Street art in Manchester

STREET ART IN MANCHESTERGABRIELA SOKOL

TAGS

Tags are a form of vandalism and are classified as graffiti. Tags can be found everywhere as it is the easiest and quickest form of graffiti. Graffiti writers do it to tag the place and kind of claim the area. It is also used by gangs for the same purpose. The tags are always done with spray paint or permanent markers and make the area look worse. Those are photos of some of the tags I have seen in Northern Quarter:

GRAFFITI

Graffiti is a form of vandalism and is always done illegally and with spray paint. It is a form of communication between graffiti writers and it doesn’t send any message to the audience.

COMMISSIONED MURALS/MURALS

It is one of the commissioned murals I have seen in Northern Quarter, it is placed on the side of ‘Afflecks’ and is advertising ‘Papa’s Pizza’ restaurant. Because it has been commissioned it’s been done legally. It has been painted on garage’s door with spray paint and it presents a guy, possibly Jesus holding pizza in desert looking surrounding. I think it is very eye-catching and works well as a form of advertising the restaurant.

This commissioned mural presents an abstract image of an iceberg and people falling of it. It has been created in a huge format on the side of the building and has been signed by the artist what clearly shows it was a commissioned work. It presents nicely and makes the area look better.

This commissioned mural is a portrait painting of David Bowie and has been probably painted in memory of his great person. The mural has been commissioned by OutHouseMCR as it says on the top what means it has been done legally. The mural was probably painted with spray paint or paint. It is classified as form of street art because of its legal status and the message it’s sending across.

This mural wasn’t probably commissioned as it is not signed by the artist or a company what means it has been created illegally. It was done with spray paint and the purpose was to get a message across to the audience. It is very eye-catching with its pastel colors on a dark wall.

POSTERS

This is one an example of street art presented in a form of a poster. It is a black and white poster using images and the font from Star Wars. It is possibly trying to hint at political problems and fighting with system. I think it is an effective piece of street art as it catches attention with its simplicity and using symbols and phrases from pop-culture and gets the message across. It has been designed, printed and the stuck on the wall.

Other examples:

MOSAIC

Mosaic is the type of street art created with tiles that are stuck together so they create an image. The most famous mosaic street artwork has been done by an artist called Space Invader. His work usually presents recognizable characters from games such as Pac-Man. It is meant to relate to technology taking over the world. His work is done illegally however it can be easily removed as it is just tiles stuck onto a wall.

POLITICAL

Political type of street art relates to political matters and tries to get people to think about serious issues. This mural presents Mike Brown, a young man who got killed in America who after his death got presented as a bad person who was a part of gang in newspapers even though he was a casual college student and the fake information was given due to problems with racism. It was done with spray paint, possibly with a use of stencil. The mural has been done illegally.

STICKERS

There is a lot of examples of sticker art in Northern Quarter. Stickers are now easily available as the can be printed at home at low cost. They present variety of things, some of them have a message other are just creative designs. Stickers are an illegal form of street art and are classified as littering.

MY STICKERS

These are stickers I have designed and printed. They present an illustration of a dinosaur in different, very bright colors. I designed it using Adobe Illustrator.