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candlecovewiki · 3 years

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ALRIGHT ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT MY REVERSE AU FOR ONCE LETS GET IT

this is only like.... part 1 of this btw

note: see end of post for au terminology

percy <--> thade

percy: is not referred to by his actual name, in fear that speaking it will summon him or bring some sort of bad omen onto a crew or town, so he’s mostly referred to as “the darkness that sees”, or just dark for short. during the destruction of the tarantula crew he was knocked into a false door* and spent a few years stuck in the in between*. he wasn’t.... really the same after he came back (which is... rare, because people never come back from there) and that’s when he began to steal others eyes (as opposed to stealing skin). in short he’s... manipulative, he spends weeks- months maybe gaining his victim’s trust before taking their eyes, he acts like some sort of messiah figure that can help them forget about terrible things they’ve seen, and ensures that they’ll never have to see anything terrible again (or anything, for that matter). he doesn’t actually care about them, though. if anything the only people he actually cares for are janice and rory. maybe

thade: honestly not much changes of him asides basically just staying the same pre tarantula crew besides becoming 100% more tired and traumatized. him and horace become bros when he ends up breaking into his library in the middle of the night and passing out on top of one of the bookshelves. thade becomes his apprentice for a while (horace is still a sorcerer in this au, but not like how he is in canon) and gets taught a lot of cool stuff, until they decide to leave for the sea to travel to harpis* to find a scroll that horace was missing, but ended up getting shipwrecked and picked up by milo and the rest of the laughingstock crew. he just needs a break, or to scream into the void for a solid hour. he is VERY sarcastic and blunt with anyone he comes across, and often disregards others’ feelings on matters or opinions. once he gets to known people he softens up a bit, and will subtly show them signs that he cares

janice <--> horace

janice: ah yes. chaotic evil incarnate. instead of being picked up by the laughingstock crew she was picked up by dark, who was... less than thrilled to be burdened with a human child. janice was even less than thrilled to get stuck with some “lame-o eye monster”, but after a trip into town which turned into Crime Time as well as dark, who had happened to decide to target the same town that day. they ended up raising hell together and now they are chaos siblings. she’s a lot more unpredictable and spontaneous, and doesn’t bottle up her feelings as much as her canon counterpart. she often acts like she doesn’t need anyone, and gets mad whenever people try to help or comfort her, but usually after she has a meltdown she goes find dark or rory to sob on them.

horace: like i said before, instead of a ringleader he’s an archiver, tasked with keeping a record of all of the known spells in the candle cove region. uh... a lot of it was already explained in thade’s entry, about meeting him when he broke into the library and him teaching Thade some spells and then getting shipwrecked and picked up by milo and co when traveling to harpis. yknow. anyways he’s generally much less confident and much more skittish and meek, opting to ditch people rather than engage in conflict. his loyalty is VERY questionable and he’s easy to bribe. however he has a passion for knowledge and loves teaching it to people he deems worthy enough to inherit it.

poppy <--> milo

poppy: in this au he still goes by his real name (which is rory), as well as being part of the nphc. he wasn’t really... thrilled with it? truth be told it was milo’s idea, and he ended up ditching him at the last minute so he ended up being alone. however he ended up straying away when he got in trouble for letting a pirate go, a particularly wanted one (hint hint, it was dark) and ended up just crew hopping for a while. none of them lasted though, because he would get power hungry, overthrow the captain in some way, declare himself captain and then a week later decide that it was too much responsibility for him, appoint someone else as captain at random. rinse and repeat. the cycle only broke when milo ended up finding him and taking him aboard the laughingstock (basically this au is just milo adopting everyone into his crew and generally being a dad), until his rivalry with thade got WAY out of hand and he joined dark. rory himself is constantly changing between being overly dependent on people and being completely independent and shutting himself away from others. he generally alienates himself from people, but when he does end up finding someone he thinks his worth his time he becomes completely devoted to them. he’s unpredictable, in short

milo: okay i already talked about him in some of the other entries so ill keep this one short and cover only the stuff i havent talked abt yet. milo, as you might have guessed, is the captain of the laughingstock crew. he’s... generally a very benevolent entity. in constraint to rory, who seems like he knows what he’s doing but is a complete mess, milo runs on orderly chaos; where everyone thinks everything is constantly falling apart around him but he’s actually doing just fine. he might think too fondly of people, and dish out second chances too easily, but if needed he can be a rather firm captain. this man is literally able to befriend anyone, he’s like... the type of person you meet at a tavern when you are feeling absolutely miserable and they just appear out of nowhere and after talking to them for a bit you feel better and you think about them for YEARS afterwards. he’s just a dad And a friend!

