Graffiti earns the right space, and a few bucks too

Gelsenkirchen / DPA

Standing on a cherry-picker 20 metres above the ground, his mouth
covered by a mask, Den Geffert spray-paints graffiti on the concrete wall in front of him with quick, practised movements. It’s a big project — the
air-raid shelter exterior is almost as big as two tennis courts turned on their sides.
But Geffert, who goes by the name “Sponk”, has been working as a graffiti artist for the past 12 years. He sprays walls, caravans and garage doors – and he doesn’t get prosecuted for vandalism. He gets paid for it by private clients and city authorities.
It started as a hobby for the design student, now 27, but has since become his profession and vocation. “Getting commissions was a slow process,” he says. “It started when
I was 15 and I sprayed my friends’ bedrooms.”
Since then his projects have got ever larger and he’s now working on his biggest ever — a North Sea scene
on the former World War II concrete shelter in Gelsenkirchen, a city in western Germany, using around 150 colours.
He works with grids to make sure the resulting picture is as close to his design as possible. For the client who wants decor inside and out to use the site as a salt-air spa, what’s important is a colourful, eye-catching advert, while for Geffert, it’s his livelihood.
But “Sponk” is still a little idealistic. “For me it’s primarily about creating art in public spaces which will be appreciated. A piece of graffiti belongs to a place when it enriches it.”
Kimo von Rekowski, spokesman for the Berlin street-art agency xi-Design, is confident that the reputation of legal urban art won’t suffer from the influence of its illegal relation, vandalism. “The public doesn’t see street art as vandalism any more, but as an unusual craft,” he asserts.
Apart from artistic talent, being organized is necessary to succeed as a street artist. They have to deal with bureaucracy, including reporting income for tax. Permits also have to be applied for, scaffolding has to be built to meet safety regulations and designs have to be prepared.
When von Rekowski and his colleagues are too busy painting commissioned work, they even hire freelance artists to help them. Their connection mean they’re well placed to handle larges deals for advertising clients. In the past year alone the agency’s artists have sprayed life into 45 walls with an average surface area of 300 square metres.
And it’s a growing market. “The demand for street art is growing, especially in cities like Hamburg, Berlin and Munich with higher population densities,” says von Rekowski.
Indeed, Gelsenkirchen is making every effort to try to encourage it,
according to Claudia Keuchel from the city’s culture department. Talented artists are being linked up with potential clients and graffiti classes for youths are being offered.
“They should have the chance to try it out rather than sliding into vandalism,” she says. Both the artists and the community benefits from this approach, she says, which creates a “younger urban landscape.”
To many people, graffiti looks
like painting by numbers. But
to Sponk it’s far more arduous than that.
“The spraying is already really putting me under strain. Particularly in summer when it gets unbearably
hot under the mask,” he says. “And
as a freelancer I have to sort out my own advertising, accounts and commissions.”
His works are exposed to the elements and are therefore somewhat transitory. But even old graffiti has
its uses, as the German designer
Vera Aldejohann has shown. She reworks old pieces of graffiti into necklace pendants.
The 31-year-old hasn’t yet got around to advertising her work
however. “I have enough to do with my studying. Anyway, you definitely couldn’t live off it.”