Parfitt

Kelly Parfitt

ENC1102

Professor Stack

4/11/2013

Delving into the Street Art Movement

Art can be defined as the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to

aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance

(“Art”). Art is all what people/society believe to be beautiful but as the saying goes

“beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. One art form that is subjective to different peoples

views is street art. Street art is any form of art produced in a public place. Street art is

often viewed as vandalism and the term graffiti is usually association with a negative

connotation. Graffiti is another form of street art that has existed since ancient times to

convey a sense of self-originality and to let the pubic know of ones own artistic abilities.

The public often thinks of street art as gang related graffiti. What this paper will delve

into is the evidence available that street art should be considered a valid art from while

gang related graffiti should remain outlawed.

Review of Literature

Street Art vs. Graffiti

In order to understand street art there needs to be a differentiation between the

terms street art and graffiti. In the article by Almendrala, there is a clear definition of

street art provided. He states “street art is not so much about making a name and

leavening a mark as it is getting people to interact with and view something in a new

1

Parfitt

way, and that is a big difference”(Almendrala 1). The author is explaining that graffiti is

mostly about putting your name on something or showing people what you represent.

This is why graffiti has a negative connotation along with it. Graffiti artists use graffiti to

label themselves in a gang and that could cause violence and that is why I believe it

should remain outlawed. For example, gangs may tag a street corner to establish their

territory. Rival gangs or gang members may see this and become violent toward the gang

that taged the street corner. Contrary to graffiti, street art is not gang related and is not

meant to “make a name” as stated by Almendrala. This makes street art less of a threat to

communities because the artists are merely painting something on a wall

Street Art Is Art

Street art is a widely debated topic. Arguers on one side agree that street art is a

form of art and the other side argue that it is not a valid form of art and is just vandalism.

Street art is definitely a form of and it has been around for centuries so it can be valid and

should be legal(Anderson 1-2; Banksy; Corbett 1;Guynn 3-5). Cave drawlings have

existed since the beginning of man to signify events that have happened in their life and

now, because of or society it is frowned upon to do essentially the same thing as our

ancestors did hundreds of years ago(Banksy; Guynn 3-5).

How street art is viewed today

Today some companies have embraced street art into their main stream marketing

campaigns and also actually let their employees express their artistic abilities freely in

their buildings(Guynn 3-5; Borghini 120-49;Hadden 1;Corbett 1). The huge social media

company Facebook as employed a well known artist by the name of David Choe to paint

2

Parfitt

murals along the tunnel walls and inside the building to show that Facebook executives

embrace the artistic style(Guynn 3-5). The company also lets their employees pick up

their own spray paint and draw whatever they want claiming that the white walls are a

“blank slate”. Other cases of street art being embraced are the fact that companys hire

street artists to paint advertisements for their business. In 2010 the company Coca-Cola

hired multiple artists to paint advertisements all across Atlanta GA to attract a young

demographic and the adversising strategy worked out for the company with higher coke

sales all through the area(Borghini 120-49). Another example of a highly establish

institution accepting street art as a form of art is a church in Barcelona Spain that has

hired “house” to paint murals of the virgin Mary, Jesus, nativity scene, etc. all throughout

the churches steeples and archways(Hadden 1). Paintings on the side of street walls have

gained a lot of popularity by the public as well. Banksy has played his street art into a

very exclusive art market where his artworks can be sold for upwards of £13,000 for a

smaller portrait to £1,000,000 for an authentic photograph of a piece signed by Banksy

himself(Corbett 1).

The Negative Effects of Street Art/Graffiti

Street art/graffiti’s negative connotation comes from the fact that many gangs or

individual people use it to signify their territory or who they are as an individual(Winton

1;Banksy; Anderson 1-2). Gang members use graffiti to mark their gangs territory by

using tags that usually consist of three to six letters and some times multiple

letters(Winton 1). Street art and graffiti are mostly put into the same group because of the

idea that they are both forms of vandalism in todays society(Banksy; Anderson 1-2).

