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Journal of Material Culture
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An Ethnography of Iconoclash

An Investigation into the Production, Consumption and Destruction of Street-art in London

Rafael Schacter

University College London, UK, r.schacter{at}ucl.ac.uk

In the following study, I will be investigating the distinct Iconoclash made manifest on our city streets, exploring the various discourses and themes raised through the clash over graffiti. Conducting an analytic account of this conflict, it will be suggested that the images possess both a potent and multifaceted form of agency and are physically embodied by their patients; it will equally be implied that their efficacy is advanced through the explicitly performative nature of the graffiti act, the images' evident ephemerality and the specific character of their medium. Subsequently, through an investigation into the discourses of dirt and deceptiveness, the various rationales assumed for the images reviled nature will be discussed, and finally, utilising notions of appropriation and dètournement, the particular nature of the graffiti-artists engagement with their environment will be examined.

In concluding, the evident similarities between both graffiti-artists and graffiti-removers will be analyzed, and a personal account of the interaction with the images encountered will be attempted.

Key Words: Iconoclash • graffiti • agency • appropriation • pollution

Journal of Material Culture, Vol. 13, No. 1, 35-61 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1359183507086217
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