Research Point : examples of Street Art

With this research point, the aim was to identify examples of street art on walls nearby.

As we live in a commuter village which is equidistant between Leeds, York, Tadcaster and Castleford, the scope for examples of street art is somewhat limited here : we certainly have graffiti, but it’s not exactly street art and it’s mostly limited to where the kids smoke Rock n’ Roll tobacco behind the local Co op store.

York is pretty much against anything that would deface the ancient city ruins understandably and anything remotely Graffiti based there would have to be sanctioned and would be strictly controlled and it’s also likely it would be part of an art installation or similar, although I’m sure there’s a shipping container area where there are street art decorations to attract people to the eateries there.

Coming from Leeds, I know there was always a healthy graffiti scene there which took on a huge popularity with the emergence of the break dancing scene in the mid 1980’s. I recently noticed an interesting wall display near an electrical wholesalers down near the River Aire, just outside the city centre and thought this would be a good place. It turned out there were steps there I never knew existed which led to a hidden gem under a flyover..

The steps were to the left of this first example, you can see the walkway handrails just to the edge, with a bollard with tags and stickers on. I took this sequence from left to right.

I would hazard a guess and say that this space has been latched onto due to it’s vicinity in the evenings from prying eyes, but having said that the flyover is really busy so the risk of being seen by the police Is probably quite high. There’s the possibility that the artists crouch very low in order to be discreet, but I should think that would prove challenging as it takes a sweeping arm to create some of the styles. Of course there’s a possibility that the artists have been given permission and free reign as well. Either way, this looks stunning and brightens up an otherwise dull and lifeless area. It’s a shame It’s not visible from a car going over the bridge above. There was a wall opposite which had lots of faded tags daubed all over it, that looked positively scruffy at the side of this dynamic display.

Going down the steps to the river, I took these photos..

A few of the pieces going down the steps were quite high up which made me wonder if these particular street artists had been given permission : I’m not sure how they would have reached there without a ladder..

Once I was down on the river bank under the bridge, there was a dazzling array of pieces on the walls either side of the water..

On the opposite side of the river, there was a huge display of graffiti in one continuous image almost..

As there’re walls all the way along the urban stretch leading into the city centre, it looked as though they were covered to the left of here heading back to the centre. I wish I’d had more time to take a walk right down into the city and photograph more, sadly I was on a time limit here but I’ll be heading back down there to capture the rest soon enough.

Interaction with the environment

This particular selection was brilliant, there were a few old school styles mixed in there : I can see some New York influences through Wildstyle, a rather difficult text style to read but stylistically very technical and intricate, one I imagine takes some mastering and time to apply on a wall. There were tags everywhere, again somewhat hard to read sometimes. I didn’t really see any evidence of risky or heaven-spot graffiti as all the examples here were confined to vertical surfaces which were low down (large walls.) There’s an abandoned high rise office across the road however where somebody has sprayed POTEK below every window level (POTEK is an eastern European graffiti movement). There were examples of abstract and sharp which features angular and distorted lettering.

I got the impression here with this set of pieces that the wall was intentionally done to lead a pedestrian down the steps and into a larger gallery of work : it was quite cleverly conceived if so, and even though the art itself seems random with no general theme to it, each style has it’s own merits and diversity to provide a dazzling display : much better than just the grey toned dullness of an urban river bank. This contrast allows the art to pop furiously, adding welcome splashes of colour to the environment. I didn’t get the impression of a particular context to this work, perhaps with the exception of the Anonymous hacker image which made this piece feel entirely at home on an urban wall, given the anarchic imagery and subversive connotations of the group collective.

There’s a sensibility to street art which always gives me a taste of the New York City of the 1970’s, the five boroughs transit network covered in colourful tags and throw-ups, and the warriors style gangs that went with each locale. The fact that it’s considered disrespectful for one artist to paint over another’s tag brings to mind the gang warfare of NYC without the fighting, in the same way breakdancing and up rock did with rival crews (no accident that graffiti ties in with this subculture then.) Graffiti is interwoven with the same catharsis as street dancing, it’s an artistic outlet for frustrations which could otherwise be much more negative, so in my opinion there’s no way that graffiti could be considered vandalism. (the vandalism element to graffiti is when it generally isn’t executed well and it’s an eyesore at best, or at worst offensive in it’s content).

To conclude, an art form with it’s own terminology, styles and tools which have long outgrown it’s dark past of negative overtones : and one which can enrich and brighten the most dour of environments surely deserves it’s place as a unique art form.