THE GRAPHIC ART - Essay Example

? THE GRAPHIC ART One of the popular ancient forms of artistry is street art. It only exists in the form of visual art, which is developed in various public spaces (streets). This term is also flexible in its definition as it can also include traditional sculpture, graffiti artwork, sticker art, stencil graffiti, and video projection. Riggle (2012: 255) describes street art as “artworks whose use of the street is essential to their meanings.” In this, Riggle implies that street art is necessary and applicable only in streets where they display their significance to several passers-by. There are several street arts that are available in various holographs in today’s museums and other photo and pictures sources such as archives. This essay will succinctly verify or back up Riggle’s description of street art using two popular and early drawing artists; England based graffiti artist, Banksy and South African artist, Robin Rhode. The two are renowned street artists whose artworks have been posted on various websites. The essay will mainly handle the role or the necessity of street artworks, as well as their impacts to the immediate society. To begin with, Banksy did several artworks which are mainly considered street art with hidden meanings that are necessary to teach certain lessons to the society. Since he was also a painter, political activist and film director, he came up with attractive street art graffiti and inherent dark humor that was excellently done in distinctive and special inherent stenciling technique. Most of his artistic works have been featured in public areas such as walls, streets and bridges. Historically, his work was born out of artist-musician collaboration popularly referred to as Bristol underground scene. One of his street artworks was a stenciled graffiti that appeared on Thames Water tower. It was located in Holland park roundabout. The image consisted of a child clutching and doing painting work on the tag titled “Take this society”. Councilor Greg Smith (London and Fulham spokesman) considered the photo vandalistic and made an order for its instant removal from the location. The removal was carried out by the then H&F Council workmen within three consecutive days. The graffiti had a lot of significance to the then European society, in terms of its political situations. Analytically, the artwork was meant to show that Europe was under control by a particular group of its leaders who controlled every life sector in the continent beginning from economy, social lives, as well as the politics. The idea of the boy painting the tag is sarcastic in the making as he advises or informs some people in the society to take control and own the society personally. The child symbolizes the common man in Europe who is unhappy with some of totalitarian practices exhibited by the leaders in the way they govern their subjects. This is typically in line with Banksy’s political activist nature or characteristic. The second street artwork of Banksy is LDN6 which appeared in May 2006. Iit appeared at the back of something that looked like a permanent street stall for selling bags and T-shirts on the Tottenham Court road, next to its junction with the Store Street. The art photo did not stay long at the stall. It was removed by the end of June with the permission from the stall owner, Sam Khan, a sixty year old man who had no idea about Banksy and his artwork (Bull, 2011: 311). In fact, the stall owner did not have any idea about the meaning or rather the interpretation of the artwork. The photo was then sold to someone at a reported price of 1000 Euros in cash. The stall owner got annoyed when he saw the same photo being sold at a minimum price of 230,000 Euros and much better prices in New York. From the picture, it can be seen that the painter had written, “What?” in purple color on a grey wall with other non formulated black drawings and writings. Interpreted, Branky’s main reason for the work is to show what the unclear dark drawings had not clearly revealed in the grey wall (Bull, 2011: 311). From this perspective, it is arguably true that the Banksy’s intention in the picture was to show clearly some of the dark sides of the European society. The black writings represent some of the members of the society who are charged with the role of portraying or revealing the evils present in the societies. The evils or the dark side of the society is represented by the dark grey wall being written on with black paints. The black paint represents the irresponsible societal members who do not show the passion, or the urge to display to the public the evil practices of some of members or leaders of the society. Such people include the media, which may be easily bribed and swayed by corrupt and self-centered authority. The other group that is represented by the dark drawing is the working and intellectual individuals charged with the role of reducing or curbing societal evils. This group usually benefits itself by obscuring realities, therefore, covers and protects the societal enemies other than responsibly taking care of their roles as defined in their job descriptions. This is a clear show why most of the artworks were put on streets and the portrayal roles they served in societies where they were strategically placed. Another interesting and most relevant work of Banksy was the “Sperm Alarm”. It was not in public until a photo of it was published on Banksy’s website. The photo offered very few location signs but was tracked, and later identified with the Home office as well the passport service building next to Victoria Station. The photo had some overspray and drips as well as existing fire alarm. It also had a CCTV camera at its top. The photo has a fire alarm and a sperm with a starting button surrounded by several sperms. The button is red in color whereas the sperms have black colors. The fire alarm belongs to a building whose photo is also provided in the picture (Bull, 2011: 312). CCTV on the photo has a fundamental representation of the contemporary European society. It represents the judicial personalities who are charged with the role of identifying lawbreakers and imposing appropriate punishment on them. Normally, the relationship between CCTVs and alarms is that both are used for security purposes. CCTV shows what happened during an event in order to verify the truth behind the occurrence. Alarm, on the other hand, serves the role of alerting people on an emergency. For instance, alarms are turned on in case of fire breakout in a building. CCTV will have the information on the cause of the fire in case the entire building is not burnt down, that is, when the CCTV itself is not interfered