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This book explores the connections and disconnections encoded in verbal, written and visual languages in two parallel practices in contemporary Australian culture. Predominant is a research project involving Australian urban aerosol graffiti otherwise referred to as writing. Laterally, the other documents a studio practice informed by the first. In each, two forms of expression, graphism and language, are inextricably entwined. Writing might be hypothesized as a battle between insiders and outsiders. Alternatively the practice may be a counteraction to one-sided and authoritarian forms of communication, a response to typographic print culture or a retreat to a medieval chirographic culture. In writing, a confusion of texts, characterizations and iconography from various traditions and styles frequently converge on the walls. Multiple inter-texts coalesce in implicit visual and verbal expressions in the sub-culture that is urban graffiti.

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Donna Foley completed BVA(Hons)at the College of Music Visual Art and Theatre and Doctor of Philosophy at the School of Creative Arts at James Cook University of Townsville. Currently, she teaches at Barrier Reef Institute of TAFE and experiments with traditional and digital printmaking techniques to extend her personal practice.

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