Eleven things I liked about Israel 2: The stylish graffiti

It was my daughter who first got me interested in photographing street graffiti. She'd been doing that in England and Israel over the last year or two.

While I was in Israel, I was very struck by how stylish and inventive the street graffiti are. For a start, I didn't find any examples of taggers at work-- the mindless own-name teenage graffiti artists who cover walls, tube trains and just about any vertical surface they can find. Considering what a menace they are in London, blighting whole areas, that's pretty amazing.

When I saw the image above, I began to wonder if there wasn't just one graffiti artist doing all the ones I liked. It's got the same sprayed woman figure as the ones I photographed in Tel-Aviv's trendy Sheinkin Street, but this particular one was in Hebrew rather than English, and it was in a quiet side street in the Rehavia district of Jerusalem.

I translate it as: ART IS FOR SNOBS. VIVA GRAFFITI!

Well, that's the best I can offer, and it's not literal. Others might be able to suggest a more elegant (or possibly more accurate) rendering. Sounds very 1968-era French Situationist.

Jerusalem seemed to have the best collection of stylish graffiti. The finest ones I saw were clustered around certain cafes on Jaffa Street.

I particularly liked their inventiveness in representing and shaping Hebrew lettering, from the handwritten group on the bottom right "Free the... (couldn't work out the rest, but I' m pretty sure it's ironic) to the stencilled stuff on the top.

I can't quite work out the stencilled one on the top. There are two styles of stencilling. One message or two? The line at the top translates as "Mummy dear (Mammaleh), why are they writing denunciations about me?" Then below it is the half Hebrew-half Yiddish word Ha-Feigele. Feigele literally means little bird, but is also Yiddish slang for a gay man.

Then, just below the white Ipod motif, there's the word Tzionainut. Sounds like a word play on Tzionut (Zionism).

And there's another Situationist-style slogan in English: Join the Resistance. Fall in Love.

The turquoise stencilled Hebrew slogan at the top is a sardonic political comment on the alleged corruption of the Sharon family; it was clearly there well before Sharon's brain haemorrhage. It says: SHARON AND SONS PLC.

Under it is a slogan which I can't quite work out but which may be a word play on the Hebrew word savlanut (patience); it actually says savlonut and is spelled with a shin rather than the samech which would be the first letter of savlanut. Savlanut l'pachdanim would mean Patience with Cowards. I don't know what savlonut l'pachdanim, which is what is written here would mean.

The spray painted message at the top is another sardonic take on a popular political slogan, this time a left wing one. Clinton's famous farewell line to Yitzchak Rabin, Shalom Chaver (Goodbye, friend) inspired a bumper sticker that was widely adopted by left wingers after the Likud victory brought Netanyahu and his harder line government into power. The slogan was Chaver, Atah Chaser (Friend, we miss you). Here, it's been recast to a dumped guy's lament: Chaverah At Chaserah (Girlfriend, you've gone missing).

An equally mordant take on sexual politics appears on the pillar at the left, which translates as Daddy's cheating on Mummy.

The patches of colour seem to give the written graffiti a setting that makes them look a lot better than routine graffiti sprayings.

This final image is one I like as a visual ensemble

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that there's some art student at the Bezalel School doing this stuff as a dissertation project.

Comments

[Paul]

In your second picture, the word is "pashkvillim". They are the posters one sees in Meah Shearim, often denouncing someone or something. For a great article on the origins of the Yiddish word, see http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.08.01/philologos.html

Thanks for sharing your pictures!

Paul

[Judy]

Paul, thanks for that info. It makes sense and confirms what I thought it was about. And that Forward article explaining the origins of pashkvillim is really fascinating, not to mention ironic. There are some fine descriptions of typical pashkvillim in Jerusalem in Amos Oz' "A Tale of Love and Darkness".

[Bind]

Long time listener - first time caller.

Since no one else has chimed in shablonot = stencils.

'Stencils are for cowards' which is art school funny because its a stencil.

[Judy]

Bind-- thanks. Great stuff.

[Bind]

Tzionenut: I'm not sure I get it, but onenut is masturbation so they've merged it with Zionism.

I may have missed the joke entirely though...

[Judy]

Bind-- I rather wondered if it might be something like that...

[spray ur way]

art is one of the nicest ways 2 xpress urself, in my opinion. what better place 2 do it than on an ugly wall in a beautiful city?

[spray ur way]

so, its not savlanut, it means shablonot=stencils. they r randomly sprayed on by different artist, not a group, usually done alone. and that is one of the reasons they use stencils, it is fast and no need for a friend to look out for the cops. besides the fact that almost all of them make a statement and not just for the sake of vanalism