Reverse Graffiti

Reverse graffiti is a practice where the artist creates a design by cleaning grime selectively off a wall, so that the cleaned sections stand out. The practice is intriguing because it opens up a lot of questions about what exactly constitutes graffiti, and what makes graffiti objectionable. The Star recently ran a good story about reverse graffiti, in which these complications are explored — two Canadian police officers in charge of fighting graffiti disagree on whether the practice is against the law.

Meanwhile, the British artist interviewed in the story enjoys the confusion his art has caused. When the Leeds city council accused him of vandalism, he says “The conversations I had with them were ridiculous … I was telling them to get the police to look out for outbreaks of cleaning.”

Source: Spacing Wire, http://spacing.ca/wire/?p=1279#comments

More on http://peterdekkers.com/bobble/50/reverse-graffiti