Subculture and Graffiti: Two Cases of Popular Graffiti in Vancouver's East Side

Several weeks ago, I wrote about graffiti in a transitional area of Vancouver, Gastown/ Chinatown, and what a symbol of subversion like graffiti is coming to mean in a space that is facing intense gentrification.  In this post, I will focus on where my blog left off – in the face of commercialization in the DTES, what has been the reaction of graffiti artists?  Two blogs by my fellow classmates explore two symbols of subculture that still exist in the East side of Vancouver – the “East Van” graffiti tag turned public art piece, and the “Free Marc Emery” stencils – that have become symbols of East Vancouver.

The "East Van" Sign
Photo Credit: Denise Lee
From Anth 378

Denise Lee, author of the blog Anth 378, discusses the iconic “East Van” tag that has been a symbol of East Van for years, appearing as far back as the 1960s.  Recently, the iconic symbol was turned into a public art piece, a light-up sign visible from the Skytrain when passing through the East side (Lee 2011).  The symbol is of a cross, with the word “East” running horizontally, and the word “Van” running vertically.  Inspired by the original graffiti tag, Lee sees a tension between the original meaning of the East Van community symbol and the now “artistic” and literally glowing art piece by Ken Lum: “There are other double meanings, like in the poor/rich divide in social class: the graffiti symbol had beginnings in defiance born from adversity, while the LED sign was erected for a program and Games instigated by the rich.  It may be illegal to vandalize a wall with the symbol, but it’s encouraged to appreciate, contemplate and interpret this sign if it’s public art.” (Lee 2011)

Free Marc Emery Graffiti Stencil
From: My-diation

Katrina Schulz also wrote on her blog My-diation about an instance of a commonly occurring piece of subversive graffiti in the DTES, the “Free Marc Emery” stencils that have been appearing on the sides of buildings in the Downtown and East Side Areas (Schulz 2011).  Having worked on a shop on Hastings St. before, I noticed these stencils mostly within a certain radius of the iconic Vancouver marijuana subculture hang-out, the New Amsterdam Café, who are at the centre of the Vancouver campaign.  However, despite the subversive nature of the stencils, Schulz recognizes some irony when she found the “Free Marc Emery” website, as the group had specific instructions on how and where to approach painting the graffiti stencils, and found it “…was not the creation of an inspired and angry individual, but the result of what might in fact be called a ‘marketing campaign’.” (Schulz 2011)  What Schulz finds to be the strangest thing about the “Free Marc” campaign is it’s seemingly unaware acceptance of consumer values when approaching a subversive activity, particularly it’s “75 Fun Things You Can Do To Help Free March” list.  Schulz believes that the list “… assesses these different ‘forms of protest’ on ‘risk’, ‘effectiveness’ and ‘cost’ – the group operates within the realm of today’s consumer culture and lets itself be guided by economic considerations.” (Schulz 2011)

The common issue presented by both Lee and Schulz is the tendency for subculture to become popular culture.  There is something about graffiti as a deviant action that is undeniably “cool.” Except as graffiti becomes more popular and begins to be seen as an art form, the less legitimacy it has as a form of protest.  Sarah Thornton writes that “the idea that authentic culture is somehow outside media and commerce is a resilient one.  In its full-blown romantic form, the belief suggests that grassroots cultures resist and struggle with a colonizing mass-mediated corporate world.” (Thornton 2006: 116)  However, Thornton also believes that, realistically, subculture is being sucked into popular media, not just by “the man” but to an extent, willingly  Subculture uses the frame of media just as much as much as pop culture does (Thornton 2006: 118).  The line between was is mass mediated and what is subversive becomes thin in a world where flashing signs and mass produced stencils represent Vancouver’s subculture, and world renowned graffiti artist Banksy has an online gift shop.