false door: a static portal that can send one to the in between, can appear anywhere at random both in the real world and candle cove

the in between: a world between irl and candle cove, basically a nightmare dimension

harpis: a small island off of the mainland, has a long history of sorcerers or other magic users living there

#candle cove #creepypasta #reverse au #*DEAD ON THE FLOOR* THIS ALL TOOK FOREVER TO TYPE OUT*

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the-ethereal-serpent · 4 years

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Types Of Hauntings

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Residual Haunting Activity

Residual haunting activity can occur when something traumatic/stressful occurs, such as a murder. Negative energy is literally blasted into the atmosphere, causing the atmosphere to imprint or record the events. Like a recording tape, it will play the events over and over again. The entities involved in this residual haunting activity are unaware of their surroundings. This is not an intelligent haunting, there is no interaction between you and the entity.

Residual haunting activity can also be caused by positive energy blasted into the atmosphere. Many times you have heard ghost stories, where people can hear the sounds of a party. They hear music, singing, dancing, laughter and when they enter the room where they hear the party, there is no one there. Residual haunting activity can be the specters of living beings.

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Poltergeist Activity

Poltergeist is from a German word meaning noisy spirits. Reports of poltergeists date back to Ancient Roman times. The activity that takes place will start off with knocks and bangs, furniture starting to move around by itself. Then the activity will become more intense, manifesting itself through voices and even the appearance of full apparitions. Furniture may slide across the room and beds may shake. Many shows are based on this type of haunting because it tends to be the most terrifying and rarest type of haunting that occurs.

Most of the time, in the case of a poltergeist, the haunting circles around a female in her teen years. Some of these cases seem to be caused by the female unknowingly controlling the energy around herself. Some cases happen around people that are stable and in the right mind space. This haunting is hard to classify due to certain situations. No two are ever really the same. Most of the time you will find that one person in the house seems to be more affected by the haunting than anyone else.

It may seem that most of the activity doesn’t happen unless that certain person is present. Usually , the activity appears to stop when that person leaves the home. The majority of the time poltergeists are experienced by several people, but again they seem to center around one certain person. This person may be highly stressed as of late or maybe this person has gone through some type of extreme emotional situation. If this is the case, see that the individual involved gets some medical care, and soon afterwards the poltergeist will subside.

When it is not the teenager that is manifesting activity there are usually several spirits in the area. The spirits appear to pool their energy together in order to become strong enough to move larger objects and make more noises. In order to remedy the situation, you need to find the root of their anger so that they can pass over and leave you in peace. On most poltergeist cases they will disappear with out any warning, just as they appeared.

Certain times it may stop within a few days, other times it may take years. you may never know the reason that it happened. Most people are just happy to see it go and that’s enough for them. By understanding why it was there in the first place helps you to understand how to keep it from ever coming back again. Knowledge is the key in protecting yourself.

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Demonic Activity

Demons are entities that never had a mortal human form. Origins: Extraterrestrial. Why? If you believe that God and his angels are from the ‘heavens’, that would make them extraterrestrial. If Satan and 1/3 of the angels rebelled against God’s Kingdom, then Satan and 1/3 of the angels that became demons are also extraterrestrial. That is why they never had mortal human form. Einstein said that E = MC2. Energy can be converted into matter and matter into energy. Demons are pure energy entities. They are described in three different ways.

1. As angelic, a being of beauty that will manipulate the person to commit something that is sinful or out of the ordinary.

2. Horrific, evil looking. Some people claim, they have seen demons that are incredibly hideous to look at. I believe demons do this for a scare effect, they know what we fear and this is not their true appearance.

3. Black mist, black fog, black shadow, black smoke. Most demonic hauntings, the occupants claim to be followed by black mist or black fog.

They are usually very easy to identify as long as they are not hiding. When it is a demonic haunting you typically notice a revolting stench similar to rotted flesh or sulfuric acid. They often let loose a growl that sounds like it is coming from everywhere at once. They like to make contact by pushing, shoving, hitting and even scratching. The whole air in the affected area will feel thick like fog and the temperature will drastically change, typically becoming warmer.

These creatures are very strong, unlike human spirits, and they don’t mind showing it. There have been cases where people have been thrown through the air and even attacked. Apparently, their main goal is to break down a person’s free will in order to makeway for possession. This can take days, months or years, but time is of no concern to them. They have a hatred for mankind that dates back to the days of God and Lucifer.

They have lived for millennia and will be here long after we are gone. So, you must understand that though you may be able to get these creatures to leave a dwelling with religious provocation, you will never destroy them. They could go to the next place down the road if they choose, most likely they won’t because distance is not an issue for these creatures. They could go from Maine to California on a thought.

