Street Art. Whats Your Opinion?

[stephendare]

Street art has really morphed over the past decade or so, from what was basically a set of techniques and color treatments mixed with the thrill of danger to an art form with a lot of different schools of art and a way more sophisticated set of ideas and messages.

Here is the wikipedia definition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_art

Street art is any art developed in public spaces â€" that is, "in the streets" â€" though the term usually refers to unsanctioned art, as opposed to government sponsored initiatives. The term can include traditional graffiti artwork, stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheatpasting and street poster art, video projection, art intervention, guerrilla art, flash mobbing and street installations. Typically, the term Street Art or the more specific Post-Graffiti is used to distinguish contemporary public-space artwork from territorial graffiti, vandalism, and corporate art.
Owl, Mezer, Moss. Venice Beach, Ca.

The motivations and objectives that drive street artists are as varied as the artists themselves. There is a strong current of activism and subversion in urban art. Street art can be a powerful platform for reaching the public, and frequent themes include adbusting, subvertising and other culture jamming, the abolishment of private property and reclaiming the streets. Other street artists simply see urban space as an untapped format for personal artwork, while others may appreciate the challenges and risks that are associated with installing illicit artwork in public places. However the universal theme in most, if not all street art, is that adapting visual artwork into a format which utilizes public space, allows artists who may otherwise feel disenfranchised, to reach a much broader audience than traditional artwork and galleries normally allow.

So for the skimmers:  STREET ART IS NOT OLD FASHIONED GRAFFITI

Whereas traditional graffiti artists have primarily used free-hand aerosol paints to produce their works,[1] "street art" encompasses many other media and techniques, including;

    * Wheatpasting
    * Sticker art
    * Stencil art
    * Mosaic tiling
    * Video projection/LED art
    * Woodblocking
    * Street installations
    * Murals

Traditional graffiti also has increasingly been adopted as a method for advertising; its trajectory has even in some cases led to its artists' working on contract as graphic artists for corporations.[2] Street art is a label often adopted by artists who wish to keep their work unaffiliated, and strongly political. Street artists are those whose work is still largely done without official approval in public areas.

For these reasons street art is sometimes considered "post-graffiti" and sometimes even "neo-graffiti".[3] Street art can be found around the world and street artists often travel to other countries foreign to them so they can spread their designs.

There are a few examples of Street Art here in Jax.  Especially downtown.
The local group Urbismus, for example, created a fairly bland set of street art wheat pastings that managed to create controversy even though they werent particularly challenging and contained almost no political subtext.

Youve probably seen some:
http://www.urbismus.blogspot.com/


We had a thread on this forum about the tv 47 report on Urbismus, but it ended op getting heavily edited and now only contains a single post.  Here is an article from EUjacksonville:  http://www.eujacksonville.com/pages/01-24-08/urbanart.htm

Urbismus is a group that does wheat pastings:  Simply large color paper peices that are put up on walls with wheat paste.  It does no harm to the building, and can be washed off with water if the building owner doesnt want to wait for the rain to wash it off.

But there are also poster artists.  These guys do posters and wheat paste them up in big numbers.  One of the more famous poster artists is  Shepard Fairey, who did the Obama Hope Posters.



Probably the most famous street artist in the world is Banksy, who specializes in stencils.  These are large cutouts that create a multi color image that is spray painted in layers, in the same way that old fashioned color seperations and screen printing is done.  Here are a couple of typical banksy peices:





But only a portion of the stencil art has political subtext.
For example heres a peice from Berlin:



Here are a few more stencils:



(yes this is stencils)




Here are some Chalk Street pieces:





And there are some really amazing light projection art peices.  This is simply an art peice projected onto a buildings walls at night.

Check out this one (its a little dark, but you can get the idea:







Basically the idea is to use the streets themselves as a gallery.  It exposes a whole lot more people to an artists work than a traditional gallery showing would (although some of the most successful street shows have been organized by galleries)

There are some local examples, and this movement is something that is only gaining in popularity and numbers of artists.

With the breakout successes of Banksy and Shepard Fairey, expect to see a whole lot more.

[thelakelander]

To me, its cool as long as you have permission to do it on property other than your own. 

[Ocklawaha]

Something we are really good at and could do if the city wasn't too broke to pay attention:

The decorative lighting cost about $815,000, according to Ryan Luck, project manager for the interchange reconstruction.

Computer operated, the 65 lights cast a changing palette of colors from sunset to sunrise, and add to the interchange aesthetics, which include a mural, ornate piers and ornamental fencing.

Luck said showcasing the interchange is worth the cost, even when hundreds of lights throughout the freeway system remain dark because of budget problems in the transportation department.

"We want to make sure the investment that has already been made on this large infrastructure project is maximized," Luck said. "We want to show that Milwaukee is a dynamic place, open for business, cosmopolitan."

OCKLAWAHA

[BridgeTroll]

I also love it... But you MUST have permission.  Otherwise it is simply vandalism.

[thelakelander]

^^looks like our lighted downtown bridges over the St. Johns River and the I-95/St. Augustine Road interchange.  Hopefully, they'll do something interesting with the I-95 Overland Bridge project.

[obie1]

Wwoah! who did that crazy intricate stencil portrait? Mad skillz!
I like some street art, Banksy in particular. If ya gonna go the subversion route you can't ask permission, so the quality of the work better be worth the egotism it takes to claim someone else's space as your own, and the space you claim better be key to your msg, otherwise it's just vandalism. Attractive vandalism sometimes. Do the crime, do the time but decide if the quality of the result is worth being arrested for. If so, I guess why not go for it.
Have you seen the poster boy stuff? It's kind of awesome. I  have loads more empathy for private citizens trying to scrub crappy wheat pastes (that shit's tenacious) or paint off their walls than I do for corporations who rent ad space in public areas and bombard us with their messages all day long. Anything there is an improvement.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26296445@N05/

[The Compound]

Has anyone seen this? This is really awesome. Reverse Graffiti. Graffiti done by washing.
I dont know how to post this video, but here is a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lX-2sP0JFw

Reverse graffiti artist Moose makes a big statement about clean in San Francisco's Broadway Tunnel. Shot by documentarian Doug Pray. For most information visit www.reversegraffitiproject.com

[Jason]

If it comes off, do you think its vandalism?

Does it count on the properties of absentee landlords or abandoned buildings?

I think 'tagging' on a storefront is definitely vandalism.  But I don't think so for the wheat pastings.

Wheat pasting, chalk, charcoal, etc would all be vandalism if the owner of the property did not approve it whether it easily washes off or not.  I would not be appreciative of someone putting anything on my building without my sayso.  If someone wanted their property decorated its not hard to find a local artist that will do if for little to nothing.  Isn't it in their better interest to do sponsored work versus "tagging" random properties?

That said, I love the murals and sidewalk art just so long as they play by the rules and get prior approval. 

[The Compound]

Oh, and if you havent seen this yet, this is effing amazing:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4

[Deuce]

Lighting up the bridges or interstate passes like Milwaukee would be awesome, but first lets keep the Main street bridge display going.

Love this quote. They get it.

We want to show that Milwaukee is a dynamic place, open for business, cosmopolitan.

[Ocklawaha]

Another one!

OCKLAWAHA

[urbanlibertarian]

"Whoever lays his hand on me to govern me is a usurper and tyrant and I declare him my enemy." Proudhon, 1849.

Sweet.