Diana Diaz

Socio 4

Strand Article

4/22/15

Graffiti on the Great Plains

A Social Reaction to the Red River Flood of 1997

In this article it was about how graffiti and the natural disasters had a relationship although some people did not see it like that. Following the flood of 1997, the Red River Flood, graffiti emerged in places in cities like Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota. The graffiti that emerged was related to the experiences that the people had to the floods. They labeled the graffiti as “catastroffiti” as the graffiti being related to the natural disasters. Catastrofitti is defined as- ‘to describe the emergence of graffiti-like messages that may follow a disaster.’

People thought that the graffiti had nothing to do with natural disasters, they saw a relationship when Hurricane Andrew hit Southern Florida and the Red River Valley Flood (1997). Thats when the people saw a relation. For some tagging was seen as conformity. People had no other way of expressing themselves and they saw that graffiti was a way that they can do that. Many people coped by tagging although it was not seen as a way to cope rather that religion. The graffiti evolved into a community discourse where they reaffirmed the ethos of the community and with the participation of graffiti it served several citizens as a voice from coping with the flood.

In graffiti literature according to Abel and Beckley (1977) graffiti was seen as an outlet of expressing themselves and a way of coping with the stress. They are able to express themselves freely and are free to self express. Although there is still argument on whether graffiti is seen as vandalism or as art there are some communities that hire graffitist to do public murals. In society there are two types of graffiti art, there is public graffiti and private graffiti. Public graffiti is seen in urban areas and is seen and labeled as lower socioeconomic art while private art is associated with latrinalia or bathroom graffiti and it reflects the attitudes of the community. It is seen as a stereotype and graffiti can be done by any age, gender, race, background and economic status, it doesn’t have to be one kind only.

Disaster literature is the kind of graffiti that is usually absent and not seen a lot, there are not a lot of art that occurs. This type of graffiti is seen as a coping mechanism because most people are avoidant and they rather want to be by themselves and cope on the pain their own way, but it is not always seen as a coping mechanism. The Red River Valley Flood was not like any other flood. It slowly rose past the flood stage and many residents were affected at Grand Forks and East Grand Forks but mainly at Grand Forks. That was were most of the damage occurred, many people didn’t really expect it to occur since the warnings happened a while back. The flood was one of the largest mass evacuations in the U.S.

The residents didn’t have any basic survival needs. These people first focused on the their basic survival needs and after that was met they began to asses their flood related losses. Things like their homes or personal items. About 80% of Grand Forks suffered damage from the flood and only 8 homes were spared at East Grand Forks. After the flood people were forced to dig out their basements and remove flood damaged property and during this time it was when the graffiti first appeared. The studies of Erikson (1976) described the reactions of the people during a short period after the disaster. The data captured 290 selections of graffiti to represent the overall sample. Approximately half of the graffiti on garages 30% on household items and the other 20% on signed boards. Some of this graffiti was done with spray paint and with mud.

On May 27, 1997, 5 weeks after the flood residents were returning back to Grand Forks and East Grand Forks and many people began to use cars, walk on foot and their bicycles, although there was nowhere much to go due to the damage. They began to take photographs of places where they knew there was going to be graffiti.

Questions

  1. Do you think graffiti is a criminal act that results in defacing of public or private property? Why?
  2. Do you feel that doing graffiti is a good coping mechanism to deal with any pain?
  3. Why did people turn to graffiti instead of praying to do the coping instead?