Demons are capable of changing form right in front of you from a human form to an inhuman form. They are neither male nor female, but can change to meet their needs. People mostly see demons as black masses standing in doorways or near rooms. Sometimes they are called shadow devils.

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Intelligent/Interactive Activity

Back to Einstein’s theory. As matter beings, we are all energy beings on the quantum level. We are made up of atoms and neutrons. As matter/energy beings we have intelligence. While we live, we have an energy aura that surrounds our living bodies. This aura is created by the millions of electrical currents that are created through our bodies. Our brains creates brain waves, a form of pure energy that is transmitting our thoughts, what we see, what we feel, etc.

When our mortal form dies, the aura that constantly surrounds our bodies, leaves our bodies. We lose 6 ounces on the instance of death. What is this 6 ounces? Perhaps it is energy leaving our body. Our soul. This energy, the aura, or you may even call it your soul, is carrying the information of what we used to be.

If it can do this, then why couldn’t it also carry our intelligence? If it can carry our former intelligence of our previous life, then it should be able to interact with us intelligently. When we see this aura, we call it a ghost. If this ghost is able to interact with us, is aware of us, can touch us, can communicate with us, then this is an intelligent/interactive haunting.

Some reasons the ghost may be tied to the site or people :

Died as a result of a traumatic event, murder, car accident, etc.

Due to unfinished business.

The spirit may have died suddenly and not realized he/she died.

The living loved ones are so emotionally distraught they can’t let go.

The spirit is emotionally connected to their loved ones.

They cannot rest due to an injustice done to them.

Fear of the other side or judgment

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Shadow People or Shadow Creatures

This is a type of haunting activity that has no real explanation. They are different from ghosts. They are usually shapeless dark masses. Mostly seen with your peripheral vision. They are known to do things that are different from ghosts. They can move between walls, they have no human features, they wear no clothes (except for the hat man/hooded figure shadow creatures). People who encounter them, have a feeling of dread.

Clairvoyants that encounter Shadow People, say they do not feel they are human and consider them non-human. Shadow People have no discernible mouth, noses or facial expressions. Some are seen as child sized dark humanoids. Some people say they seem to be made up of dark smoke or dark steam. At times when they move, they appear to be moving on an invisible track from one place to another, such as a toy train on a small scale railroad track. They have been seen to hop or what appears to be a strange dance. They are known to stare at the floor.

Two common types of Shadow People are the ‘hat man’, that looks like he or she is wearing a 1930s fedora hat and the ‘hooded figure’, which looks like the shadow person has a hood over their head. The hood and hat stand out as clothing, but otherwise, they are not wearing any clothing at all. There are also reports of shadow animals, such as a shadow in the form of a cat, with no discernible mouth, nose or eyes.

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Portal Hauntings

Portals aren’t really a new concept, as we’ve seen them in a lot of sci-fi flicks. But in the real world portal hauntings are considered controversial as there is little known and the idea is mostly theory or speculation. Portals are thought to be doorways to another world or dimension in which entities travel through.

It’s speculated that portals are not limited to one location, region or limited to sacred ground. Typically places that experience a wide array of different types of anomalous activity such as glowing balls of light, odd creatures, strange shapes, or unexplained mists or fog, are suspected to have a portal in which these energies are traveling back and forth.

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Note From Lluna

When it comes to the demon section, I know there are quite a few Pagans that work with Lucifer and demons and believe they are not evil. I don't know much beyond that, but I just want to add that this article is from the writers perspective and other perspectives must be considered as well.

Also, you need to remember that not all spirits are evil or negative. Many are neutral or positive and can assist you in your craft and even protect you from other harmful entities.

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Article Source : https://hauntedoc.com/types-of-hauntings/]

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streetartmuseumamsterdam · 7 years

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Graffiti - from Writing to Urban Art: a fluid journey towards tomorrow

Street Art Museum Amsterdam have asked the famous expert on graffiti and urban art from Madrid Dr. Figueroa Saavedra to share his thoughts on the evolution of this contemporary art movement. DrGraphitfragen has helped Muelle to get the recognition of the city management - one of the first streets in the world to carry the name of the first graffiti writer is in Madrdid.

ENGLISH: If something has characterised and made Graffiti great, if something explains the transit from Writing to Spray can Art, it is the attention given by writers to the graphic and its aesthetic dimension. It was made with so much passion that intended up becoming a fundamental factor of individual self-realization, a communicatory place and distinctive part of a subculture—later an international movement—which expressed before all freedom and interculturalism.

