What is Borf?

Borf is the name of a graffiti campaign seen in and around Washington, D.C. during 2004 and 2005, carried out by John Tsombikos. This four letter word was ubiquitous around the Northwest quadrant of DC, and ranged from simple tagging to complete sentences to two-color stencils to a massive defacement on an overhead exit sign from the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge to Constitution Avenue. Tsombikos was arrested July 13, 2005 after tips from locals led police to his latest tag.

His graffiti also appeared elsewhere, and was reported on in such places as in New York City, San Francisco, Rome, Italy, Raleigh, North Carolina as well as in Europe.

In early April 2007, wheat-pasted posters started appearing around Washington, D.C. announcing a "BORF SHOW" slated for the weekends of May 18-20 and May 25-27, sponsored by philanthropist Chuck Burgundy. The location was "The Bobby Fisher Memorial Building" at 1644 North Capitol Street NW in Washington DC.

The show, called "Consolation of Ruin", included sculptures of humans showing one hanging from the ceiling, and three working to make a graffiti tag. In addition, there were photo flip books showing three people working to make a graffiti piece. In addition, a number of the original stencils used in the graffiti campaign were on display