The writing's on the wall at a three day pow-wow exploring where graffiti has got to in modern London.
Graffiti Sessions — which run from 3-5 December — aims to develop strategies for safe and sociable al fresco scribbling with a host of speakers from both the dark and light side of the discipline. Once reviled, now revered by many and even, in some cases, protected — there'll no doubt be much to discuss about Graffiti, as it reaches a crossroads in its evolution.
Confirmed Graffiti Sessions contributors include artist Ben Eine, who started painting his famous alphabet graphics on shop shutters in Shoreditch and ended up having one of his works offered as a gift from David Cameron to Barack Obama. Alongside Eine are fellow spray can specialists Inkie, Dotmasters, Noir.
Swooping in to challenge the artists are representatives of 'The Man' in the form of Colin Saysell from British Transport Police and Adam Cooper from the Mayor of London’s Office. Let's hope everyone gets along.
One of the organising partners, Lee Bofkin who runs Global Street Art told Londonist:
"The Graffiti Sessions is a progressive conference focused on current issues facing street art and graffiti. Only by learning to differentiate and talk about the crime and art-form sides of street art and graffiti separately and together can the discussion really move on."
Other thinkers chucking in ideas include Chantal Mouffe, author of Artistic Activism and Agonistic Spaces; cultural criminologist Jeff Ferrell and Alison Young, author of Street Art, Public City. There are also some overseas commentators explaining how graffiti works abroad, including Devon Ostrom from Beautiful City Arts Alliance in Toronto and Cameron McAuliffe of the University of Western Sydney.
Each day's events have unique themes and are hosted in a different venue. Day one 'The Illegal Sessions' is at Southbank Centre (3 December); day two 'The Legal Sessions' is at UCL (4 December); day three 'The Call To Action' is at the new Central Saint Martins campus in King's Cross (5 December). You can buy a one-day pass for £35 (£20 concessions) or a three-day pass for £75 (£45 concessions). Book your tickets and register here.
