Infamy – A Movie About Graffiti in the USA

Documentary Film About Six Graffiti Artists and One Guerilla

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Apr 22, 2009 Mary Rayme

Graffiti artists are a strange yet driven subculture. Infamy introduces six graffitists who have worked long and hard to leave behind a sign of their creation.

Infamy features six of graffiti artists from New York, Los Angeles San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Claw, Earsnot, Enem, Jase, Joe, Saber and Toomer are all graffiti artists who have large reputations in their hometowns, all built one tag at a time.

Artists or Vandals?

Not all practitioners of graffiti are artists, just as not every Sunday painter who lifts a brush is truly an artist. Saber, Jase and Toomer seem to be the true artists in this documentary film. The artwork of these men is large, complex and seeming to always improve, the hallmarks of real artists. The other graffitists in Infamy seem more like spray-painting, territory-markers, as if they are dingoes in the wild peeing on bushes. Certainly taggers can be commended for their persistence and promulgation, but many taggers come across as anti-social vandals who are defacing property.

Women Are Smarter?

From her appearance in Infamy, Claw seems to be an excellent businesswoman who can use the power of her claw logo to create profitable urban fashion. But spray-painting her cliché cartoon claw around New York City doesn't make her an artist. Claw is also a contributor to Shephard Fairey's Swindler Magazine.

The Anti-Graffiti Guerilla

The foil to the obsession of the graffiti artists is an equally obsessed graffiti guerilla, Joe Connolly, who has made it his business to keep his neck of the woods in Los Angeles as graffiti-free as he possible can. Connolly also spouts a diatribe against city workers who should be removing the graffiti, and Joe has his own tag that he likes to use on top of the graffiti he destroys. (A.M.B., All My Bitches, as in, graffiti makers are all my bitches.)

There's some terminology to learn to fully appreciate Infamy, such as:

  • Piece: Short for masterpiece, a piece is a work of graffiti that has taken a long time to create.
  • Racking: Racking is shoplifting or stealing. For some graffiti artists, this is part of the culture. Others do not agree.
  • Tag: A tag is the logo, word or a variety of words that a graffitist uses to mark as many surfaces and places as possible within a neighborhood or region.
  • Throw-Up: A throw-up is a more complex tag and usually consists of a one-color outline with a one-color fill.

Terminology source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti_terminology

Official Infamy the movie website.

And apparently all things cool come back to Shepard Fairey these days. The producer of Infamy, Roger Gastman, is also the co-founder of Swindler Magazine along with Shephard Fairey.

Infamy (2007), directed by Doug Pray, produced by Roger Gastman

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The copyright of the article Infamy – A Movie About Graffiti in the USA in Art & Society is owned by Mary Rayme. Permission to republish Infamy – A Movie About Graffiti in the USA in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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