Hidden Message

A scenic walk down Kirkwood begins with the Samples Gates and carries on past a sea of aromas and flashy signs, all inviting students to buy an array of goods ranging from bikes to ice cream cones. But apart from these images, one must only gaze down a side street or two to notice the large number of hidden messages in Bloomington.\nSome messages appear to have deep meaning, and others simply baffle the mind. The source? Graffiti. This popular form of expression has transformed the community of Bloomington into a living canvas. \nPerhaps the most prominent location of this public art form can be found in Peoples Park. Unlike much of the stray graffiti, these images were provided by volunteers from the Rhino's Youth Center & Music Club as a structured effort to combat other forms of the art. \n"The city of Bloomington partnered with Rhino's and the Youth Mural Program to spearhead a community-wide graffiti clean up program that has been lauded by city and county government as well as by local businesses," according to a description of the Program on the Rhino's Web site.\nPeoples Park has traditionally been a highly active area for graffiti artists. The limestone bench in the center of the park saw reductions in the amount of graffiti when the Parks and Recreation Department began painting over the bench on a daily basis.\nWhen asked if they had to deal with graffiti, Nick's English Hut said it does not have significant problems of property damage.\nHowever, strolling behind buildings like Nick's and Bloomingfoods gives the following insights: "Jenny is pretty," "Don't Procreate," and "Pants!" Along with words themselves, graffiti brings with it a need for some kind of damage control through agencies such as the City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department. \nDave Williams, director of operations and development for the department, said graffiti is a big problem for them in day to day maintenance. Also, they must consider the potential for graffiti when deciding on designs and materials inside parks.\n"Cleanup is an expensive process. Graffiti affects the public's perception of how well a park is maintained and also how safe the park is," Williams said.\nIn trying to slow the effects of graffiti, the Parks and Recreation Department has taken an activist approach by establishing a no tolerance policy. Any reports of graffiti are typically dealt with within 24 hours. Also, deterrence methods have resulted in the parks choosing to use metal benches instead of the more easily defaced wooden benches.\nAs a customer service employee at Bloomingfoods, Rebecca Giordana said much of the graffiti she encounters seems to have a code of ethics determining what is an appropriate surface on which to paint.\n"Graffiti is present here, but it is not necessarily a bad thing if it carries some type of artistic message. Some patrons even appreciate it, as long as the purpose is not simply to deface a business," she said.\nPublic graffiti began to be viewed as an art form in the 80s. It became an outlet of expression for what much of society saw as troubled youth, said Janet Kennedy, a professor and chairperson of the Department of the History of Art at IU. \n"Some graffiti artists were able to cross over from the category of 'juvenile delinquent' to artist," said Kennedy.\nThe origins of this art are sometimes in question. Due to increasing detail in their work, some graffiti artists in the late 70s and early 80s had the opportunity to show their work in art galleries in New York City. \n"Since the early twentieth century, some artists, including the Surrealists, have been interested in graffiti as the expression of primal human urges -- the kind that artists learn to repress in art school. Graffiti has only been regarded as "art" more recently, since the mid-to-late 1970s, by both the graffiti writers and the art critics," said John Bowles, an assistant professor for the Department of the History of Art at IU.\nWhether it be on campus or off, gone are the days when graffiti was limited to wisdom scrawled on the back of bathroom stalls. Notices such as "Sweatpants has a posse" and "Break TV's" can instead be found on the backs of signs, alleys and rooftops of local buildings.\n-- Contact staff writer \nTim Callahan at tmcallah@indiana.edu.