Citations

Lee, Denise

2011    The East Van Sign: Graffiti and Public Art in Creating an Imagined Community.  http://deniseleesblog.tumblr.com/post/3291014858/the-east-van-sign-graffiti-and-public-art-in-creating, Accessed March 28, 2011

Schulz, Katrina

2011    The Insurrection of Signs?  Graffiti, Marc Emery and The Culture of the (Non-)Deviant.  http://my-diation.blogspot.com/2011/02/insurrection-of-signs-graffiti-marc.html, Accessed March 28, 2011

Thornton, Sarah

2006    The Underground versus the Overexposed.  In Club cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital.  Middletown: Wesleyan University Press

Structuralism in Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (Spirited Away)

Spirited Away
              from wikipedia.org

Japanese anime is immensely popular in countries all over the world, but a particularly large fan base exists in the US and Canada.  I myself am a huge anime fan, so for this blog entry, I chose to look at the film Sen to Chihiro no kamikakusi, or in English, Spirited Away.  Hayao Miyazaki is an acclaimed director both in Asia and North America, and his films tend to blend symbols  and imagery from many cultures, but Spirited Away makes a point of using more traditional Japanese imagery and makes reference to Japanese folk-tales.  Spirited Away is the story of a young girl named Chihiro, whose interactions with “good” and “evil” form the plot of the film.  I think this imagery is used to connect to a “hero’s journey” plotline, which engages imagery and structuralism to explore the balance between good and evil.

            Since Spirited Away is an animated film, there is a great deal of room for creativity and astounding imagery, complete with a giant bath house and some of the most unique strangest looking spirits and monsters.  However, underneath the imaginative spirit world, Susan J. Napier says that “Spirited Away offers… a sharp critique of the materialism and toxicity of contemporary Japanese society through its complex vision of quasi-nostalgic fantastic realm threatened by pollution from within and without.” (Napier 2006: 288)  Moral dilemmas are explored throughout the film, particularly a tension between pollution and cleanliness, or good and bad. The protagonist, Chihiro, is thrown into the spirit world when her and her parents wander into the spirit village.  

Chihiro and Yubaba, the bath house
manager
From tumblr

Her parents eat the food of the spirits and are turned into pigs, and Chihiro’s adventure develops onto a quest to have her parents changed back (Miyazaki 2001).  In order to do this, Chihiro goes to the bath house, the central feature of the spirit village, to get work so she can stay in the spirit world to help her parents.  She enters into a state of liminality as the owner, Yubaba (see Figure 2), hires her and changes her name to Sen, effectively taking her identity.  During Sen’s employment at the bath house she has to prove her worth, facing many challenging situations, often involving an unclean spirit who needs to be helped by her to become “clean” again (invoking the purity/impurity divide I mentioned before).  In the end, Sen becomes Chihiro again, succeeds in having her parents changed back into humans and returns to the human world.  In this way, the film follows a pattern of structuralism, as Sen/Chihiro is completing a journey where she must challenge good and evil in a “transitional space” that is indicative of structuralism (Gray 2010: 54)

            However, the anomaly in this film is a particular character that at once violates the good/evil divide and presents a more complicated version of structuralism.  This character is No Face (see Figure 3), a black robed, mask wearing spirit who has a tendency to swallow people whole, yet could be “interpreted as a 

No Face and Chihiro
From evalu8.org

lonely young Japanese person who does not know how to make friends.” (Reider 2005: 19) He is a confused soul, but in the end the actions of the protagonist correct his behaviour and brings him to good. While this interpretation sees No Face as more of a social outcast, Napier sees No Face’s fascinating position within the story as an expression of contemporary Japanese society, because his “…excessive appetite brings chaos to the collectivity…” (Napier 2006: 303) and is only brought under control by the intervention of Chihiro.  For the last part of the movie, No Face actually becomes one of Chihiro’s companions while completing the final tasks she has to face, and he is redeemed only by friendship.

            In Spirited Away, Chihiro faces many challenges and tasks that overcome good and evil, represented through purity and impurity and complicated characters such as No Face.  Chihiro’s story is in line with structuralism because of the moral dilemmas she faces, and also the resolution that sees the world returned to normal, therefore being removed from a liminal state where good and evil conflict.

