My brother in law has a major objection to street art. He’s a public defender by trade who considers it vandalism. While he’s technically right, I can’t help but love the wallpaper, spray, stencil and paint creations that have graced public walls around the world. What’s most interesting is our collective acceptance of some street art and not others, which is brought to the fore because its placement is illegal and because it’s accessible to the general public. Usually there’s gatekeepers like museums and curators and magazines who decide what is art and what isn’t. Now we decide.
The street art scene in Buenos Aires is particularly interesting because there’s no element of anonymity as there is in Europe and the United States. While it’s illegal there, the police don’t really care. So it wouldn’t be uncommon to see someone painting in broad daylight. In fact, when we visited BA, we went on a “Graffiti Tour” of the city’s street art during which one of the artists accompanied us. Street art always seemed joyfully anarchistic to me, yet here was an artist presumably being paid to talk about his art to a bunch of tourists who bought tickets to see it.
Street art has become more and more mainstream and while some may say that tarnishes it, I’m inclined to think it allows it to thrive. One argument is that the more walls are commissioned with art, the fewer taggers. It’s well known that taggers tend to avoid spraying their names and insignia over complete murals. Another more general argument is that it makes our public spaces more inviting. Our cultural understanding becomes more collective rather than under lock and key by a series of gatekeepers. Below I leave you with a video of the making of a “Koi Carp Kite” mural in Badalona Spain that I found on the street art blog Wooster Collective. Stunning isn’t it?
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