andante: a steady start to a long trip
a work in progress
Thus far, the process of selecting scholarly sources for my topic, street art, has been rather simple: whatever is there. There's something to be said about lack of choice, after all. The lack of scholarly work specifically on Banksy's oeuvre lends itself to some interesting outcomes. I've looked at the scholarly work of teachers, librarians, philosophers, and even economists to find a scholarly consensus surrounding street art. The diverse range of perspectives and backgrounds of the authors has given me a lot to think about, particularly with regard to the illegality versus illicitness debate. Is graffiti inherently illicit, or should it be regarded as an art form no different from the paintings featured in museums?
The lack of clear consensus on the characterization of street art and the challenges associated with preserving it as archival documents make for some very interesting intersections across various institutions. From my research, I've learned about a complex web of actors and stakeholders in the arena of public space, summarized by the following three contributors:
The Public
The public is the ultimate consumer of public space as a commodity, and the intended audience for street art. They are a diverse group of people with varied backgrounds, and their reception to street art is also varied. There are people who believe street art is nothing more than meaningless scribbles, while others appreciate the work of street artists in creating a more beautiful and interesting urban landscape. How a work of graffiti is received depends heavily on context, location, effort, and history. For instance, Banksy's work has a large cult following for his distinctive voice and culturally relevant messages, but few people appreciate the "tag" artists who simply display their name across the city to leave a mark.
Street Artists
Street artists are similarly diversified in their styles, intentions, and levels of fame. As one interviewee recorded in the Journal of Consumer Research, "The stuff around here isn’t street art because it’s done by middle-class kids, who are angry because their dad won’t buy them a car" (Visconti). On the other hand, artists like Banksy have achieved both critical and commercial success by marketing their work as commercial products, gaining notoriety and fame through their creative pursuits. Though institutions and corporations are increasingly warming up to the idea that street art can be commodified and archived, there is still resistance on the part of street artists to the idea of "selling out."
Institutions
Institutions can refer to anything from universities, museums, libraries, etc. I was able to include many perspectives from these following institutions in my research, and I found some interesting parallels in all of them. The battle for legitimacy and protection for street art often stems from the internal resistance and biases from these institutions toward marginalized communities and disenfranchised voices. On the other hand, there is a growing trend of dealing with street art purely for its aesthetic. This strips the art of its political and social power, which comes from resistance and protest. To a certain degree, street art loses power the more it's institutionalized.
next steps
The research isn't the hard part so much as the thinking. Making connections between the various sources, in a way that goes beyond the surface-level similarities, requires quite a bit of critical thinking. For now, I've been thinking about the various forces and influences that shape our public spaces. Who really owns our buildings, landscapes, and art? The fact is that most urban dwellers have little to no agency or say in what they're able to see on a daily basis, with nothing but a depressing city landscape of identical glass high-rise buildings to entertain their vision, day-in and day-out. In a way, street art can be a welcome break from the dreary homogenization caused by urbanization and the privatization of collective spaces. Street art, despite the debate and controversy, is still more interesting to look at than the advertisements plastered all across the places we frequent, demanding our attention and money. The consumeristic values driving the appearance of the spaces we inhabit stand directly opposed to street art, which is mostly made anonymously and against the law. Thus, there is warranted and justified resistance against commodifying street art or institutionalizing it.