Street art in York
From the previous post
about Romanticism of York, street art came to mind. How are we able
to modernise York? How can we try to advance York as a city? The
juxtaposition of street art would be ideal. One day whilst walking
into the city centre, at a very familiar junction, I looked up and
saw ugly blank walls. I thought, why on earth is it plastered with
that horrible cladding? It's in a prime location, by a busy
junction. Hundreds of cars pass it each day, and it currently is an
eyesore. There must be other areas of York that are almost derelict;
walls and building rotten with age and currently serve no purpose and
interest. Would streetart be accepted in such an area? If this 50+
year old resident of York can appreciate street art, surely there is
hope for the rest?
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| Blank canvas above the intersection |
Elderly York resident:
“I
HAVE just caught a posse of people red-handed. They were
“vandalising” a wall of excellent street art with bland cream
paint under the A64 by the giant solar system sun at the start of the
Selby cycle path.
Apparently
this “cream vandalism” was organised by the Probation Service
using people on community service, as recently championed by Lord
Mayor of York Susan Galloway as a social service.
I
don’t think so. I am in my 50s and regularly walk from York College
to admire and photograph the excellent spray-painted art that
embellishes and enriches the underpass.
Most
of it is giant words or names, but regularly beautifully painted good
cartoon pictures, sometimes political. They never stay the same for
long. It is a fantastic large flat wall space for artwork. The site
provides a social service for street artists to paint large pictures.
Many people really enjoy looking at them and anticipating what we
will see next.
It
is already self-regulating. All the artists know their work will only
last a few weeks before someone else paints a new picture
I’m
sure most of us are glad to see offensive graffiti removed. We should
stop wasting money painting over anything else.” (Charles Everett,
North Moor, Huntington, York)
London graffiti artist
questions “is there any harm in drawing on rotten buildings?”:
“I
wasn’t a building drawer. What happened was I was sitting opposite
the buildings that are on the other side of the road from where I
usually sit, the old decrepit buildings, and I started drawing them
to practice and get it right. I thought I would do it with these ones
because they’re rotten old buildings“(John Dolan, Sept 2013)
Banksy
For the situation in
York, I think that Banksy could be a good ambassador for the
streetart scene in York. Satirical work; It makes people laugh, and
then makes them think (Wikipedia on satire, 2013). From his previous
works, I can see there is often a message to be expressed. And this
is done comically, and very cleverly. His work can be large or
small, but it is always engaging with the audience. Also, it is not
just an artwork placed in a certain location; much of his work
interacts with wall. For example, many of his work feature
characters, and are done close to real-life scale. He is able to
communicate with the public very effectively as well as provoking
thought.
“Banksy
porbably doesn't give a crap. He sees it as, he's doing the place a
favor to draw tourists to areas where they wouldn't normally visit
but these less talented or less creative 'artists' seek to destroy
his work and damage it. If they can't see the bigger picture and only
see 'he's on their turf', they are nobodies.” (Real Talk)
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| "Banksy" Google images |
Village Underground –
The Wall Project
A wall on Great Eastern
Street becomes London's most public gallery. It is very simply a
wall where artists are invited to present their artwork.
Predominately urban street art, made in situ. Amazingly they claim
to have “over 1 million 'visitors' a month” meaning passerbys and
cars. A public gallery with a busy road as it's audience. It has
become internationally recognised, with guest urban artists from all
over the world. And finally, they are planning to turn these
temporary exhibitions permenant. Previously, artists painted over
the wall, and then use it as a blank canvas, but now organisers want
to use glass enclosures to allow boards and digital mediums to expand
the artwork displayed.
The Wall project is a
great inspiration to help bring life to parts of a city. For York,
the Gillygate and Bootham junction could be an extension of the Art
Gallery. Displaying works, to help entice people to the Gallery.
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