Graffiti flourishes in a pandemic New York | TRENDS

The graffiti, which has been part of the history of NY For more than 50 years, it has been booming during the coronavirus pandemic – a sign of decline for some, and of vitality for others.

As night falls, graffiti artist Saynosleep takes a look around, then goes to work on the facade of a luxury store, which has been closed since it was looted in June during protests over George Floyd’s death.

“If you’re not painting right now, I don’t know what you’re doing,” says the 40-year-old. “There has never been a time like this.”

The facades of the hundreds of stores that have closed due to the pandemic are “an invitation” to artists, says Marie Flageul, curator of the Museum of Urban Art of NY, MoSA.

The walls, bridges, sidewalks and subway cars – 34 have been painted since the beginning of the month – become canvases.

“It’s a big boom, a graffiti revival,” says Saynosleep, who uses a different pseudonym for his legal artwork.

Graffiti was first accepted into the art world in the 1980s, when it moved into galleries.

He Street art It then captured the imagination of the general public in the 2000s, when it went from being in illegal to legal spaces.

But since March, it’s the kind of crude and forbidden graffiti that has spread across the streets.

“Everyone wants to express themselves,” says Saynosleep, who claims to have seen a 60-year-old woman drawing graffiti. “People are bored. They need something to do. “

The growth of the anti-racist movement Black Lives Matter following Floyd’s murder by a Minnesota police officer in May has accelerated the trend, with protesters scrawling slogans and demands for racial justice in buildings.

“Vandalism”

In a year when socializing has practically frozen and the streets are no longer bustling with activity, graffiti is the way artists say “it seems like NY she’s dead and you don’t see us, but we’re still here, ”says Flageul.

However, creative impulses are not to everyone’s taste. The governor of the state of NY, Andrew Cuomo, said that the graffiti was “another sign of deterioration”, along with the increase in murders and shootings in the city of NY.

He indirectly blamed Mayor Bill de Blasio for allegedly having a lax attitude on the issue.

Those who question these illustrations have also been upset after the city government, due to budget restrictions, suspended its program to eliminate graffiti, which had cleared nearly 15,000 spots in 2019.

“I think it’s horrible,” said Darcy Weber, who recently moved into NY. “Some say it’s art, but did they get permission to do it? No, then it is vandalism ”.

For some, graffiti brings back memories of the dark days of the 1970s and 1980s, when NY it was bankrupt and ravaged by crime.

“Since the beginning of the confinement, the police have seen me several times and I continued painting” without being arrested, Saynosleep says.

A spokesman for the Police Department of NY He said the force is “fully aware of the importance of tackling graffiti-related crimes,” noting that incidents decreased 17% from last year.

Flageul, who is also a spokesperson for the graffiti collective 5Pointz, says it is “a bit cliché” to say that more graffiti mean that NY is receding.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who wants to become Mayor of NY next year, he says graffiti on public and private property “is rapidly destroying the landscape of our municipality.”

“It costs home and business owners hundreds of thousands of dollars and enormous efforts to erase it,” he added, making a distinction between “vandalism” and “incredible street murals.”

Ken Lovett, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), noted that cleaning graffiti of the trains is running low on resources as the MTA faces “the worst financial crisis” in its history.

New Jersey resident Emile Fu says it doesn’t bother him too much. “There are other things to worry about,” he said.

Bryce Graham, who lives in the Chelsea neighborhood, said he would be shocked to see graffiti somewhere like Ottawa, “where everything is super clean.”

“But who NYIt’s a great mix of what is clean and what is dirty, ”he said.

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