Banal Series #16, Graffiti In A Restroom Stall

Public restroom stalls function as primitive message boards, defacto galleries of outsider art, and dissemination devices of purple and forbidden information.

A scribble might read: “For a good time call…” giving the reader in the intimate confines of this environ, within this very public space, purpose. A jaded ex, probably, would like the person using the facility to call. Ask about this “good time” to be had. Or perhaps the author had an intention of a slightly more altruistic bend. To share information with his fellow man. Good times, it seems, are good for humanity.

Crude scrawlings done up as codified monikers also grace these walls. Fashioned as a “tag,” these drawings become a recurring “logo,” or design signifying that the artist has graced these walls, and encourages the seated audience member to look for this logo elsewhere. Outsider artists become anonymous legends.

Conversations occur. Acting as a message center more basic and primordial than the most primitive websites and blogs, the restroom stall engages the reader in a dialogue. A quote is produced: “God is dead,” ~ Nietzsche, to which someone responded with: “Nietzsche is dead,” ~ God.

Weighty issues find themselves here, in this banal place, spun and carved. Apocryphal or not, the discussion continues. A reader, pants down, might pull a pen from their breast pocket, and post a response. To be read by some anonymous audience member. He may return, at a later time, after a later meal, to read subsequent comments. He may not return, but rest in knowing he has contributed to the greater knowledge of mankind. Such conversation is one of the fundamental bases of society, and the restroom stall continues to be an unsung bastion of culture.