More to see than a canvas in a white cube: For an art in the streets (original) (raw)
Related papers
Art and Crime (and Other Things Besides … ): Conceptualising Graffiti in the City
In this paper, we critically review the literature on graffiti and street art with a view to bridging the divide between the stark extremities of public graffiti discourse. We make the case for moving beyond singular responses to the challenges posed by graffiti – into the complex terrain between visions of a city free from graffiti and one where public art has free rein. To this end, we have chosen a series of interrogations of common dialectical positions in talk of graffiti: is it art or crime; is it public or private expression; is it necessarily ephemeral, or does it seek permanence; is it a purely cultural practice, or is it economic? Our list is by no means exhaustive, but it does go some way to uncovering the complexity of graffiti's dynamic and contested geographies.
Painting with permission: Legal graffiti in New York City
Ethnography, 2010
Drawing extensively from interviews conducted with 20 New York City graffiti writers and from unobtrusive observations, this article seeks to further our understanding of graffiti writing culture in two important respects. On the one hand, previous scholars have tended to explore graffiti writing as an illegal and/or criminalized (sub)culture. On the other, they have found it to be a practice that embodies a 'critical' stance towards society. My findings indicate that since 1990 a subset of graffiti writers who paint with permission has emerged. Furthermore, I find that those who produce legal graffiti tend to lead lives and espouse values that most would not hesitate to recognize as 'conventional'. I conclude by suggesting that graffiti writing needs to be acknowledged as a multifaceted and historically fluid culture, and by intimating some possible directions for further research.
Graffiti, Street Art, and Culture in the era of the Global City
2018
What is the role of art in the reinforcement or rejection of current models of public space management in our cities? To answer this question, we must attend to the ties of all artwork with public institutions, and whether or not it questions the dominant order. In this article, I will focus on the works of the Ana Botella Crew, a group of artists from Madrid, as an example of "artivism" that challenges the City Council's management of public spaces in Madrid. My aim is to explore how useful internet tools can be to articulate artistic interventions that challenge the hegemonic uses of public space, in what Sassen has called the global city.
Graffiti and Street Art: Reading, Writing and Representing the City
Avramidis, K., & Tsilimpounidi, M. (Eds.). (2017). Graffiti and Street Art: Reading, Writing and Representing the City. London: Routledge.
Graffiti and street art images are ubiquitous and enjoy a very special place in collective imaginary due to their ambiguous nature. Sometimes enigmatic in meaning, often stylistically crude and aesthetically aggressive, yet always visually arresting, they fill our field of vision with texts and images that no one can escape. As they take place on surfaces and travel through various channels, they provide viewers an entry point to the subtext of the cities we live in, while questioning how we read, write and represent them. This book is structured around these three distinct, albeit by definition interwoven, key frames. The contributors of this volume critically investigate underexplored urban contexts in which graffiti and street art appear, shed light on previously unexamined aspects of these practices, and introduce innovative methodologies regarding the treatment of these images. Throughout, the focus is on the relationship of graffiti and street art with urban space, and the various manifestations of these idiosyncratic meetings. In this book, the emphasis is shifted from what the physical texts say to what these practices and their produced images do in different contexts. All chapters are original and come from experts in various fields, such as Architecture, Urban Studies, Sociology, Criminology, Anthropology, and Visual Cultures, as well as scholars that transcend traditional disciplinary frameworks. This exciting new collection is an essential reading for advanced undergraduates as well as postgraduates and academics interested in the subject matter. It is also accessible to a non-academic audience, such as art practitioners and policy makers alike, or anyone keen in deepening their knowledge on how graffiti and street affect the ways urban environments are experienced, understood and envisioned.
The Making of Race, Space and Place: New York City's War on Graffiti, 1970-Present
This article examines New York City’s war on graffiti from 1970 until the present and the ways in which the city’s reaction to the popular youth practice was largely shaped by the neoliberal restructuring process occurring throughout the same period. It explores the racialization and criminalization of the youth who practiced graffiti, and the ways in which this process manifested itself as a contestation over the use of urban space. Finally, it explores the practice of graffiti and the role of cultural practices more generally in relation to an anti-racist discourse. Keywords ■ criminalization ■ neoliberal restructuring ■ poverty ■ race ■ urban space ■ youth
Dissertation, 2010
"In 2008, Cedar Lewisohn curated the first large-scale exhibition of street art at a major museum or gallery. 'Street Art: The Graffiti Revolution' (23 May - 25 Aug 2008) involved the exhibition of works by six international street artists on the exterior facade of the Tate Modern in London. In the exhibition's accompanying publication Lewisohn stated, "Street art and graffiti both have the peculiar ability to exist in the mainstream of culture and at the same time on its periphery." This dissertation attempts to excavate this claim in the context of developments in New York City. It explores, primarily, the inter-relationship between graffiti and street art from their rapid period of evolution in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and from the mid-1990s onwards. The initial definitions applied to distinguish graffiti and street art have highlighted key differences in methodology and the underlying aims of the artists involved in each practice. The first section examines the practices of early graffiti writer Dondi White alongside his contemporaries John Fekner and Jenny Holzer, contemporary artists who were working in the streets of New York during the early 1980s in addition to producing studio-based work. An analysis of the street-based practices of 'street art pioneers' Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring also considers the crossover of street practice to gallery career, a transiton established in graffiti writing during the early 1980s in which graffiti moved from a peripheral presence to a major subcultural development and gallery fixture. The third and final section comprises a discussion around the current day development of street art and its transition into the mainstream through the practices of Banksy, Shepard Fairey and Swoon. This development has been facilitated by gallery exhibition and increased representation for street artists, the dissemination of ideas through the internet, and the increased media attention given to street artists. In a similar manner to graffiti writers, street artists have ignited controversial debates through their transition from relatively unknown urban artists to overnight gallery sensations, a transition that has been both lamented and applauded. For the purposes of this discussion, it also serves to highlight the ambivalent and dichotomous position that continues to surround the existence of graffiti and street art aesthetics in both a peripheral and mainstream context. For the full text, please email me. I am happy to provide references and the dissertation to interested students and researchers."
In search of academic legitimacy: The current state of scholarship on graffiti and street art ଝ
The Social Science Journal, 2017
Much has changed since the 1960s when the first scholarship on contemporary graffiti appeared. The current paper is an attempt to outline and contextualize a number of recurrent challenges facing researchers of graffiti and street art, as well as developments that have taken place in this scholarly field. The aim of creating this outline is to assist in increasing the amount, and improving the quality, of future scholarship on graffiti and street art. We recognize, however, that although many of the challenges have at one time seemed insurmountable, over time they have lessened as graffiti and street art have grown as art movements, and because a small cadre of tenacious scholars focusing on graffiti and street art has published and taught in this area. An increasing, though limited, number of academic venues focused on graffiti and street art scholarship has slowly emerged. We also recognize that with increased scholarship that has laid the foundation, new avenues to explore graffiti and street art have become apparent.