Brick, Glass, and Steel
The materials that make up a city: brick, glass, and steel, each offer distinct surfaces for graffiti, shaping both how it is created and how it endures. On brick, paint seeps into porous texture, softening edges and lending an aged permanence. Glass, by contrast, resists absorption; it invites etching, scratching, and adhesive stickers instead of spray. Steel doors, frequently repainted or replaced, become sites of constant renewal — a cycle of marking and erasure that speaks to the tension between public expression and property maintenance.
Taken together, these surfaces reveal how environment influences artistic practice. The durability of brick allows for long-standing works that weather into the architecture itself, while the fragility of glass captures fleeting gestures. Steel reflects the rhythm of daily use as it is opened, closed, tagged, and repainted in continuous succession. Each material records interaction differently, transforming functional infrastructure into a quiet record of urban negotiation between permanence, impermanence, and the human impulse to leave a trace.
Brick #
These walls tell a quieter story. Each brick bears a name, a date, or a short message, written not in sweeping paint or elaborate tag, but in the fine permanence of marker. The result is a surface that feels more intimate than confrontational. Here we find a chorus of individual presences rather than a single artistic statement. Over time, the layered handwriting creates a textured record of those who have paused long enough to leave a trace.
Walls like this can be found around the world, wherever people feel compelled to bear witness to a place or moment. They recall pilgrimage walls, those found at shrines, schools, and historical landmarks where writing one’s name becomes a ritual act of participation. Whether it’s a tourist signing a stone in a foreign city, or a local marking the spot where something meaningful once happened, the gesture is the same: I was here.
