The mainstream artworld has had a love/hate relationship with graffiti. On the one hand, talented creatives such as Banksy have turned graffiti into an aesthetic pleasure, using stencils to produce difficult artworks with political messages attached. This kind of graffiti was likely to become trendy with both the masses and the likes of The Independent pressroom : visually pleasing and intellectually satisfying. This sort of graffiti is even acquired as graffiti prints, and hung in middle class households and corporate meeting rooms.

However, what of the usual sort - the gangbanger, the tagger, the street urchin - this is just seen as antisocial, a crime committed by the talentless. But this is to misinterpret graffiti as purely art. To many individuals, it’s not only an artform, but a means to put your stamp on a district, or perhaps two fingers up at society : anti-establishment, anti-social, even anti-art.

Spraying has always been a secret activity, although the effects are public. The targeted audience is frequently unidentified. Is it for a competing crew? A message to a single person? To the public? Maybe it’s just uncalled-for and out of nothing to do.

Whatever the reasons may be, there seems to be a permanent need to spray on walls. Some towns have conceded that graffiti isn’t a fad, so they’ve marked off areas where graffiti is permitted - usually uninhabited areas, but occasionally busier zones like boarding that surrounds urban buildings under construction.