Metagraffiti explores how graffiti art transmits ideas about graffiti culture. These insights, in turn, inspire a deeper understanding of the social construction of cities. Focusing on graffiti scenes from Sao Paulo and Santiago de Chile, this innovative visual ethnography examines diverse forms of self-reference and metareference that appear in Latin American graffiti art. Chandra Morrison Ariyo works across multiple scales of contemporary graffiti production - from tags to massive murals - to show how painting the city enables individuals to reimagine their own position within the material and social structures around them. She further reveals how practitioners such as Tinho, OSGEMEOS, Grin, Bisy, and many others use metagraffiti features to influence public perceptions about this artform and its effect on the urban environment. Ultimately, Metagraffiti proposes a novel conceptual framework that highlights graffiti's ability to forge alternative forms of movement, sociality, and value within Latin American cityscapes. These urban images invite us to imagine what the city could be, when seen as a site for action and for imagination.

About the Author
CHANDRA MORRISON ARIYO is a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Reviews
"Metagraffiti is beautifully written, conceptually powerful, and empirically nuanced, offering the idea of 'metagraffiti' as a frame through which to understand the many discourses about graffiti's multiple functions, representations, and ongoing evolution in Latin America and the world. This book is an excellent resource for research and teaching around graffiti, the urban image, and forms of voicing. The specificity with which Morrison Ariyo attends to the form, process, and function of graffiti is impressive and will energize future scholarship. I highly recommend this text." -- Caitlin Frances Bruce * author of Voices in Aerosol: Youth Culture, Institutional Attunement, and Graffiti in Urban Mexico *



Book Information
ISBN 9781978834415
Author Chandra Morrison Ariyo
Format Hardback
Page Count 186
Imprint Rutgers University Press
Publisher Rutgers University Press
Weight(grams) 454g