The post-industrial ruin graffiti spaces and writer

Abstract

The aim this article is to explain the use of abandoned industrial building for the graffiti writer with the example of the urban incinerator of Carrières in Montréal (l’incinérateur des Carrières), by using three methods of data collection: archaeoanthropology as a method of ethnographic observation, collection of online documents and archives, and the semi-directed interview. Some scholars described the use of abandoned industrial buildings for graffiti, but they didn’t describe deeply those functions related to their graffiti vocation, especially the surfaces used by graffiti writers of post-industrial ruin.  The results show the functions of an abandoned industrial building within is graffiti vocation regarding the surfaces invested by graffiti writer, thanks to a deep detailed analyze of the used surfaces, the distinction between upper and lower surfaces, in terms of visibility and invisibility. It reveals the importance of the use of high surfaces in the graffiti tradition, as part of the hierarchy of graffiti spaces and the artistic spatiality of graffiti.