the street and the gallery
Recently i've been having some interesting discussions with my art/design history lecturer about the place and relevance of street art in the global art and design scene. Street art is a relatively recent offshoot (or evolution?) of graffiti art which is currently leaving quite a mark on contemporary art and graphic design. And unless you live in the culturally-bleak landscape where i come from, you would've noticed that street art is all around you. Apparently its' contextual importance is still being questioned by some people (including my lecturer)..
Street art widespread influence marks graffiti art's coming of age. Starting out in the late 60s, graffiti was always a controversial art form. During its almost 40 years of existence, graffiti art has had several flirtations with the gallery art mainstream. There was the graffiti-gallery boom during the late 70s/early 80s, were several high profile NY graffiti writers (artists) were getting asked to exhibit their works on canvas in private galleries across the USA and Europe. At the same time, there also was the emergence of two so-called 'graffiti' artists who managed to break into the gallery art scene with some impact - Haring and Basquiat.
Haring and Basquiat were graffiti artists to a certain extent, but not your average 'let's go rack some cans and bomb the shit out of the trains tonight' kind of writers either. Rather, they were a watered down version of the graffiti writer. Granted, they were damn good at what they did (Haring himself being one of the founding fathers of the street art movement) but, being a graffiti writer myself, it frustrates me to see these 2 guys representing the thousands of writers all over the world who really do graf. Thus, one can barely refer to Haring and Basquiat's rise to fame as exposing the kicking underground graffiti scene.
The 90s proved to be a period during which graffiti went totally international. New styles were constantly getting invented and new purposely produced graffiti spraypaints took graffiti to new levels of quality. 'Baggy' was all the rage during the 90s, and graffiti-inspired t-shirt designs were all over the place, but not much else.
The noughties on the other hand seem to have heralded graffiti/street art's establishment as a totally valid art form. Street art can be said to have really taken off during the very early 2000s. Suddenly graffiti art became more than just a scribble, a daub of spraypaint on a wall, a declaration of existence, an attempt at fame. Instead it grew brains, shed off some of its self-indulgent qualities and took a good look around itself. Street art just put itself into a context and created something which the average person in the street could relate too. Complicated 'tag' calligraphies were replaced with the stencil and wheat-pasted posters took the place of throwups (hastily sprayed graffiti). Critics (hey, they're actually watching now..) were quick to refer to the new movement as 'post-modern graffiti'.
Post-modern graffiti. A highly contrasting and perhaps bewildering term. Post-modern graffiti (i.e. street art) arrived with a bulky agenda in its hands. It is a reclamation of space in our ad-dominated cities, a cry in favour of minority groups (as is the case with political street art), an effective tool to put any message across and just plain intelligent examples of how art could really adapt to the streets. On the other hand, terms such as post-modern art, post-modern graphic design and all they encompass pale in comparison. Post-modern art has been existing for these past 30 years or so as a total mess (no clearly evident stylistic movements..) and post-modern graphic design has recently been following suit. Artists and designers have raided and resurrected past artistic movements with little or no impact. Meanwhile, street art has managed to thrive without the need to look back - it's probably the only art form around which is actually saying something and saying it damn well.
As a result, artists and especially graphic (and web) designers have evidently been turning to street art for inspiration. At long last, here's some art which has the ability to punch you in the face without having the need to preserve scary dead sharks in formaldehyde tanks..! A quick look at what the corporate world thinks of street art and hey - Coca Cola thinks its a 'street drink'! MTV has been using street-art-ish characters during its jingles! Sony has commissioned street artists to advertise its PSP in a 'street' manner! Have you seen the latest Bon Jovi ( i wince..it hurts!!) music video? There you go..! Websites and some certain mags are rife with street-inspired imagery (stencils, drips, spray paint splotches etc..). Sites such as the mighty Wooster Collective receive thousands of visitors each day. Recently, TIME magazine has published a lengthy article about street art and the LA MOMA has recently purchased some artworks by amazing street artist Swoon. Street artists are queueing up to host exhibitions in private galleries. NYC's New School university has adopted a curiously 'urban' identity. The list is endless..
Street art's place in the art and design world is clearly obvious. It's fresh and bursting with ideas, visible to the mainstream and corporate world and providing a much needed alternative and inspiration to the constipated post-modern art era. Maybe it's still early to tell, but i reckon that when we'll be looking back at 2005 20 years more and seeing what art movement really stood out, it will surely be street art. Now go tell that to my lecturer! Ha!
now i've got a headache. ugh.
posted by il-maku @ 3:29 PM
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