For this reason, it is complicated to understand the emergence of 21st century Urban Art without paying attention to the genesis and definition of the Writing Graffiti in 20th century. Both processes are child of the same germen, which made them to share the same pavement. Graffiti, with its vitality, autonomy and popular fortune, is, however, the true vanguard of street art in the current century.The Style Wars, in New York of the end of the 70 and the early 80s, were not more than the public declaration that artistic creativity is one of the fundamental pillars of Graffiti.

It characterized it as a frontier art, autonomous at the face of the artistic ecosystem and parallel to those branches of Public Art that are entrusted, or commissioned or monitored, by the public administration and even to omnipresent advertising language. The willingness of design and style triggered an aesthetic movement and an existential life experience, in which the creativity was merit, talent, emotion, affection and co-existence. The Graffiti not only covered trains and walls but also penetrated the mass culture and the high culture galleries, establishing a perpetual interchange of materials with those spheres. It also could connect with its social and cultural reality, jellying its aesthetics as a sign of the new times emerging after the 1973 crisis and giving itself in flesh and soul to the young effervescence of the 80s.

Thus, its childish glance grew up and flourished, absorbing in its spirit the hippie hedonism, the vitality of rock and the rebelliousness of the 70s punk, without leaving aside in its development the combination of nutrients offered by comic, TV, cinema, vinyl’s covers, graphic design, publicity, advertisements, and the cult to the fame expressed in neon lights and screen flashes. Afterwards, the flood of Hip Hop would drag graffiti into refreshing and rhythmic vibes. This took place under the consolidated world-empire of consumerism and the conversion of a combative counter culture into a subculture of resistance. In this context, the corner boy became a neighbourhood superhero, whose psych-evolutive development would make him aware of an adult reality of which he knew he could never belong to. The memorials and other civic murals, which were produced by some writers, became the reflex of the writer’s involvement with its neighbourhood, civil society, the people and its own destiny; always from its own personal glance and fashion.

Meanwhile, while graffiti of signature and “masterpiece” (spraycan art piece) was consolidating on one hand, on the other side of the Atlantic, other street art experiences were being thriving since the 60s. These experiences were at the margin of the official culture, from the framework of popular culture, art world and cultural activism. Postmodernism was born and it had aspirations to remain, it spread itself in each single corner of the western culture, embracing all sort of creative phenomena.

From the “provos” to the hippies to the punk, passing by the Internationale Situationniste, social and political muralism of the 70s, Neo-expressionism or Figuration Libre, or that array of French serigraphysts, in all these movements it was conveyed the living interest for expression without censorship, with creativity and a mix of faith and mocking, publicly, in society, and to take art to the streets to fuse it with life, without more frontier than the limits of the imagination. It was time to annihilate the notion of art as merchandise, underlie its communitarian and un-elitist character, to democratise its access and practice in public spaces. Public spaces had to be taken and left them open and shared. In sum, it is a space lived and enjoyed by an autonomous community.

Doubtlessly, what gathered writers and other graffiti writers and public or urban artists was an epochal air which resumed itself in the opening borders and freedom to action. It was about amplifying the mental horizons of society, its consciousness of the possible and positive, its vision of a future and framework of different interrelations, forged in self-improvement, concord and plurality as opposed to the hostility of a frustrating reality. Yet the movement has not yet shown the severity of its castrating facet.

However, and despite of the worldly pressures and prosecutions of the 90s, no one thought to abandon the idea of an opened or underground visual shock as warranty of a direct and sudden contact with the spectator. It was its own interpretation of an aesthetical-vital experience at the margins of the mass media, but that reproduced or simulated or exaggerate its dynamism and imperative existence. They were sons of a technological era with artcraft mentality. Thus was that the world of graffiti, after of its concretization and as we know it today, passed from being encumbered as Aerosol Art to suffer the spectacular criminalizing whirlpool coming from states.

As Norman Mailer puts it in his The Faith of Graffiti (1974), this was the Vietnamization of the graffiti phenomenon. The systematic and unproportioned belligerent prohibition of graffiti consecrated illegality as a characteristic feature of Hip Hop Graffiti of the 90s (and today); just in the moment where graffiti fell in a crisis and withdrew itself to cultural marginality of neighbours and periphery. No one reacted against such climax of social castration, due to energy of the new generations who replaced the local old schools and to the fact that Hip Hop Graffiti extended itself freshly over Eastern Europe and Latino-America; thus showing its force. Hence renascence, with its acts of vandalism but, at the same time, its artistic entity. Vandalism and art, however, will many times appear and be assumed as disjunctives.

