( http://www.djingis.se/memb/ovre/aerosolart/index.html ) Aerosol Art with Writers and Crews, Walls and Trains from all Continents, Traditional Graffiti from Pre-history to the Present, Spray Art on Canvas and Street Art. Names, Dates, Figures, Records, History, Sources! For artists, scholars and writers. Staffan Jacobson, Ph. D. Note: The text of this book does not encourage any unlawful act and contains no information which could be used against writers. The most frequent abbreviations used in the book are (TTP) - Tags, Throw-ups, Pieces , (TG) - Traditional Graffiti, (exh) for exhibition, (rev) for review and (aa) for same as previous. The Italian word “graffiti” is used only in its plural form. The Aerosol Art and writer-orientated reader might prefer to focus on the “TTP” articles and the reader more generally interested in the anthropology and early ages 1 of graffiti and related issues on the “TG” and other articles, who are presented separately. As a scholar the author is unable to deny his Scandinavian background, which will be obvious in the bibliography. Anyhow, he is sure that it contains more than enough even for the English- and maybe also French- and German speaking reader. Thanks to mural documentalist James Prigoff, Art Crimes editor Susan Farrell and Prof. Andy Jamison for reading! You are most welcome to mail Your suggestions on additional entries, facts and figures, national crew-lists, language corrections etc to: [email protected] All received photos will be archivated. Always remember to add reliable, independent written sources with e.g.book title, author, publishing year, editor and page number. And Your e-mail adress! By doing so, You will participate in making this dictionary an up to date, refined, never ending encyclopaedia of the unique and powerful international Aerosol Art movement and of contemporary graffiti research. © Staffan Jacobson, Ph.D. ABC (TTP) Art Bombing Clan crew in Munich, Germany was started 1988. Won - known for his much advanced (usually red pink) characters - is one of the members, as are Cowboy 69 and Vince from München and it also includes writers from Basel. Other members through the years are Rebel, Shame, Gawky, Crash, Cash, Gjeli, Maroc, Craze, Zope, Mosart und Chromz (R.I.P.) Below: ABC´s Crazy Orman Monsdare by Won, Cowboy 69, Vince, Dare, Show. München Hall of Fame 1992. Lit.: Schluttenhafner/Klaußenborg (ed.): Graffiti Art. Deutschland - Germany. Schwartzkopf, Berlin 1995; Won: Colour Kamikaze. Ed. Kunst der Comics, Germany 1999; Juice nr 8/1999. Website: http://www.studio-now.de/abc-graffiti/abc.htm 2 ABC No Rio Dinero. Lit.: ABC No Rio Dinero.The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery. Ed: Alan More, Marc Miller. (Catalogue.) Abc No Rio, N.Y. 1985. 195 p. Ace 137 Early Old school tagger from N.Y. Adolescent Art Is there an Art of the Young? Children´s Art and drawing development has been carefully described (by Kelloggs a.o) and it also inspired artists such as Klee and Dubuffet. But the common opinion has been that these aesthetically dynamic early years come to an end in the pre-puberty phase, which has been described as regressive and utterly self critical. Some take up comix influences or look for “realism”; too many young people quit drawing completely during this stage. But with the 1970s and 80s this situation has been changed to a high degree. The TTP-movement has borne a new interest for pictorial creativity by many thousand youngsters over the world, and this time it will be useless to deny that even teenagers can make art. Lit. Hartwig, Hellmut: Jugendkultur - Ästhetische Praxis in der Pubertät. Rowohlt, Hamburg 1980. 381 p. and Hartwig, Hellmut: “Graffiti als stellvertreter affekte.” In: S.Müller: Graffiti - Tätowirte Wände. Bielefelt 1985, p. 133-141. Admiror, (TG) paries, te non cecidisse ruinis, qui tot scriptorium taedia sustineas - latin graffiti scratching from Pompeii 79 A.C that could be translated “I admire you, wall, that by all this scribble you do not fall, you, the dumping- ground for all writers!” Adrenalin 1. C9H13NO3, a hormone which increases heart rate, blood pressure and blood sugar level, and what really hits you when you are doing » tags, » throw-ups or» pieces. 2. The title of an exhibition of Aerosol Art held at City Gallery in Melbourne, Australia July 9 - July 23,1988 with Jme, Prime, Spy, Zikos, Peril, Ransom, Jule, Wisp, Guy and Jay. Aeroplane, writing on (TTP) The first to tag an aeroplane was > Cornbread. He wrote his name on the wings of a TWA aircraft which left Philadelphia Airport for the south in the late 60´s. There have been some similar occasional events since then. But the first ”whole plane” piece, from tail to cockpit, was done in 3 early January 27, 2001 by Danish writers on a white Fokker plane at Kastrup Airport, Copenhagen. Lit.: Padwe, Sandy: The Aerosol Autographers - Why They Do It. Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, May 2, 1971; Fly overmalet med graffiti. Politiken 27/1 2001; Klint, Lars: Flygplan täcktes med graffiti. Expressen 29/1 2001. Aerosol Art (TTP) One of the synonyms of Tags/Throw-ups/Piece (TTP); Spraycan Art, Spray Art, Subway Art (see these words) and similar expressions are also used. Definition: It means the historically new and independent kind of graffiti originated by youngsters in Philadelphia and New York in the late 1960s/ early 1970s which spread over the world in the 1980s - doing» tags,» throw-ups and» pieces with marker and spray paint on walls and trains, mainly under subcultural and unlawful circumstances.The motif is primarily the letter, sometimes with characters, and the concept is one of style. » Wild style lettering is one of the most prolific, complex and original contributions from youth culture to art history ever. Aerosol Art also includes legal and socially accepted forms such as spray art on canvas or commissioned wall art. Lit: Jacobson, Staffan: The Spray-Painted Image. (Diss.) Aerosol Art Archives, Lund University, Sweden 1996. Aerosol Kingdom The title of a famous burner by»Vulcan, N.Y. 1986. Lit.: Chalfant/Prigoff: Spraycan Art. T&H, London 1987. Aerosol School or the Aerosolskolan was an independent graffiti community centre in Uppsala, Sweden in early 1990:s which was very successful for 2 years. Wellknown writers as Code (headmaster), Dwane and Pike were teaching art class basics and spay can technique on a regular and well-organised basis. The school also initiated similar activities in several other cities , made a project painting in Katowice, Poland (the first in that country) and in autumn 1992 held a major convention with the BBC crew, Africa Bambaataa, James Prigoff and writers from all Europe. During this period of the Schools activities, the illegal graffiti in the city decreased at a significant rate, which was also the case at» Kungsholmens Graffitiskola in Stockholm 1989. Lit.:Aerosol School Goes to Katowice. Erik Olsson/IOR/Studiefrämjandet/Hip Hop Corporation, Uppsala 1991. Videogram, documentary, 25 min. 4 Aerosoul Magazine (TTP) Note the spelling! Fanzine in full colours, published in Rihen, Switzerland since 1993. Aesthetics of Graffiti. (TTP) TTP has a very special art criticism of its own. The means of the painting should be rational (see Technique) but the result ought to be “impressive”. The most wanted response is a “Wow!” and a state of visual shock and physical excitement, not an intellectuel reaction. When writers judge each other´s pieces, the following criteria are usually taken under consideration: 1) technique, 2) fantasy and originality, 3) style 4) colours, 5) size, 6) physical difficulty and effort , 7) location , 8) risk, 9) time, 10) total impression. Out of those criteria an objective judgment is possible: to divide the good work from the not so good . But that does not mean judgement is necessary, because one could also look at a piece in many other ways, as is done in pictorial analyses or when reviewed by non-writers. But knowledge and experience, and an open mind nonetheless, heighten the reception for everybody. Then, you can have just as good a time watching the piece as the writer had doing it! Afghan Trucks (TG) A very special public art form exists in Afghanistan, where drivers decorate their private truck vehicles with Arabic calligraphy (even in 3-D style!), ornaments, patterns and romantic, somewhat naive pictures of modern life and technology, religious motifs, women or landscapes in bright colours. Lit.: Blanc, Jean-Charles: Afghan Trucks. Stonehill, N.Y. 1976. 5 Ahearn, Charlie (TTP) *1951, N.Y; known as the author of the film » “Wildstyle” 1982. Also runs Pow Wow Productions in N.Y. Ahearn, John * 1951, N.Y. Painter and sculptor, known above all for 50 life- cast portraits of Bronx inhabitants 1979, organising» The Times Square Show 1980 and cooperating with COLAB and» Fashion Moda. AIO (TTP) All In One is originally the crew of the Swedish writers Circle (letters) and Weird (characters), and it includes writers from Denmark and Germany, such as Bates and Side. The group is known for big murals like “Fascinate” 1989 and “Apocalypse” 1991, for a “clean” letter style and sometimes of Arabic art influences in characters. Airbrush (TTP) Invented in the 1890s by Joe Binks for fast white-washing and improved with a breakthrough in 1923 that brought more suitable colours. This too l, as well as the spray gun, is far more sophisticated - and also constitutes heavier equipment - than a spray can, and is mostly used for commercial art and speciality painting on cars etc. It gives a smooth and slick image with acrylics and a glossy surface with enamels. Writers sometimes use it on T-shirts, jackets or fancy works on cars.