From
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesi...ge?INTCMP=SRCH

'Tox' graffiti artist convicted of criminal damage
'King of taggers' Daniel Halpin remanded in custody after jury decides
his ubiquitous Tox tag is vandalism

by Caroline Davies

To some he is an urban icon, a street artist dedicated to bombing his
tag on more, and riskier, places than any other in the UK.
But Daniel Halpin – or Tox, "king of taggers" and scourge of London
Underground's cleaning force – faces the possibility of prison walls as
his only canvas after a jury decided his art was vandalism and convicted
him of criminal damage.

The 26-year-old, from Camden, north London, whose masked image and story
of anarchism has featured on television documentaries and in magazines,
was found guilty of a string of graffiti attacks across England after
prosecutor Hugo Lodge told a jury: "He is no Banksy. He doesn't have the
artistic skills, so he has to get his tag up as much as possible."

As he was remanded in custody for sentencing, his artistic merit was
further questioned by the reformed guerrilla graffiti artist turned
establishment darling Ben "Eine" Flynn, whose work was presented to the
US president, Barack Obama, by the prime minister, David Cameron, last
year.

"His statement is Tox, Tox, Tox, Tox, over and over again," said Flynn
after the trial at Blackfriars crown court, in which he gave evidence as
an expert witness. In his opinion, the Tox "tags" or signatures, and
"dubs" (the larger, often bubble lettering) were "incredibly basic" and
lacking "skill, flair or unique style".

Halpin, found guilty of seven counts of criminal damage, was convicted
alongside Daniel "CK1" Fenlon, 25, from Bristol, who was found guilty of
one count. Goldsmith College student Gordon McDermott, 24, who the
prosecution alleged was known as Cut and sometimes Miz, was acquitted.

Nicholas "Host" Rowley, a former student at Edinburgh College of Art,
and Riga "Rigz" Paizis, who worked in a graffiti shop, both admitted six
counts of criminal damage and await sentencing along with Halpin and
Fenlon.

The five were arrested as part of British Transport Police's (BTP)
Operation Misfit, which claimed to have identified their tags in Paris,
Lille, London, Glasgow, Bristol, Leicester, Market Harborough,
Kettering, Chippenham, and even on a funeral home in Bath.

Halpin – whose tag is simply Tox followed by the last two digits of the
year – had claimed he was the victim of imitators. He said he had
"retired" in 2005 after a career defacing buses, trains, bridges and
walls earned him a string of asbos, which he largely ignored, and
community service orders.

Cashing in on his notoriety, he is said to have made £9,000 in two hours
by selling pictures with his Tox tag. Reports in 2009 that he was
selling 100 canvasses bearing his notorious mark, at £75 each,
precipitated heated debate. Purists condemned him for "selling out",
while legal experts mused over whether a loophole made him impervious to
the Proceeds of Crime Act.

But far from retiring, the Blackfriars jury was told, Halpin – acclaimed
"king of taggers" by graffiti magazine Crack and Shine – had remained
active and been caught on CCTV in Paris and London. The jury heard that
what he lacked in talent he made up for in unrivalled willingness to
scramble to hard-to-reach and risky spots.

"I don't know where you can't see a Tox tag – they are in places even I
don't know how to access," one London Underground manager once admitted.

Debunking Halpin's defence of an army of imitators, Lodge told the jury:
"Every time he talks about being Tox, his face lights up. He can't help
but smile. He hasn't retired. He has turned professional. To maintain
this, he has to keep getting his tag up. It's everywhere, and it's him."

Following Tuesday's verdict, judge Peter Clarke QC said of Halpin, who
has spent 150 days in custody since his arrest: "The simple fact is the
evidence effectively says he hasn't given up."

Flynn, 40, a married father of three living in Hastings, was called by
the defence to offer his opinion on whether the tags could have been the
work of impersonators, and said the Tox tags he had been shown were so
basic that "pretty much anybody could quite easily duplicate it".

But that was the fate of graffiti art today, he said, with more secure
train yards, fences, razor wire and increased security patrols allowing
less time to be creative.

The appearance of Tox's tag in gilt-framed canvasses was "well funny",
Flynn said, adding: "Art is worth what people are prepared to pay for
it." People must have bought them as an investment, he added. "I can't
imagine they bought them because they actually like them."

Detective Constable Will Livings, of the BTP Graffiti Unit, said: "Some
people consider graffiti to be art but in reality it is nothing more
than selfish vandalism that not only scars the railway environment but
contributes to fear of crime and costs operators thousands of pounds in
equipment downtime, as well as cleaning." BTP would "always seek to
catch and prosecute those who commit such crimes", he said.


*From graffitist to artist*
Ben Flynn, in his time as hardcore graffitist Eine, clocked up between
15 and 20 arrests and five convictions for criminal damage before
becoming a legitimate artist, with his TWENTYFIRSTCENTURYCITY work
adorning the walls of the White House. After Halpin's conviction, he
said: "We would spend days drawing what we were going to paint that
weekend. When I wrote graffiti, I knew I would have maybe an hour or an
hour and a half to paint.