At this point, an entity and identity reflection took place within the graffiti culture. It was time to look backwards, rethink the past, not to doss, take breath and go forward over a lightless tunnel. To some, this reflection came with the opportunity to set aside powerful burdens of the tradition. Some active vets and new writers left the orthodoxy of the old school to give place to their experimental “pulsion” and make graffiti grow with more illusion than fear, with adult vigour and child’s faith.The impression that all the previous stages have followed each other to create a unique and immutable model has been knocked down. There is no duty to reproduce the model with precision and reverence, the present is no longer a devaluated, non-returning golden past. Certainly, the aura of Graffiti was not limited to the idle imaginary of subway art of the 80s, as portrayed by Craig Castleman or Henry Chalfant.

Moreover, no one could imagine the dimension that graffiti would reach in the 21st century. Graffiti did not die in 1989.

It accommodated itself in its roots to see an obscure winter covered with a layer of frost transiting over its colours.From over the 90s, Hip Hop Graffiti would reinvigorate itself due, above all, to its taking consciousness of its character of a transgenerational movement and to the consolidation of a worldwide net of human collaboration and exchange of internal information that had never seen before in artistic movements; may be comparable with proposals in the world of music such as jazz and rock. Therefore emerging fanzines, specialized markets, the first webs geared at exhibiting graffiti art and fostering collaboration, national and international meetings and even the concretion of an own industry. Graffiti revolution within graffiti brought the possibility of having awareness of other street realities, mind opening, other styles creation, new techniques and bases, new techniques to endure, the development of the iconic, of the dynamic, of realism, expressionism, of the grotesque or informal, the exploration of textures, of reliefs, of the volumetric, the accentuation of the conceptual and the performative, the development of the metalinguistic aspect and the study of the relation between graffiti and other means of expression and communication, in sum, new strategies to keep the ‘getting-up’, the creative spirit of graffiti live and fresh.

Graffiti has grown up, in body and spirit and yet was facing a metamorphosis that would give place to something that looked like another thing: the Postgraffiti. This movement was manifested in the explosion of Iconism, Stencil Art, stickers, posters and urban spontaneous interventions. They themselves were not new things; their power and profusion were. It was about amplifying limits, tense them in the extreme while keeping the possibility of preserving graffiti as an art; this time with more integrity, after the infelicitous experiences of the 80s and first 90s. In this way, writers and artists would converge from different origins and goals in urban art of the 21st century, building innovative proposals from its grounding and aspirations, with the added difficulty of having to reach an equilibrium of respect with the public powers.

The transfer from Graffiti to Urban Art did not necessarily supposed a rupture with a certain mode of seeing and making things. The protagonists saw it as a conceptual expansion, an amplification of the graffiti consciousness, speech and capacity of action, always faithful to the concept of ‘no limits to fame’, which now became a motto of freedom and heterodoxy within the world of graffiti. Graffiti was born and always beats in streets, true. But it could reverberate in other ambits with the same passion. In any case, graffiti would keep itself as a solid movement, cohesioned, rich and international, which has shown a great capacity of integration and renovation. It is an incomparable community within the world of contemporary art, it is a past which grows every day and helps building a different reality.

At the doors of the 21st century, we see a new urban reality; very different to that of the 70s. In graffiti, a new poetic project emerged, it diversified physical objects, which can be static, mobiles and portable. Graffiti in this new era leads to hybrid pieces which integrate street action and expositive facet. Writers not only take possession of but also establish a face to face dialogue with architecture, urban furniture, and human surrounding and the other communicative codes that share space with graffiti. Graffiti would endorse social and political leitmotivs. All these new concerns were imperatives that were taking form along the new century and yielded graffiti not unheard, given its public vocation.

Aware of the prevailing social conventions, the well-established political truths and today’s world’s agony, we find in graffiti as opinions, criticisms, demands or hopes expressed grotesquely or poetically in walls become revolutionary acts. From their personal initiative or under the aegis of group initiatives, writers vertebrate themselves into social movements and cultural, political and social life. However, all is susceptible to a political and commercial instrumentalisation. Even rebelliousness would be a victim of such instrumentalisation, as it occurs with the use of urban artists in processes like gentrification or campaigns of institutional imagine building. Yet Graffiti, due to its special philosophy, tailors the dignifying life in the neighbourhood (barrio pride), bricklayer’s routine.

