Graffiti in Paris

As a lover and sometimes creator of graffiti I am always looking around the streets and cities for tags and murals put up. I have noticed a lot of interesting differences. The whole shuttle ride from the airport was filled with graffiti covered cement dividers and I noticed that almost every single one was in white with black out line and as opposed to complete coverage of the white background coloring there were many tags that used a different technique for the main white background of the letters. The most common way that I see American graffiti made is where the background color is almost always completely solid leaving none of the concrete showing through. This done by clouding the paint in circular motion held far away from the wall in the vague shape of the word the artist intends to make, that detail and color is then added to before the final outline the defines the shape of the letters is created. The technique that I saw used often along these walls is made by spraying close to the wall and back in forth motion that creates a stripe like pattern moving the shape of the desired letters. It almost seems like these works were outlined first then re outlined after the main white base is laid down. These white tags are also present in a lot of the metro tunnels.

In the city there is a lot of graffiti on the metal sliding gates of storefronts when they are closed. These murals are very colorful as opposed to the strictly white graffiti on the highway and metro. I noticed that here graffiti is actually made to be legible and comprehensible as opposed to the “wild style” graffiti in the states that is meant to disguise the words and letters that are being written. One place that there is graffiti appears often that you rarely ever see in America is on vans. Many of the big company vans that are parked around the city as well as driving are covered in brightly colored tags from many different artists. I don’t know if this happens because the drivers just don’t care or because they can’t afford to have their van re-painted every time someone tags it. Some even look like the drivers may have done it to the van themselves.

I have sent the work of one of my favorite street artists here in Paris, near the Chatlet metro stop. Known as Space invader, this artist does graffiti by sticking small colored bathroom tiles to the walls. The reason he goes as space invader is because of the video game characters that are constantly the subject matter of his work. The perfectly square and same sized tiles are prefect for depicting these characters in a style that makes them look pixilated as they appear on an actual video game screen. The reason I admire this artists work is because of his originality, medium and over all cleverness. This type of graffiti and street art in general for that matter, has never been seen before or done by anyone else, however there are always those who copy work and that could be the case for Space Invader. His works are not only in Paris and can be seen around the world.

Another interesting type of graffiti that is seen around the streets of Paris is large printed images and poster like pages that are then attached to a wall using wheat paste and a decoupage sticker of sorts, just on a much larger scale. These do appear in the states form time to time but rarely ever in Colorado, mostly in large cities. I have always wondered about these because it is fairly expensive to print images that large and they seem like they would be delicate and difficult to put up. I think that over all, it there is definitely less negative stigma around graffiti here. My boyfriend and I collaboratively make stencils that we put up around Boulder from time to time, however, most are painted over immediately.