Hi Fi art

Drawings may be the graffiti that baffle me the most. Why showcase your art in a public restroom, for it to - almost literally - be shat all over? Do you really want to stay in there long enough to focus on the chiaroscuro shading?

Some NYU art student must have gotten shitty (sorry for the pun) and turned this one stall at Hi Fi into studio space. The first doodle is, literally, a masterpiece.


Look at the color and detail in the next picture. Maybe s/he always has black and sky blue paint pens on them, but it's still a very intense anteater, and not even close enough to the toilet to presume the artist was resting while sketching.

Might there be some Freudian meaning in the appearance of not one but two animals with trunks?

All Hi Fi, NYC, 8-20-08

Like Black Snake Moan?

Charleston, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, ladies, 2-9-08

I've got nothing. At least someone else expressed their confusion by way of the little question mark on the top.

Well-prepared

Gutter, ladies, 2-9-08

I couldn't get a good picture of this, but here's what the green says:

I feel like ya'll are too well prepared w/ your paint pens to be much more than schizo-ego scribbles.

Well said. And a little hypocritcal, no?

There was one more great meta writing that I couldn't get a picture of that night:

No one cares about your graffiti.
Cheers, loser.

...and there's a heart around it.

Sassy

Lakeside Lounge, ladies room, 2/8/08

the artist is dangerously sassy

He is!

Just curio.us

JustCurio.us is website that lets you anonymously write and answer questions. That's it, and it's amazing.

I posted my question, the analysis of which is this blog's purpose, "Why write on a bathroom stall?" Within a day I had two answers:

• "for in-stall entertainment"
• "cuz"

Not the kind of enlightening response I hoped for, but it looks like I got them from the source.

But still, why? There are plenty other ways to entertain yourself in a public restroom, debaucherous though they may be, that are perfectly logical.

Looking for meaning in comics

The great comic xkcd offers one answer to my central query.

Celebrate Heart of Darkness

Lakeside Lounge, ladies, 2/8/08

love is ... actually

the answer celebrate love
(love)

This is not across from a mirror, so it always looks backwards.

Lakeside Lounge, men's, 2/8/08

The men at my favorite Alphabet City dive are well-read, and angry about it. But do you think by boat, he might have just meant toilet? Ya know, just maybe?

Gentle

Women's room, Gutter, Williamsburg, NY, 2-18-08

Stand in the Bathroom Line

Bathroom graffiti has always fascinated me. There are so many variables. Why deface a public restroom, and why write that?

First are the logistical questions: Do you, writer, just happen to have a pen with you, or do you keep it on your person for a moment like this? Is this guerrilla literature spontaneous or meticulously prepared? And, most perplexing, why take the time to write — do you really want to stay in here longer than you have to?

The content is what I most wonder about. Scratching in websites and plastering band stickers makes sense — it’s free publicity with a captive audience. Even the classics are ubiquitous enough to become accepted cliches — the baudy (”For a Good Time Call…”), the angry “____ is a bitch”, and the loving “M.H. + A.J. 4-Eva” (a high school standard). But I’ve seen detailed sketches and poignant confessions on grimy stall doors. Is this really the best place for a philosophical declaration? Why argue with a comment and chastise the writer — do you assume they’ll come back and see it, or that someone will declare you the winner in this silent battle of wits?

I have, admittedly, never written on a bathroom stall, and the act remains an enigma. Who are the people that begin a dialogue on a pristine stall door? Or bolder, a thick declaration of love or hate in Sharpie?

It is the unique that fascinate me the most, and that is the focus of this blog. The verbose, the hilarious, the artistic toilet compositions are scrutinized and encouraged. The Bathroom Line is about the intelligent, the ridiculous, and the absolutely inexplicable.

Send your photos to bathroomline@gmail.com.