LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Completed in 1924, Downtown Los Angeles' 2nd Street tunnel is one of the main portals into the downtown core. Now the iconic location is seeing an explosion of protest graffiti amid the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the killing of George Floyd.
Susan A. Phillips, widely regarded as LA’s leading graffiti scholar, had no idea she would be studying the subject for 30 years when she first started, but says graffiti outlines a fascinating alternative history of our city.
“We haven't had political graffiti like this since the 1960s. And it's amazing,” said Phillips on a walk through the tunnel.
Phillips said many who have never tagged a public wall before have now joined in with more experienced “writers”, as she calls them, at a time when marginalized voices are now rising up in greater numbers against injustice and systemic racism.
“You can't really study graffiti very long without becoming aware of a lot of different social and political issues that are impacting people on a daily basis,” said Phillips. “Gang graffiti was my entryway into that and then 30 years later, protest graffiti comes up through the Black Lives Matter movement and becomes this amazing opportunity.”
Many protests marches have made their way to City Hall via the 2nd Street tunnel, which serves as a perfect space for tagging as messages ranging from Black Lives Matter, calls for justice, anti-Trump, anti-LAPD, and messages of solidarity are all easily seen by traffic passing through.
“Because it's blocked off from view makes it easier for graffiti to be produced,” said Phillips, “so I think those are two of the main reasons why this became such a magnet and such a really, really important place.”
Phillips recognized the work of many of the writers in the tunnel, like Cache and his signature chickens. She said you can tell the veteran writers from the rookies who have a cruder, less-defined style. What is important isn't so much the aesthetics and technique, but the passion behind the messages.
The city has taken efforts to cover up most of the recent writing with gray paint. This is the constant battle, said Phillips, the forces of capitalism once again claiming public space for itself.
“What I love about graffiti is that it's totally anti-capitalist in that sense,” said Phillips. “Because it just flies in the face of everything we value about private property. To me, that's a really healthy challenge.”
The city's gray paint has already been marked by writers in the tunnel, and the cycle begins once again.