Uncommon to the commuting world, I am a rare-breed of traveler who loves my daily public transportation time – it unearths the underground world of street art.
Balloon Boy by Spy
The practice of street art is one that is truly astounding. “Street art” is an umbrella term for graffiti, stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheat pasting, guerrilla art, public mosaics, and yarn bombing. Street art around communities and urban settings brings an aesthetic to spaces, as well as a message.
Yarn bombed tank Copenhagen, 2006
Often, street art gets a bad wrap – stigmatized as vandalism, territorial tagging, or just another corporate advertisement. In fact, this art movement, per say, requires a great deal of compositional theory and great attention to detail. Street Art, in any medium, often carries socially relevant themes, along with the flourish it adds to an ordinary brick wall.
Inside Out Project New York City, 2013
The INSIDE OUT Project, that recently took over Manhattan, is one that distinguishes the significance of street art, and art in the public forum. Through large-scale wheat pastings, the project enables everyone to share their personal and political views with a grandeur view of their own portrait. Participants can take their own photo, and take part in one of the photo booths set up for the project, and print their face, then paste it anywhere in their community. What a gift it is to be able to look up at the inspiring and driven faces within our own communities, and not just another ad for the latest automobile.
Inside Out Project New York City, 2013
As we integrate art into the streets around us, whether it is filled with political anarchy or is simply an intricately designed work, all thanks to the paint aisle at Home Depot, we also integrate this art into our homes. For the INSIDE OUT project, this means integrating our neighbours, and our sisters, and our uncles into the environment around us, and sharing the issues that matter to them.
Inside Out Project New York City, 2013
Perhaps here at home, we can do that same. Street Art doesn’t just have to be something we pass on our morning train. That same unsanctioned, underground passion can find a place in our homes as well – literally with artworks, like this photograph from Jon Bidwell, capturing street graffiti on the side of a train compartment.
Fourteen by Jon Bidwell on zatista.com
We can also incorporate the fervour, and graphic imagery found so commonly in graffiti, with mixed media, or graffiti-inspired paintings such as Deanna Fainelli’s “Slice of the City”.
Slice of the City by Deanna Fainelli on zatista.com
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