The term graffiti referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii.Use of the word has evolved to include any graphics applied to surfaces in a manner that constitutes vandalism. Gaia’s extensive documentary collection brings you eye-opening films from around the globe to inform, awaken and inspire you. You’ll enjoy learning about science, nature, literature, world religions and more with our curated library of enlightening documentaries.  Welcome to Graffiti Movies! On this site you can watch full length graffiti movies for free without downloading. No bullshit commercials or annoying viruses - only real documentaries and movies of raw uncut graffiti action. The latest ten uploads: Santiago Singo - Wreckognition - Stay out - Wolume 1.

Ben Lomand Historic Site in Prince William County, VA

Today, we are pleased to welcome back Paige Gibbons-Backus

Throughout the country remnants of the Civil War are still seen today; from the open battlefields and the monuments in the media spotlight today, to the cemeteries and historic buildings that witnessed the momentous events that impacted so many lives. However, another reminder of the events of the day that do not immediately come to mind for some are the writings of these soldiers on the buildings in which they stayed or passed through, also known as graffiti. While numerous homes in the Northern Virginia area contain evidence of these soldiers, a collection of six historic buildings, known as the Northern Virginia Civil War Graffiti Trail, tells collective story of soldiers—from both North and South—who left their mark. The graffiti also helps illuminate some of the ways that civilians were impacted by this total war. The level of graffiti seen in these historic buildings vary, but spanning from Fairfax to Winchester, the trail provides both general visitors and Civil War enthusiasts with the opportunity to fill a day or two with amazing stories from the Civil War and see some of the unique and incredible marks left behind.

Some of the most vandalized homes on the graffiti trail consist of the Graffiti House, in Brandy Station, and Historic Blenheim, in Fairfax since both of these homes had seen thousands of soldiers pass by during the wartime years. Due to the Graffiti House’s location along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, the house was occupied by both Union and Confederate soldiers throughout the war. Using charcoal, soldiers (some famous and some not so famous) left their signatures, drawings, and commentaries. Many of which still survive today, resulting in over 200 legible pieces of graffiti to be seen by the modern visitor though the site’s free, self-guided tours.

Blenheim

Historic Blenheim also has many pieces of graffiti that are visible, with over 120 soldiers positively identified within the house. With the continued restoration of the property, more pieces of graffiti are likely waiting for discovery. Remarkably, much of the graffiti is located in the home’s attic, which has remarkably seen very little change after the war. However, while the Graffiti House contains both Confederate and Federal graffiti, Blenheim contains the names of Union soldiers. Many of the soldiers that have been identified were either encamped nearby or hospitalized at the house throughout 1862 and 1863 providing valuable insight into how the Fairfax Courthouse community was impacted throughout the war. Visitors can stop by Blenheim anytime between to visit the museum with exhibits about the history of the house and the soldiers whose names have been discovered, as well as a full-scale replica of the attic so that one can see the graffiti found within. The house itself is accessible to the public through guided tours available at 1:00pm or by appointment.

While not all the sites on the graffiti trail can boast hundreds of signatures, all of the sites have a unique story to tell, including Ben Lomond Historic Site and Liberia Plantation, located within 20 minutes of each other in Manassas, Virginia. Primarily interpreted as an immersive Civil War hospital where one can hear, touch, taste, smell, and see an active field hospital, Ben Lomond offers another story. Throughout the spring of 1862, like the rest of Northern Virginia, Union troops passed through the area and some even camped near the house. In addition to stealing food and supplies from the family who lived there, Federal soldiers also vandalized the house. While much of the graffiti is protected from view for preservation, sections of walls that are left uncovered for visitors to view during the guided tours of the hospital.

Just down the road from Ben Lomond stands Liberia Plantation, that also saw significant action in the beginning of the war. However, unlike the other sites, the graffiti at Liberia was only just recently discovered. The house served as Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard’s headquarters, and even hosted Confederate President Davis. It also served at General Irvin McDowell’s headquarters in 1862, when President Lincoln visited the site. It was also used by General Daniel Sickles and his troops guarding the Manassas Junction after the battles of Manassas. The home is currently undergoing restoration in an effort to discover more graffiti and return the house back to its wartime appearance. While it is undergoing restoration, the historic structure is closed to regular tours, however, it is open for special events and tours may be scheduled.

