Street Art and the City

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The call and response of street art and

the cityScott Burnham

Published online: 19 Mar 2010.

To cite this article:Scott Burnham (2010): The call and response of street art and the city, City:analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, 14:1-2, 137-153

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CITY, VOL. 14, NOS. 12, FEBRUARYAPRIL2010

ISSN 1360-4813 print/ISSN 1470-3629 online/10/012137-17 2010 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/13604810903528862

Scenes & Sounds

The call and response of street art and the

city

Scott Burnham

TaylorandFrancisCCIT_A_453350.sgm10.1080/13604810903528862City1360-4813 (print)/1470-3629 (online)OriginalArticle2010Taylor&Francis141000000February2010ScottBurnhamscottburnham@gmail.comThe city finds its own use for things.

William Gibson

here are few artistic genres that haveexperienced as feverish and exponen-tial a rise as street art has in recent

years. Once-rebels such as Banksy are nowpublishing coffee table books and settingsales records at Sothebys, while Brazilianduo Os Gemeos have progressed fromducking prosecution in their native So Pauloto undertaking mammoth commissions from

Londons Tate Modern.The popularity and commercialization of

street art is not news, and is in many ways awelcome development propelling the sceneforward. Yet its popularity and commercialsuccess also have a downside. With the rise inthe media and art world embrace of the form,many have taken their eyes off of the signifi-cant developments that are happening atstreet level in the scene.

As most relatively young creative disci-plines do as they settle into acceptance, streetart has begun to branch out into innovativenew directions. A particularly interestingfork is a brand of urban intervention inwhich individuals engage in a visual and attimes physical call and response with theexisting aesthetics of the urban landscape.

These interventions, at their core, aremore than a creative play between the artistand the physical city, and could be seen as anascent form of DIY urban design. Theysignal a step-change in not only the street artscene but in the relationship between the

power of the individual and the aesthetics ofthe city.

If we were to consider the dialogue ofdesign in the same way we do the linguisticdevelopment of a cultures language, then

just as street-level vernacular has innovatedand filled in the gaps of a cultures formallanguage, the street has as well developed itsown vernacular to fill the gaps in the citysformal design. This new street-level languageof designnon-commissioned, non-invitedinterventions in the urban landscapetrans-forms the fixed landscape of the city into aplatform for a design dialogue. The originaltagging and getting up graffiti, which thenmatured to the visually representative worksof the post-graffiti movement, is in transitionagain.

Gone are the days of doing a quick tagwhen no one is looking and considering thehit a success. As Leon Reid IV, aka Dariusof the famed Darius and Downey duo, sayswhen describing his approach to creating

new work in the city which plays with thecitys existing aesthetics:

If I have a certain idea floating around mymind that could work outside, I go on acitywide search to find exactly where best itwould fit, I make a couple of sketches of thearea then begin fabricating the piece. On theother hand, I occasionally stumble upon anarea so devoid of either life or humor that I

have an incredible urge to contributesomething. This is when I take pictures of thearea, study them at home then develop a piecearound what exacly is missing from the space.


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138 CITYVOL. 14, NOS. 12

I look at it like a tailor measuring client tomake the best fitting suit, or a doctorexamining a patient to prescribe the rightmedication.

For practitioners like Reid, the urban land-scape is not a canvas, but a catalyst. The citysfixed visuals, structures, objects and areas nolonger represent the end result of an urbandesign process, but the beginning.

The detritus and seemingly anonymous bitsof the city gain a second life in the hands ofthese artists as the cast-off and ignored piecesof urbanity become so much clay in theirhands. ForJim Darling, a dormant industrial

drainage pipe, cracks in the wall or discardedmattresses become characters for a largernarrative. While Switzerlands WindowZooplace decals against the transparent structuresof the city to create animated scenarios withthe background, Vinchen needs little morethan some overgrown ivy, a phone box or abus stop sign to launch new urban narratives.Gualichos oversized hands act as imaginarybridge supports and FinalFrontiers charac-

ters go fishing amidst tangled phone cables. Atree becomes a hunters anda bears hideoutfor IKKENO, and the London Undergroundmap morphs into a childs sticker set forLunartik.

Not that this new breed of artist needs anyfixed visual at all to play with. One of themore unexpected elements of the urbanephemera artists have chosen to work withrecently are the shadows cast by structures inthe city. Montreals Roadsworth favoursturning the shadows of park benches intoopen books, or traffic barriers into nighttimeperches for birds and other creatures. ForSingapores TR853-1, the landscapes cast bythe urban landscape become skate parks, ashe goes around finding challenging areas forhis small stenciled figures to skate off of.

In Mark Jenkins world, the residents ofthe city become the urban elements he workswith. Jenkins is known worldwide for what

he refers to as his embedsa series ofremarkably life-like and human figures hecreates and places strategically in urban areas

to create moments of confusion, humour orat times unease in people as they go abouttheir daily routine. A young woman appearsto be asleep on top of a disused billboardhigh in the air, creating a spectacle where aformer eyesore once stood. In another of hisworks, a pair of legs sticks puzzlingly out ofthe top of a fountain, confusing and bemus-ing passers-by.

