Over the last two decades, street art has become an integral part of the urban landscape. While this might seem natural to contemporary readers, it is in fact a remarkable change, given that the history of street art is linked to the criminality and vandalism of graffiti culture. Indeed, many cities around the world now hold street art festivals, signalling the location-based nature of the art form and reflecting its concern with contemporary social issues.
Although all art attempts to communicate, a unique feature of street art is the immediacy of the communication within urban landscapes – not locked away in galleries. One prominent example is Australian female street artist, Kaff-eine, who has an increasing global footprint through her artwork that raises awareness around issues of poverty and LGBTQIA+ communities.
September 2018 saw street artists, both local and international, head to Northern Australia to participate in the Darwin Street Art Festival. The festival, which was held on the 15-16 September, included live music, family activities and the chance to see street artists creating their murals in the heart of Darwin. The festival turned the boring back laneways of Darwin into an urban gallery and included imagery of some of the well-known locals, Australian fauna and flora as well as a series of abstract designs.
Andrew Bourke & Jessie Bell | Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu | 2018 Image by the author
Street art has the ability to tell a story, convey a message and liven concrete walls that are contained within our cities. The artworks act as a vehicle to create conversations between the artist and the audience. These conversations have always intrigued me as I find myself asking questions such as: What is the artist trying to tell me? Why have they selected this imagery? What inspires them?
ELK – Father Dave – Martin Place – June 2016 – Photograph by author
During the month of June 2016, ANZ sponsored a street art project called Inspiring Locals – which highlighted locals who are making a difference within their communities. This project was coordinated by Melbourne art consultant, Alex McCulloch.
Four street artists where selected for the project, Luke Cornish (ELK), Kaff-eine, Adnate & Stormie Mills. Each artist selected a person who they thought aligned with ANZ’s vision statement of diversity, inclusion and respect as everyday priorities, both inside the workplace and out.
The four artists where assigned walls around Sydney;
ELK – Father Dave in Martin Place and conductor Dr Nicholas Milton at Chatswood;
Kaff-eine – LGBTI activist Katherine Hudson at Bondi Junction;
Adnate – Aboriginal activist Jenny Munro at Haymarket; &,
Stormie Mills – retired Parramatta Eels player and community activist Nathan Hindmarsh at Parramatta.
The project is important for many reasons but here I want to discuss just three: the creation of community, knowledge production and, pure enjoyment. Continue reading “#Inspiringlocals”→
What words come to mind when I mention ‘street art’? Vandalism? Free speech? Beautiful? Offensive? Colourful?
Whatever your thoughts are on the subject of street art, as with most things in life, we need to look at it from various angles: what is seen as vandalism by someone, is considered an art form by someone else.
What is clear is that more academic research is required to study this beautiful art form. The meanings behind some of these artworks, how they engage with current topics both in Australia and around the world, creating awareness of what is going on in our contemporary world and creating an alternative voice.
Street art has the ability to engage an audience and begin conversations between the artist, artwork and public – something that is both powerful and fascinating. Whether it is a protest piece or commentary on current issues such as society’s obsession with celebrity culture – something I discuss below – these works have the capability to create conversations that resonate through the streets visually.
Some important questions I have found myself asking: Have you ever thought about who paints the art work? Are they male or female artists? Would it change you attitude to the work if you knew the sex of the artist?
Street art is a male dominated movement. Why? Is it because of the frequently dangerous nature of the movement. Works often need to be undertaken at night and in alleyways. Or is it because of the socially constructed gender role of society that makes this a masculine practice?
Through the article that follows, I discuss how street art creates conversations in the urban landscape, delve into the history of graffiti, introduce the first female graffiti artist, Lady Pink, and discuss how some of the female artists situate themselves within this masculine practice.
Figure 1: Kim ‘the fat slut’ – photo by author
Kim Kardashian is always likely to get you a headline. Her most recent Instagramed nude selfie – or nudie – once again brought the Internet to a standstill as her endless self-promotion lit up discussion boards and gossip columns. Continue reading “Street-Art-A-Feminist-Playground”→
Recently I undertook a literature review for my Masters of Research.
This allowed me to delve into my research field and look at the literature surrounding my topic. I found there was limited research particularly when looking at female street artists. There was information on individual artists, however, a discussion on the gender imbalance within the sub-culture seemed to be missing.
Common research surrounding street can be grouped into four key areas: the historical context and beginnings of the sub-culture (Gomez: 1993); more recent research around the legalities (Young: 2013); art in a public space (McAuliffe: 2012); and, the engagement of street art within the community and how it is used as a tool for discussion (Hansen & Danny: 2015). Continue reading “Street-Art-literature-Review”→
Alix Beattie: Street Art Researcher 