1. Developments and
influences of street art
The earliest signs of street art was graffiti. That started
on the sides of walls, transport etc. This was work done
by gangs in the 1920’s and 1930’s in New York. Kyselak,
known as the “father of graffiti” was someone who first
began to spread the idea of streetart, as he began
inscribing his name into walls, etc. Throughout Austro-Hungarian Empire
in the early 19th century. It all started from a bet with his friends, he was
given three years to get himself known throughout the empire,therefore
began writing his names on walls and the sentence “Kyselak was here”.
Since then, street artists use this method to make themselves known, by
placing their artwork around the cities like Kyselak spread his name
around. Street art (graffiti) only became popular in New York 1960’s-
1970’s.It started as people writing their names in places known as
“tagging” it would usually include their name, and street number, this
was a way of people trying to get recognized.A method of doing this is
called “Bombing”which resulted in people tagging on trains so that their
names got spread across the state/states. Eventually when people
stopped bombing as much, graffiti began to become more appreciated
as art.
How is streetart defined?
Street art acts as a message,one of the mains reasons that street artists
would go and spread their work around the ‘streets’ is to gain
recognition, or reproduce their typography, and symbolism and repeat
this method. The whole point of street art is to produce work, display it
on the streets and repeat.
Street art isn’t just any old graffiti work, as anyone can really just use a
spray can and call it “streetart”. Street art consists of using graffiti
techniques, but also is produced by something ready made, for example
a stencil, sticker, etc. Street art usually includes some other form of
artistic technique, rather than it just be graffiti. Therefore there is a
differencebetweengraffiti and street art itself.
2. Work by Invader:
What influencedstreetart?
As mentioned, Kyselak seemed to be the main predecessorof street art,
but it is believed hobos in the UK and US were also some form of
predecessor,or influence of street art today. They used to draw images,
or write their names sometimes including a poem.They would produce
their work using equipmentsuch as oil bars, mark alls or wax pencils.At
first street art (Graffiti) wasn’t really seenand appreciated as “art”, is
began as a form of destructionin the 1960’s-1970’s America,
Philadelphia. People purposelytagged their name around the area and
used such methods as “bombing”(an act to graffiti on a train, to spread
your name around the state (states). Eventually the act of bombing
reduced and people beganfocussing on producing a more artistic
approach to graffiti, for example representing their tag with more
animation and a pop-art effect.
What relationshipsdoes it have to other art forms?
As street art and graffiti are seen as separate things, graffiti would
commonlybe seen to be very similar or definitely incorporated with
street art. Street art doesn’tseem to have many similar artistic forms,
however there are differenttypes of street art. For example sculptures,
street posterart, sticker art and etc.
Streets art’s impact on society and art:
3. Street art can influence society, and how we see things today. For
example Shepard Fairey included a bit of politic based designin his work
like the Obama posterwith the caption “Hope” Fairey did this in an
attempt to “move further in the direction that he promised as a
campaigner”.
Banksy is an artist who has also tried to representhis view, through
street art. Banksy makes street art so it can be seen in a new way, and
that art in general can be viewed in a differentperspective,so much that
people acceptart into their daily lives.
Artwork by Banksy -
How has technology had an impact?
Technologyhas affected streetart because now artists can print out
stencils, and make their designs on computer.Some street artists gain
popularity from the internet, for example they can share their work
online, this will gain interest from people who may surf the web a lot, or
just people genuinely interested in searching for street art/street artists.
Social medias will have an impact on street artists, as people will share
their own work or other people’s,then other users will then share the
work, so that it gains even more interest.
What art/designmovementis streetart partof?
Originally, street art was seen as vandalism. As people tagged
walls/transport with their name, people then began to focus more on the
artistic side of creating tags and and images on walls, for example
including more creativity to it, spreading around positive/negative
messages.Eventually to the point where people started to begin
4. appreciating graffiti as “streetart”. A lot street art is based of clip art,
therefore it follows that concept,and people use it as a way of
expressing themselves and their thoughts, through a creative aspect.
Therefore nowadays street art is becoming more recognized as art, so
much that it can be found displayed in art galleries. Street art as
art/design itself generally tends to follow today’s societyand show it
through a differentpoint of view, street art can really mean something to
someone,whether that be political, religious, etc.
Culturalcontext
Political graffiti, started evolving in the 1990’s,when street artist Banksy
began sharing his work and thoughts around. Since then, graffiti is
becoming more focused onhaving a cultural meaning behind it, whether
it represents politics,racism, religion, freedom of speech,etc. However
Banksy is one of the most well known for doing this as with each piece
he designs,he usually includes some kind of contextual meaning behind
it and that’s why people find interest in his work, Banksy uses a lot of
negative messagesas he isn’t very keen on modern society. Other
street artists will obviously get inspired by Banksy’s work and similar
street artists therefore also spread their work. With so many different
views and messages being representedwithin the street art, this will
make people think about these pieces of work. The reason this will have
an effecton culture is because the audience will have differentviews
towards the work and this can cause debates therefore gaining the street
art more popularity whether this be positive or negative.
Streetart in other countries
Australia, Melbourne - Famous for its street art, very vibrant pieces.
Melbourne is already known for its art scene and it is always getting
updated with new streetart.
5. Colombia,Bogota - Again, a lot of vibrant street art, whether it be
political, or just genuinely attractive. A lot of artists collaborate to make
the place look more beautiful.
Thailand, Chiang Mai - A lot of aggressive type graffiti, possiblyrelated
to their culture. Not as much of a street art scene as other places.
