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greeniskoolyesterday at 12:12 PM4 repliesview on HN

Having a bit of a cultural shock at how English doesn't have a separate name for the "cruder" graffiti (such as tags) vs the more socially accepted street art. The former is typically called "pichação" [1] in Portuguese, and I was taught this distinction when learning about modern art movements back in elementary school.

[1] https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picha%C3%A7%C3%A3o - I recommend looking into a machine translated version of the Portuguese Wikipedia article, as the English Wikipedia article reads far more biased


Replies

pimlottcyesterday at 7:40 PM

There are terms within the scene - tag, throwie, piece, burner - but they are not generally known by the wider public.

https://www.kmuw.org/beautiful-city/2014-08-04/what-were-tal...

https://www.instagram.com/p/COrxyrCMkOx/

rcontiyesterday at 7:39 PM

Graffiti is the catch-all, but "street art" vs "tagging" have pretty clearly distinct meaning.

garbawarbyesterday at 1:11 PM

Is "street art" not the name? Like how "comics" are low but "graphic novels" are respectable.

show 1 reply
kingkawnyesterday at 1:18 PM

English does, and definitely invented it before the rest of the world caught on to this culture. Try watching “Wild Style” from 1983, documenting some of the earliest beefs between the types of graffiti artists. Portuguese speakers did not invent this distinction.

Throw ups are the quick ones and Pieces are the long ones.