Mt. Zion Baptist Church

Spanning to the western end of Northern Virginia, the last two buildings on the graffiti trail are unusual; instead of private homes, they are instead a church and a courthouse. Mount Zion Old School Baptist Church, in Aldie, was used as a rendezvous site for Mosby and his raiders, a prison, barracks, and a battleground during the war. Additionally, Union troops used the church as a hospital after the cavalry battles of Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville in June 1863. To view the graffiti on the walls and even in the pews, visit Aldie for their guided tours the fourth Sunday of the month. Not only was a church vandalized in Northern Virginia, the Frederick County Courthouse was as well. Known today as the Shenandoah Valley Civil War Museum, the courthouse also served as a hospital, prison, and barracks for both sides over the course of the war. While some of the drawings and signatures left by soldiers have been covered for preservation, some of which can still be seen in addition to the restored courtroom, and exhibits that tell the story of not only the graffiti, but of the Civil War era in the Shenandoah Valley.

There is lots to see and do when exploring the Northern Virginia Civil War Graffiti Trail! Not only will one be able to see and learn about some of the amazing examples of the marks these soldiers left behind, one can also see and explore a variety of different Civil War sites throughout Virginia, from museums and historic houses, to guided tours. Information about the trail can be found on the Brady Station Foundation’s website at http://www.brandystationfoundation.com/ or by visiting any of the sites on the trail. We hope to see you soon!

Progression of Art

Kissing Coppers

In this iconic image, two (seemingly male) police officers in full, typical British uniforms are depicted kissing, in what appears to be a loving embrace. This work was originally spray-painted on the side of the Prince Albert pub in Trafalgar Street near the downtown core of the city of Brighton. Before its creation, one of Banksy's associates approached the pub owner on his behalf to seek permission for the work. The pub owner says, 'My first thought was, 'oh no'. I thought we'd get in loads of trouble for it.' But to his delight, after its creation, a group of uniformed officers appeared in front of the pub to view the piece and proceeded to take pictures. In 2011, the piece was replaced with a copy protected by a Perspex case, while the original was flown to the United States to be sold at auction.
The piece can be read in many ways. In one respect, Banksy is advocating for a sexual-identity accepting society by placing icons of authority in a pro-gay position. His use of policemen, rather than ordinary citizens, is intriguing, because the very subjects of his tender portrayal are often the ones to working to eradicate his vandalism. While some believe that he is poking fun at policemen, showing them in a vulnerable, intimate moment, others read the work more positively, as showing a human side to the police force, and emphasizing the strong bonds that exist on the police force between partners and teammates. The work is an undeniable testament to Banksy's use of irony to challenge us to build a bridge of understanding between expected enemies of ideology.

Spray paint - Originally painted in Brighton, England. Now in private collection

Rage, the Flower Thrower

This work, now covered and protected by a Perspex overlay, features a man dressed up in what we associate with traditional riot gear, with a bandana obscuring his face, and his cap on back-to-front. His stance is one of a person about to lob a Molotov cocktail; he's taking aim and is ready to throw his weapon. However, instead of a weapon, he holds a bunch of flowers (which are the only part of the mural to appear in color.) This piece is located on a wall on the side of a garage in Jerusalem on the main road to Beit Sahour, Bethlehem.
By substituting a weapon with a bunch of flowers, Banksy is advocating peace instead of war, and he opted to install this message of peace in a high-conflict area. The work also carries the message that peace comes with active hard work. The bouquet of flowers in this work, in addition to symbolizing peace, life, and love, may also be understood as commemorating lost lives in an age old religious conflict. It is a fine example of Banksy's use of art to relay messages of social importance.

Stencil and spray paint - Bethlehem

Napalm Girl

Again, Banksy has taken a pre-existing image - in this case an iconic photograph from Vietnam in 1972, of a girl - Kim Phuc - fleeing from a napalm attack on her village. The original photograph was taken by associated press photographer Nick Ut and has developed into a short hand for the atrocities of the Vietnam War. Banksy has isolated the image of the horror-stricken girl (originally surrounded by a few other clothed children and seven soldiers running down a road away from the site of the napalm attack) and flanked her with Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald. These two instantly recognizable, smiling characters, when juxtaposed with the image of Napalm Girl, give the image a very twisted and sinister feel.
Both Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald are two family-friendly faces of American capitalism, the same country that dropped Napalm on Vietnam. Banksy's work then becomes a critique of not just America but also of capitalism. The girl's horror-stricken face is juxtaposed against the two characters' big, bright smiles. In this simple image, Banksy shows both the fun, carefree facade of American culture, and the reality that America also has a very dark, underbelly which drops bombs on people, and both commercializes and glamorizes war. Banksy once stated that 'The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It's people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.'