3

Parfitt

Banksy, a very famous street artist in Europe, claims that he has seen many former

graffiti artists get killed over there drawlings because of there gang affiliation.

The missing piece

All of the research that I have gathered shows how either street art or graffiti

should be legal or illegal. The research shows that graffiti has proven to be the cause of a

lot of violence between gangs while street art has no affiliation to gangs and there for

does not cause violence. Both of these art forms still remain illegal however in todays

society. The missing piece of this argument is that street art should become legal and

gang related graffiti should remain outlawed. This action would cut down on people

getting arrested for making wonderful pieces of art and would let police task forces focus

more on catching people that are actually causing violence. Before one jumps to any

conclusions just think if Pablo Picasso painted a mural on a wall down your street would

you want it to remain there or would you have him arrested?

MethodsInterview

The three methods that I used for my research were an interview, a focus group

and a textual analysis. For my interview I went to the Boca Raton Art Museum in Boca

Raton Florida. I interviewed Dr. Dutta, an American Indian that graduated from the

University of Syracuse with a doctorate from the visual art and design department. His

main studies include the fields of modern and contemporary art. He also has over four

hundred original artworks. The interview took place on Saturday March 30, 2012. I did

not have a scheduled appointment for this interview. I walked into the museum and

requested one and only had to wait about ten minutes before he came out and was more

4

Parfitt

then willing to interview. I chose him because he was the only person at the art museum

willing to do an interview. I had a set of specific questions that had to do with my

research question and he answered all of them with great detail.

Focus group

The second method that I chose to use was a focus group. For the focus group I

used two of my acquaintances, one of which is very interested in the subject of street art

and one that is impartial to the subject. I also used a family member in the conversation

because he is the most invested person in street art that I personally know. He has studied

the works of Banksy, Shepard Fairy, and Space Invader to name a few and actually has

original artworks by them. I preformed this focus group on Friday the 30th of March

2012. I used the focus group method because I wanted to gain insight from different

people who felt differently on the subject. This is why I chose a person that was

impartial, one that is interested in it, a person that is very invested and also myself.

Textual Analysis

For my third research method I used textual analysis on the documentary “Exit

Through the Gift Shop” by Danksy. I did this textual analysis over a couple of weeks

watching only thirty minutes at a time and taking a lot of notes while watching. I chose

this method because it informs the reader what the director of the film was trying to

portray in their film. Also by taking longer to watch the documentarie I learned valuable

information that I would have not previously caught if I had not taken the time to do the

textual analysis.

Strengths and weaknesses

5

Parfitt

One of the strengths of my methods is that I interviewed a very knowledgeable

person that is very experienced in his profession. One thing that is not very strong is that I

did not do previous research on Dr. Dutta so my questions were not as detailed as I would

like them to be. Another strength was my focus group that yielded a significant amount of

data. The focus group worked well because I used people that had previous knowledge of

street art and one that did not. This technique of using different types of people proved to

be very successful. One strength of using a textual analysis is that it allowed myself to

gain an understanding as to what the artists in the documentary were doing and also

provided a “behind the scene look” as to what goes on in this society.

ResultsFocus group

For the first method of primary research I used a Focus group with myself and

three other people. This method proved to be very insightful and I found out a lot of

things that I did not previously know about my subject. Three of the people in the focus

group had a pre-conceived notion that the liked street art and knew specific things about

it. One person in the group did not particularly like street at or graffiti and this added

great input and lead to a very interesting conversation.

For Street art

The conversation leaned primarily to the side

of pro street art. “Since the beginning of man people

have been drawing on cave walls and public walls to

show what was going on at the time, so why now in

only recent history has it become such a sin to do the

same that our ancestors have done”(Chris Riley). This

6

Parfitt

statement transitioned into a major talk as to why street art should be legal. “Street art can

add a beautiful piece of scenery to a more run down part of a city (as seen in figure one)

and could even provide some kind of motivation to the people who see it”(Ryan

Sanchez).

