Street Art

A photo from The Dirt Floor which shows photos of Sabo's poster of Hilary Clinton.

So I recently did a piece on Public Art and I was asked to do a follow up on Street Art and the differences. I was struggling to find any Street Art near me or even in NYC. I think that the reason is that while I now understand that Public Art is funded by the public and Street Art is not and often anonymous,  I find it to be just what it is. Art. 

Now that being said I've noticed looking at the different types of art and everything that Street Art tends to be a little bit more edgy. This is not always the case but it seems to me that the more funded art is just a little bit more family friendly. However there are a few subway art pieces that are a bit creepy to me and if I was a kid I probably would have avoided them. But art is supposed to invoke emotion so I suppose that it was doing its job! 

One thing I came upon one day when driving around Los Angeles were these posters of Hilary being presented almost like a champion. It also was asking her to save us. Now I have a lot of mixed feelings about the posters, because while I wish that Obama could have done more in his first term, he's not doing the worst job that he could be doing. For the most part he is being hindered by those in the house and senate.

The one thing that this art did for me though was show how unhappy people continue to be with the current climate. To me Street Art shows what the people are really feeling and voices it for others to see. I remember in an episode of Queer as Folk the character Justin (who is an artist) started to put up street art in season 3 (I think!) to oppose a very anti-gay candidate Stockwell. The posters end up working and in the long run the candidate is not elected. They show the candidate for who he truly is. 

I feel like art can change the world regardless of whether it's publicly funded or not. But it seems like more and more the art with the deeper messages are the ones that are Street and really speak the voice of the people.

What do you think?

Jason