Throw up

Change links
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A hollow throw up using the letters SPLEEN. The letters are the same heigh and similar shapes.

Throw ups[a], or throwies, are a type of graffiti that are bigger and more complicated that tags, but not as detailed as pieces.[1] They are called "throw ups" because they are meant to be "thrown" on a surface as quickly as possible. The writers want to be quick because doing throw ups is usually illegal. They are almost always done with spray paint.[2]

Form[change | change source]

Throw ups are usually the writer's nickname, but not their real name. They are written in round shapes like bubbles. Sometimes they have a colour on the inside, called a fill, but sometimes they do not. Throw ups without a fill are called hollows.[3]

Sometimes throw ups only have the first two letters of the writers nickname, because it is faster, especially if their nickname is long.[4][5] Throw ups are usually done with the writer moving their whole body in a way they have practiced to do quickly a lot before.[6] This speed means that writers can make lots of throw ups very quickly.[7]

A good throw up has the letters all the same height,[8] the top of the letters the same shape, and bottom of the letters the same shape,[8] not much empty space,[9][10] and clean lines. Sometimes it isn't easy to decide if something is a throw up or a piece, but throw ups are usually faster to paint, have less colours, and the writer cares more about being fast that making it pretty.[11]

History[change | change source]

Throw ups started in the New York City Subway in the 1970s[12][13] and as bigger versions of tags[14] before changing into their own style.[4][11] Compared to tags and pieces, throw ups have not changed much since people started making them.[15]

References[change | change source]

  1. ↑ sometimes written with a hyphen (throw-ups) or without a space (throwups)
  1. ↑ Snyder, Gregory J. (2011-04-15). Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York's Urban Underground. NYU Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-4046-0.
  2. ↑ Graf, Ann M. (2018). "Facets of Graffiti Art and Street Art Documentation Online: A Domain and Content Analysis". University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Digital Commons. S2CID 149842845.
  3. ↑ Parks, Michelle (2009). Writing on the walls: Graffiti and civic identity (Thesis thesis). University of Ottawa (Canada). doi:10.20381/ruor-19161.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Whitehead, Jessie (2004-11-01). "Graffiti: The Use of the Familiar1". Art Education. 57 (6): 25–32. doi:10.1080/00043125.2004.11653573. ISSN 0004-3125.
  5. ↑ Castleman, Craig (1984-04-26). Getting Up: Subway Graffiti in New York. MIT Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-262-53051-4.
  6. ↑ Novak, D (2014-01-01). "Methodology for the measurement of graffiti art works: Focus on the piece" (PDF). World Applied Sciences Journal. 32 (1): 40–46.
  7. ↑ Lasley, James R. (1995-04-01). "New writing on the wall: Exploring the middle‐class graffiti writing subculture". Deviant Behavior. 16 (2): 151–167. doi:10.1080/01639625.1995.9967994. ISSN 0163-9625.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Almqvist, Björn; orkel Sjöstrand; Lindblad, Tobias Barenthin (2014-04-04). Graffiti Cookbook: The Complete Do-It-Yourself-guide to Graffiti. SCB Distributors. ISBN 978-91-85639-71-7.
  9. ↑ Team, The Drivin' & Vibin' (2022-08-21). "Who is Cope2?". Outside Folk Gallery. Retrieved 2023-09-08.
  10. ↑ Grim, Jon. "Replace your graffiti throwie with this!". The Artist Block. Retrieved 2023-09-08.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Navitas, Prananda. "21st Century Graffiti. How authorities should deal with it in city centers". In Bergmann, Alexander (ed.). In book: Music-City. Sports-City. Leisure City. A reader. Publisher: Bauhaus University Weimar. pp. (pp.90-97).
  12. ↑ Ross, Jeffrey Ian (2016-03-02). Routledge Handbook of Graffiti and Street Art. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-64586-3.
  13. ↑ Ferrell, Jeff (1998-12-01). "Freight train graffiti: Subculture, crime, dislocation". Justice Quarterly. 15 (4): 587–608. doi:10.1080/07418829800093911. ISSN 0741-8825.
  14. ↑ Dovey, Kim; Wollan, Simon; Woodcock, Ian (2012-02-02). "Placing Graffiti: Creating and Contesting Character in Inner-city Melbourne". Journal of Urban Design. 17 (1): 21–41. doi:10.1080/13574809.2011.646248. ISSN 1357-4809.
  15. ↑ Snyder, Gregory J. (2011-04-15). Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York's Urban Underground. NYU Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-8147-4046-0.
Retrieved from "https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Throw_up&oldid=9270718"