Street Art: The Writing on the Wall

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Graffiti and signature tags are only a small part of the evolving set of urban street art forms. Though still a subject of controversy, street artists are slowly gaining acceptance — causing (some) cities to reexamine what art is acceptable and where.

A handful of years ago, my wife and I bought our first home in a Greater Cincinnati neighborhood that one wouldn’t be incorrect describing as “the ghetto.” The house was small, the neighbors suspect, but we were elated homeowners. How a defining characteristic of our new mailing address eluded us until ink on the last form had dried and keys rested in our palms is still a mystery to me.

Not one block from our property, a curving train track sliced through our decrepit burg, sending up a thunderous cacophony of screeching metal and shaking the foundation of our little house. Drive times were highly unpredictable — a 10-minute dash to the store could easily be sidelined by a crawling locomotive. We’d curse in vain as hulking cars crept past our parked car.

Then we began paying attention to the rolling tanks — in addition to the cryptic codes and identifiers officially applied to the black and green exteriors, adornments of various colors and size began to draw our eyes. It was graffiti, of course, and we soon came to consider ourselves amateur art critics as we watched spraycan compositions roll by on temporary, makeshift canvases.

“ Check that out,” I’d comment.

“ That’s a good one,” she’d reply.

Graffiti is ubiquitous in the world around us, such a common sight that, for many of us, it blends into the urban landscape of modern America. For all the brash, colorful clamour of a graffiti-covered wall, it’s easily glanced and summarily dismissed as visual pollution, just another sign of urban decay.

While graffiti won’t likely cease plaguing city managers intent on maintaining population numbers and attracting new businesses, many people never before interested in the aesthetics of spray paint on a brick wall are now taking the time to give a tagged wall a second glance. “That’s a good one,” they might even say.

This heightened interest in the left-of-legal art form is due in large part to last year’s award-winning and Academy Award-nominated documentary, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” an enthralling look at a form of graffiti known as “street art” (street art is more about publicly disseminating an artist’s ideas, rather than promoting the alias of the artist). Featuring celebrity artists Shephard Fairey and the film’s director, the mysterious (and very anonymous) Banksy, the documentary offered viewers a new perspective on artwork that exists not within the walls of traditional galleries, but outside and on walls.

While our town isn’t exactly New York City or Los Angeles, two hubs for street-level art, Akron has plenty of temporary treasures for observers seeking alternative aesthetic experiences. Lack of metropolitan excitement is, in fact, a contributing factor in Akron’s emerging graffiti scene.

“ For all the lack of ‘vibrant active night life’ associated with more urban centers, there’s a lot of free time here,” says Arise, an area artist who has produced graffiti in and around Akron. “Creative people will always find a creative way to occupy their time. Additionally, all the industry brings freight trains, and all the abandoned industry turns into more accessible locations to paint. It’s a very conducive habitat for graffiti, and the area has a surprising amount of history.”

For the uninitiated, the illicit nature of graffiti and street art might take Akron’s tagged under- and overpasses as a sign of further nefarious activity — a growing population of outlaws lurking under cover of night, hellbent on snatching purses from little old ladies and defacing personal property willy-nilly. The truth, however, is that graffiti’s appeal spreads far wider than any supposed criminal underbelly.

“ If asked 10 years ago, I would be able to pinpoint the ‘graffiti type,’ ” says an Akron artist who identifies himself by the handle BEERS. “Nowadays, with the Internet, it could be any and everyone. I’ve seen older writers in their 40s go walk their dog at night and get a few tags. You see kids still in school sneak out of their parents’ house and spend the whole night painting. Successful business types, general labor/ trade worker types, college students, artist types — no joke, in this day and age, it could be anyone.”

Losing sleep, evading authorities, scaling structures to dangerous heights, eluding violent aggressors — outside of occasional daydreams of comic book vigilanteism, the majority of us would go to great lengths to avoid even one of these challenges. For graffiti artists, however, danger is big part of “writing’s” appeal.

“ I’ve got chased, caught, got away, close calls, fights, met some of the most interesting people, and made some of the best friends I have from doing graffiti,” says BEERS, adding that his years as a graffiti artist have presented some unexpected opportunities as well. “I’ve taught graffiti to little kids at the library, I’ve done community service, paid fines, got paid, got laid, all because of graffiti. To me, it’s much more than the act of painting something. It’s a mind set, a way of life.”

Arise echoes the notion that writing presents an attractive lifestyle, citing travel as one incentive keeping him interested after almost a decade.

