Fiona Moran

Fiona Moran

The American Underground

Discussion Questions for the reading: Taking The Train, by Joe Austin

1. In his prologue Austin adopts the term ‘writer’ for the individuals that participated in the cultural phenomenon of graffiti work, which found its beginnings in the late 1950’s. These urban ‘writers’ chronicled and documented the adolescent sentiments of the period, the political climate and subjected the public to a subculture that ultimately opposed authoritative restraints, however we can see that the concept of identity was also of significance. This young generation from usually disenfranchised sectors of society had found a method to regain a voice and could construct an individual identity that was projected upon the public arena. Consider the relationship between deindustrialization and the urban renewal programs of the 1950’s and 60’s upon the poorer sectors of NYC and the emergence of graffiti.

2. The subway system of NYC had long been a symbol of the city’s New Rome status and a testament to early technological prowess. When commenting upon Mayor John Lindsay’s opinions on the urban crisis of the early 1960’s Austin writes: ‘Lindsay understood public transport to be a key infrastructural resource that must be preserved and expanded if U.S central cities were to maintain their place as centers of national life.’ Graffiti tags and names began to envelop every available surface of the subway train, signaling a lack of authoritative control over a once revered NYC landmark. Discuss how the anxiety surrounding urban decline and a ‘city in crisis’ resulted in a ‘war on graffiti’ and the framing of ‘writers’ as the sources of such evils.

3. ‘Lindsay’s task force, claimed to have taken an informal polling of subway riders and found that the overwhelming majority did not feel it was art’ writes Austin in his chapter entitled ‘Writing “Graffiti”’. Many artists, art critics and art historians had compelling arguments about graffiti being a form of cultural expression and not a crime, yet who has the authority to decide what can be considered a work of art? Does having the language and education to describe and understand art give you this authority? When the graffiti was ‘framed’ within an art gallery setting did it then become art? Can art only be art in a gallery and not in the streets?