Question: Can contemporary street art be seen as two distinct movements? Firstly, a blue collar movement, concerned with political messages, self expression and reclamation of public space, and secondly, a white collar movement fuelled by corporate interests focussed at people as consumers?
Through a brief inspection, or experience of, any urban environment, it seems clear that two forms of visual communication stand out in public spaces. These are street art and advertising – specifically, visual consumer-targeted advertising. On the surface, these two genres of communication seem to be clear-cut opposites; with corporate advertising being the mainstream and street art being it’s counter. This is not just in competition for space and attention but also culturally; street art being a cultural reaction to the messages conveyed by advertising (McCormick 2010).
Despite many practitioners and academics arguing this narrative of conflict, in reality lit is not so simple. (Ferrell, (2004, 182-184) points to clear infiltration of street art culture by musical promoters through the 1990’s and 2000’s. Alvelos (2003) introduces the idea of hyperreality within street art, where advertisers “(re)construct subcultural universes by nurturing their surfaces while obliterating their original contexts and contents”. This argument suggest that we would struggle to discern a true street art artefact from advertising veiled as street art.
These points give rise to the main theme and questions of this assignment: can contemporary street art be seen as two distinct movements? Firstly, a blue collar movement, concerned with political messages, self expression and reclamation of public space, and secondly, a white collar movement fuelled by corporate interests focussed at people as consumers? Initially, it’s important that we establish why blue collar street art is culturally important.
Blue collar being the social group of people who use their bodies, hands and physical skills in the economy and white collar those who manage capital. Both (McCormick 2010) and (Kataras 2006) argue that street art is a response to consumer advertising. McCormick argues that street art is a “reaction to the widespread commercialisation of commodification of public space” (McCormick 2010 pp-132). (Waclawek 2011 – pp186) says “post-graffiti art functions as a necessary opposition to corporate representations of how a city is visually organised”. In terms of artists, there is a plethora to choose from as examples of blue collar street art. Stephen Powers (2014) has taken his sign writing talent around the world to “talk about love and life instead of commercial concerns”. Jean Rene (2007) took his face to face series to the conflict zone straddling Israel Palestine to highlight the similarities between the life and people in divided countries in conflict.
Blue collar graffiti is also used as a candid response to subvert consumer advertising. A corporate logo is a company’s identity (Cass 2010). It is a concise visual representation of how that particular establishment wishes to portray itself – a motif that is so distinct and easily recognisable that just a glimpse will remind you of the brand. Opportunistic street art artists such as Ron English and Aghirre Schwarz (Zevs) have seen this an opportunity produced series of works appropriating these logos. Ron English has based his work, ‘culture-jamming’ on satirical, counter consumer billboards with rehashed catch phrases such as ‘CAMEL-cancer kid’ and ‘FOX NEWS – we deceive, you believe’ (Ellis–Peterson 2017). Aghirre Schwarz’s series ‘Liquidated logos’ draws inspiration from the martial art of aikido. Through simple gestures he experiments with reversing power and changing the flow of energy (Schwarz 2009). The idea of hyperreality refers the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality. In the context of street art it refers to genuine movements being replaced by a “hyperreal version of itself” (Alvelos 2003).
Within a local milieu, both the City of Melbourne and the City of Yarra councils have developed graffiti management plans which arguably lend themselves to the cultivation of hyperreality. Both sets of plans present a strict framework for the production and/or removal of street art. The City of Melbourne document states that “To assess obscene graffiti, we will be guided by …the Australia’s advertising code” (2014). Advertisers use this hyperreal, perhaps indistinguishable versions of white collar street art as a way to impose commercial symbols and responses.
The first documented use of graffiti as advertising was in by George Melly in 1974 on the rolling stones LP it’s only rock n roll (Ferrell, 2004, 182-184). Two years later, in the book the writing on the wall: the graffiti of London, Melly Commented that he laments the use of graffiti for advertising, citing that he believes that street art should “not a marketing ploy”. Melly effectively opened the floodgates for what would be a true epidemic by the mid 1990’s. Throughout the 90’s the trend spread from musicians, such as Daft Punk using graffiti as direct means of advertising tours and albums, to books (Class of 88 – 1988), websites (Dobedo – 2000, Play louder – 1998), magazines (Wired – 1996, Mixmag – 1997), games (Sega Dreamcast -1999), movies (I shot Andy Warhol – 1996), even perfume (Calvin Klein crave, 2001). As they progressed in sophistication they became ever less distinguishable from ‘authentic’ graffiti, creeping toward the realms of hyperreality.
Recent activity in the white collar street art world has been a significant increase in mural painting. The scale, time allowances and resources committed to these works are far greater than typical street art pieces. Artists generally have larger scales and timeframes however such murals are politically constrained by the financing corporations gas well as being subjected to social censorship due to the highly public nature of murals (Abarca 2016). Since its incarnation in the early 1960’s street art has been an important element of city life. Recent activity in the street art world suggest that there could be two distinct sides emerging. A blue collar graffiti movement providing artists with an opportunity to publicly voice their ideas surrounding politics and contemporary counterculture. It has been a means spreading messages of love and has been deployed in conflict zones as a way to ease tension between warring neighbours.
This is contrasted by a white collar street art movement, spearheaded by large companies, that uses a hyperreal version of street art culture to convey their own messages and symbols which often directly oppose the aims of the blue collar movement.
References
Abarca, Javier. 2016. From Street Art to Murals: What Have We Lost? Street Art and Urban Creativity Scientific Journal. Vol 2 no 2. https://www.urbancreativity.org/uploads/ 1/0/7/2/10727553/sauc_journal2016_v2_n2_web.pdf Accessed September 11th 2018 Alvelos, Heitor. 2003. The Fabrication of Authenticity: Street Art Beyond Subculture. PhD thesis. Royal College of Art. https://heitoralvelos.wordpress.com/phd-thesis/ Accessed September 12th 2018 Cass, Jacob. 2010. Branding, Identity & Logo Brand Design Explained. https:// justcreative.com/2010/04/06/branding-identity-logo-design-explained/ Accessed September 12th 2018 City of Melbourne Council. 2014. Graffiti Management Plan 2014-18. Melbourne. Ellis-Peterson, H, 2017. Street Art Goes Home: Museum of Graffitti opens in Berlin. Guardian newspaper 20 September 2017 https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/sep/20/street-art-goes-home-museum-ofgraffiti-opens-in-berlin-urban-nation Accessed 07 September 2018 Ferrel.J., Hayward, K., Morrison, W., & Presdee, M. 2004. Cultural Criminology Unleashed. London: The Glasshouse Press. Karras, Alex. 2006. Advertising, Propaganda, and Graffiti Art. London: Saint Martins. McCormick, Carlo et al. 2010. Trespass: A History of Uncommissioned Urban Art – Cologne: Taschen. Powers, Stephen. 2014. A love Letter to the City. New York: Princeton Architectural Press Rene, Jean. 2007. Face 2 Face exhibition. Palestine. https://www.jr-art.net/projects/face-2-face Accessed 07 September 2018 Schwarz, Aghirre/Zevs. 2008. Interview with PingMag. https://www.bombingscience.com/zevs-visual-kidnapping/ Accessed 13 September 2018 Waclawek, Anna. 2011. Graffiti and Street Art. New York: Thames and Hudson.
