Back when I lived abroad, my graffiti crew faced heat for our political stencils.
Thinking back to my time in Berlin in the early 2000s, I was part of a small group that did stencil art about government surveillance. We'd sneak out at night to put up pieces on old buildings, always careful to avoid patrols. In some areas, this kind of art was straight-up illegal, and talking about it online could get you flagged. I once had a close call where a friend got detained for carrying spray paint near a sensitive site. These days, I see similar themes in digital art shared globally, but back then, it felt like we were whispering in a crowded room. With social media, artists in restrictive places can now show their art to the world without leaving home, which is huge. I still keep in touch with some of the crew, and we joke about how our old stencils would probably go viral today. It has me wondering if the risk of getting caught added a thrill that's missing now.