I recently visited Turkey to undertake some research around Istanbul’s street art.

Istanbul is a vibrant city with deep traditional and contemporary culture including an energetic night life. The city is a visual delight, so much to see from the vocal shopkeepers to the food culture, the smell of Turkish coffee and the street animals (so many cats) that are well fed and seem well cared for – something that is rare from what I have witnessed in my travels abroad.

I was captivated by the graffiti written all over the streets, juxtaposed against old buildings within the city.

Studying street art, in its many forms, has meant my eyes are now accustomed to looking for some form of communication that invites me to become embedded into the urban landscape. An escape from the everyday, this disruption of thought – particularly when experiencing a new city where everywhere you look you see different and new things. I still see the art that jumps out at me from the street – this visual megaphone of information.

Before arriving in Istanbul, I did my research (as a good PhD student).

I downloaded the Istanbul Street Art App to aid me in finding street art locations. While I had difficulty in downloading the information, I accessed a series travel blogs and Instagram accounts.One of the best was The Occasional Traveler which highlighted some areas that were perfect for my research mission.

One place that I really enjoyed was Kadiköy. It is located on the Asian side of Istanbul which is accessible by ferry. This was a special place as I walked through a maze of buildings and turning corner to see these marks of colour that I was drawn towards. Finding these huge murals that decorate and colour the suburb.

It is a wonderful place to wander and be impacted by images – the disruption of thought they create – a way of communicating without speaking.

Many of the murals were a part of a festival run by an organization of artists and the Kadiköy Council – though the festival seems to have been cancelled this year due to a disagreement between the council and the artists. While most of the works viewed in Kadiköy are part of the previous festival, there is also a great number of pieces such as tags, stencils and graffiti that seem placed there independently.

I took three people with me on this journey and it was interesting observing their interactions with the artworks. The discussions we had were about the imagery and the way these artworks are juxtaposed against the old buildings that are persevered within the tiny streets and historical suburbs.

Taking people with me on the journey was a great way to discuss my research and reflect upon what I am learning. Explaining to people that my PhD is about ‘street art’ always results in a sense of amazement and responses of ‘that is so awesome’.

I love being able to break down my research so I can engage with people about street art and graffiti.

I also found that after providing background to the people accompanying me, they started seeing the streets differently. The three additional pairs of eyes found things that I would have missed. In these discussions, I have the opportunity to break down the stigma around graffiti writing and how it as important as the ever-expansive murals that we had seen.

Here are a few artworks that I have found along the way in Istanbul.