Word Count: 2,259
Graffiti's Helpfulness
Throughout history art has always been present. Art has been used to preserve an era, retell stories, to show a culture so anyone could understand it, and graffiti and street art is the modernists way of showing their culture. Graffiti and street art has taken over the streets of cities and towns. In most locations graffiti and street art is considered purely vandalism. These artists are presented with into the shadows to show their pieces of works to society. Graffiti and street art has evolved from simply putting a made up name on the wall to drawing attention to societal issues. The streets are the ideal location for controversial art pieces because every commoner with see those art works. Graffiti and street art has opened a new door of possibilities allowing people to freely speak of controversial issues within their suburb, town, or large city. These art medians have enable artists for an urban age of liberation.
In Elizabeth L. Rauh's essay “Thirty Years Later: Iranian Visual Culture from the 1979 Revolution to the 2009 Presidential Protests”, Rauh examines the posters, photographs, slogans, graffiti, and other visual and artistic activities to show how the Green Movement used street art and graffiti to visually illustrate issues about the government anonymously. Rauh says that the specific images that were used in these revolutions have appeared within Iranian history before. They were recognizable throughout the whole community. "Images of hands serve multiple symbolic functions within Iranian visual culture. A single hand is a common revolutionary statement calling for solidarity and collective action--most notably in the form of a clenched fist"(Rauh 1). The government was so incredibly corrupt that anyone who spoke against the government would have been killed. The oppression within their society was