"Now, there is less time to do something nice. They have only five or 10
minutes, so they are not going to spend their time in their bedrooms
developing intricate graffiti. So graffiti has evolved into something
that is less easy on the eye."

"Recliner" wrote:
From
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesi...riminal-damage

'Tox' graffiti artist convicted of criminal damage
'King of taggers' Daniel Halpin remanded in custody after jury decides
his ubiquitous Tox tag is vandalism


Ten years of Toxification.

On Jun 8, 1:38*pm, "Mizter T" wrote:

Ten years of Toxification.



I don't so much mind graffiti on boring, bare, functional concrete
walls where it's artistic (e.g. Banksy) - you see a lot of this in
Germany and it isn't really a problem. But tagging is like carving
your name into a tree with a penknife - it's vandalism. It's also far
worse where it is applied such that it will cause issues, e.g. across
the windows on rolling stock.

Neil

On 08/06/2011 13:04, Neil Williams wrote:
On Jun 8, 1:38 pm, "Mizter wrote:

Ten years of Toxification.



I don't so much mind graffiti on boring, bare, functional concrete
walls where it's artistic (e.g. Banksy) - you see a lot of this in
Germany and it isn't really a problem. But tagging is like carving
your name into a tree with a penknife - it's vandalism. It's also far
worse where it is applied such that it will cause issues, e.g. across
the windows on rolling stock.

But that's elitist! What right do you fascists have to say that the
Sistine Chapel or Mona Lisa are more worthy than than "I wuz ere 2011"?

--
Arthur Figgis
somewhere he doesn't actually have to look at cutting-edge urban street
art, unlike the people he is forced to speak on behalf of because they
don't know any better.

I don't so much mind graffiti on boring, bare, functional concrete
walls where it's artistic (e.g. Banksy) - you see a lot of this in
Germany and it isn't really a problem. But tagging is like carving
your name into a tree with a penknife - it's vandalism. It's also far
worse where it is applied such that it will cause issues, e.g. across
the windows on rolling stock.

Neil



There are some tree carvings with dates in the late 50s near here in Heaton Park.
Love tokens from lads off to do National Service? I don't know, but that's how I
see them, not really vandalism, quite romantic

Odd, that if I saw a youth defacing a tree today my feelings would be very different

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

On Jun 9, 12:39*am, "Graham." wrote:
I don't so much mind graffiti on boring, bare, functional concrete
walls where it's artistic (e.g. Banksy) - you see a lot of this in
Germany and it isn't really a problem. *But tagging is like carving
your name into a tree with a penknife - it's vandalism. *It's also far
worse where it is applied such that it will cause issues, e.g. across
the windows on rolling stock.

Neil



There are some tree carvings with dates in the late 50s near here in Heaton Park.
Love tokens from lads off to do National Service? I don't know, but that's how I
see them, not really vandalism, quite romantic

Odd, that if I saw a youth defacing a tree today my feelings would be very different

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

Taking it a stage further, the Neolitihic tombs at Maes Howe, on
Orkney, are covered with scratched graffiti from the Viking era; the
guide told me on my visit that they largely consisted of statements
like "Harald Was Here"...

Plus ca change, le plus c'est le meme chose...

In spite of that, I cannot hide my pleasure at the news that that
idiot has got his comeuppance. The most annoying thing about the
antics of idiots like him is that had he had an accident while
"tagging", who would have been liable? The railway, of course!

I suspect that he won't get a painting job at Wormwood Scrubs...

On 09/06/2011 07:16, The Gardener wrote:

In spite of that, I cannot hide my pleasure at the news that that
idiot has got his comeuppance. The most annoying thing about the
antics of idiots like him is that had he had an accident while
"tagging", who would have been liable? The railway, of course!

A while ago a yoof got squished while walking through a tunnel in south
London with a bag of spray cans. There was the obligatory "we don't
understand what he can have been doing" from his family in the papers,
but a distinct lack of public sympathy (other than the driver and
cleaners etc).

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

On Wed, 8 Jun 2011 05:04:41 -0700 (PDT) [UTC], Neil Williams wrote:

[...]
I don't so much mind graffiti on boring, bare, functional concrete
walls where it's artistic (e.g. Banksy) - you see a lot of this in
Germany and it isn't really a problem.

I rather get the impression from comments made to me when travelling
around Germany that the Germans disagree with your conclusion, but
have just given up trying to keep on top of the problem.

They see it as distinctly undesirable, but it simply costs too much to
deal with.
--
Ross

Speaking for me, myself and I. Nobody else
- unless I make it clear that I am...

On Wed, 8 Jun 2011 11:55:31 +0100
"Recliner" wrote:
The 26-year-old, from Camden, north London, whose masked image and story

Another moronic kidult who needs to do some serious growing up.

B2003

wrote in message

On Wed, 8 Jun 2011 11:55:31 +0100
"Recliner" wrote:
The 26-year-old, from Camden, north London, whose masked image and
story

Another moronic kidult who needs to do some serious growing up.

Yup, I was surprised he was that old -- I assumed he was nearer 20.