Focusing on graffiti scenes from São Paulo and Santiago in Chile, this innovative visual ethnography examines diverse forms of self-reference and metareference that appear in Latin American graffiti art. Chandra Morrison Ariyo works across multiple scales of contemporary graffiti production—from tags to massive murals—to show how painting the city enables individuals to reimagine their own position within the material and social structures around them. Metagraffitti reveals how practitioners such as Tinho, OSGEMEOS, Grin, and Bisy use metagraffiti features to influence public perceptions about this art form and its effect on the urban environment. Ultimately, Metagraffiti proposes a novel conceptual framework that highlights graffiti’s ability to forge alternative forms of movement, sociality, and value within Latin American cityscapes. These urban images invite us to imagine what the city could be, when seen as a site for action and imagination.

CHANDRA MORRISON ARIYO is a visiting research fellow in the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Chapter 1: Metagraffiti: Envisioning a Concept
Chapter 2: Urban Image: Painting (in) the Latin American City
Chapter 3: Signature Wordplay: Self-Naming, Misspelling, and Rewriting the Social Order
Chapter 4: Figurative Threat: Stigma Embodiment and Graffiti's Violent Characterization
Chapter 5: Reflective Structures: On Murals and Mirroring in the Spatial Imagination
Chapter 6: Painting Pollution: Cleaning the City and Recycling Social Values with Street Art
Chapter 7: Graffiti Intimacies: Seeing the City in Color

1  METAGRAFFITI
Envisioning a Concept  1
2  URBAN IMAGE
Painting (in) the Latin American City  23
3  SIGNATURE WORDPLAY
Self-naming, Mis-spelling, and Re-writing the Social Order  67
4  F FIGURATIVE THREAT
Stigma Embodiment and Graffiti’s Violent Characterization  93
5  REFLECTIVE STRUCTURES
On Murals and Mirroring in the Spatial Imagination  125
6  PAINTING POLLUTION
Cleaning the City and Recycling Social Values with Street Art  153
7  GRAFFITI INTIMACIES
Seeing the City in Color 175
Acknowledgments 183
Notes 187
References 191
Index 000