For the famed and allusive street artistABOVE, the realities of the street haveinspired more than just visual play. Describ-ing his motivation for creating his iconicpiece Giving to the Poor, he writes on hiswebsite www.goabove.com:

Every day I walked by this spot thishomeless lady was sitting in the same placebegging for money. I found it sadly ironicthat just 6 feet to the side of her there was abank ATM machine where people werelining up to withdraw money. The obvioussocial and economic clash inspired me tomake this piece.

The piecedepicting a stencilled and hooded

figure holding up ATM customers atgunpoint and handing the cash to a seatedpoor womanwas created on the wall nextto a Lisbon ATM and then photographedand reproduced as a limited edition print,offered for sale on his website.

As ABOVE explains:

In a concept similar to Robin Hood I amtaking an active role in helping those less

fortunate. I am selling the GIVING TOTHE POOR print at an affordable costhoping to get as many people involved in thisbenevolent project as possible. 100% of ALLPROFITS will be donated to Homelessshelters.

Recently Jenkins as well moved into creatingsocial awareness from his work, creating aseries of polar bears, placing them aroundthis home city of Washington, DC

rummaging through dumpsters, begging forchange or holding an SOS sign in trafficaspart of a Greenpeace campaign to highlight


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BURNHAM: THECALLANDRESPONSEOFSTREETARTANDTHECITY 139

the impact of global warming. Yet even in thesocial awareness side of the visual play withthe existing city, the rules havent changedmuch when authority steps in.

Rather predictably, the DC police arentthe most accommodating to questionablefigures appearing mysteriously in publicareas. Before long, a bomb squad unit wascalled, their Teflon-coated units tenderlyapproaching one of the newspaper-filledbears in full bomb gear before taking it apart.For Jenkins, it was a great successhis workand the people of the city all became part ofthe same urban drama.

This genre of visual urban play represents

moments when creative expression in the citybecomes more of a design dialogue thansubversive hitchallenging the rules ofengagement between the individual and thecity while at the same time changing thelanguage of creativity in the city. What isemerging is not only a new form of urban art,but also a move towards open source urbandesign.

When thinking of the modern metropolis

at a macro level, parallels to the Internet areinescapable, and just as open source cameinto being as a logical extension of hackersactivities, the city is in the midst of its ownphase of hacking culture in the context ofurban interventions. The opportunity tolearn from it and develop with it is just asstrong.

The opportunity is present for cities tolook to the inherent creativity of urban inter-vention as a type of street-level research anddevelopment into the individuals creativityand their desires for design in the city. Itshould be noted that a great number of theworks done within this visual play with thecity are inspired by the cast-off, degradedobjects and areas of the city. The material leftto the side of the daily life of the city. It isfrom these areas of almost urban compostthat new crops of work are growing, and amodel for creative re-use of things whichmany would assume had no further role toplay in the city at all.

Following Guy Debords statement thatwhat changes our way of seeing the streets ismore important than what changes our wayof seeing painting, it is vital that contempo-rary urbanism itself pay attention to theenergy and innovation that can be found inthe streets today. Just as online and mediaculture is being transformed by remix cultureand open source approaches, the same thingis happening between the individual and the

physical city, and is being led by the latestwave of directly sited urban art. We shouldbe paying attention to this as an equallytransformative movement. Hip Hop wasborn from street-corner boom box culture,and an equally powerful form of urbancreativity may be at the end of this street artdesign journey as well.


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Mark JenkinsWeb: www.xmarkjenkinsx.com


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Mark JenkinsWeb: www.xmarkjenkinsx.com


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Jim DarlingWeb: www.jimdarling.comEmail: [email protected]


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W n owZooWeb: www.windowzoo.com


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V nc enWeb: www.vinchen.com


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Scott Burnham. Email: [email protected]

JimDarlingWeb:www.jimdarling.comEmail:[email protected]:www.windowzoo.comVinchenWeb:www.vinchen.comGualichoWeb:www.gualicho.ccFinalFrontierWeb:www.flickr.com/photos/28409041@N06/ABOVEWeb:www.goabove.comTR853-1Web:www.traseone.blogspot.comEmail:[email protected]:www.roadsworth.comIKKENOWeb:www.flickr.com/photos/ikkenoLunartikWeb:www.lunartik.comTubestickersLeonReidIVWeb:www.leonthe4th.com

VinchenWeb: www.vinchen.com


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ua c oWeb: www.gualicho.cc

FinalFrontierWeb: www.flickr.com/photos/28409041@N06/


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ABOVEWeb: www.goabove.com


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TR853-1Web: www.traseone.blogspot.comEmail: [email protected]


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TR853-1Web: www.traseone.blogspot.comEmail: [email protected]


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Roa swortWeb: www.roadsworth.com


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Roa swortWeb: www.roadsworth.com


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IKKENOWeb: www.flickr.com/photos/ikkeno

LunartikWeb: www.lunartik.comTube stickers


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Leon Re IVWeb: www.leonthe4th.com

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Street Art and the City