Against street art

During the focus group there were also arguments against street art. For example

one of the arguments made during the conversation was that street art is still illegal and

still a form of vandalism. Another key point

was that not everyone likes art in general and

when it comes to graffiti, it is one of the most

publicly hated forms of art because of the

violent affiliation. For example Cameron Glen

brought up a viewpoint that is shared by a lot of

people when he said, “Whenever I see graffiti or even street art, even if it is really cool, I

still feel like the person who drew it would kill me if they saw me trying to paint over it

so that adds so kind of restriction for me liking it”. An example of a notorious gang “the

Latin Kings” marks their territory in south Las Angels, California seen above in figure

two. He expressed concern about this form of art because he believed that it is all related

to violent people.

Interview

I interviewed Dr. Dutta, an American Indian that graduated from the University of

Syracuse with a Doctorate from the visual art and design department. I had time to ask

7

Parfitt

him six questions and he answered them all with great detail. The first of which was a

very basic question that asked how his experience as an original artist relates to street

artists and how they view “art”. “Street artists view art about the same way as I do, we

are both trying to create something original and new. I’d say the main difference is that

they are a little more reckless. I personally would never paint on the side of a building,

not because I thought it was wrong but because I’d be afraid of getting caught”. Referring

to appendix A question number two his response was “I can definitely relate to their

creativity because that is something that I struggle with myself, trying to create new

things is hard and I get my inspiration from everyday life and things that I see everyday.

From other art to going to the grocery store I just find things that are neat to me and relate

that to my own art” (Dutta). The reply to question number three, which can be found in

the appendix A, was “I definitely believe that street art should be considered a valid form

of art. I think that the ongoing joke about art is that ‘why can’t I throw some colors onto a

piece of paper, call it art and sell it for thousands of dollars’. The reason why art is sold

for so much money is because that is what people are willing to pay for something that

they love. Ultimately beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I think people don’t think

about that when they look at a piece that they don’t like. As for street art being more

socially acceptable I don’t know if that will happen just because it is illegal to vandalize

and that is what street art does even if it is a great work”. For the fourth question he

replied, “ of course there is a pattern in more impoverished areas because there tend to be

more gangs and the result is more graffiti. I mostly see the street art in middle class areas

and I don’t know why that is”. He replied to the fifth question, which can be found in the

appendix by saying, “Not all Graffiti is bad, actually there is a lot of really talented

8

Parfitt

graffiti artists, but I do think that there is a correlation between the two because graffiti is

more of one person trying to get there own name out into the public. I think that this

causes violence because people get territorial over heir art.” For the last question his

response was, “That is a touchy very subject. I think there are two people, one is totally is

totally against it and the other is totally for it. I don’t think that I should comment on it. I

think that there is a major difference between street art and gang related graffiti would

always remain illegal.”

Textual analysis

For my textual analysis I studied the film “Exit Through the Gift Shop” by

Banksy. I learned through this documentary that there is a whole subculture of street

artists. Artists from around the world are all intertwined and know of people all across the

world. For example Banksy and Space invader (U.K.) knew of art from Shepard Fairy

(U.S.) in the early 90s when there wasn’t Internet for these images to be so widely

displayed. The film revolves around a photographer named Thierry Guetta who follows

around many big names in street art, three of which I previously mentioned. The film

provides a behind the scenes look at what a street artist does and why they do it. One

conclusion that I made is that all of the artists did not paint to get their own names out but

instead they painted merely to display a problem with anything from society to war to

their daily life.

