Tagging is attention seeking behaviour by adolescents (even if they are in their 20s or older) and is about territory marking and display. It’s got nothing to do with art or making any sort of statement other than ‘I am here!! Look at me!!
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Ridiculous. Are you saying I can write a pseudonym over the same tag in Comic Sans font and it’s just as credible amongst the graff community? Style is everything.
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I think it is a real shame this has been vandalised. I agree it is attention seeking & the perpetrators if they could be caught, should be made to clean it off. I bet they don’t even live round here!
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Would any artist want to speak out against these selfish, destructive, vain, talentless, territorial, adolescent taggers? I doubt it.
Artists risk getting all their work defaced if they upset taggers
That comment gave me a chuckle. I have this vision now of a group of well organised,. SE23.life savvy yet disaffected and destructive be-hooded yoofs huddled around their iPhone Xs at St. David’s coffee house reading the latest thoughts on this topic and planning their revenge.
At least the Brockley Street Art Festival co-organiser Phillipa Ellis hasn’t had a problem expressing her thoughts on this matter on the Facebook page. Though as more ‘curator’ than artist perhaps she doesn’t quite fear the same level of retribution. That and I’m led to understand kids don’t use Facebook anymore.
ETA. I gather this piece was commissioned through said Brockley Street Art Festival.
By the way the artist Nomeski aka Naomi Edmondsen has a really good site with a separate one for the project Survival Techniques which includes this piece in HOP. Lots of work form this project can be bought as posters from that site.
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I’d be interested to hear too. If their style is rooted in grafitti, a disruptive art form, then they may have some more nuanced views on the evolution of ‘vandalism’ into art.
I’m not condoning the tag as I think its disrespectful to the artist (personally). But the tag and the mural are, to me, two ends of the discipline’s spectrum and there’s definitly an interesting conversation around it.
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I too think there is an interesting conversation to be had with the taggers as to why they chose this specific site and image to tag over. It’s clearly a controversial thing to do and the fact it stayed tag free for so long is in itself a form of interaction between the two ends of the street art spectrum.
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From the artist:
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Cool. I see the next Festival starts June 1st. It’ll be lovely to see something new on that corner.
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Shall we tell ourselves that the taggers knew the next festival starts in a few weeks and so had practised admirable restraint for a year or two, up until the mural was on its way out anyway.
What conscientious blokes. 
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How sexist!! lol
Could have been girls 
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Three men!
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Well spotted, you picked up Naomi’s tweet hours before me!
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Did it really take three men to do that!
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Noticed there is also a tag on the beautiful piece of art along the wall by Babur too running along to Ackroyd
Went past yesterday and it was being whitewashed. Didn’t get a chance to take a pic but it looked like it was being prepped for something new…
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I went past at 9pm. There is a picture landscape type thing. No words this time.
It was about 60 % done.
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Just went past there myself. Artist was busy spraying away. I’m excited to see what comes next.
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