Street art, or graffiti?

by Austin Baranko

Portland Community College

Street art, or graffiti? Even its name sparks controversy and conflict within its own confines. Street art is the ever-growing, usually illegal practice of expression, often found in the forms of stencils, sticker art, sculptures, poster art, or wheat pasting -- an ancient recipe for a liquid adhesive, which is used to post images and posters on walls. Only calling for vegetable starch and water, wheat pasting is a popular medium due to its accessibility. What was once used for ancient bookbinding, collage, and papier-mâché, is now being used in a form of guerilla art.

Many times these unsanctioned installations are politically charged, and hold a message that hopes to reach a large audience. Street art is currently a hot topic. Is it art or just a crime? In 2007 two youths were arrested in Manchester, England and were both sentenced to twelve months in prison for posting art on the trains in the subway. Two months later, their case was appealed due to a networking campaign on Facebook. Officials were able to find the two by tracking them through pictures posted on a website.

Artist John Fekner describes street art a little bit differently. He believes that street art is “All art on the street, that isn’t graffiti”. So where can the line be defined? Is it found in the difference between lettering and images? Or rather, does it have to do with the message? Street art is politically charged, perhaps to raise awareness of social or political issues at hand.

For example, in Cairo, the emerging street art scene endorsed, perhaps demanded the overthrow of the Mubarak regime – which collapsed in 2011; the first major regime

change of that year’s explosive Arab Spring.

Barcelona boasts a booming street art scene, with many artists residing here in the city. Most websites offering information on street art will have a large section on Barcelona. It’s everywhere, ranging from loaded images of Gandhi donning a shirt that reads ‘bombing for peace,’ statements like ‘No one is legal’ sprawled in Catalan on the side of a closed café, to your typical territorial graffiti: Barcelona has it all.

Back in February 2013, two street artists we commissioned to repaint the ceiling of the Church of Saint Eulalia in L’Hospitalet, a town close to Barcelona. They painted a

Romanesque style piece that to the untrained eye could not be detected as being done

with spray paint. Locals are quite content with the piece, which was featured in a local

newspaper, claiming it was quite beautiful.

As far as the U.S. is concerned, New York is the street art Mecca. Pieces can be found all through out the city, with larger groupings in the neighborhoods of Chelsea, SoHo, and the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Although not as politically charged as its European counterpart, American street art is just as powerful. Unfortunately it is a little bit more few and far between. This could perhaps be due the lack of a lot of traveling between larger cities, or perhaps due to the public opinion.

Portland provides a great example. Self proclaimed artist haven, it boasts an exponentially expansive art scene. Although there is no lack of creativity or talent, finding extravagant pieces may prove a challenge. When a new painting pops up, it is often washed off the next day, which has given a rise to the sub-form of street art: slap tagging. Easy to identify, slap tags are images or text drawn or painted on to U.S.P.S. mailing stickers. These stickers are free, and often unmonitored, so it is quite easy to grab a fair share.

As recently as March of this year, new pieces have been popping up all over the city. Life-sized riot police have been appearing all over the city in high traffic areas such as Pioneer Courthouse Square. This could be a criticism of the stifling police presence which has been inflating within the city over the last few years. Recently, Portland, notorious for its anti-police state sentiments, has notably felt a stronger grip from local authorities, perhaps due to the numerous protests and the ever-famous “Occupy” movement. 

It seems that American street art has quite a ways to go to catch up to Europe. Perhaps this may all come to change with the recent culmination of political tension, due to recession and other socio-economic issues. It may seem struggle or unrest, coupled with a keen artistic eye and an open wall is all it takes for this art to take flight, for the voice of the common man with always find means to be heard.

All photos by Austin Baranko

 

Sources

http://endlesscanvas.com/?tag=portland

http://www.fatcap.com/city/barcelona/artists.html?

http://www.theworld.org/2013/02/spain-church-graffiti/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_art

http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2007/09/14/

140907_graffiti_mb_feature.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_pasting