Zachem?

From the Multitran online dictionary:

зачем [phonetically: Zachem] нареч. фразы предложения
общ. why; wherefore; for what; what for?; whereto

From the website Urbandictionary.com:

Tag (definition 1)
Tag; a personal signature, usually vandalism with spraypaint, but can be any graffitti.Tags can take seconds, or can use multiple colors. Two color tags are usually throw ups, may consist of block or bubble lettering. bombs Are usually tri color, while piecing/piece/pieces are always of the upper most complexity. Very large, good use of colors, where they will seem to blend together, or bleed, and burn.

(more US tagger slang here; overly academic treatment of graffiti here)

How are these dictionary entries related? Зачем appears to be the tag of the most prolific graffiti artist in my neighborhood:


Ministry of Internal Affairs press kiosk on Tverskaya at Mamonovsky Pereulok.


In an alley-way off Novy Arbat.

What I like about using this word as a tag is that it takes the question people most often ask about graffiti - why? - and throws it back in people's faces. Or perhaps the word is intended as a cry of anguish from someone who wonders WHY there has to be so much suffering in the world. Like all great art (wrote the blogger, tongue-in-cheekily) every viewer will come away from this with something different, and many interpretations are possible. I have seen this guy's (gal's?) art in so many places that if I stopped to photograph all of them it would become Job No. 3 (after my real job and the blog, which as we've already established is Job No. 2)

I will try to photograph a few more of the better Zachem's next time I take a long walk around downtown Moscow. I'm no international graffiti expert, but there seems to be a relatively vibrant tagging scene in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia, if one can judge from some of the artwork posted on the internet.

Comments anyone?