2014, 13:20: Message edited by: Sandemaniac ]

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
I've always liked this one on a wall in Oxford. Apparently it's been there for forty-plus years, and it's very noticeable that someone repainted it when the new doorway was put through the wall a few years ago!

Gosh, it's still there.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

This has been making the rounds...

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
This has been making the rounds...

Those are fabulous, I also love that the council worker trimmed the bush.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

That guy rocks, whoever he is. A crown awaits him in Heaven.

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

My favorite (though sadly fictional) graffiti would have to be the lovely Romanes Eunt Domus

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