Written by CLUTCH vol. 8 Participant: Hannah Guanlao

When I was younger, the words street art and graffiti did not exist in my vocabulary, only vandalism did. I always wondered how the nameless, faceless entities were able to get their pieces onto hard-to-reach surfaces, only to disappear anyway after a few days, hastily whitewashed away with uneven paint. It was a constant battle between Manila taggers and the local government’s interest in “beautifying” city. At any rate, in my juvenile mind, I thought that expending resources and energy on top of risking police trouble for such a transitory piece was, well, futile.