Sunday, April 14, 2013

New York's Attempt At Graffiti: The Good, The Bad And The Random

OK, here's the deal. Right now I'm sitting in the lounge in Newark airport, but as you can probably guess, there is not much to blog about in an airport lounge. So I'm going to carry on blogging about New York. On our last day, when my dad wasn't working, we decided to go somewhere different, outside of Manhattan and a bit more similar to home.

I've posted about our graffiti at home in London before, so you've probably gleaned how much I love these spray-paint works on the wall. So I was enthralled about what the borough of Queens, just east of Manhattan, would bring to street art, and how it would be similar to and different from London. And Queens definitely didn't disappoint, with its walls plastered in art (we even saw a work in progress on the roof).

I think the main difference between the two city's art was perhaps the more sinister side to the New York graffiti. From the angry-faced lightbulbs (these were a lot more frequent than my photos of them) to the blue girl sitting outside her spaceship that reminds me of the aliens in "Avatar" to the various alieny images mercilessly dropped onto the wall, New York graffiti seems a lot more about the horror and sci-fi genres than the humour (ours, of course, is a different story: see my "This Proves Graffiti Can Be Awesome" post for our wall cockroach and the ubiquitous rats). As for that scowling face in the tree, that looks like it could be in "Lord Of The Rings", and they mess up the slightly funny story with the skull guy as a cowboy by introducing his face on a "Wanted" sign. Totally unnecessary.

However, every cloud has a silver lining (cliché, sorry) and they were some more remarkable works around the part of Queens I like to refer to as the "Graffiti Block". They make up for pressing too much on the sci-fi button by spraying lighter designs like the girl with coloured stalks coming out of her back (wings, maybe?), the tribute to the legend that is Amy Winehouse (I thought that one was one of the most technically good, unlike those random pink hairs sprouting out in odd places) and the adorably cute little monster saying "You no love me?". They return to old themes with the dystopian bluetits, but dystopian bluetits? I can feel an award-winning novel coming on.

Reminded of home by that random Union Jack on the Queens street, I am just about to board the flight, so although there will be more NYC posts, they will be written in London!
-DP :)






























9 comments:

  1. JFK is in Queens, and we drove thru there to get to the airport. Didn't see any of that though! Totally awesome.
    HG :p

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  2. Maybe you just didn't drive through that bit? Thanks, though!
    -DP :)

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  3. Hey! Just followed! What year are you in? Great blog!
    E x

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    1. Thank you, your blog is great too! And I'm in Yr 7, you?
      -DP :)

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  4. Yeah, perhaps. :D
    HG :p

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  5. Those are awesome pictures!!!! You may have realized that I just followed!! I changed my name so I'm just not the person sitting next to you! I saw a fault in it and rectified it immediately!!!! Check out my new blog, I just thought my old one drove me utterly mad. You can find the address on my old blog. And I may never use it again its that irritating!!!!!!!!

    PS you know who I am!!!!

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    1. Thank you! Yeah, your old name sounded a bit stalkerish, as does "you know who I am" (joke!). I love your blog and can't wait to read more!
      -DP :)

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  6. gorgeous pictures; graffiti can be so artistic sometimes! following!
    thanks for visiting, hope you visit again soon! :)
    Juliet
    www.apurplesky.blogspot.com

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    1. I know, thank you so much! I love your blog and can't wait to read more :)
      -DP :)

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