Street art or vandalism?
Chris Hogan, 2nd March 2016, Household
For a long time people have been using buildings as blank canvases. Sometimes it's done with permission and cooperation, at other times it's just plain vandalism. What is it that makes one wall art and another graffiti? Is beauty simply in the eye of the beholder?
The website that inspired this article features the art of French painter Julien Malland, known as Seth Globepainter. His colourful paintings of three or four storey-high children are very high quality and enhance the buildings rather than detract from them.
But artwork isn't always welcomed. Is it sometimes about the type of building? Churches and temples are full of art but I'm not sure any clerics would appreciate having mural painted on their building overnight. One Russian artist paints faces on buildings but is careful to choose abandoned buildings. They are also funny and very well-executed.
Is it well done?
Quality is another benchmark. Nobody wants their town covered with mindless 'tags' (people's names in a stylised script) that characterise so much mindless graffiti. A painting in a graffiti style will often be painted over because the style reminds people too much of the vandals' scribble, no matter how well it might be executed.
And in some cases vandals feel they have to 'tag' works of art, sometimes defacing them so badly that they have to be removed, something that happened in this case.
In Northern Ireland murals have become symbolic of the struggle for power, with almost 2,000 having been documented since the 1970s in Belfast and Derry, roughly 300 of which remain today. Since the country has been relatively peaceful the topics have expanded to include less contentious issues such as football, the Titanic and philosophy.
Who owns the artwork?
The enigmatic Banksy is the best-known UK artist making use of walls in public spaces. He (or she?) has achieved such fame and notoriety that walls are being demolished to be sold off for stratospheric prices - something that raises another issue - does the owner of the wall own the artwork?
A less well-known UK street artist, 'Phlegm', has been painting walls by invitation all over the world. Originally a children's comic illustrator, his success shows that the public and local authorities appreciate high quality work, even if it is sometimes a little disturbing.
What do you think? Are there any examples of street art in your neighbourhood that you like, or dislike? Let us know, preferably with a photo, and if there's enough interest we'll run a follow-up article.
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