Two-color screenprint
‘AEIOU’, Paris: 35 3/4
x 17 3/4" (90.8 x 45.1 cm); ‘S’, New York: 30
x 24" (76.2 x 61 cm)
Evan Roth has cataloged characters
from graffiti tags found in New York
and Paris and assembled them into
comprehensive taxonomies of particular
letters. The result is an organized study
of stylistic expression, depicting range,
commonalities, and deviations in letterforms.
For the Paris project, Roth isolated
the 10 most commonly used letters
(A, E, I, K, N, O, R, S, T, U) for further
study. A total of 18 tags, shown in both
uppercase and lowercase letters,
were chosen to represent the diversity
and range of each specific character,
from simple to ornate. The Fondation
Cartier pour l’art contemporain, which
commissioned Graffiti Taxonomy for the
exhibition Born in the Streets—Graffiti
in 2009, displayed these tags on the
museum’s exterior, transforming the
building into a canvas and learning tool.
Roth’s cataloging of each letter of the
alphabet in New York is ongoing; on his
website he calls for leads from the public,
thus crowdsourcing the hunting and
gathering of specimens.
