Street Art

Liam Heeley

The History Of Street Art And Why It Started

• ‘Street Art’ is considered art outside of the traditional art venues, the expression blew up in the 1980’s when graffiti became a lot more accepted and used in society. New York city is the main location for street art as it expanded with the expansion of the hip-hop movement. Street art has been around since the 1970’s, it mainly started from small pieces of street art being noticed in the subways and streets of New York City. Street art started with stencils and simple spray painting on empty space, but now it has evolved to artists physically making something and street installations.

Defining Street Art• The definition of street art is the act of creating some sort of art in a public area,

not in a gallery. If a designer designs something for a gallery they have made it specifically for that gallery in a way they have been instructed to do so, but street art is the way a designer designs something completely random and unique, which also follows the theme of the artist. For example this artist called Space Invader, who makes the space invader character more significant in the art world by dotting his unique work around the world, using the same design. If I compare this designer to Van Gogh, you will be able to see how they are very different, Van Gogh’s pieces are also very well known in the art world and also sell for a lot of money, but Space Invader isn't about the money, it is about making his work more widely known around the world and for people to know it is his work when they see it. He has even put some of his work on the side of The Great Wall Of China, which isn't something many other artists would do. A lot of street art is actually illegal, with Banksy being one of the biggest street art artists, his work isn't actually legal and this is what makes his work so significant.

What Has It Been Influenced By?• Street art has many different artists involved in in industry, so

therefore this means each different artist is influenced by different people, which is good because it allows the industry to expand worldwide. The industry is already being noticed worldwide as Space Invader has some of his work in china, situated on The Great Wall Of China. Artists could be influenced by many things, one of the main factors being other artists work, this is a big factor as in The Northern Quarter in Manchester, work is dotted about all over free space of the buildings. Another Influence is past experiences, artists are influenced by past experiences because they can tell a story in their art work about their life, this is like the music industry.

What Relationships Does It Have To Other Art Forms?

• Street art uses graffiti, stencils and other physical materials. This therefore means to create street art, other factors of art must be used, like drawing and graphically designing on the computer for example, this will be used when designing stickers, like Shepard Fairey for example. Street art also uses real life objects to create the art, for example Banksy organized an art exhibition for his art work and he painted a real elephant and brought it into the exhibition! So this shows how street art isn't just about graffiti, its all about using public space to show off artists unique work.

What Impact Has Street Art Had On Society And Art?

• Although many people are against graffiti, there are also people who admire the work of others. Art has massively expanded since the street art industry blew up in the 80’s,many other people have been influenced and started to create their own unique art, which therefore means there are many more artists in the industry from 30 years ago. Most street art artists create art work for their own satisfaction, but then down the line, they blow up and people start admiring their work, which therefore makes a lot of small artists successful in the art world.

How Has Technology Had An Impact eg The Design And Printing Process?

• Technology has had a massive impact on the street art industry in many ways. One artist that has been using technology to create his work is Shepard Fairey, he uses designs and puts them onto stickers, which therefore allows him to show off his work all over cities, from putting them on lampposts, to placing them onto the sides on if buildings. Without technology, Fairey wouldn’t have been able to get the work he designed on the computer, onto a sticker, so therefore technology opened a massive door for him to do something completely different with his work and that allowed potential fans to notice his work.

What Art / Design Movement Is It Part Of?

• Street Art is its own category for art, with lots of sub-categories like graffiti, stencils or stickers for example. It has had a massive impact in society and on the art industry, so therefore has been able to expand to have more sub categories. In terms of design, street art has been able to do much more than it was able to do 30 years ago, with lots of new technology being created. There are also many other categories of art like fine art and sculptures, which could also come under street art, but overall street art is its own category. In the 21’st century, street art blew up because of the modern day styles that artists produced, the pieces of art where also displayed in galleries and were auctioned at Christies.

What Is The Wider Cultural Context?

• Shepard Fairey has created some significant pieces of art, one of the most known pieces are the ones where he sued Obama’s face and wrote a simple word ‘HOPE’ or ‘PEACE”, he also used many other words to put across a strong message. Fairey designs a lot of work that links to modern day society and situations, he has done work on the Syrian War to make people aware and make them realize the consequences. Certain artists have had many experiences, which influences them to design the work they do, this allows the work to have strong meaning and for it to be very significant in the art industry.

How Is It Used; Created Around The World And In Other Cultures?

• Street art is used worldwide, artists travel around the world just to display their work so their audience expands. Different cultures use street art by designing work that represents their own culture and religion, for example different cultures have different symbols that mean a lot to them, so therefore one culture might design graffiti using their symbol and another culture will use a different symbol. Street art is a piece of art that is used worldwide by many different types of artists, who have all different styles of work. Street art originated in the 70’s from New York City, as lots of artists displayed their work in the subways of the city.