Banksy behind perspex: Disconnection through preservation
In the middle of the postmodernist movement, street art has introduced itself to the world as a newcomer to the art scene. Its origin and evolution define it as an art form fully integrated into the space around it, a contextual art to which experience is more important than looks. Despite all art movements developing in cities, street art is, in my opinion, the only one in constant conversation with the urban environment, urban life, and the material and symbolic movement of the city.
Capturing the wild
Floating in the entanglement between the temporal nature of the work and the permanence of the space containing it, influenced by context, shaped by the technique and restricted by location, street art has also developed as a result of the exhibition, distribution, and worldwide communication enabled by the internet. Its life as an aesthetic form of expression has been in constant fluctuation between the material structure of the city and the internet of things since the early 2000s. This variation has allowed it to become a primary form of communication as the ephemeral nature conveys its message in ways which previous generations have struggled to do.
Two weeks ago the largest exhibitions in the UK of the work of American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat had opened at the Barbican Centre. However, and this is what got me thinking about the topic, what caught my attention, was the Banksy stencil which appeared on the corner of Beech Street and Golden Lane on Tuesday and the perspex (acrylic glass) cover installed in front of it by Thursday for preservation purposes.
'Should street art be preserved?'
Interesting enough, Banksy created his stencil in an area of London, Barbican grade II listed building, famous for efficiently removing any markings from their walls.
Therefore the perspex installation seemed to me, and I believe that it applies to all street art, as an attempt to create an artistic zoo. By taking something which is beautiful in the wild and placing it behind bars, or behind perspex, does not mean we are preserving its beauty, merely its physical manifestation. Only because we like to see a deer in the wild does not mean we will enjoy seeing its head hanging on the wall. Therefore, the question arises, should street art be preserved?
Brief history
The initial moments of street art came in the 1920s. It wasn't until the 1970s and 80s when different groups of artists emerged, with world renown players such as Blek le Rat, Barry McGee, Shepard Fairey, Ron English, Banksy, WK Interact, José Parlá, Swoon and others coming into focus during the 1990s.
In the early 2000s, along with the progress in technology and self-publishing techniques, more artists decided to push caution to the side and use the city as their canvas to draw attention to political, social or legal issues while sharing their art with everyone, for free. The combination of uncertain circumstances, the illegality of the act and ephemeral nature of the work, allowed the focus to be on the act itself. In this manner, the action becomes the message, and the result stands merely as a record of the act, a reminder that some ideas are worth spreading despite the risk.
From nuisance to acceptance
Street art has been regarded for much of its life as an illegal act. Seen as the illegitimate child of modern art, categorised as vandalism and defined by law as ‘any inscription, marking, writing, painting or drawing, illicitly scratched, scribbled, drawn, cut, carved, posted, pasted sprayed or painted on any surface’. People caught performing the activities described above without the permission of the 'canvas' owner are arrested, charged and if found guilty, in the UK under the Criminal Damage Act of 1971, The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 or Public Order Act of 1986, can be fined, imprisoned or both.
'It’s now a digestible, illustrative, welcoming form of art ...' - Ziegler
Despite all of this, in the past ten years, street art has developed a market of its own with big names of the urban art world moving to galleries and being commissioned by private clients for work at different levels. In Britain, the street art world has transitioned into euphoria with local councils designating urban spaces where artists can produce their graphics without the threat of prosecution. The Leake Street arches under Waterloo Station and the extended surfaces in Brick Lane have become organic, ever-changing spaces where art is created, shared and enjoyed by people of all ages and backgrounds, from schoolchildren to TV stars.
The acceptance of street art by the general public has grown so much that Pure Evil mentioned in an interview from 2014 that '[...] stencilling during daylight in any city across the globe and you're pretty much guaranteed that someone will come up to you and ask if you're Banksy.'
Although there is a level of acceptance from the wider public, the established art world is still unsure about the new kid on the block, now a full grown adult. However, Moniker's director Tina Ziegler remarked in an interview with Financial Times that “[street art] It’s now a digestible, illustrative, welcoming form of art for a generation that is politically switched-on, obsessed with its current culture and looking for a voice.” Moniker is a fair dedicated to street art, which will open its eighth edition in London this month. The event is an opportunity for artists to share their gallery pieces with art enthusiasts. I would like to emphasise the words 'gallery pieces'.
What it is and what it represents
In the documentary Saving Banksy, Ben Eine, a typography street artist based in London, mentions that many artists now have work created for the gallery and work designed for the urban experience. The pieces which are on display out in the open, in public spaces, are there for everyone to enjoy, Eine mentions. They are not for sale but for sharing and to deliver a message, inspire an idea or improve the look of the urban environment. Regardless of their purpose, the act of creating them on the street is also the acceptance of their demise with time, their irrelevance in a few days, months or years. The artist creates the art with that attitude in mind.
By addressing current topics through the art created, street artists have their focus set on the present. The moment which it captures is a passing one, and its legacy is the 'monument' that refers to that time. As the urban environment evolves, so does the canvas onto which the artist projects the message. Street art is a form of manifestation, not a style, and not defined by one. The emergence of such a movement is something that can be seen in architecture as well. A pluralism determined by technological progress, political and economic factors is something which we are slowly growing to accept.
'When you go to a museum you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires.' - Banksy
Work by a 1970s street artist preserved in a gallery with a white square next to it containing a 200-word description will not be able to convey the full message or express the movement to which the artist was responding. The same theory can be applied to any art, be it the renaissance, baroque or modern. However, those pieces were created with the intent of being displayed by private individuals or public institutions in a particular manner. They were trophies for their owners, while street art was intended for the contextual experience, for as long as the environment allows it.
Back to our Banksy
The internet transformed the world of street art in more ways than one, the most important being its preservation, not in physical but digital form. In the urban spaces, the digital is becoming the norm with technology assisting us at every step of the way. The digital is what allows street art to reach millions without ever leaving its place. The creation of such pieces out in the open, in response to an ephemeral moment, can be captured, shared, while allowing the artwork to evolve as it is their disappearance which makes them interesting. What we decide to save is what is valuable in culture and articulating our value in this technology-driven world might be what street art can help us do.
'Its nature is to engage, only for a moment, while it is relevant'
It is a privilege, and a curse being at the forefront of a new movement. It takes time for others to form an understanding of how it works, what is good and what is bad, where does the skill lie. In the case of street art to define it would mean to ruin its ephemeral nature. Its character does not lay in the same measuring scale as established art forms. In my opinion, street art dislodges itself from the simplistic norms of 'good or bad'. Its purpose is to engage, only for a moment, while it is relevant, and afterwards to allow its future to be determined by the environment around it.
Street art chooses its place in our urban environments, and the artist agrees to have their work worked over. Covering it with a sheet of perspex only mutes its connection with the audience.
Just like seeing an elephant in the wild, we do not judge its beauty based on other elephants or consider it good looking or not. We appreciate the moment while it is there, as tomorrow he might not be in the same place.
