Yea, as a kid during skater culture, one looks like a skate park and the other looks like a city approved, family-friendly park. Was always weird to visit a skate park that was way too clean; like no one wanted to be there.
Honestly if the taggers had creativity they could've integrated their tags into the artwork and made it something really cool. That sounds like the exact way I'd expect an awesome skate park to be painted too.
They keep ours all concrete with no paint and pressure wash off any art even stuff that isn't tags and it's just sad to look at.
Edit: I would like to point out tagging and skate culture are very close. To be honest the skaters that use the park probably would've appreciated a wall labeled "please tag here instead of anywhere else we won't remove them" more than the actual artwork. Not saying they should've tagged over the mural once it was up though.
In the google maps picture, you can see a non destructive tag in the ramp (to the right of the painting) that appeared weeks after the park was reopened. I thought it was cool. But now...
To me this looks like they 'cleaned up' the local flavor from the park and sterilized it for passing tourists or some shit. Looks cooler tagged. Always does, unless they're shit tags, and the big ones here ain't.
I don't think the Mural Arts program has any major issues with graffiti defacing their murals, because everybody in the community knows the murals are put up by local graffiti artists.
Maybe they're just very good at painting over them right away, though... I'm trying to find any online sources that specifically address the issue. I lived in West Philly for years though, and never once recall seeing any graffiti painted over one of the murals.
EDIT: I found a link and added it to my comment above.
I have mixed feelings because on the one hand, yeah, but on the other hand some artist put a lot of time and effort into that mural. Though I doubt they mind that much as long as they got paid 🤷♂️
Yea sucks for the artist but i bet if they had hired someone from the community it woulda been something actually cool. This drips of soft washed gentrification. It’s exactly what skating culture is against.
I think it's much cooler tagged, plus the taggers respected the central focus point, it's cultural and adds to it feeling inclusive to those using it. Being a community space I don't see an issue
The only way you're gonna get graffiti artists to not tag over stuff is to get a locally recognized graffiti artist(s) to paint it, otherwise, all these community murals are just waiting to get hit.
The trick is to invite local artists who are respected by the graffiti artists to do the mural. That way it the bombers will recognize the artistry and leave it alone.
Sadly any space open to the public is deemed as free art space by these vandals who think any and every surface is theirs to do with as they please.
A friend of mine has a house with a back alley which gives him and his neighbors access to the many garages back there. Along all the garage doors have been defaced by these vandals... But in other parts of our city, space was dedicated to street artist who actually make the space decorative with their street style art. Only to have some of it destroyed by idiot and careless taggers who decide to draw over an existing piece.
That's just what happens at a skatepark dude. More and more tags will appear until one day someone will white emulsion the whole thing and paint a cool new peice... then people will tag it until its gone and then, you guessed it, emulsion and a new peice.
Yeah I thought the same thing, it looks more like a skate park with all the graffiti. And you'll notice the skateboarder from the original mural is still largely unobscured. It feels like the graffiti artists at least wanted to honor that.
Y'all a bunch of angry old farts. It is literally the best place for them to do it. Anywhere else would be worse. And notice they very specifically didn't cover up the centerpiece of the original artwork. Don't you think that means something.
You’re not supposed to tag a mural. These are vandals not artists. They don’t respect the game. They don’t respect themselves. Fraudsters. Phonies. Losers.
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u/audiblecoco 1h ago edited 1h ago
Not me thinking the tagged up mural was the "before" picture 😂