Reclaiming sociolinguistic identity through graffiti art: A social semiotics approach to wall expressions

Abstract

This study examines graffiti images on the public walls of Pakistan. Graffiti, in this context, does not simply reflect social reality but also documents different cultural and historical events, thus assigning a fixed identity to the country. A sample of 10 graffiti images was selected to investigate the degree to which they act as a visible marker of the sociocultural narrative agency of the citizens and acquire the legitimized space on the walls of Pakistan. For this, Kress and van Leeuwen’s social semiotics approach has been selected as the main theoretical framework to analyze the graffiti forms, colors, and lettering within specific sub-cultural contexts. The findings revealed that graffiti played an interactive role between people, painting, and the public space it occupies, touching the sustainability of cultural traditions. An important contribution of this study is that it takes the reader from the broader macro level of formal art galleries and museum spaces to micro-level graffiti art as social semiotic practices highlighting the proximity in the cultural discourse of Pakistan.