Howl[ing] without Raising Their Voices

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgements Special thanks to Yael Navarro Yashin and Sholen Yucel. Notes The United Nations Forces supervise a buffer zone that has been maintained since the war in 1974. The term roughly describes the contested area and battle lines at the time of the ceasefire. The Buffer Zone (or ‘Green Line’ or ‘Dead Zone’) remains in place as a buffer between two communities, dividing the southern two-thirds of the island from the northern third and dividing the city of Nicosia into sectors: Greek Cypriot (Lefkosia) and Turkish Cypriot (Lefkosa). The United Nations originally assigned a peacekeeping force to Nicosia in 1964 during a prolonged period of post-colonial violence between the two communities. See Werwath (2006) Werwath, T. 2006. The Culture and Politics of Graffiti Art. Available at http://www.graffitiorg/faq/werwath/werwath.html. (accessed on 10 March 2009) [Google Scholar] and, for originary examples, see Takis 183's role in the expansion of graffiti in New York and Banksy's self-described beginnings as a graffiti writer in the British transport system (Banksy 2006 Banksy. 2006. Wall and Piece, London: Century, Random House Group. [Google Scholar]: 13). While its origins are in the New York working class and unemployed, aerosol art is popular among all classes and in Lefkosia/Lefkosha especially among middle and upper middle class youth. See Doering (2009) Doering, E. 2009. With a Spray Can in Lefkosia/Lefkosha: Murals, Graffiti and Identity. Cyprus Review, 21(1): 145–72. [Google Scholar] for a more specific comparison of regulation and tolerance of graffiti in high schools of similar social strata in Lefkhosia/Lefkosha. See Baudrillard (1988) Baudrillard, J. 1988. “The Masses: The Implosion of the Social in the Media”. In Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings, Edited by: Poster, M. 207–19. Oxford: Polity Press & Blackwell. [Google Scholar] for silence as strategy of dissent in the presence of a dictatorial media monologue. The most recent such article on this theme at the time of writing appeared in the Cyprus Mail's opinion section: ‘APOEL's Love of the Nazi Swastika’ (see Porter 2009 Porter, D. 2009. APOEL's Love of the Nazi Swastika. Available at: http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=44676&cat_id=1 (accessed 15March 2009) [Google Scholar]). See Loizos (1975) Loizos, P. 1975. The Greek Gift: Politics in a Cypriot Village, Oxford: Basil Blackwell. [Google Scholar] and Panayiotou (2006) Panayiotou, A. 2006. Lenin in the Coffee Shop: The Communist Alternative and Forms of Non-Western Modernity. Postcolonial Studies, 9(3): 267–80. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar] for the rise and development of political divisions in Greek Cypriot society. See Doering (2009) Doering, E. 2009. With a Spray Can in Lefkosia/Lefkosha: Murals, Graffiti and Identity. Cyprus Review, 21(1): 145–72. [Google Scholar] for a more specific discussion of football fan orientation and identity in graffiti in Lefkosia/Lefkosha. The Annan Plan is a United Nations proposal to reunify the island of Cyprus. UN-moderated negotiations between the leaders of the two communities began in 2002, and led to an island-wide referendum on the plan in April of 2004. A majority (76 per cent) of Greek Cypriots declined reunification under the terms set out in the plan, while a majority (65 per cent) of Turkish Cypriots approved the plan. The current leaders of the two communities are now engaged in direct talks to rectify the ongoing dispute. Both the failed Annan Plan and the direct negotiations are situated in a larger framework of the Republic of Cyprus' accession to the European Union in 2004. Fairey is best known for his ‘change’ poster, a graphic image of Barack Obama, and also for his ‘obey’ aerosol art and poster image depicting the American pro-wrestler, Andre the Giant. Greek Cypriots count 1,468 missing from the time of the Turkish Army invasion. Among a range of groups fighting for attention to the problem of the Missing, Oi Manadhes tis Kyprou (Mothers of Cyprus) is a group of women who had lost family members and/or spouses during the war, and who sat at the UN Buffer Zone checkpoint at Ledra Palace and handed out leaflets about their cause. These women dressed in traditional mourning attire and confronted tourists crossing to the north through the then sole UN checkpoint, by the Ledras Palace Hotel. They also appeared internationally and actively sought written and personal correspondence with politicians, diplomats and policy makers. Since 2003 their activities have lessened. This ‘expanding temporal and textual framework of graffiti’ is a documentation project that I began in 1997. At that time I collected most of the graffiti in Lefkosia, and elsewhere on the island by frottage: graphite rubbings of incisions in the walls. The walls near the Buffer Zone were especially rich in that regard. Since spray paint has became more popular I have come to rely on photography. My catalogue now includes a thousand or more images, digital and film, contemporary and historical, of graffiti from both sides of the island in addition to the wall rubbings made since 1997.