Moreover urban artists avoid being encapsulates as public artists, even though in seldom occasions. It is obvious that Urban Art and Graffiti exemplify that great human potential which is resumed in the mottos ‘do it yourself’ or ‘don’t stop’. Street Art looks like a polyhedron of one hundred faces, a figure capable of daringly give away a ‘just do it’ to society and the world of art, thereby appropriating and reinterpreting to parody the ‘American dream’. Graffiti talks to society to convince us that any adversity, conflict and fear will be overcome. We just have to have ourselves. Moreover, in its popular origin and outlook it pulses the nerve which makes some persons proclivity to understand life as a collective adventure and embark themselves to redefine society without more arms than a spray can charged with heart, and a fabric of ideas in one’s soul. The writer or urban artist has in his hand the possibility to express the humanity that the own human hostility shrinks while nature demands it to explore the responsibility and consciousness that comes with the project of building a common freedom.

Fernando Figueroa Saavedra, PhD in History of Art

SPANISH (original): Si algo singularizó e hizo grande al Graffiti, si algo explica claramente el tránsito del Writing al Aerosol Art, eso fue la atención prestada por los writers al plano gráfico y estético. Se hizo con tanta pasión que acabó convirtiéndose en un factor fundamental de realización individual, aglutinador comunitario y distintivo particular de una subcultura –luego movimiento internacional–, que expresaba ante todo libertad e interculturalidad. Por esa razón, resulta complejo entender la eclosión del Urban Art del siglo XXI sin atender a la génesis y definición del Writing-Graffiti en el siglo XX. Ambos procesos son hijos de un mismo germen, que les condujo a compartir una misma senda sobre el asfalto, siendo el Graffiti con su vitalidad, autonomía y fortuna popular la verdadera vanguardia del arte callejero de ese siglo.

Las Style Wars, en el Nueva York de finales de los 70 y primeros 80, no fueron más que la declaración pública de que la creatividad artística era uno de los pilares fundamentales del Graffiti, caracterizándolo como un arte de frontera, autónomo frente al ecosistema artístico y paralelo a ese Public Art encargado, ordenado o dirigido por la administración pública o al omnipresente lenguaje publicitario. La fruición por el diseño y el estilo fue el pistoletazo de salida para un movimiento estético y una aventura vivencial sin precedentes, en el que la creatividad era a la vez mérito, ingenio, emoción, afecto y convivencia.

El Graffiti no sólo recubría los vagones o los muros, sino que penetraba en la cultura de masas y en las galerías de la alta cultura, estableciendo un perpetuo intercambio de materiales con dichas esferas. También había logrado conectar con su realidad social y cultural, cuajando su estética como un signo de los nuevos tiempos surgidos tras la Crisis de 1973 y entregándose en cuerpo y alma a la efervescencia juvenil de los años 80. Así, su mirada infantil había crecido y florecido, absorbiendo en su espíritu el hedonismo hippie, la vitalidad del rock o la rebeldía punk de los 70, sin dejar de lado en su encarnación todo ese conjunto de nutrientes ofrecidos a través del cómic, la TV, el cine, las carátulas de discos, el diseño gráfico, la publicidad, los letreros comerciales, el culto a la fama expresado en luces de neón y fogonazos de pantalla. Luego la riada Hip Hop, arrastraría al Graffiti con sus aires renovadores y rítmicos, bajo el consolidado imperio mundial de la sociedad de consumo y la conversión de una contracultura combativa en subcultura de resistencia.

En ese contexto, el pandillero se convertía en un peculiar superhéroe de barrio, cuyo desarrollo psicoevolutivo le llevaba a tomar conciencia de una realidad adulta de la que sabía que no podía evitar formar parte. Los memorials y otros murales cívicos, salidos de manos de algunos writers, se convirtieron en el reflejo de la involucración con sus vecindarios, con la sociedad civil, con la gente y su destino, siempre desde su mirada personal y a su manera.Paralelamente, mientras a uno y otro lado del Atlántico el graffiti de firma y pieza cogía cuerpo y arraigo, otras experiencias artístico-callejeras se habían estado desarrollando desde los años 60 en adelante al margen de la cultura oficial, desde el marco de la cultura popular, el mundo del arte o el activismo cultural.

El Postmodernism había nacido y aspiraba a quedarse, desperdigado por cada recoveco de la sociedad occidental, acogiendo todo tipo de fenómenos creativos. Desde los provos o los hippies hasta el Punk, pasando por la Internationale Situationniste, el muralismo social y político de los 70, el Neo-Expressionism o la Figuration Libre, o esa pléyade de serigrafitistas franceses, desde todos ellos se exponía el vivo interés por expresarse sin tapujos, con creatividad y una mezcla de fe y cachondeo, públicamente, en sociedad, y sacar el arte a las calles para fundirlo con la vida, sin más frontera que los límites de la imaginación. Era ya hora de aniquilar el arte como mercancía, subrayar su carácter comunitario y no elitista, democratizar su acceso popular y su práctica común en un espacio público que debía ser un espacio reivindicado y tomado, abierto y compartido, en suma, un espacio vivido y disfrutado por una ciudadanía autónoma.Sin duda, lo que reunía a writers y a otros graffiteros o artistas públicos o urbanos era un aire de época que se resumía en la apertura de miras y la libertad de acción.

