Street Art

I watched a TV documentary about Banksy's residency in New York this week and I enjoyed it immensely.

I enjoyed watching the New York art intelligensia snobbery of calling it basic and crude. I enjoyed watching ordinary people coming to life in urban environments because they were excited by art. The relevance of art to every day life is massively underestimated and the simple fact that an artist like Banksy can shake our presumptions - just a little bit - and help us to see our communities and environments differently is incredibly important.

So I wanted to blog a bit about urban street art, and just pluck some images and throw some things together and talk about what I see in them. I hope that it invites a little consideration and maybe even some discussion.

This morning I tweeted:

 and while I did get a 'favourite' from Art Angels in Los Angeles (which is frankly very cool - thanks guys) I sadly didn't get any responses (as yet).

To me Street Art is the ability for ordinary people to reclaim their urban and sub-urban environments with creativity and expression.

I'm not talking about the mindless self indulgence of just tagging walls and structures with literally no real contribution or thought. I'm talking about the genuinely provocative and motivated art that brings a person to a particular place - a unique canvass - to bring something to life that possibly only they have even seen.

In addition, there is a form of street art which gives voice to things that are generally supressed in main stream politics - the idealism of liberated thought and counter culture - which (whether you agree with the specific point being made or not) is something that keeps democracy alive and stops us all from being smothered by main stream centre ground thinking.

Some of the images are incredible in the way they play with perspective and light - and the perception of depth.

I'm sure that a time travelling Da Vinci would stand in wonder at seeing such things.

The fashion for playing with perspective tricks - drawing pits and traps in pavements - is massive and takes and incredible amount of skill. 

The example that I've chosen here come from China, and clearly invites people to play with it and interact. The huge element of fun also washes into a kind of surreal perception of the world that evokes the same kind of feelings that you might experience when looking at Salvador Dali melting clocks and so on.

 This image (not sure where it's from - sorry) it brilliant in that it has a similar three dimensional quality that stands out from it's surface but also creates fine art from a surreal combination of splashed colours.

The sense of motion and impact is really strong here and the strands of hair are both precise and somehow not actually there at all. Mind blown.

 The image to the right, from a London location, reiterates the incredible skill that it involved in this type of art. In the same fascinating chaos as the image above, and in a similar fashion a beautiful and expressive face appears from out of that chaos quite clearly. This is fine art for the masses, and it's free to look at for anyone who is lucky enough to happen upon it.

I think one of the most wonderful things about street art is how it just happens to you. You don't expect it, you just happen upon it and when it's really good, it can just fracture your day and punctuate it with something remarkable and totally unexpected.

This takes me into the subject of street art that has been inspired by the particular location. The artist has seen something that probably nobody else has considered and fills in the pieces to use the environment to bring it to life. This is art that couldn't exist anywhere else in the same way - so it's unique and it can never be removed without destroying it.

The first two examples show artists using the contrast of plant growth with urban surroundings - in this case to create hair brilliantly. 

Our two mice in the curb show something altogether different. Firstly there is some kind of a relationship being played out here. One mouse leaving a strawberry for another while hiding to see the reaction - in my mind it's soft and romantic.

In another way I love the fact that it's so tiny. Perhaps a great deal of street art plays on the fact that it can be larger than life and overwhelm the viewer in sheer impact and scale. Here we have two tiny mice and the scale of the piece means that it is probably unseen by the majority of people who step over or round it (particularly as it appears to be on the outer egde of a roundabout of some sort of planted border. 

Additionally it can only be viewed from one perspective. The door is drawn in such a fashion as to give a '3D' effect - popping out of the curb. Viewed from the opposite angle it would look 'wrong' and fail to achieve the same effect at all.

Contrast this against the turntable immediately below it. Drawn on a roundabout and using the physical lay out of the street, a trick of perspective is used againt by the photographer who puts his hand into the shot to simulate a scratching of the record.

Compared to the mice in the curb, this is huge art and the people standing and riding around the art seem like ants.

Of course an important part of this piece is the drawing of the relationship between urban music and urban art - bringing the DJ and the artist together in one picture.

 Beneath it is an incredible image - so simple and perfect. A concrete standing post use to steady a scafold type fence. This is common street furniture used to prohibit access or control the movement of people. Such furniture is often associated with control (for obvious reasons) by the authorities over the people.

Here the pole of the fence literally become 'one in the eye' as simply painting a bloody splatter around the circular hole creates a face contorted by shock and pain. It expresses violence, but in a comic way, and personifies a simple, functional lump of grey concrete.

 This (kind of) carries me into the political statements section (as if I had some structure to my blog).

There's a brilliant opportunity for artistic political statement in urban graffiti - and it's like anonymous comment that makes you think, even for just a moment.

Agree or disagree with the comment that is being made - this is political free speech with an in built air of rebellion that comes from spraying it across someone else's wall (I'm not advocating criminal damage here folks).

Below we have a skeleton lamenting the lessons of life that you only get when you've finally done with it.
 

 This message is a simple and poignant reminder of priorities on the backdrop of a blood red wall with a pretty, retro looking type writing offering timeless wisdom.

 Here we have the juxtaposition of a jewellery wearing well made up material girl 'breaking up' with capitalism.

The anti-capitalism message is a substantial theme that runs throughout the street art movement.

Here we see feminism taking to the streets. It appears to have been plastered to the wall, rather than painted on the wall.

 I also want to consider iconography and iconoclastic motives in street art. Some of the best and most subversive street art carries the images that are thrust at us through million dollar advertising campaigns on an international basis.

Go where you like, you will find it hard to escape Disney or McDonalds for example. Both are targets for street artists.

Here we see Mickey and Goofey fly pitching posters of Kate Moss, and stuck in some form of dilemma about what they have put up. Here they become the hit and run street artists.
 

 Here we have a subversion of childhood characters (Mickey again, a Teletubby, Asterix the Gaul, Super Mario, Winney the Poo and finally Pikachu) on a criminal line up.

Their distorted faces and barred teeth are menacing. They all look criminal.

Make of it what you will.
 

 Here we see the iconic image of 'Here's Johnny' Jack Nicholson from 'The Shining' apparently smashing his way through a brick wall, but this time his weapon is something far more scary than an axe - it's a spray can.

 Here we have a take on the Mount Rushmore - technicolour and with a sense of both drug infusion and also a kind of 'not quite tuned in' quality.

The sheer scale of this art is obvious from the size of the lady walking by with her pushchair, and the door behind her.

I loved this simple punning rhyme (left). It's both incredibly appropriate for the subject of Biggie Smalls art and it links urban art back into urban music.

The Biggie below is far from small. It again reiterates this idea that street art can be massive and over powering. This image of the Notorious B.I.G. peering out from under this fire escape is overwhelming and somehow presents the artist (Biggie) so much more appropropriately than a tidy little canvass ever could.

 I'll end with a miscallany of images that I really like, and I'll thank you for walking through street art with me. I'd absolutely love it if you got in touch to share your art or your opinion.