“ I’ve been more random places and met more weirdos, just to write my name on stuff,” he says. “It’s weird to think of compulsive scribbling as a lifestyle, but if you’re willing to call it that, the lifestyle leads to more experiences every day than what most people will experience their whole lives. The closest thing I could compare it to would be to be in a nationally touring band, but with no monetary incentive — and playing concerts isn’t illegal.”

“Exit Through the Gift Shop” offered filmgoers a glimpse at a few big-name street artists making inroads into the traditional art world with hugely successful gallery shows. One wonders, if the next Banksy were scribbling his or her name on an Akron wall right now, what level of acceptance would the local art world extend?

“ I’m strongly in favor of the movement of street artists into the art world because the work will get wider circulation and be preserved as time passes,” says Dr. Mitchell Kahan, director and CEO of the Akron Art Museum. Kahan urges artists to bring their work indoors, as he feels the illegality of graffiti supercedes any aesthetic appeal the art form holds. “The careers of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, from bad boys to art stars, suggests there’s plenty of room for the street aesthetic to move into galleries. The art world is a form of capitalism that turns just about all visual expression into a commodity.”

“ Graffiti’s acceptance in gallery spaces — that’s not nearly as prevalent as the acceptance of street art,” says Arise, who concedes that overlap between the two realms makes it easy for many artists to exist under both umbrella terms.

While both Arise and BEERS work exclusively in graffiti, they’re both acquainted with artists who’ve found success as street artists. In fact, both met Shepard Fairey at the artist’s 2002 show at Cleveland’s 1300 Club and speak highly of him.

“ Street art often ‘flips’ established cultural imagery, so it’s very accessible to the average viewer,” says Arise, acknowledging street art’s current popularity in the art world. “Pretend you’re a curator in the ‘traditional art world.’ Are you going to hang a show of my series of life-size nude self-portraits that ain’t no one want to see never, or some clever one-liner of a dude throwing flowers instead of Molotov cocktail, so people giggle and then buy a print of it? Likewise, if you’re an artist, spraypainting some found objects is a very quick and attractive style to work in, with a lot higher ceilings financially, than trying to sell 10-foot-wide, oil-painted history paintings in a coffee shop. So while I’m not on that hustle at all, I do indeed know people that are pursuing those dollars. And you can’t blame them.”

After you’ve digested as much Akron graffiti as you can track down, head south to Canton for a look at some street art of a different stripe. A great place to start is Rust Belt, an art space on 4th St. NE, which features a fully-painted wall by local artist Steve Ehret. Ehret’s wall piece was unsanctioned and unapproved, painted one summer under the notion that it’s “easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission,” but it drew praise rather than ire from the city.

“ Surprisingly, I didn’t get in trouble for it,” says Ehret. “People were actually somewhat excited about it.”

Canton’s acceptance of public art holds hope for some, including a nameless Canton street artist who asked to remain anonymous.

“ I think giving people something different to look at on their way to or from work is amazing. The culture has been growing for a long time, and people are only getting more talented as the years go by,” he says, adding that public acceptance often hinges on the nature of the work. “It depends very much on what the city or town has seen as far as ‘graffiti.’ If it’s been mostly positive, then I would understand that the town officials might be a little more accepting of the work.

“ I think street art and graffiti can be very positive as long as there’s some level of respect. It’s hard to define respect, though, when what you’re doing is illegal. I think a lot of people are now accepting graffiti as a legit art form, as it should be. It’s expression, no matter how you put it.”

Graffiti vs . Street Art: What’s the Difference?

Why is Banksy called a “street artist” instead of a “graffiti writer?”

“Graffiti,” as the term is used by those who write it, is the application of one’s alias to the surface of a publicly-displayed piece of property, usually using spraypaint or markers. The goal of graffiti, whether a full wall piece or a quick Sharpie tag, is personal promotion of the writer’s alias, a notion stemming from New York subway culture that accompanied the dawn of hip hop.

“Street art” differs from this popular understanding of graffiti in that it’s less concerned with self-promotion than it is with publicly disseminating an artist’s ideas. Street artists essentially treat public areas as both canvas and gallery. Street artists will often use spray paint and markers, but they may also involve stencils, wheat paste posters and precreated signage.

So Banksy is a street artist because his (her? their?) primary goal isn’t to write “Banksy” on every surface possible but, rather, to create concept-driven pieces of art on every possible surface.

Of course, if caught, Banksy’s “street artist” tag won’t save him from vandalism charges.