Throw up (graffiti)

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A hollow throw up using the letters SPLEEN. Note the consistency in letter form and height. Bubble writing graffiti.jpg
A hollow throw up using the letters SPLEEN. Note the consistency in letter form and height.

Throw ups, [lower-alpha 1] or throwies, are a form of graffiti that fall between tags and pieces in complexity. [1] The name comes from the way they are designed to be "thrown" onto a surface as quickly as possible. They are almost always done with aerosol paint. [2]

Contents

Form

Throw ups are typically the writer's moniker in large "bubble-letters", with or without a fill. Throw ups without fills are called hollows. [3] Throw ups are sometimes done using only the first two or three letters of the moniker in a throw up to quicken the process, especially if the writer uses a longer name. [4] [5] Throw ups are done with fast, pre-planned body movements to enhance speed.[ citation needed ] This speed means that writers can produce large amounts of throw ups in a short time, especially when compared with pieces. [6]

Defining characteristics of skilled throw up include letter height consistency, [7] letter shape conformity along the top and the bottom, [7] minimal negative space, [8] [9] and clean lines. The line between pieces and throw ups is sometimes blurred, but throw ups tend to be faster to paint, have fewer colours, and prioritise speed over style. [10]

History

Throw ups originated in the New York City Subway in the 1970s [11] [12] and started as larger versions of tags [13] before evolving into their own style. [4] [10] Compared to tags and pieces, throw ups have not changed as much since their origins. [14]

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References

  1. sometimes written hyphenated (throw-ups) or without the space (throwups)
  1. Snyder, Gregory J. (2011-04-15). Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York's Urban Underground. NYU Press. ISBN   978-0-8147-4046-0.
  2. Graf, Ann M. (2018). "Facets of Graffiti Art and Street Art Documentation Online: A Domain and Content Analysis". University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Digital Commons. S2CID   149842845.
  3. Parks, Michelle (2009). Writing on the walls: Graffiti and civic identity (Thesis thesis). University of Ottawa (Canada). doi:10.20381/ruor-19161.
  4. 1 2 Whitehead, Jessie (2004-11-01). "Graffiti: The Use of the Familiar1". Art Education. 57 (6): 25–32. doi:10.1080/00043125.2004.11653573. ISSN   0004-3125. S2CID   189475620.
  5. Castleman, Craig (1984-04-26). Getting Up: Subway Graffiti in New York. MIT Press. p. 75. ISBN   978-0-262-53051-4.
  6. Lasley, James R. (1995-04-01). "New writing on the wall: Exploring the middle‐class graffiti writing subculture". Deviant Behavior. 16 (2): 151–167. doi:10.1080/01639625.1995.9967994. ISSN   0163-9625.
  7. 1 2 Almqvist, Björn; orkel Sjöstrand; Lindblad, Tobias Barenthin (2014-04-04). Graffiti Cookbook: The Complete Do-It-Yourself-guide to Graffiti. SCB Distributors. ISBN   978-91-85639-71-7.
  8. Team, The Drivin' & Vibin' (2022-08-21). "Who is Cope2?". Outside Folk Gallery. Retrieved 2023-09-08.
  9. Grim, Jon. "Replace your graffiti throwie with this!". The Artist Block. Retrieved 2023-09-08.
  10. 1 2 Navitas, Prananda. "21st Century Graffiti. How authorities should deal with it in city centers". In Bergmann, Alexander (ed.). In book: Music-City. Sports-City. Leisure City. A reader. Publisher: Bauhaus University Weimar. pp. (pp.90-97).
  11. Ross, Jeffrey Ian (2016-03-02). Routledge Handbook of Graffiti and Street Art. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-317-64586-3.
  12. Ferrell, Jeff (1998-12-01). "Freight train graffiti: Subculture, crime, dislocation". Justice Quarterly. 15 (4): 587–608. doi:10.1080/07418829800093911. ISSN   0741-8825.
  13. Dovey, Kim; Wollan, Simon; Woodcock, Ian (2012-02-02). "Placing Graffiti: Creating and Contesting Character in Inner-city Melbourne". Journal of Urban Design. 17 (1): 21–41. doi:10.1080/13574809.2011.646248. hdl: 11343/230654 . ISSN   1357-4809. S2CID   110689365.
  14. Snyder, Gregory J. (2011-04-15). Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York's Urban Underground. NYU Press. p. 35. ISBN   978-0-8147-4046-0.