Screenprint on paper

Show Me the Monet

This work by Banksy refigures the iconic Impressionist painting Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lillies (1899) by Claude Monet. Monet's original reveals a tranquil scene of his own garden, with rich vegetation reflected in the calm water. Banksy has replicated Monet's original painting almost exactly, using the same materials as Monet, however Banksy has added two discarded shopping carts and a traffic cone to the pond.
By using shopping carts, an image associated with consumerism, Banksy's message is that society is focused on material goods, buying more than is necessary in a futile attempt to make ourselves feel happy and fulfilled. Moreover, by representing these man-made objects as discarded in an otherwise beautiful natural setting, he critiques contemporary society's disregard for nature in favor of commodity fetishism and the production of excessive waste, Even the title of Banksy's work has subverted the meaning of the original, with the word money being a play on Monet, which can be read as a critique of the commercialization of art.

Oil on canvas

Unwelcome Intervention

This mural depicts two young boys playing with buckets and shovels, like children creating sandcastles on a beach. The boys, one standing, the other kneeling, look back at the viewer, rendered in Banksy's typical black and white stencil aesthetic. Just above the boys, the artist has created the illusion of a broken section of the grey wall on which the mural was created. Through this false hole, a photorealistic color image of a tropical beach paradise is visible, with sand, water, and several palm trees.
As with much 'guerrilla' street art, the location of the piece plays a central role in its meaning. Banksy stenciled this work onto the Israeli-Palestinian West Bank barrier wall in August 2005 along with eight other murals (including a dove with a bulletproof vest and a heart-shaped target over its chest, a child beneath a ladder stretching to the top of the wall, and the silhouette of a young girl being lifted upwards by a bunch of balloons). While the Israelis consider the wall to be a protection against terrorism, the Palestinians claim that its purpose is racial segregation.
Banksy's spokeswoman Jo Brooks said that while Banksy was creating the piece, 'The Israeli security forces did shoot in the air threateningly and there were quite a few guns pointed at him.' However, Banksy questioned, 'How illegal is it to vandalize a wall if the wall itself has been deemed unlawful by the International Court of Justice?'
This piece plays on the notion that the grass may be greener, and the landscape (perhaps environmental, perhaps political) may be better on the other side of this large barrier (although we know that it isn't). The artist may also be suggesting that a better political landscape could only emerge if the barrier were destroyed. By including children in this, and several others of the murals on the wall, the artist forces us to consider the toll that the local conflict takes on the innocent. The viewer is even more strongly implicated in the work through the direct gaze of the children.
When painting these murals in 2005, Banksy had a conversation with a Palestinian man who told him, 'You paint the wall, you make it look beautiful,' to which Banksy replied, 'Thanks.' The Palestinian man then said, 'We don't want it to be beautiful, we hate this wall, go home.'

Paint - West Bank barrier wall

One Nation Under CCTV

This work on Newman Street in London was painted on the wall of a building used by the Royal Mail. At the bottom right, a child in a red hooded sweatshirt, black shorts, and a grey backpack, is seen painting the phrase 'ONE NATION UNDER CCTV' while being watched by a police officer and a dog at the bottom left.
The mural was situated in the line of sight of a CCTV camera. In fact, Banksy managed to erect three stories of scaffolding under the cover of darkness to create the entire artwork in one night. This work aims to criticize the excessive surveillance (both from CCTV cameras in public spaces, as well as in other forms such as online) that has recently become a controversial issue both in the UK and abroad. Banksy has done other works that aim to 'tease' security cameras, for instance by stenciling the words 'what are you looking at?' on a blank wall faced by a CCTV camera.
The Westminster City Council stated in October 2008 that the work would be painted over, regardless of the celebrity status of the artist, as it was illegal graffiti. The council stated that Banksy 'has no more right to paint graffiti than a child.' Robert Davis, the chairman of the council planning committee told The Times, 'If we condone this then we might as well say that any kid with a spray can is producing art.' The work was eventually painted over in April 2009.
The condemning of street art as illegal vandalism, and its frequent removal, has been the focus of many other works by Banksy. But on the other hand, the fact that many of his works get removed shortly after their creation adds to the excitement and fanaticism that surrounds Banksy's work. Banksy biographer Will Ellsworth-Jones wrote in 2013 that Banksy 'is an artist who has got people running around the city desperate to see his work before it gets painted over.'

