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Frustrations Drive Saudi Youth to the Graffiti Wall
Abdullah al-Alwani, or X 5, is a college dropout and graffiti artist in Jiddah.
(By Faiza Saleh Ambah -- The Washington Post)
VIDEO | Graffiti Engages Saudi Youth
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"My sister is inside," Alwani lied. "I need to talk to her." Finally he called out to a girl he had met online, told the guard she was his sister and walked in.
The graffiti artists got to know one another from online chat groups, where they often share photos of graffiti they admire from Web sites such as graffiti.org.
"I have a lot of female friends," said Abdullah al-Subaie, 20, a friend of Alwani's who used to spray-paint the nickname K2K, for "kick to kill."
Sporting an Ed Hardy baseball cap with rhinestones over a black T-shirt and jeans, Subaie, who's studying to be a pilot, said that writing graffiti gave him and his friends cachet and made it easier to meet girls.
"It was a way of showing off," said Qarni, whose nickname is A.H., for Always Homeless. "And of proving ourselves."
Though Alwani and his friends write their graffiti in English, they do not speak it, and most have not traveled outside the Arab world.
Alwani said he'd love to travel to the United States to see the graffiti walls of New Jersey that he's seen online. In the meantime, he has used his newfound fame to make some money: He was hired last month to paint fluorescent 3-D graffiti on the black walls of the Star Billiards pool hall.
But it doesn't quite match the thrill of spray-painting on the streets, he said.
"You have to mix paint and draw, then tape. I miss the excitement of a quick spray-paint on the walls. Five minutes and you were done and out of there."