with. The sperms around the alarm represent individuals who talk much about the evils in the society and do not want it ruined by the evil practices of certain and few selfish individuals. In the photo, it is evident that the CCTV is not functioning well and the sperms do take over the role to press the alarm in case of a disaster occurring in the building. In other words, the judiciary is not performing its work as required by the law. The public, symbolized by the sperms, take over the work and alert people over the mischievous and unlawful activities done by some of the public leaders. Putting such a photo on the street or anywhere accessible to the public make it looks common just like any other sign or stickers. It shows the intellectuality of Banksy and his experience as a popular artist whose intention is mainly to criticize inhuman and unlawful practices in order to make his society a better one free of corruption and other social injustices. Another artist that can be used to elaborate on the truth and factuality of Riggle’s statement is Robin Rhode, a South African Germany based street artist who has mainly majored in depicting different cultures across the world using his artworks. Most of his artworks, just like Banky’s, were placed in strategic positions accessible to many individuals. One of his main popular works that he did and has relevance to the societies included the most interesting car theft. In this production, Rhode appears like a hooded character wearing street clothes. He draws a car on the wall and later tries, by all means, to break into the car. He eventually throws stone carelessly at the drawn object. He highlights his application of signature method of making an attempt to playfully begin transforming the existing flat renderings of everyday objects into various illusory three dimensional forms through his physical manipulations and interactions. He is mainly cultural subversive and provocateur, Rhode shares certain conceptual links with artists and musicians such as Man Ray Marcel Duchamp, David Hammons, and Jean Michael Basquiat and several Russian constructive. Despite the high art associations, he still does not negate his existing strong ties to popular rappers such as Nike brand, Wu-Tang Clan, and graffiti art, as well as the popular music director, Williams (Perryer, 2004: 46). From this work, it can be deduced that Rhode’s main reason or intention in the artwork was to deliver some thematic concerns or messages to his viewers. The idea of trying to break into the car in no vain, but later throwing stone at the car symbolizes behaviors of some characters in the society who try their best to acquire certain things such as leadership but when failed, they usually try the backdoor or dubious means to land them at their desired destinations and positions within the society. In this way, he uses art as a form of literature to inform the target audience about some of the social injustices that take place in the society. His works also target to reveal his career genre as a two dimensional artist who appreciates and admires three dimensional arts. During performances, he interacts with certain popular artists listed above (Perryer, 2004: 46). His main reason for this is to show his interest and concern about the popular culture in societies where he works as an artist. His influence, on the spectators, indicates that he had what it takes to make them thrilled. This is an implication that he had the knowledge and awareness of peoples’ cultural beliefs. Culture is defined as people’s way of beliefs. Any practice, whether artistic, political, economical or social has to obey and align itself with the culture of the societies where it takes place. This gives the reason why most of Rhode’s artworks aligned themselves with various societal norms and beliefs thus gaining popularity and massive audience in different societies across the world. Rhode realizes his vision of the world surrounding him, using his art as a way of approach and reflection in it. He does this in an interdisciplinary practice that goes beyond the existing or established genre borders, as well as certain specific ways of engaging art. Rhode was also an artist who mainly involved audiences in his artwork. For instance, in Skipping Rope, he ensured interaction with many of his audiences and engaged them successfully into playing and joking with an imaginary rope. The spectators later became participants as they took part in his imaginations. Besides the above, Rhode has had several solo exhibitions and performances, some of which are featured in galleries available in various museums. His first solo exhibition was at the Perry Rubenstein Gallery, kept in the City of New York. He was also featured in New York Photography and 51st Venice Biennale at the Modern Art Museum, also in the City of New York in 2005. He had another solo show in 2008 at the White Cube Gallery and Hayward Gallery in London. He later participated in Prospect 1 in New Orleans. Rhodes had another large scale show and exhibition in Munich, at the Haus der Kunst, which was created by Rosenthal Stephanie that was accompanied by Rhode’s first monograph Walk Off (Perryer, 2004: 46). Most of Rhode’s artworks were included in the collections of several renowned international institutions. For instance, The Museum of Modern Art (MOMS) in New York City, Solomon R. Museum also in New York City, Walker Center in Minneapolis in Minnesota, and several others in the UK, South Africa, Germany and other parts of the world (Perryer, 2004: 46). It can be seen that most of the artworks that were composed by the two artists had one common feature in them; both were exposed to the public and served the role of informing, educating and creating awareness to the societies where the works were displayed or performed. The artworks were essential to the societies, especially those who had the abilities to interpret them relevantly. They were brief, precise and direct to the point to people who could understand their meanings. They are also attractive to capture attention of various audiences. Therefore, it is true that street art has a lot of essentiality when interpreted well and can transform the society into a better place. This is because the artworks mainly acted as challenges to some of the political and social fouls that many popular leaders committed. They are therefore, society friendly and very essential as stated by Riggle in his article. Work Cited Bull, M., 2011, Banksy Locations & Tours: A Collection of Graffiti Locations and Photographs from Around the Uk, Volume 2. London, UK: PM Press. Perryer, S., 2004, 10 Years 100 Artists: Art in a Democratic South Africa, Berlin: Struik. Read More