Impressions of the Graffiti
It all began when I first met two new friends – a couple from New York that was passing by the gas station near my work. It was my coffee break time in the convenience store and they were trying to communicate with the attendant. I noticed they were in trouble for not speaking Portuguese and I offered help. We talked a few words in English and they asked me for directions about places to eat in São Paulo. They told me they had just arrived in town and would stay only up to 7 AM the next day, so they would like to get to know as much as they could. I did my best to explain how to get to Paulista Avenue but then I realized they wouldn’t get there so easily. It was then that I suggested them to wait for the end of my work time, when I’d be able to guide them. They were extremely gentle and confident, natural qualities of good persons. They invited me to have dinner with them and didn’t let me pay for anything. At that moment a friendship started among us.
He, a photographer and DJ, she, a model, both of them beautiful and special… We had dinner in a fancy place, chatted a lot and had much fun. We went out to dance and I offered them my apartment, so that they could have some sleep during the few hours left till their departure to New York. I drove the car to show them the way to the airport entrance. As we rode by car across some São Paulo streets, I noticed he was taking pictures of the graffiti on the walls. He told me he was enjoying a lot what he was seeing and then I took them to the tunnel located at Paulista next to Consolação Street, where there is a collection of fantastic graffiti. 24-hours bakery, tasty stuff for our breakfast and some hours of good sleep… They got up when the coffee was prepared. I set the table and they left to the airport.
After that, the drawings spread on the street walls instigated me. No matter where I passed, as I saw graffiti I used to stop to observe them. I realized I had never before paid attention to something that had always been there for everyone’s sight. I found a lot of messages coming from the graffiti, many sensations, just as if I were at either an art gallery or a famous artist’s exposition in some museum.They are strong, expressive, straight –as one consider capacity for message transmission –, colorful, realistic, of quality. They make me travel to a world of dreams and face the reality I live, without destroying my will. On the contrary, they make me wish to make the world better.
Vito told me that night: “I wish I had time to know better those graffiti, because they are wonderful.” His words are yet on my mind and make me want to walk around the city to enjoy what I had never paid attention to. Added to this marvelous discovery of the world of the street art, I had the desire of recording the graffiti he had no time to meet, to write poems about the impressions I had when I shot them and offer that as a gift for his birthday. They invited me to spend some days in NY to enjoy his birthday party. It wasn’t possible for me to go, however I wanted to send him a special gift.
Thus, this work is firstly the result of a very rich feeling of tenderness, warmth and friendship, of how one can be good and receptive to people, even if they are unknown. But more, it is also the fruit of my impressions, as an artist, of a fine form of art existing in São Paulo streets, which is so scarcely recognized and valued.
I do register herein the congratulations to all graffiti painters that mark the city with their art. I also ask them to get in touch with me in case they see my poems and pictures without the due credit or mention of their names. I’d be glad to do it. This is a nonprofit record.
And, obviously, Thanks Vito and Jessica!
It all began when I first met two new friends – a couple from New York that was passing by the gas station near my work. It was my coffee break time in the convenience store and they were trying to communicate with the attendant. I noticed they were in trouble for not speaking Portuguese and I offered help. We talked a few words in English and they asked me for directions about places to eat in São Paulo. They told me they had just arrived in town and would stay only up to 7 AM the next day, so they would like to get to know as much as they could. I did my best to explain how to get to Paulista Avenue but then I realized they wouldn’t get there so easily. It was then that I suggested them to wait for the end of my work time, when I’d be able to guide them. They were extremely gentle and confident, natural qualities of good persons. They invited me to have dinner with them and didn’t let me pay for anything. At that moment a friendship started among us.
He, a photographer and DJ, she, a model, both of them beautiful and special… We had dinner in a fancy place, chatted a lot and had much fun. We went out to dance and I offered them my apartment, so that they could have some sleep during the few hours left till their departure to New York. I drove the car to show them the way to the airport entrance. As we rode by car across some São Paulo streets, I noticed he was taking pictures of the graffiti on the walls. He told me he was enjoying a lot what he was seeing and then I took them to the tunnel located at Paulista next to Consolação Street, where there is a collection of fantastic graffiti. 24-hours bakery, tasty stuff for our breakfast and some hours of good sleep… They got up when the coffee was prepared. I set the table and they left to the airport.
After that, the drawings spread on the street walls instigated me. No matter where I passed, as I saw graffiti I used to stop to observe them. I realized I had never before paid attention to something that had always been there for everyone’s sight. I found a lot of messages coming from the graffiti, many sensations, just as if I were at either an art gallery or a famous artist’s exposition in some museum.They are strong, expressive, straight –as one consider capacity for message transmission –, colorful, realistic, of quality. They make me travel to a world of dreams and face the reality I live, without destroying my will. On the contrary, they make me wish to make the world better.
Vito told me that night: “I wish I had time to know better those graffiti, because they are wonderful.” His words are yet on my mind and make me want to walk around the city to enjoy what I had never paid attention to. Added to this marvelous discovery of the world of the street art, I had the desire of recording the graffiti he had no time to meet, to write poems about the impressions I had when I shot them and offer that as a gift for his birthday. They invited me to spend some days in NY to enjoy his birthday party. It wasn’t possible for me to go, however I wanted to send him a special gift.
Thus, this work is firstly the result of a very rich feeling of tenderness, warmth and friendship, of how one can be good and receptive to people, even if they are unknown. But more, it is also the fruit of my impressions, as an artist, of a fine form of art existing in São Paulo streets, which is so scarcely recognized and valued.
I do register herein the congratulations to all graffiti painters that mark the city with their art. I also ask them to get in touch with me in case they see my poems and pictures without the due credit or mention of their names. I’d be glad to do it. This is a nonprofit record.
And, obviously, Thanks Vito and Jessica!
Juliano Hollivier - São Paulo - July 10, 2010