Se trataba de ampliar los horizontes mentales de la sociedad, su conciencia de lo posible y lo positivo, su visión de un futuro y un marco de interrelaciones diferentes, forjado en la superación, la concordia y la pluralidad frente a la hostilidad de una realidad frustrante, pero que todavía no había mostrado en toda su crudeza su faceta castradora. No obstante, pese a las presiones y persecuciones asentadas en los años 90 a nivel mundial, jamás se pensó abandonar el shock visual a cielo abierto o bajo el subsuelo como garante de un contacto directo y sorpresivo con el espectador. Era su interpretación de una experiencia estético-vital al margen de los mass media, pero que reproducía, simulaba o exageraba su dinámica e imperativa vigencia.

Eran hijos de una era tecnológica con mentalidad artesana.Así fue que el mundo del Graffiti, tras su concreción tal y como lo conocemos hoy en día en los 80, pasó de encumbrarse como Aerosol Art a padecer una vorágine criminalizadora espectacular desde las instancias públicas, una vez cuajó la vietnamización del fenómeno, tal y como denunció Norman Mailer en su The Faith of Graffiti (1974) . Esta ilegalización sistemática y beligerante hasta la desproporción acabó consagrando la ilegalidad como un rasgo identitario del Hip Hop Graffiti de los 90 hasta hoy, justo en el momento que se sumía en una crisis y se replegaba de nuevo hacia la marginalidad cultural de los barrios y la periferia. No se tardó en reaccionar en este clima de castración social, gracias al brío de las nuevas generaciones que tomaban el relevo de las old schools locales y a que el Hip Hop Graffiti se expandía airoso hacia Europa del Este y Latinoamérica, demostrando su fortaleza. De este modo se afrontó inicialmente ese renacimiento, acentuándose el actuar vandálico, pero también su entidad artística. No obstante, ambos aspectos se planteaban y asumían, a menudo, como una disyuntiva.En este punto, dentro del Hip Hop Graffiti se produjo una reflexión sobre su entidad e identidad. Era hora de mirar hacia atrás, hacer memoria, no flojear, coger aliento y seguir para delante por un túnel sin luz, y eso contrajo, para algunos, la oportunidad de decidir dejar a un lado el lastre poderoso de una tradición.

Algunos veteranos activos y nuevos writers se deslindaban de la ortodoxia más old school para dar alas a su pulsión experimental y hacer crecer el Graffiti, con más ilusión que temor, con ímpetu adulto y fe de niño.Se había derrumbado la impresión de que todas las etapas anteriores habían sucedido para llegar a un modelo inmutable y único, que se tenía la obligación de reproducirse con precisión y reverencia, o de que el presente no era más que una devaluación de un pasado dorado que no volvería jamás. Ciertamente, la aureola del Graffiti no se limitaba a la imagen idílica del Subway Art de los 80, retratado por Craig Castleman o Henry Chalfant, es más, nadie podía imaginar la dimensión que alcanzaría en el siglo XXI. El Graffiti no murió en 1989, sólo se acomodó en sus raíces para ver transitar por encima de sus colores el oscuro invierno con su blanco manto de escarcha.

Desde mediados de los 90, el Hip Hop Graffiti volvía a fortalecerse, gracias, sobre todo, a que tomaba plena conciencia como movimiento transgeneracional, y a la consolidación de una red mundial de intercambio humano y de información interna sin parangón entre los movimientos artísticos que se habían sucedido hasta la fecha, sólo comparable con algunas propuestas del mundo musical, como el jazz o el rock. Surgían fanzines, comercios especializados, las primeras webs destinadas a visualizarse y estrechar lazos, los encuentros nacionales e internacionales o la concreción de una industria propia. La revolución del Graffiti dentro del Graffiti tuvo como consecuencia conocer otras realidades callejeras, abrir la mente, crear nuevos estilos, nuevas técnicas y soportes, nuevas tácticas para perdurar, el desarrollo de lo icónico, de lo dinámico, del realismo, el expresionismo, lo grotesco o lo informal, la exploración de las texturas, del relieve, de lo volumétrico, la acentuación de lo conceptual y lo performativo, el desarrollo del aspecto metalingüístico y el estudio de las relaciones con otros medios de expresión y comunicación, y en definitiva, nuevas estrategias para mantener el getting-up y el espíritu creativo del Graffiti vivos y frescos.

