A blonde girl in a schoolgirl’s apron writes on the wall several times following “I will not write on the wall”. Stencil graffiti style.
A mysterious tag by an anonymous graffiti artist is intriguing students around the campus of UCLA in Westwood, California.
The simple, spray-painted message: “I’m gay.”
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The tag made its first appearance about six months ago during Pride Month and has shown up again and again around campus and the college town that the school inhabits.
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“Happy Pride Month to the guy who spray paints ‘I’m gay’ everywhere on campus,” read one Reddit post in June.
“Still sad that they cleaned the really pretty pink/orange ‘I’m gay’ graffiti off the tennis court elevator wall :’),” read another.
Despite the school’s efforts to erase the colorful messages, they keep popping up.
The tag in all capital letters has been “spotted primarily near the university apartment areas of Westwood but has also been seen on campus, as well as near restaurants along Gayley Avenue, indicating that there is a reasonable chance the artist is a student,” writes Maya Parra in UCLA’s Daily Bruin.
It’s “clear that it has become a phenomenon that UCLA students are interacting with on a daily basis,” Parra says. “Like most instances of graffiti, whether these pieces can be considered art is up to interpretation.”
The anonymous gay artist is following in the tradition of other, better-known creators like Banksy, who’s known only by name for his whimsical and/or scathing spray-painted cultural critiques.
Since the 1990s, Banksy’s distinctive stenciled art has shown up on streets, walls, and bridges around the world. A large Banksy mural in Bethlehem in the West Bank portrays a man in a mask in the act of tossing a bouquet of flowers. A stenciled image of two policemen kissing is one of the artist’s most iconic.
While Banksy’s messaging relies on imagery, UCLA’s anonymous graffiti artist employs the power of words to convey their message, and in the tradition of the best visual art, its meaning depends on the viewer.
Is the artist coming out? Are they asserting their identity? If they are indeed a student, is the tag a self-loathing, unsigned confession to their classmates?
The artist’s identity, like their intention, is cloaked in mystery. No one knows who they are; if they do, they’re not saying.
Ironically enough, there’s no visual evidence online that the tags even exist. A thorough search of social media finds no pictures of the graffiti, and there is no account claiming authorship either.
Somehow, UCLA’s anonymous gay artist has confounded even the power of technology to distract from a message shared directly with its viewer on the street.
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