On buffing

In the world of street art, the antithesis to graffiti writing is buffing. This painted equivalent of censorship signals not just municipal or federal authority / jurisdiction, but also constitutes its own form of abstract art. Over time, buffing becomes a game of tag, a tussle between people and authorities. And with it, the fine line of vandalism and censorship is easily blurred and conveniently crossed. In this photo essay, I have collected and captioned several photographs which make the walls on streets analogous to the facebook wall - open to writing, layered with posts and a form of contemporary decoupage. With the increased overlap of street art and advertising as a result of the spread of digital fonts and printing, we must consider contemporary formats of spam, and scam, as well as situated them within the broader context of capitalism. When the digital becomes offline and vice versa in the global south, what defines pollution?