Just spray it

Painting the town red with graffiti.

KARACHI: Graffiti is a style of art made on both public and private surfaces, prevalent in low income areas of cities, taking the form of drawings, words, and art. Graffiti is often considered vandalism because most of the time, the property's owner is not consulted about the art administration.

The first known example of 'modern' graffiti exists in the Ephesus, an ancient Greek city which is now popularly known as Turkey. The art form reflects a 'good time' sign which appears near a long mosaic stone walkway and includes a heart shape, a footprint, handprints, and numbers. The hands represent how much the 'good time' would cost and the footprint shows how many steps it would take to find your lover. Pompeii is the Roman city that depicts many examples of graffiti art — from magic instructions, insults, love declarations, signs for political campaigns and caricatures to quotations from literature

However, now modern graffiti has come to stand as a form of expression with a contemporary take on social matters. Ans it's roots first began to appear in Philadelphia in the late 60s when a couple of young boys started tagging corn bread and cool earl all over the city until almost every where you looked all you would see is corn bread and cool earl written.

Hence, the radical way of expression known as graffiti art caught the community and local press' attention.

A few years later after the movement of cornbread and cool earl took notice many graffiti artists started slowly appearing in the streets of Manhattan, but it wasn't until the year 1971 when the New York Times published an article about a young graffiti artist by the name of Taki 183, a boy who had literally spread like a colour plague in the city and paved the way for future artists to come.

Pakistan has been no stranger to this concept, the late Asim Butt was the pioneering wheel that gave the art form indigenous roots. During General Musharraf's rule in November 2007, Butt really came to the forefront becoming one of the founding members of the  People's Resistance Group in Karachi. Butt brought in a new twist and organised a creative outlet to political frustrations with symbols that ranged from a simple yet powerful red eject sign to the catch slogan that read,'Dictator 420.'

The artist also painted two mural in the environs of the shrine to the eighth-century Sufi saint Abdullah Shah Ghazi — the first mural was titled 5 Ways to Kill a Man and drew inspiration from Edwin Brock's poem. The second mural was about the glue-sniffing children Butt encountered while painting 5 Ways. This gave the artist the opportunity to engage in conversations about war and drug abuse  and gave him the required insight to develop a visial perception of the most disadvantaged groups of society in our country.

Asim Butt's stop signs painted on burnt buses, cars and trucks  signified that Paksitanis do not want massacre plaguing the streets. The artist's passion drove to him to take risks, make political statements and create a niche industry in Pakistan. Butt became more than just an artist driven by political suffering, he became an intellectual current in the country.

The artist now lives on in the hearts of many who appreciate his work with fond memories and look to his work to draw inspiration.

Graffiti art terms

• Tag — a tag is an artist's personal stylised signature.


• Piece — is a large 3D image depicting arrows, many colors, and graphic effects.


• Throw-up — consists of an outline and one fill in color


• Sticky — a sticky is a sticker that has the graffiti artist's tag on it.


• Cru — A cru or crew is a group of graffiti writers and artists that stick together


• Slash — it is a great insult to 'slash' or put a line through someone else's graffiti


• Back To Back — the term back to back describes graffiti that covers a wall from one side to the other


• Burner — a burner is a complex, large piece that appears to be burning out of walls and trains.


• Insides — insides are tags created within buses, trains, cars, or trams.


• Going Over — if an artist 'goes over' another person's piece and replaces it with his own tag it is the same as declaring war.


• Toy — a toy is a graffiti artist that is not talented, or new to the scene.


• King — a king is a writer that has gained respect by being skilled


• Nic — if you nic someone's work you are stealing their ideas, color schemes and lettering.

With additional information from arthistoryguide.com, ezinearticles.com, teeth.com and digitialconsciousness.com

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2011.