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Kelly Parfitt
ENC1102
Professor Stack
4/11/2013
Delving into the Street Art Movement
Art can be defined as the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to
aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance
(“Art”). Art is all what people/society believe to be beautiful but as the saying goes
“beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. One art form that is subjective to different peoples
views is street art. Street art is any form of art produced in a public place. Street art is
often viewed as vandalism and the term graffiti is usually association with a negative
connotation. Graffiti is another form of street art that has existed since ancient times to
convey a sense of self-originality and to let the pubic know of ones own artistic abilities.
The public often thinks of street art as gang related graffiti. What this paper will delve
into is the evidence available that street art should be considered a valid art from while
gang related graffiti should remain outlawed.
Review of Literature
Street Art vs. Graffiti
In order to understand street art there needs to be a differentiation between the
terms street art and graffiti. In the article by Almendrala, there is a clear definition of
street art provided. He states “street art is not so much about making a name and
leavening a mark as it is getting people to interact with and view something in a new
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way, and that is a big difference”(Almendrala 1). The author is explaining that graffiti is
mostly about putting your name on something or showing people what you represent.
This is why graffiti has a negative connotation along with it. Graffiti artists use graffiti to
label themselves in a gang and that could cause violence and that is why I believe it
should remain outlawed. For example, gangs may tag a street corner to establish their
territory. Rival gangs or gang members may see this and become violent toward the gang
that taged the street corner. Contrary to graffiti, street art is not gang related and is not
meant to “make a name” as stated by Almendrala. This makes street art less of a threat to
communities because the artists are merely painting something on a wall
Street Art Is Art
Street art is a widely debated topic. Arguers on one side agree that street art is a
form of art and the other side argue that it is not a valid form of art and is just vandalism.
Street art is definitely a form of and it has been around for centuries so it can be valid and
should be legal(Anderson 1-2; Banksy; Corbett 1;Guynn 3-5). Cave drawlings have
existed since the beginning of man to signify events that have happened in their life and
now, because of or society it is frowned upon to do essentially the same thing as our
ancestors did hundreds of years ago(Banksy; Guynn 3-5).
How street art is viewed today
Today some companies have embraced street art into their main stream marketing
campaigns and also actually let their employees express their artistic abilities freely in
their buildings(Guynn 3-5; Borghini 120-49;Hadden 1;Corbett 1). The huge social media
company Facebook as employed a well known artist by the name of David Choe to paint
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murals along the tunnel walls and inside the building to show that Facebook executives
embrace the artistic style(Guynn 3-5). The company also lets their employees pick up
their own spray paint and draw whatever they want claiming that the white walls are a
“blank slate”. Other cases of street art being embraced are the fact that companys hire
street artists to paint advertisements for their business. In 2010 the company Coca-Cola
hired multiple artists to paint advertisements all across Atlanta GA to attract a young
demographic and the adversising strategy worked out for the company with higher coke
sales all through the area(Borghini 120-49). Another example of a highly establish
institution accepting street art as a form of art is a church in Barcelona Spain that has
hired “house” to paint murals of the virgin Mary, Jesus, nativity scene, etc. all throughout
the churches steeples and archways(Hadden 1). Paintings on the side of street walls have
gained a lot of popularity by the public as well. Banksy has played his street art into a
very exclusive art market where his artworks can be sold for upwards of £13,000 for a
smaller portrait to £1,000,000 for an authentic photograph of a piece signed by Banksy
himself(Corbett 1).
The Negative Effects of Street Art/Graffiti
Street art/graffiti’s negative connotation comes from the fact that many gangs or
individual people use it to signify their territory or who they are as an individual(Winton
1;Banksy; Anderson 1-2). Gang members use graffiti to mark their gangs territory by
using tags that usually consist of three to six letters and some times multiple
letters(Winton 1). Street art and graffiti are mostly put into the same group because of the
idea that they are both forms of vandalism in todays society(Banksy; Anderson 1-2).
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Banksy, a very famous street artist in Europe, claims that he has seen many former
graffiti artists get killed over there drawlings because of there gang affiliation.
The missing piece
All of the research that I have gathered shows how either street art or graffiti
should be legal or illegal. The research shows that graffiti has proven to be the cause of a
lot of violence between gangs while street art has no affiliation to gangs and there for
does not cause violence. Both of these art forms still remain illegal however in todays
society. The missing piece of this argument is that street art should become legal and
gang related graffiti should remain outlawed. This action would cut down on people
getting arrested for making wonderful pieces of art and would let police task forces focus
more on catching people that are actually causing violence. Before one jumps to any
conclusions just think if Pablo Picasso painted a mural on a wall down your street would
you want it to remain there or would you have him arrested?
MethodsInterview
The three methods that I used for my research were an interview, a focus group
and a textual analysis. For my interview I went to the Boca Raton Art Museum in Boca
Raton Florida. I interviewed Dr. Dutta, an American Indian that graduated from the
University of Syracuse with a doctorate from the visual art and design department. His
main studies include the fields of modern and contemporary art. He also has over four
hundred original artworks. The interview took place on Saturday March 30, 2012. I did
not have a scheduled appointment for this interview. I walked into the museum and
requested one and only had to wait about ten minutes before he came out and was more
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then willing to interview. I chose him because he was the only person at the art museum
willing to do an interview. I had a set of specific questions that had to do with my
research question and he answered all of them with great detail.
