Pittsburgh. Carrie Furnaces Urban Art Tour: Connecting Graffiti Culture and Industrial Patrimony Through Aesthetics of Authenticity in Pennsylvania

This chapter discusses a particular site, the Carrie Furnaces, a pre–World War I iron blast furnace that went from being an active industrial site to a hybrid patrimonial site connecting industrial history with graffiti history. The chapter closely reads the Graffiti Art Tour itself and how some of the artworks were produced for the tour as an example of “alternative” forms of tourism. It reflects on how this model of tourism aims to generate an experience of authenticity cultivated through the intimate relationships between the graffiti works and the site. The Furnaces are a significant site for debate, public memory, and attachment for multiple people, especially because they are one of the largest spaces for industrial patrimony in the United States. The context of the space deeply informs the tour both in the history relayed by the guide and the spray-paint practices in which participants are invited to engage. As a result, tour participants are invited to discover graffiti as a place-based process, not just a selfie spot.