El Graffiti había madurado, en cuerpo y alma, y afrontaba una metamorfosis que daría lugar a algo que parecía otra cosa: el Postgraffiti, encabezado por la eclosión del iconismo, el Stencil Art, las pegatinas, los carteles o las intervenciones urbanas. No eran cosas nuevas, pero su vigor y profusión sí lo eran. Se trataba de ampliar sus límites, tensarlos al máximo, manteniendo también la posibilidad de adentrarse en el ecosistema artístico, ahora con más integridad, tras las infelices experiencias de los 80 y primeros 90. De este modo, writers y artistas convergían desde distintos orígenes y diferentes metas en el Urban Art del s. XXI, contribuyendo desde su bagaje y aspiraciones a concretar propuestas innovadoras en ese difícil equilibrio y respeto con los poderes públicos. El trasvase del Graffiti al Urban Art no suponía necesariamente para sus protagonistas una ruptura con un modo de ver y hacer las cosas, sino acaso una expansión conceptual, una ampliación de la conciencia, del discurso y de la capacidad de acción, fiel al concepto del ‘no limits to fame’, que se reconvertía ahora en un lema de libertad y heterodoxia dentro del mundo del Graffiti. El Graffiti nacía y latía en la calle, pero podía reverberar en otros ámbitos con la misma pasión.

En todo caso, el Graffiti se mantenía y mantiene como un movimiento sólido, cohesionado, rico e internacional, que ha demostrado una gran capacidad de integración y renovación. Una comunidad humana sin igual en el mundo del arte contemporáneo y pretérito que crece día a día y ayuda a construir otra realidad. A las puertas del siglo XXI, se adaptó a una nueva realidad urbana, diferente a la urbe de los años 70. En ella ha establecido un nuevo proyecto poético, diversificando los objetivos físicos, estáticos, móviles o portátiles, susceptibles de convertirse en soportes o las maneras de intervenir en ellos, llegando a concebir piezas híbridas que integran en su proceso tanto la acción callejera como la faceta expositiva. Los writers no sólo poseen, sino que dialogan con la arquitectura cara a cara, con el mobiliario urbano, el entorno físico y humano, los otros códigos comunicativos que comparten escenario con ellos, y, por su puesto, acogen, llegado el caso, enfoques sociales o políticos. Era un imperativo que crecía con el avance del siglo XXI y que no les puede ser ajeno como fauna urbana, dada su vocación pública.

Conscientes de las convenciones sociales y políticas o la deriva y agonía mundial, podemos hacernos una idea de que la opinión, la crítica, la demanda o la esperanza expresadas de forma poética o grotesca sobre los muros se convierten, de nuevo, en actos revolucionarios. Ya sea desde el plano personal o al abrigo de iniciativas públicas, particulares o vecinales, los writers que participan de ellos se vertebran dentro de la movilización social y la vida cultural, social y política. Sin embargo, todo es susceptible de instrumentalizarse política y comercialmente, incluso la rebeldía, como sucede con el empleo de artistas urbanos en procesos como la gentrificación o campañas de imagen institucional, pero el Graffti, por su especial filosofía, a nivel local parece congeniar muy bien con la dignificación y el orgullo de barrio, o el trabajo a pie de calle, como también algunos artistas urbanos, poco propensos a establecerse, aunque sea puntualmente, dentro del más convencional rol del artista público.

Es evidente que el Urban Art y el Graffiti ejemplifican ese gran potencial humano resumido en lemas como ‘do it yourself’ o ‘don’t stop’. El Street Art se asemeja a un poliedro de cien caras, capaz de soltarle con osadía un contundente ‘just do it’ a la sociedad y al mundo del arte, reapropiándose y reinterpretando hasta la parodia el American dream, para convencernos de que la voluntad supera toda adversidad, conflicto o miedo mientras nos tengamos a nosotros mismos. Pero no sólo eso, sino que en su sentir comunitario y origen popular late el nervio que hace a algunas personas proclives a entender la vida como una aventura colectiva y embarcarse en redefinir la sociedad sin más armas que un spray cargado de corazón y una fábrica de ideas en su alma. El writer o artista urbano tiene en su mano ayudar a expresar la humanidad que la propia hostilidad humana se encarga de encoger, mientras el mandato de la Naturaleza le impulsa a explorar la responsabilidad y consciencia de lo que significa construir la libertad común.

Fernando Figueroa Saavedra, Doctor en Historia del Arte

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