New York Roof Top Graffiti

Mention of the word graffiti usually conjures up a picture of a typical New York street scene with buildings and walls adorned by colourful graffiti work. In these apartment blocks close to the Brooklyn Bridge they have taken the graffiti from street level to rooftop level

Boom!

This building in Spuistraat in central Amsterdam was painted a bright blue colour and had BOOM! painted across the top making it very distinctive. In this area of Amsterdam there were quite a number of these old buildings with brightly painted graffiti.

Non HDR Grunge

This image may look a little like an HDR image bit it isn't. This is just the grungy look of this apartment block in New York. Some of the graffiti is very artistic and in some cases can brighten up an otherwise very gloomy building.

Belgian Graffiti

As you wander through the streets of the capital of the European Union, Brussels and just when you have almost had enough of beautiful ancient monuments, churches and grand palaces or the classic medieval, gothic style architecture you turn the corner and are brought back to reality with a splurge of graffiti grunge.

Graffiti

Graffiti (singular: graffito; the plural is used as a mass noun) is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is any type of public markings that may appear in the forms of simple written words to elaborate wall paintings. Graffiti has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. In modern times, spray paint, normal paint and markers have become the most commonly used materials. In most countries, defacing property with graffiti without the property owner's consent is considered vandalism, which is punishable by law. Sometimes graffiti is employed to communicate social and political messages. 

To some, it is an art form worthy of display in galleries and exhibitions; to others it is merely vandalism. Graffiti has since evolved into a pop culture existence often related to underground hip hop music and b-boying creating a lifestyle that remains hidden from the general public. Graffiti is used as a gang signal to mark territory or to serve as an indicator or "tag" for gang-related activity. The controversies that surround graffiti continue to create disagreement amongst city officials/ law enforcement and graffitists looking to display their work in public locations. There are many different types and styles of graffiti and it is a rapidly developing artform whose value is highly contested, being reviled by many authorities while also subject to protection, sometimes within the same jurisdiction.

I came across these great examples of graffiti on an old abandoned building at the bottom of Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman in Kuala Lumpur.

This art form has livened up the drab run-down walls of the buildings and created a large canvas for young artists to exhibit their creativity and artistic talents.