…And there are many art lovers who consider that a travesty.
Personally, I always thought one of the things that makes graffiti uniquely interesting is that it is by its nature, impermanent, and that it exists outside the law.
Are we supposed to protect graffiti by legal decree, or are we supposed to let it be what it is?
Graffiti is something that human beings do when they see a thing or a place that is ugly and uncared for, and they want to make it beautiful and interesting in the only way they know how.
It is also something that humans do when they see a space that is unclaimed, unprotected, and want to claim a piece of it for themselves in the only way they are able.
In a sense, it’s sad that 5 Pointz has been erased.
Of course, it’s also sad when our pets and grandparents and parents die before we do.
But should we be surprised? Why do we expect everything in our world to remain permanently as it is? Graffiti artists don’t. Because it never does.
Advice to anyone who wants to save something like 5 Pointz in the future: Save up. Buy it yourself.
If you like, you can leave it sitting there, sucking property tax dollars out of your bank account as you try to figure out how to make it sustainable as it is.
That’s your choice, and it’s well within your power. Take responsibility for it. Take ownership.
Until then, you don’t own 5 Pointz and neither do I. No one person or group of people will ever own that spot of land, permanently. But the graffiti artists did, in their way, for a time. (In this particular case, under agreement with the building’s owners.)
They made their own mark in the world, no matter how fleeting and impermanent. They saw a blank slate and made a change that made sense to them at the time.
The question is: How are you going to do the same in your time? Learn from the past, and then move forward. Everything fades.