The public has had a love/hate relationship with graffiti. On the one hand, gifted creatives such as Banksy have turned graffiti into an aesthetic pleasure, utilizing stencils to create technically challenging graphics with political messages attached. This sort of graffiti was certain to become popular with both the masses and the art critics : visually pleasing and intellectually satisfying. This sort of graffiti is now even bought as graffiti prints on canvas, and hung in middle class homes and corporate reception areas.

All the same, what about the opposite end of the spectrum? – the scally, the tagger, the gangbanger variety – this kind of graffiti is often seen as antisocial, an offence perpetrated by the untalented. But is graffiti merely an artform? To many individuals, it’s not just an artform, but a way to put your stamp on territory, or even two fingers up at society : anti-establishment, anti-social, even anti-art.

Graffiti has always been a secret pursuit, even though the results are public facing. The intended audience is often unbeknown. Is it for a rival crew? A message to a single person? To the public at large? Maybe it’s simply gratuitous and out of boredom.

Whatever the reasons may be, there appears to be some kind of permanent demand to spray graffiti. Some city councils have acknowledged that graffiti isn’t going to go away, so they’ve marked off areas where graffiti is permitted – usually uninhabited areas, but occasionally busier areas like temporary boarding surrounding urban construction sites.