2025 01 30

Wall filled with -a-r-t- tags. Chicago, Illinois. November, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

I EXIST!

I used to joke that street tags could all be translated to “I exist!”

These days, we’re all street tagging digitally through the social apps we use, being forced to constantly remind the world we exist in a desperate plea to please the almighty algorithm and gain a sliver on traction in the attention economy we live in. It’s exhausting.

I walk this stretch often and watched the artist spend days painting this mural. Then the tags go up in an instance, crowding out any detail and nuance. Tagging is very much an art form fit for our time. Do we really exist if nobody sees our post on social or name sprayed on a side street wall? Maybe not, after all.

Like, comment, subscribe, and come back tomorrow for more gem takes like this.

-Clayton