Eng speech

First of all, graffiti is writing or drawings which are scribbled, scratched or sprayed on the walls or other surfaces of a public place. In the UK, graffiti can be sometimes considered as criminal damage. Under the Criminal Damage Act 1971, anyone caught doing graffiti can face a prison sentence of up to ten years or fined if the damage costs more than £5,000. Because it is unlikely that graffiti will cause more than £5,000 of damage unless it is on a historic building or monument, lesser sentences are much more common. If the damage caused is less than £5,000, an offender could face three months in prison or a fine of £2,500. Offenders can also be prosecuted under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003. It also gives local councils the power to dish out on-the-spot fines of £50 to anyone caught doing graffiti on public property. Spray paint was also made illegal to under-16s. Any shopkeeper who sells it to a an under-16 can be fined up to £2,500.

However, some state that graffiti has no meaning and that is pointless. 

One man who goes by the name ‘Banksy’, is an anonymous ‘graffiti artist’ whose works of social and political commentary have been featured on streets, bridges and cities throughout the world. The reason that he is an anonymous artist is because it is classed as vandalism and that it is illegal. One of his most famous pieces is called ‘Girl with Balloon’. This painting is a part of a London series of stencil murals , depicting a young girl with her hand extended towards a red heart shaped balloon carried away by the wind. Banksy has several times used variants of this design to support social campaigns: in 2005 about the West Bank barrier, in 2014 about the Syrian refugee crisis, and also about the 2017 UK election.

On 5 October 2018, a 2006 framed copy of the artwork was auctioned at Sotheby's selling for £1,042,000. However, moments after the closing bid, the artwork began to self-destruct by means of a hidden mechanical paper shredder that Banksy had built into the frame bottom but only the bottom half got shredded. Banksy then later posed a picture of the shredding on his instagram with the caption ‘Going, going gone..’. The partially shredded work has been given a new title, Love Is in the Bin, and was authenticated by Banksy's authentication body Pest Control. Sotheby's released a statement that called it "the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction."

 The reason I am mentioning this is to show you all how well-worked graffiti helps to redress this problem by bringing art directly to the public. The fact that this particular work of Banksy’s gained so much popularity and media coverage, makes the political messages throughout this piece of art be magnified and has more people talking about the problems throughout the world.  

His, and other artist’s works are used to express their own point of views on any topics, such as politics and cultural ideas. Under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998, “everyone has the right to freedom of expression” in the UK. Surely graffiti is a form of freedom of speech as it is expressing a certain view on a topic. In my opinion, I believe that graffiti should be considered as art because it is using a drawing to get their point’s across.