Discussion

After analyzing the results of my focus group, interview and textual analysis the

common theme or trend that I found was that many people misinterpret street art for gang

9

Parfitt

related graffiti. For example one of the subjects in my focus group thought that both of

these where the same thing. Also in my textual there were similar opinions by the street

artists themselves. For example Thierry Guetta explains how when he first started

recording he thought that all of these people had a negative motivation for creating their

art. I think that street art is mistaken for gang related graffiti because today they are both

forms of vandalism. Although street art can be creative and artistic as well as astatically

pleasing, it is still illegal and thus it is categorized as a crime. Because of this many

people lump street art in to the same category as gang tagging.

Another trend that popped up in my research was that everyone I came into

contact with and through my textual analysis all thought that street art is a valid form of

art. For example when I interviewed Dr. Dutta I asked if he thinks that street art should

be considered a valid form of art and he swiftly replied, “I definitely believe that street art

should be considered a valid form of art”. The same trend came out in both my textual

analysis and focus group when both came up with a similar answer that put street art in a

positive light.

These findings could be the result of many factors. In terms of the confusion

between street art and gang related graffiti, the media has a large influence. Many people

have seen articles or news stories that say for example “Another Youth Murdered Over

Rival Gangs Graffiti’.

A solution to this problem is simple. Police task forces against street art and

graffiti could stop searching for the people that are trying to make beautiful art and crack

down on the ones that are making art to harm other people. Before one jumps to any

conclusions about whether or not street art should be legal or not just ask yourself, if

10

Parfitt

Pablo Picasso painted a mural on a wall down your street would you want it to stay?

Would you want to take pictures of it? Or would you want it to be covered by a white

paint just to go back to the same old boring wall?

11

Parfitt

WORKS CITED

Almendrala, Anna. "Street Art Vs. Graffiti In Los Angeles." The Huffington Post.

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 02 Feb. 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2013

Anderson, Laurel, et al. "Street Art, Sweet Art? Reclaiming The "Public" In Public

Place." Journal Of Consumer Research 37.3 (2010): 511-529. Business Source

Premier. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.

Banksy. "Exit Through The Gift Shop." Exit Through The Gift Shop. Banksy Film, n.d.

Web. 28 Feb. 2013.

Borghini, Stefania, Luca Massimiliano Visconti, Laurel Anderson, and John Sherry.

"Symbiotic Postures of Commercial Advertising and Street Art: Rhetoric for

Creativity." American Academy of Advertising, n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2013.

Corbertt, Rachel. "The Banksy Brand: How the Elusive Street Artist Played the Art

MarketGA_googleFillSlot("ARTINFO_USA_ARTICLE_SPONSOR");." Artinfo.

N.p., 6 Feb. 2013. Web. 22 Feb. 2013.

Guynn, Jessica February. "A Different Kind of Facebook Tag: Graffiti on Campus

Tunnel Walls." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 28 Feb. 2013. Web. 01

Mar. 2013

12

Parfitt

Hadden, Gerry. "The Church Dome Painted by Graffiti Artists." BBC News. BBC, 27

Feb. 2013. Web. 01 Mar. 2013.

Sampson, Hanna. "Business." The Miami Herald. N.p., 19 Feb. 2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.

Winton, Richard. "Reputed Latino Gang Members Indicted in Attack on Black Youths."

Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 09 Feb. 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.

13

Parfitt

Appendix A

INTERVIEW/ FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS

1) how does your experience as an original artist relate to street artists and how they

view “art”?

2) having created your own original art works, can you relate to the creativity factor

that is involved in the street art movement?

3) Do you believe that street art is a valid form of art and should be allowed and

more socially acceptable?

4) Having traveled throughout the country and around the world have you seen a

pattern of street art in more impoverished areas or graffiti in these areas?

Or in wealthier parts do you see as much graffiti or street art?

5) Can you share your feelings on the relationship between graffiti or tags and gang

related violence? Do you think that there is a correlation between the two?

6) Lastly, do you believe that street should become a socially and lawfully

acceptable form of art and should become legal? Do you think that gang related

graffiti should remain illegal or should it be considered the same as street art?

14

Parfitt 15