Focus group
The second method that I chose to use was a focus group. For the focus group I
used two of my acquaintances, one of which is very interested in the subject of street art
and one that is impartial to the subject. I also used a family member in the conversation
because he is the most invested person in street art that I personally know. He has studied
the works of Banksy, Shepard Fairy, and Space Invader to name a few and actually has
original artworks by them. I preformed this focus group on Friday the 30th of March
2012. I used the focus group method because I wanted to gain insight from different
people who felt differently on the subject. This is why I chose a person that was
impartial, one that is interested in it, a person that is very invested and also myself.
Textual Analysis
For my third research method I used textual analysis on the documentary “Exit
Through the Gift Shop” by Danksy. I did this textual analysis over a couple of weeks
watching only thirty minutes at a time and taking a lot of notes while watching. I chose
this method because it informs the reader what the director of the film was trying to
portray in their film. Also by taking longer to watch the documentarie I learned valuable
information that I would have not previously caught if I had not taken the time to do the
textual analysis.
Strengths and weaknesses
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One of the strengths of my methods is that I interviewed a very knowledgeable
person that is very experienced in his profession. One thing that is not very strong is that I
did not do previous research on Dr. Dutta so my questions were not as detailed as I would
like them to be. Another strength was my focus group that yielded a significant amount of
data. The focus group worked well because I used people that had previous knowledge of
street art and one that did not. This technique of using different types of people proved to
be very successful. One strength of using a textual analysis is that it allowed myself to
gain an understanding as to what the artists in the documentary were doing and also
provided a “behind the scene look” as to what goes on in this society.
ResultsFocus group
For the first method of primary research I used a Focus group with myself and
three other people. This method proved to be very insightful and I found out a lot of
things that I did not previously know about my subject. Three of the people in the focus
group had a pre-conceived notion that the liked street art and knew specific things about
it. One person in the group did not particularly like street at or graffiti and this added
great input and lead to a very interesting conversation.
For Street art
The conversation leaned primarily to the side
of pro street art. “Since the beginning of man people
have been drawing on cave walls and public walls to
show what was going on at the time, so why now in
only recent history has it become such a sin to do the
same that our ancestors have done”(Chris Riley). This
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statement transitioned into a major talk as to why street art should be legal. “Street art can
add a beautiful piece of scenery to a more run down part of a city (as seen in figure one)
and could even provide some kind of motivation to the people who see it”(Ryan
Sanchez).
Against street art
During the focus group there were also arguments against street art. For example
one of the arguments made during the conversation was that street art is still illegal and
still a form of vandalism. Another key point
was that not everyone likes art in general and
when it comes to graffiti, it is one of the most
publicly hated forms of art because of the
violent affiliation. For example Cameron Glen
brought up a viewpoint that is shared by a lot of
people when he said, “Whenever I see graffiti or even street art, even if it is really cool, I
still feel like the person who drew it would kill me if they saw me trying to paint over it
so that adds so kind of restriction for me liking it”. An example of a notorious gang “the
Latin Kings” marks their territory in south Las Angels, California seen above in figure
two. He expressed concern about this form of art because he believed that it is all related
to violent people.
Interview
I interviewed Dr. Dutta, an American Indian that graduated from the University of
Syracuse with a Doctorate from the visual art and design department. I had time to ask
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him six questions and he answered them all with great detail. The first of which was a
very basic question that asked how his experience as an original artist relates to street
artists and how they view “art”. “Street artists view art about the same way as I do, we
are both trying to create something original and new. I’d say the main difference is that
they are a little more reckless. I personally would never paint on the side of a building,
not because I thought it was wrong but because I’d be afraid of getting caught”. Referring
to appendix A question number two his response was “I can definitely relate to their
creativity because that is something that I struggle with myself, trying to create new
things is hard and I get my inspiration from everyday life and things that I see everyday.
From other art to going to the grocery store I just find things that are neat to me and relate
that to my own art” (Dutta). The reply to question number three, which can be found in
the appendix A, was “I definitely believe that street art should be considered a valid form
of art. I think that the ongoing joke about art is that ‘why can’t I throw some colors onto a
piece of paper, call it art and sell it for thousands of dollars’. The reason why art is sold
for so much money is because that is what people are willing to pay for something that
they love. Ultimately beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I think people don’t think
about that when they look at a piece that they don’t like. As for street art being more
socially acceptable I don’t know if that will happen just because it is illegal to vandalize
and that is what street art does even if it is a great work”. For the fourth question he
replied, “ of course there is a pattern in more impoverished areas because there tend to be
more gangs and the result is more graffiti. I mostly see the street art in middle class areas
and I don’t know why that is”. He replied to the fifth question, which can be found in the
appendix by saying, “Not all Graffiti is bad, actually there is a lot of really talented
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graffiti artists, but I do think that there is a correlation between the two because graffiti is
more of one person trying to get there own name out into the public. I think that this
causes violence because people get territorial over heir art.” For the last question his
response was, “That is a touchy very subject. I think there are two people, one is totally is
totally against it and the other is totally for it. I don’t think that I should comment on it. I
think that there is a major difference between street art and gang related graffiti would
always remain illegal.”
