Writing in Graffiti Art (Tehran City)

The art of mural painting has a long history in its historical origins. The first forms of murals related to three thousand years BC, were created in prehistoric caves in the form of pictographs (illustrations, letters or letters) using tools such as animal bones and pigments. Prehistoric murals were also painted on cave walls for hunting and magic. Graffiti dates back at least to ancient civilizations such as ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. This art has been popular in different countries; there are examples of this art in Iran. Early in the formation of graffiti art, this art was considered a crime, but today, exhibitions and festivals are held to display these works, and even the works of these artists are sold. This art is not considered a legal art in Iran and usually are exhibited outside of Iran. This art is considered sabotage or vandalism, but today graffiti artists are allowed to perform works on some city walls. This art is to convey a message. These messages can be protest, social, cultural, etc., which is a reflection of the conditions of society and the people of that society. Considering that graffiti art is closely related to protest art and some of them express their protest in the form of rap in music and some of them express their protest and criticism with graffiti art on the walls of cities in the form of pictures and text, but today, the theme and concept of this art has been changed; there are other concepts besides the spirit of protest. By studying the history of graffiti art, it can be seen that graffiti was formed as a protest art in the first place, but today it is even used for advertising. Today, graffiti art is used in advertising, decorating and beautifying the walls of various places such as clubs, cafes, houses, universities. These advertising graffiti works are legal. These promotional works are either designed and executed by the artist or the artist executes the client's selected design. Graffiti writers have been able to create graffiti writing masterfully and in an individual and personal way. Make changes to it and each graffiti will get its own linear style. They have spent years designing their letters and alphabet. Every graffiti artist has his own signature or tag that he has designed and can be seen on the city walls. The tag represents the personality of the owner of the work and is not subject to expression. Public display of tags, signatures, and tags indicates that the graffiti artist is seeking recognition from others. Many of these graffiti artists are self-taught graffiti artists and have nothing to do with their field of study. Graffiti artists usually place their graffiti works on busy city streets to make them more visible to the public. Graffiti writers increasingly focused on the uniqueness and creativity of their work. Elements of Western youth culture have entered Iranian culture and art through graffiti; Iranian youth have used these elements in a new combination with new social, political and cultural conditions; like the Throw Ups on the wall of the Velenjek River, which has much in common with the western Throw Ups. Also in Iranian graffiti works, the influence of Iranian art such as calligraphy is evident. Graffiti writers also make changes to the shape of the calligraphic lines, creating new lines. Sometimes only these lines are similar in appearance to traditional lines; sometimes they follow the rules of traditional lines in details.
Samples of Graphite Works on the Walls Of Velenjak River in Tehran




Text: NMG
(Personal archive)


Throw Up;
Text: Hesam, Hooman and Reza
(Personal archive)


Throw Up; Text: BBOY
(Personal archive)


Text: Unknown, letter arrangement, similar to Gothic script. (Personal archive)




Throw Up; Text: Unknown. (Personal archive)


Text: Strange means strange. Similar to the Gothic script. (Personal archive)


Text: similar to the letter h (in Persian), which is symmetrical and in a mirror shape. (Personal archive)


Text: Unknown, letter arrangement, similar to Gothic script. (Personal archive)




 
The present article examines the impact of calligraphy, calligram and western calligraphy on writing in Iranian graffiti art as the question of this article. Calligraphy also has a special place in painting and graffiti. This descriptive-analytical method, by data collecting in a field method, tries to examine the position and relationship of writing in graffiti with common lines to determine whether they have an aesthetic or semantic aspect. Due to the limited resources and backgrounds related to graffiti in Iran, it is necessary to conduct this research to increase awareness, information and knowledge of people about graffiti art. This research introduces graffiti art in Tehran by descriptive-analytical method and field method and then analyzes these works in terms of the relationship between the writings and the art of calligraphy and calligram and the meaning of these writings. It seems that graffiti writing is related to the art of calligraphy and calligrm, and graffiti art in Iran has been influenced by both calligraphy, which is an Islamic art, and Western lines. According to studies, writing in graffiti art is related to traditional, contemporary calligraphy, calligrm and western calligraphy. Graffiti artists have used the mentioned calligraphy and arts but have not fully followed their rules. They have made changes to the writing and letters to differentiate it, which has distanced itself from the original arts. These works are similar to traditional calligraphy in appearance, but due to the lack of a specific rule for drawing inscriptions on the wall, artists have made changes in them. In these writings, they pay more attention to the beauty of the work than its rules.
The present study tries to study the meaning and concept of writings in graffiti art in a descriptive-analytical way to determine its aesthetic or semantic aspect. With the same research method, it surveys the relationship and impact between writing in graffiti art with the art of calligraphy, calligram and western lines. The data of this research are qualitative and field-based. The statistical population of this research is fourteen samples of written graffiti works in Tehran city, which have been purposefully selected from different parts (northwest, northeast, west and east) of Tehran, but eight samples of works have been collected from the Velenjak River. The effects are not known and have been studied in this study. It should be noted that finding and connecting with graffiti artists is not easy; this goes back to two issues: 1) anonymity is a characteristic of this artistic group; 2) their media has no official aspect and they do not have a center for work, etc., so it is not possible to easily gain the trust of this group for cooperation.
The art of calligraphy has three uses in many traditional arts, but in calligraphy and graffiti can be the basis of the work. In addition to calligraphy and calligram, graffiti and calligraphy also use color, which is more prevalent in such arts than color to calligraphy and calligram. They also make changes to the shape of the lines (fonts) that lead to innovation in the text. Sometimes only these lines are similar in appearance to traditional lines. In the writings of graffiti works studied in Tehran, there are similarities between these writings with calligraphic lines (Kufic script, Naskh, Nastaliq and broken Nastaliq, Moali and Karshmeh) and an example of Western calligraphy (Gothic). Some of the writings in graffiti have an aesthetic aspect; that is, it is just an arrangement of letters, but some have both a semantic and an aesthetic aspect; that is, it is both an arrangement of letters and a meaningful writing. This meaning and concept of writing can be a poem, a text that reflects the conditions of society. According to studies, writing in graffiti art is related to traditional, contemporary calligraphy, calligram and western calligraphy. Graffiti artists have used the mentioned calligraphy and arts but have not fully followed their rules. They have made changes to the writing and letters that are different from the original arts. These works are similar to traditional calligraphy in appearance, but due to the lack of a specific rule for drawing inscriptions on the wall, artists have made changes in them. In these articles, they pay more attention to the beauty of the work than its rules. They see the letters like a form and put the letters together using rotation, symmetry and mirror mode. In some of these graffiti works, the letters are crossed, which is usually due to the connection between this art and calligraphy. In calligraphy, letters overlap. In Siah Mashq (calligraphy practice), the status is like: Siah Mashq is a basic for calligraphy. Graffiti artists do not use lines for a specific reason, but pay attention to their appearance. Some of them use those types of fonts in their works without even knowing the rules of calligraphy.