Spray paint - London

Mona Lisa Bazooka

In this work, Banksy plays upon one of the world's most famous paintings, The Mona Lisa (1503-4). Although in his piece, the female protagonist wears a headset while aiming a rocket launcher in his typical black and white stencil style. The piece first appeared in the Soho district of West London.
While Banksy's juxtaposition of art history's most famous female with a powerful modern weapon may certainly be humorous and cheeky, there is more that can be read into the image. While Da Vinci's Mona Lisa appears graceful and passive, Banksy gives her a powerful, confrontational, and active sensibility. Her facial expression remains just as calm as in the original, however, next to the powerful weapon, her welcoming smile reads as slightly menacing. It can also be read as a statement on how blasé citizens have become to the ongoing realities of war, always taking place somewhere far removed from their own tranquil lives.

Spray paint - London

Power Washer

This mural was created in May 2008 on Leake Street, London, as part of the Cans Festival. It depicts a maintenance worker in an orange vest in the act of pressure washing art off of a wall. The art appears to be ancient cave paintings of warriors and animals (horses, deer, and or bison), much like the famous discovery in the caves at Lascaux, France.
With this work, Banksy is drawing a parallel between the ancient, prehistoric cave paintings, and modern-day graffiti / street art. While it is standard practice for the latter to be cleaned off of walls, it would be unthinkable for the same fate to befall the former. In this way, the artist questions the value placed on certain works of art, and the label of 'vandalism' assigned to others.

Spray paint - London

Hammer Boy

This more recent Banksy work serves as an excellent example of the way that 'guerrilla' street artists use the surrounding environment as an integral part of their works. In this work, Banksy has stenciled a simple black silhouette of a child with a large mallet in the process of striking something in front of him. The pre-existing object that the boy is about to hit is a red fire hydrant, which has a pipe coming up through the top leading directly to a round red object several feet higher (possibly a fire alarm). With the inclusion of the small boy with the mallet, this utilitarian plumbing fixture is instantly transformed to look like a 'high striker' or 'strength tester' (the classic carnival game where a player must use a mallet to hit a lever at the bottom of a tower, with the goal of launching a small puck upwards to hit the bell at the top of the tower).
The piece is located on 79^th Street, just east of Broadway, on Manhattan's Upper West Side. A local business owner and Banksy supporter installed a Plexiglas cover to protect the work.
With site-specific works like Hammer Boy, Banksy and other street artists encourage viewers to envision urban spaces, surfaces, and objects differently, and to see fun and whimsy in otherwise mundane spaces. In this way, street artists have much the same mentality as skateboarders or people who practice parkour. For all of these groups, city spaces and surfaces are not restricted to their prescribed uses. Instead, participants feel the freedom to co-opt and repurpose the urban environment. A fire hydrant is not just for holding water, it can also become a child's plaything. A handrail is not only for holding and supporting oneself, it can also become a tool for enacting daring acrobatic feats.

Spray Paint - New York City

Love is in the Bin

In October 2018, Banksy’s iconic image of Balloon Girl, featuring a young girl letting go of a heart-shaped balloon as a beacon of innocent hope, was sold during a Sotheby’s auction for 1.04 million pounds. The moment it was pronounced “sold,” a strange alarm sounded from within the painting’s frame, its trigger source unknown. Immediately, the painting started to descend down through its bottom, which turned out to be a shredding mechanism. Although the painting was supposed to shred fully as Banksy later admitted, the device stopped working, leaving half the painting intact in the frame. Banksy posted a video of the shredding with the words “Going, going, gone” on his Instagram page, leading people to believe he had planted a subversive ally in the auction room. But he removed the video promptly, after it had successfully winked at his social media audience.
The female buyer decided to keep the work, newly retitled Love is in the Bin, as it was now the subject of a grand scandal, the only artwork created at a live auction in history, and cemented her in the status of purchaser of one of the art world’s most notorious capers. Joey Syer, co-founder of an art dealing website, was quoted in the Evening Standard as saying, “The auction result will only propel this further and given the media attention this stunt has received, the lucky buyer would see a great return on the 1.02M they paid last night, this is now part of art history in its shredded state and we’d estimate Banksy has added at a minimum 50% to its value…”
Banksy would go on to release a video showing how the shredder was installed into the frame upon its creation, stating it was purposefully crafted in case the work ever made it to auction. His reasoning came in the form of the quote: “The urge to destroy is also a creative urge.”

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Content compiled and written by Alexandra Duncan

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Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Kimberly Nichols

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