Textual analysis
For my textual analysis I studied the film “Exit Through the Gift Shop” by
Banksy. I learned through this documentary that there is a whole subculture of street
artists. Artists from around the world are all intertwined and know of people all across the
world. For example Banksy and Space invader (U.K.) knew of art from Shepard Fairy
(U.S.) in the early 90s when there wasn’t Internet for these images to be so widely
displayed. The film revolves around a photographer named Thierry Guetta who follows
around many big names in street art, three of which I previously mentioned. The film
provides a behind the scenes look at what a street artist does and why they do it. One
conclusion that I made is that all of the artists did not paint to get their own names out but
instead they painted merely to display a problem with anything from society to war to
their daily life.
Discussion
After analyzing the results of my focus group, interview and textual analysis the
common theme or trend that I found was that many people misinterpret street art for gang
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related graffiti. For example one of the subjects in my focus group thought that both of
these where the same thing. Also in my textual there were similar opinions by the street
artists themselves. For example Thierry Guetta explains how when he first started
recording he thought that all of these people had a negative motivation for creating their
art. I think that street art is mistaken for gang related graffiti because today they are both
forms of vandalism. Although street art can be creative and artistic as well as astatically
pleasing, it is still illegal and thus it is categorized as a crime. Because of this many
people lump street art in to the same category as gang tagging.
Another trend that popped up in my research was that everyone I came into
contact with and through my textual analysis all thought that street art is a valid form of
art. For example when I interviewed Dr. Dutta I asked if he thinks that street art should
be considered a valid form of art and he swiftly replied, “I definitely believe that street art
should be considered a valid form of art”. The same trend came out in both my textual
analysis and focus group when both came up with a similar answer that put street art in a
positive light.
These findings could be the result of many factors. In terms of the confusion
between street art and gang related graffiti, the media has a large influence. Many people
have seen articles or news stories that say for example “Another Youth Murdered Over
Rival Gangs Graffiti’.
A solution to this problem is simple. Police task forces against street art and
graffiti could stop searching for the people that are trying to make beautiful art and crack
down on the ones that are making art to harm other people. Before one jumps to any
conclusions about whether or not street art should be legal or not just ask yourself, if
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Pablo Picasso painted a mural on a wall down your street would you want it to stay?
Would you want to take pictures of it? Or would you want it to be covered by a white
paint just to go back to the same old boring wall?
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WORKS CITED
Almendrala, Anna. "Street Art Vs. Graffiti In Los Angeles." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 02 Feb. 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2013
Anderson, Laurel, et al. "Street Art, Sweet Art? Reclaiming The "Public" In Public
Place." Journal Of Consumer Research 37.3 (2010): 511-529. Business Source
Premier. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.
Banksy. "Exit Through The Gift Shop." Exit Through The Gift Shop. Banksy Film, n.d.
Web. 28 Feb. 2013.
Borghini, Stefania, Luca Massimiliano Visconti, Laurel Anderson, and John Sherry.
"Symbiotic Postures of Commercial Advertising and Street Art: Rhetoric for
Creativity." American Academy of Advertising, n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2013.
Corbertt, Rachel. "The Banksy Brand: How the Elusive Street Artist Played the Art
MarketGA_googleFillSlot("ARTINFO_USA_ARTICLE_SPONSOR");." Artinfo.
N.p., 6 Feb. 2013. Web. 22 Feb. 2013.
Guynn, Jessica February. "A Different Kind of Facebook Tag: Graffiti on Campus
Tunnel Walls." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 28 Feb. 2013. Web. 01
Mar. 2013
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Hadden, Gerry. "The Church Dome Painted by Graffiti Artists." BBC News. BBC, 27
Feb. 2013. Web. 01 Mar. 2013.
Sampson, Hanna. "Business." The Miami Herald. N.p., 19 Feb. 2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.
Winton, Richard. "Reputed Latino Gang Members Indicted in Attack on Black Youths."
Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 09 Feb. 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.
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Appendix A
INTERVIEW/ FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS
1) how does your experience as an original artist relate to street artists and how they
view “art”?
2) having created your own original art works, can you relate to the creativity factor
that is involved in the street art movement?
3) Do you believe that street art is a valid form of art and should be allowed and
more socially acceptable?
4) Having traveled throughout the country and around the world have you seen a
pattern of street art in more impoverished areas or graffiti in these areas?
Or in wealthier parts do you see as much graffiti or street art?
5) Can you share your feelings on the relationship between graffiti or tags and gang
related violence? Do you think that there is a correlation between the two?
6) Lastly, do you believe that street should become a socially and lawfully
acceptable form of art and should become legal? Do you think that gang related
graffiti should remain illegal or should it be considered the same as street art?
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