Advocacy for public art can be based on a number of things:
To make a place more interesting and attractive.
To make contemporary art more accessible to the public.
To increase a city's investment in the arts.
To highlight the identity of different parts of a building or community.
To improve the conditions for economic regeneration by creating a richer visual environment.
To create employment for artists, designers and/or suppliers.
To encourage closer links between artists and other professions that shape our environment: architecture, landscaping, engineering and design.
To be enjoyed by the general public because they embrace modern concepts.
To fulfil natural curious minds in the face of urban decay or urban renewal.
Hegemony amongst the status quo can only be seen from a corporate view. Corporate developers may aim to construct a 'city beautiful' but are they also concealing the city against the preservation of a free society?
Which brings me to discuss that public art comes in many forms and from differing motivations...
One form of public art is Graffiti. Today it is recognised globally as an artistic expression either spray painted or marker penned on a wall of a property. It can be seen as defacement and vandalism, which is a crime that warrants reprimand however graffiti has developed from underlying social and political motivations to a genre relating to gangs, music and culture. The controversy surrounding graffiti continues today and its value is highly contested and at the same time protected, sometimes subjected to the same jurisdiction of the authorities who revile it.
Historic forms of graffiti have helped gain understanding into the lifestyles and languages of past cultures.
The etymology of graffiti:
Graffiti (singular: graffito; the plural as a mass noun) is writing or drawings scribbled, scratched or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall painting, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.
The radical and political side of graffiti has been about its reputation in connection to subcultures who rebelled against authority. Examples of a technique used by an anarcho-punk band was a campaign of stencilling anti-war, anarchist, feminist and anti-consumerist messages around the London Underground three decades ago.
Banksy stencils featured striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. They also depicted anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment messages. His subjects often included rats, apes, policemen, soldiers, children and the elderly.
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| Photo credit: Wade Laube |
