What is Street Art?

Street Art:

The beauty of street art, or urban art, is that it has an insurmountable amount of definitions. There are millions of “street artists” that themselves don’t identify as artists per say. Traditionally speaking, street art is any art developed in public spaces. That can mean anything from graffiti art work, to “tagging”,  stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheatpasting,  street poster art, video projection, art intervention, guerrilla art, flash mobbing and street installations. 

Now, street art is going mainstream. Auctioneers, collectors, and museum directors are scrabbling to learn urban art vocabulary and develop positions on the big street art issue. Meanwhile, many people don’t recognize this artwork like art and sometimes people relate this art with vandalism.

In an interview with the Queens Tribune, New York City’s Queens Museum of Art Executive Director Tom Finkelpearl said public art “is the best way for people to express themselves in this city.” Finkelpearl, who helps organize socially conscious art exhibitions, added, “Art gets dialogue going. That’s very good.” However, he doesn’t find  graffiti to be art, and says, “I can’t condone vandalism… It’s really upsetting to me that people would need to write their name over and over again in public space. It’s this culture of fame. I really think it’s regrettable that they think that’s the only way to become famous.”

It is definitely the most controversial form of art in nature aside from its tendency to provoke and translate various social controversies. The artist usually tries to leave some kind of message like political issues, feelings, their personal emotions. And these expressions are exposed in the street where the public can enjoy and valuate them. However, it still stands that most street art is unsanctioned, and many artists who have painted without permission, (Banksy, Shepard Fairey)  have been glorified as legitimate and socially conscious artists.

Blogging meets Street Art

Needless to say, we are a generation essentially centralized around a phenomena known as “social media”. Everyone is connected, constantly, through websites and apps such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. More so even than in person; these aforementioned mediums around which our entire generational society orbits, are perhaps the most prominent forms of day-to-day social interaction; Through most of these social media tools one makes a profile, chooses a username, selects a picture, all to identify them as an individual. It’s who they want to be, or how they wish to be presented to society, to their “friends”. But how true is this representation?

Along with this trend of social media people often discuss how behind a computer, behind this façade, people are fearless. People are more inclined to say things they never would out loud, parade themselves in a way you would never see in person, all because they are masqueraded behind this computer screen. I agree, that perhaps when I make a profile or writing a tweet, I feel somewhat protected in the semi-veiled podium. But, at the same time, I see social media as the least anonymous form of communication possible. I absolutely see it as the most warped, meaning you can be whomever you’d like, put your “best self” forward, post the most “artsy photos”, portray an imagine of your life that may or may not be true.

Sure, I believe that there is a freedom to, in a way, trick those around you in to believing in an identity that may not be what they’d see in person. But, to me, social media is the most vulnerable trend in the world. When you take the provided mask of a computer, those non face-to-face interactions, you tend to allow yourself to write or post your most false statements. But, you at the same time, more often, may post your most inner truth. You may take the anonymity of social media to tweet your most inner thoughts, Snapchat exactly what you’re doing at one particular moment, and who you’re doing it with. The “veil” of social media is much more transparent than opaque. Blogging particularly.

When I first learned we’d be creating a blog, I’d be lying if I said a certain surge of panic didn’t rush through me. I thought choosing one subject to write about every week, one subject to identify me as a person, very daunting. I’d never really thought about what an “internet identity” meant and I felt intimidating by the thought of having to create one. But that’s what lead me to think. Why would I feel so exposed blogging? Why did I prefer to be hidden from the judging eyes of other computer users?

I realized that, to me, blogging meant exposing myself as a person and as a writer, something I’d avoided in the past. That is precisely why I chose to write about street art. Because when I pass graffiti on walls, initials carved into street signs, ambiguous stickers posted everywhere, nameless art of all kinds framing the walls of cities around the world with no known owner: that is the new frontier. I love the idea of pairing what I view as the most exposed form of social media (Blogging), with the most mysterious wonderment of street art. Blogging forces you to state an opinion, share a story, publicize your interests, your likes and dislikes, and create an identity. While street art, for the most part, happens in the dark of night, is essentially nameless, yet has the largest audience of public who see this art and judge it or view it as they please.