So if artistic merit and commercial value aren't yardsticks for resolving our national confusion what is? And the German paint firm Belton has even developed a new line of spray paint called Molotov aimed at street stencillers, with colours named after well-known graffiti artists. The BBC hired the DPM Crew's ringleader Andrew Gillman to deface the set of EastEnders to add a sense of authenticity to Albert Square. Red Bull, Adidas, Puma, 55DSL and Lee Jeans have all incorporated graffiti into their marketing campaigns.
The money men will not help much, for all their attempts to cash in on street art. And who, anyway, says Bob, is going to police "what is art and what is ugly"? Some 85 per cent of graffiti is just tags, and another 10 per cent is gang communication, according to US sociologists who survey this kind of thing. "When a kid starts to play music only the next-door neighbours hear but with street art the whole neighbourhood sees him not being very good when he starts out." The trouble is there is a whole lot of learning going on. "Street art starts with kids doing ugly tags," he says.
Under the title "Graffiti – Utopia or a bit boring?", two art critics will consider whether graffiti is "glorified vandalism or a legitimate cultural movement". Is artistic merit enough of an excuse? A hoary old "is it art?" debate is taking place on street art next month at Tate Modern. But it was not enough to save them from prison. The two councils sent references to court vouching that the DPM men were "positive" and "inspirational" in working with "young people who aren't able to do reading or writing". They commissioned Ziggy and another DPM member to lead summer workshops as street art tutors for young and vulnerable people. Greenwich and Tower Hamlets councils agree. They should just have to do youth work, or clean up ugly tags." "There's room for debate but jail sentences shouldn't be part of that. "If there's a clash of rights obviously those of the owner of the wall take precedence over those of the person painting on it," he adds. Having said that, Bob concedes, "you can't let people run wild". One internet blogger wrote: "In their twenties and still vandalising other people's property – shouldn't they have moved on to drug dealing, or perhaps become real estate agents by that age?" Elsewhere in Canada, a court has ruled that, after a police crackdown on graffiti artists, a 28-year-old man is only allowed to venture into town if he is accompanied by his mother. In Toronto, police have just hired a street artist to paint walls to help find the man who murdered her brother. They have similarly schizophrenic responses in other nations too.
Street art view red bull drivers#
"In parts of Australia, they are like the UK and people really hate graffiti and tags on vans and trains, but in Melbourne van drivers compete with each other as to whose is more decorated." "Brazil for instance is more relaxed about it," he says. It is a question which prompts different answers in different parts of the world, says Cedar Lewinsohn, the curator of the exhibition at Tate Modern. "DPM – Exhibit A", at the Anonymous Gallery Project in SoHo, will display large photographs of the convicts' work alongside copies of their charge sheets to ask whether the men are criminals or artists. England is by far and away the most draconian for punishments for what are only economic crimes."Ī gallery in New York launches an exhibition next week based on the work of those convicted at Southwark. "And yet we hate graffiti more than anywhere else in the world. "London is to street art, at the start of the 21st century, what Paris was for Impressionism at the start of the 20th," he says with unfeigned immodesty. He now works, by day, for a London art gallery and describes himself as an upstanding taxpayer. He, more than anyone else, has legitimised the genre and spawned a new generation of young imitators – much to the chagrin of those who want to clean up behind them.īob has been involved in graffiti since 1982 when he was a punk. His works go for hundreds of thousands of pounds and he was recently featured in a retrospective exhibition alongside Andy Warhol. Now Tate Modern is selling his book in its gift shop. A few years ago he was sneaking his work into galleries such as the Louvre and Tate Britain. The man to credit for bringing street art into established gallery spaces is Banksy.
0 kommentar(er)
