The Writing on the Walls. And Stalls.

In the endless quest to bring you what's new and cool, bold not old, in Harvard Art, Fifteen Minutes takes a whirlwind tour of the Harvard graffiti scene.

The trek begins at Pre-Med Row, situated in the bowels of Cabot Science Library. Once a hotbed of unauthorized activity, the white desks are mostly scrubbed clean, leaving grafitti seekers to squint for any semblance of scribble. Curiously, most of what has survived the soap and water is scrawled in Cabot's top floor cubicles. The grafitti urges those who lament of homework, Harvard and heartbreak to "get some therapy." Compassion is low for those who complain, and for the frustrated library frequenters who ask "Where can I go to get head?" the cryptic yet conscise response, "a garbage disposal prickbrain!"

Not satisfied with a library that is a shadow of its former self, we proceed, on a tip, to the men's bathroom in Harvard Hall. If you think the men's bathroom could never not be entertaining, think again. With a lone Faulkner quote on the wall--"the past isn't past, it isn't even done"--we are left not only disappointed, but with no excuse to be in the men's bathroom. The women's bathroom, however, offers ample consolation, for on the stalls are a cornucopia of persuasive prose. Wars of words rage over race, gender, sexuality and the Rhode Island School of Design.

If you're looking for more multicultural graffiti, Bolyston Hall breaks no language barriers. Instead, the name "Matt Pykolski" looms large in the men's bathroom. Further investigation finds "Matt Pykolski Wuz Heir" decorating the staircase in Sever Hall. Suspiciously, no date is featured. After numerous phone calls to the would- be artist receive no response, the case is dismissed as someone "catching fame," as grafitti connoisseurs call it.

The finest example of "catching fame" so far is found in the Adams House Tunnels. But that is art, not graffiti, you might protest, and you would be right. Our reference is not to the three-year old murals on the walls, but to their more recent alterations. An unidentified artiste has used silver spray paint and a fine eye to modify some of the inscriptions so that "Hierarchy Presupposes Identity" now reads "Hierarchy Be Identity." "Be Cool" and "Power to the People 'Ya Gotta Believe" are entirely new shimmering wall-art maxims. Inquiries about the additions around Adams House have met with furtive glances and pregnant pauses. Those who know are reluctant to tell.

Be it bathroom philosophy or desktop distress, Harvard graffiti begs the question, so aptly asked in the Adams Tunnels: "Be it Art?"