Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico has what may be called a thriving graffiti and street art scene – growing significantly over the past decade. Many local and international artists have gained recognition and support from local authorities, who have sponsored large-scale murals and other public art projects throughout the city.
With a growing middle-class thanks to the large number of international maquiladoras that have taken root, you even can see skateparks and bike parks where none existed previously. On a typical sunny weekday, you will see kids wearing helmets getting out of family SUVs to hang with friends and try new tricks – in an environment that is wholly smashed with graffiti burners and pieces. And the quality of the artwork is impressive.
The growth of the graffiti and street art scene in Chihuahua can also be attributed to the city’s strong cultural identity and history and the rich tradition of muralism and public art in Mexico dating back to the early 20th century when artists like Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros were creating large-scale murals across the country. In recent years, the city has seen a new wave of street artists and graffiti writers emerge, inspired by the legacy of these earlier artists and by global trends in urban art.
As we approach the end of International Women’s Day/Month, we share with you images from the protests that took place in Chihuahua, Mexico marking the day when women all over the world took to the streets to protest their oppressive, dangerous, unjust, and violent conditions in what could be all countries in the world.
A recent trip to Chihuahua City in Mexico regaled graffiti hunters with many amazing talents in the letter hand-styling department and several very talented local and national muralists scattered around the northern city of about one million inhabitants. It also paraded a long list of accused or convicted rapists, abusers, and those reported to be involved in sex crimes.
Remaining from a protest commemorating International Women’s Day here two years ago, these hand-sprayed names and accusations still mark the walls of abandoned buildings and even historical monuments. The graffiti appears to be aimed at raising awareness about the high levels of gender-based violence in Mexico and calling attention to the impunity that often allows perpetrators to go unpunished. The women who participated in the protest stated that they wanted to hold the perpetrators accountable for their actions and demand justice for their victims.
The fact that so many of these were sprayed is shocking to many locals, and the fact that they remain years afterward without being buffed is perhaps more impressive. These street scribes were visually yelling, demanding justice, and warning sex offenders that they would be held accountable for their actions. We took a number of shots while searching for more artful graffiti and street art, but we have to say that the emotional intensity of these writings and simple stencils here in public space was far more impactful in many ways than anything else by those creating for aesthetic purposes.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. While New York suffered a heatwave followed by tropical storms from Hurricane Elsa flying up the East Coast and flooding the subways, this week, we checked in with the evolution of a city in sunny, arid, colorful Mexico.
The aesthetics and language of street art and graffiti are so pervasive, so woven into the international culture in cities, that it hardly surprises us to see it absorbed and re-interpreted wherever we go. We like to return to places that we’ve traveled to previously; it is an opportunity to gauge the changes, the tempo, perhaps to appreciate the influence of the Internet and social media in connecting and re-sorting people based on their interests rather than geography.
In the case of the northern Mexican city of Chihuahua, we see a lively mural program, a small but fervent and well-crafted graffiti, and tattoo scene, and now even a sticker storm of sorts in specific parts of this desert home to international corporate maquiladoras and a proud sense of commitment to traditional culture and history. Topics and influences range from gender roles, machismo, Christian iconography, Japanese anime, tattoo culture, Warhol’s version of POP, empowered female sexuality, devils, angels, wildlife, drugs, economics, and subtly played political critique.
At almost a million people and with its focus on education, its primarily one- and two-story cityscape is only interrupted briefly by a historic colonial downtown, peppered with a few modern glass boxes. Chihuahua is vying for tourists and corporations to come with a redrawn city center, the historical monuments and fountains now modernized with an open and welcoming street plan. But stylistically, we like the margins, where the messages are rather less vetted…
When exploring the street art here, you’ll see international styles filtered through Mexican culture and iconography; However, in the case of OBEY aesthetics repeated on stickers, one could argue that Shepard Faireys’ original fascination with the fantasy of Andre the Giant has as much to do with the Mexican “Luchador” subculture and its films of the 1950s/60s as any subversive impulses from punk that appealed to him in his college years.
Similarly, the one-color small stencil didn’t originate with the Army or Bristol’s Banksy – it has appeared for decades throughout the decorative folk arts here, not to mention the robustly social and politically inspired Mexican mural tradition of the 20th century that is in the creative DNA of street artists worldwide. As the so-called First World de-industrialized in the last three decades, their neighbors have been equally looking for new footing. In the case of cultures like Mexico’s, there is a spirit of innovation and a respect for tradition, an amalgam that may materialize now as something more modern than you expected.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Ale Poire, Ayari Ludeas, Bideo TCK, Celest Alonso, Cesar Duarte, David Glezzg, Joker, Maker, Maru Campos, and Mittuh.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
