By Mohamad Amirul Idham Mohd Ikhram & Dr Yong Adilah Shamsul Harumain

Graffiti on the walls and streets of Malaysia may make some people feel uncomfortable because it looks like an act of vandalism or a protest. This is because graffiti is often associated with the culture of rebellion and often considered or perceived as illegal.

Graffiti that is done without permission or without following a proper guideline from the local authority, especially at a public facility or at a non-authorised public space, can be an act of vandalism rather than an act of beautification.

Unlike graffiti, murals, on the other hand, are seen more positive than graffiti, but both are forms of street art that can be used to send positive messages. Murals are often made bigger in scale to give a sense of place, especially at schools and on public walls to alleviate the street image as well as to revitalise a dull space or street.

However, graffiti has recently been spotted to be used as a technique of street art in numerous Malaysian cities, particularly in areas where artistic expression is needed other than murals.

In Malaysia, there has been a growing appreciation for street art, which can take the form of graffiti, murals, 3D art, and more. Many cities in Malaysia use street art to revive back lanes, revive heritage buildings and improve street identity to attract more people to walk on the street again.

Street art is a diverse and evolving form and varies from graffiti to murals and even sculpture. Nonetheless, without a guideline, graffiti can be a form of vandalism and can be upsetting, particularly when the art and images touch on the sensitivity of the community in that area and others, as there are numerous perspectives on the art. After all, they say beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

In Malaysia, graffiti and street art can be traced to the 1990s during the rise of the Hip-Hop subculture in Malaysia. This can be proven through album art of early rap and Hip-Hop groups in Malaysia. Their album covers feature graffiti-style elements such as ‘throw up’, ‘tag’ and ‘paste-up’. This is a valid indication that the popularity of graffiti in the 1990s coincided with the rise of the Hip-Hop subculture in Malaysia.

Since then, graffiti and street art have appeared as a means to express the voice of the people and have become increasingly accepted. Malaysians can accept graffiti art as a form of urban enhancement. This can be demonstrated by mentioning the Malaysian cities of Batu Pahat, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Seremban and George Town, among others.

In addition, graffiti is now gradually accepted as part of certain brands' entertainment programme and marketing strategies.

The Greek word ‘graphene’ (which means ‘to scrape, draw, or write’) is the root of the English word graffiti. Although Roman and Greek ruins have figures and writings on their walls dating back thousands of years, the term graffiti only became popular in Philadelphia in the 1960s and New York in the 1970s. It was thought to have started in the Black and Latino communities, along with hip-hop music and street subcultures, and that the development of the aerosol spray can was what gave it its impetus.

Graffiti can range from the most basic form of tagging, which only requires a quick, continuous one-line stroke of an aerosol spray can or paint marker to mark a name, to complex three-dimensional figures, which need numerous line strokes, colours, and angles to create the illusion of depth.

According to Amanda Marie Bunting’s 1974 article, A Sociological Study of Graffiti in Seville, Spain, teenagers use ‘tagging’ and ‘bombing’ to mark their names and the names of their gangs to declare their territory, which is how graffiti differs from street art. But in the modern world, graffiti is a common urban phenomenon.

In a sociological sense, graffiti symbolises the potential for revolution. Graffiti should be seen as an intervention in daily urban life that aims to use urban space to appeal to the public as well as an act of defiance.

Last but not least, communicating a message is at the heart of graffiti. This can be used to its fullest potential as a tool to strengthen the sense of place. Graffiti can be seen as a moral and symbolic challenge to the established order of power. It can also be a sign of identity and an expression of the urban condition of today. Therefore, negative perceptions and attitudes towards graffiti may be a sign of an identity crisis in a particular location.

-- BERNAMA

Mohamad Amirul Idham Mohd Ikhram is a fourth-year Bachelor’s Degree of Urban and Regional Planning student at the Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Malaya.

Dr Yong Adilah Shamsul Harumain is a Senior Lecturer with the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Malaya.