Saturday, September 11, 2010

interlude

A photographer with any skillz whatsover (ie, not me) could make this look fantastically dramatic I reckon.

The graffiti throw-up is in the empty void where there used to be a water reservoir at the top of Symonds St. The church behind it is on Khyber Pass.
I like the contrast between the prim (yet unusually coloured) church and the energetic writing. But this tableau, which I've passed numerous times, also reminds me that both religion and "tagging" have something in common: they're both easy targets at the moment. Religion is portrayed as the butt of cheap jokes (at best) rather than a phenomenon worth explaining; tagging (which the piece above isn't really an example of) can get you killed.
Maybe the world is divided into two types of people: those who think tagging is worse than religion and those who think religion is worse than tagging...

4 comments:

  1. Religion can get you killed, too...
    I x

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  2. OMG, so true Iris! That's also in the intersection of sets of relig and graffiti.

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  3. Evidence has recently come to light that a former Bishop of Auckland was in fact the artist who created the 'energetic writing' represented so picturesquely above. Said bishop was fond of quoting St Augustine of Hippo-Hoppo, who once said “I am a bishop for you and a tagger with you.” Said saint took his vow of poverty so seriously that he even denied himself papyrus. Therefore, using a dye of his own invention, he scrawled his works over the walls and buildings of Hippo-Hoppo, covering some 2,000 square meters before he fell off a ladder whilst completing the last sentence of his magnum opus, "Why God Loves Taggers", in the year of our Lord 430.

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  4. oh you card, Dr Edit! YOU'LL be the death of us all, death by giggling. When are you going to start your own blog?

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