Power Of Street Art

Most of the time when we encounter art and are transported by it to other worlds, we are in a location in which we expect this to happen. However, this is not the case with graffiti [and street] art. For it appears suddenly and in unexpected places. Thus, when we apprehend it, we are transported to these other worlds at a time and in a place that we are not accustomed to doing so.

The accessibility of the art form contributes to its power, as stated by Banksy, “graffiti [that] ultimately wins out because it becomes part of your city, it's a tool. A wall is a very big weapon,” he says, “It’s one of the nastiest things you can hit someone with.” It has become a method of communication and it has the ability to link people regardless of colour,

As street art blows life into the walls, a community dialogue is sparked as people begin to ask questions. Spectators, now forced to reflect on what it is they see, become aware of the presence and viewpoint, of an active underground resistance movement. Street art, in direct opposition to commercial advertising, seeks to neutralize the themes and “ideological discourse of the streets” (Chaffee 19). The art form acts as a “framing device” for its communities around the world, as a “parallel voice of the city, and as a modern primitive art” that can be found all around for those who wish to look (Lewisohn 30). One must assume that street art is an effective means of communication; if it were not, the general response to eliminate the art form, specifically from those is power would not be so great. From its beginning, modern day unsanctioned art was a reflection of the turbulent political situations of the place. Street artists are important not only in the number of people their work reaches, but also the number of artists inspired to start work of their own. Jeffrey Deitch, a modern and contemporary art dealer, states that street art has “become the most influential cultural innovation of the past thirty years”. Street art and graffiti will always retain a sense of authority that will forever be “relevant in terms of representing the outside, non-edited view” because the artist’s work is presented directly to the viewer with no curator in between to command what is good and what is not. The communicative power of street art lies in the fact that there is just one person to guide, just the artist, directly initiating a dialogue with the viewer. It is the mixture of “social activism, social outrage, and creativity” that enables the art form to deliver a strong message in the most “beautiful [of] public gestures”