Citations

Gray, Gordon

2010    Film Theory. In Cinema: A Visual Anthropology.  Pp. 35-73.  Oxford: Berg.

Miyazaki, Hayao

2001    Spirited Away.  125 min.  Studio Ghibli.  Tokyo. 

·         English Trailer, Japanese Trailer

Napier, Susan J.

2006    Matter Out of Place: Carnival, Containment, and Cultural Recovery in Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.  In The Journal of Japanese Studies 32(2): 287-310

Reider, Noriko T.

2005    Spirited Away: Film of the Fantastic and Evolving Japanese Folk Symbols.  In Film Criticism 29(3): 4-27

Community and Radio in Indigenous communities

Fort McPherson, NWT
             from torontoscreenshots.com

The radio, in contrast to many other forms of media, is often seen as free, open air to express any views one wishes without censorship.  Technically, all you need to operate a radio show is a soundboard and a signal, and these low-tech methods of “getting the word out” make radio a crucial way for communities in rural areas or with few other resources to communicate, and in the process shape their communities through the messages they send out.  I will be looking at two examples to discuss how community manifests itself in a variety of ways: the Fort McPherson station CBQM, and the Australian station TEABBA.

A CBQM Broadcast
from nfb.org

            CBQM is a community radio station in the town of Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, a small town with a mostly Gwich'in population.  A movie about CBQM by the National Film Board of Canada showed a unique radio station with colourful personnel, playing country music and light-heartedly taking calls and requests, as well as sending out messages that so-and-so was home if anyone wanted to come by for tea, as well as announcements for more official community events.  Even though it was a movie about a radio station, it also showed a lot about the community and its strong local culture, from the Anglican hour broadcasts to the elder’s feasts.  The community also uses the radio station as their base of communication for all sorts of local officials, most frequently the constable, who reports on local incidents like late-night vandals and wolf sightings.  But what was most striking about the radio show was how fun and approachable it seemed.  As the description on the website says: “CBQM’s far-flung listeners – solitary trappers in their cabins, Gwich’in ladies busy with their beadwork, truckers heading north on the Dempster Highway – take comfort in the presence of an old friend.   For them CBQM is more than a simple radio station. It’s their radio station ...” (National Film Board of Canada 2009)  Anyone could call in, and anyone could come on the show.  The radio hosts were always having a lot of fun, goofing around on the air, playing fiddle songs or telling stories.  The radio was for the use of the entire community in any way they needed it.

TEABBA Media Services
from cultanth.org

            Another example of a radio program that connects community members, although in a different way, is the TEABBA station in Australia that caters to the local Aboriginal population.  This station is different from CBQM because it serves a larger area, reaching 32 localities, but at the same time still serves some similar functions.  The main way that the radio station interacts with the community is taking song requests, which are often dedicated by the requester to a loved one in prison at Berrimah.  The dedication is a way for their family members to let them know they are thinking about them and keep community ties strong, and the radio station provides the service to keep these family members in touch across distances.  In order for the radio stations to have these songs heard by the inmates, they link up with another local radio station in Darwin, Radio Larrakia, so that their broadcast reaches Berrimah prison.  It allows family members to communicate with loved ones in prison, and in order to do this community radio stations have to work together in order to get the signal out.  The meaning of the messages on TEABBA are different because they are more solemn, and are messages between family members that have been separated rather than the light-hearted community based communication of CBQM, which is more aimed at providing entertainment and a voice for the community.

            Radio stations are used by communities in very particular ways that reflect their needs.  CBQM is light-hearted and fun, and is used for just about any information that needs to be said in the small town of Fort McPherson.  TEABBA serves a larger area, and while the information broadcasted are usually messages between close family members, both fulfill a similar function by providing an accessible way for indigenous groups to express themselves, and send messages throughout the community.

References

Allen, Dennis

2010    CBQM National Film Board of Canada

Fischer, Daniel

2009    Mediating Kinship: Country, Family, and Radio in Northern Australia.  Cultural Anthropology 24(2): 280-312

National Film Board of Canada

2009    CBQM Description. http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=55510.  Accessed March 13, 2011