When surveying the current crop of street art here and in other cities around the world, we wonder where the political will has gone – the one that seemed much more confrontational and conflicted in earlier years of the modern movement. The once fiery, in-your-face spirit seems to have mellowed and become pleasant and pleasing. One theory that pops up regularly when surmising why there is a lack of conviction in street messaging, even as wars break out and the wealth gap widens everywhere you look, is that there is no such thing as anonymity as there once was. Privacy has almost completely been allowed by the citizenry to be eroded.
With a default Digital ID following your every movement and transaction, the means for someone to triangulate a particular data point are so sophisticated that if you speak out or actually challenge the status quo, you will probably be traced. Hell, any Twitter storm can produce an army of motivated detective volunteers to doxx someone who has offended social media “norms,” and we use that term loosely.
Your 13-year-old nephew Lucas can easily unearth someone’s personal details without breaking a sweat, and he doesn’t even have a laptop. 20 years ago, a graffiti or street artist could assume some modicum of anonymity, but in practice, the current crop uses the streets as a marketing extension of their Instagram account, an expression of their online personas, studiously and clearly spraying @ tags and websites on their street pieces to make sure you can find them.
So if you are pissed off at the system, you probably think twice before you put it on the streets these days unless it is a screed sprayed with a fire extinguisher that is largely untraceable – or something like that. In the case of whoever sprayed “Rishi Sunak is a Rat-Faced C*nt” on a wall, you may even inspire a punk ditty.* For many right now, activism is not even the point.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring David Puck, Shok1, Epic Uno, Par, Kitsune Jolene, Smug One, Trasher, V. Ballentine, Inker, P.T., King57, FUP One, and Cope Doz.
And welcome to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where history and modernity converge in its mural narratives and lively streets, telling stories of resilience, an evolving culture, and a pensive optimism. As street art observers, our journey through Belfast’s neighborhoods has been eye-opening. The murals here are not just art; they reflect the city’s tumultuous past, vibrant present, and hopeful future. Belfast’s predominantly Victorian architecture is a testament to the city’s industrious heritage, particularly its shipbuilding legacy linked to the RMS Titanic. Still, some of the kids are rocking new attitudes, and a sizeable multi-disciplinary artist community is making new spaces for exploration.
The punk movement, which provided a rebellious soundtrack during the Troubles, has left a lasting mark on the city’s sonic legacy. Today, local musicians, DJs, and electronic artists draw inspiration from traditional instrumentation and this era of lucid experimentation, performing live in clubs and bars. There is an unmistakable convivial, welcoming atmosphere in Belfast’s pubs and a raucous laughter that shakes your ribs in many a cluster of revelers out for the night. We also noticed a gentle generosity – from its bakeries and cheesemongers to checkout clerks and museum provosts and park bench poets.
For an old shipbuilding city wracked by civil strife, this feels like a young city, eager to move forward while honoring the sacrifices made during the Troubles. Some of the murals here encapsulate perhaps a different spirit, blending poignant tributes, more muted political statements, and a willful optimism amidst the general confusion that is now plaguing most of the Western world.
So here’s this week’s interview with the street, featuring ROA, Conor Harrington, BustArt, MTO, Asbestos, Dan Kitchener, Kitsune Jolene, Aches, Evoke, KFIVEMFU, Studio Giftig, and Annatomix.
You might not expect it, but the Belfast Cathedral Quarter was quite a mad rush of activity on Sunday morning. We heard “Ave Maria” played on church bells through the fog out the hotel window, raucously accompanied by the squawks, screeches, and cries of seagulls nesting on the roof next door. Next, we heard and saw the boisterous fans of the 26.2-mile May Day Marathon who were piled 2 deep and hollering and clapping from the sidewalk as several thousand damp runners flew by with numbered banners on their chests. We signaled our support for the athletes by lifting breakfast forks full of fried eggs, boiled tomatoes, potato bread, bacon, and black pudding as we watched through the gauzy curtains of the hotel lobby.
But you are here for the “Hit the North” festival, now in its 12th year, only a few blocks from the cathedral. With the Sunflower bar at the intersection of Union Street and Kent Street, you have reached the epicenter where long wooden tables are set up in the middle of the street for visitors to have refreshments, and 50-60 artists are lining up to paint side by side up and down the block. The smell of aerosol thickens through the streets. The Seedhead Arts team—Adam, Eoin, Zippy, Rory, and a few others—are all arriving with boxes of paint supplies, t-shirts, ladders, and maps for the stream of visitors who are gathering to watch, have a beer, take selfies, and possibly talk with artists as they create.
With Seedhead, the aim is to provide platforms for artists and performers to showcase their talents while fostering connections between artists and audiences. They often collaborate with local venues, artists, and cultural organizations to create dynamic and engaging events that contribute to Belfast’s street art/public art scene.
One such example of the evolution of community art festivals was the presence of the rest of the family for Northern Irish painter and print-maker Sara Majury, who has only recently begun to translate her art to the street, having taken a course on how to do so. Her small family, with whom she traveled this morning from a rural part of the country called County Down, sat on the sidewalk across the street, watching curious visitors walk past them while she prepared her wall. Her husband Johnny spoke briefly to us while their kids Rory and Freya enjoyed a snack and knocked over their flasks of water a couple of times. While mom was testing paint cans and sifting through the bag of stencils to layer on the wall, Johnny, a leather costume designer for shows like “Game of Thrones,” tells us that the children will stay still for a few more minutes because they were promised food. A moment later, he produces small sandwiches and chips for them before describing the further entertainment he plans to offer – to take them to see the Festival of Fools performances at a location just two blocks away.
We had some other great conversations with artists and visitors here this afternoon but we’ll bring you more later. For now, here we bring you scenes of some works in progress at “Hit the North.” These walls will be completed by six pm if the weather stays dry. Then, off to the bar for some curry and a glass of beer to celebrate with the artists, many of whom have traveled a great distance, for a job well done at this year’s “Hit the North.” To summarize a sentiment that we’ve heard here a few times from organizer Adam Turkington; the artists, visitors, and advertisers all leave, but in the end, it is the art that remains here on the street.
From environmental nightmares to the corporate war machine to social solidarity to identity politics to abortion to the isolation brought on by Covid, the muralists at the MEMUR Festival in Oldenburg, Germany are not muting their serious concerns about the modern world.
For being the inaugural episode of a festival, you have to be impressed with it on many levels. First is the selection high-quality international and national artists from both the street art and graffiti world. Secondly, organizers devised an equitable solution for these two distinct, yet entirely related, subcultures to participate fully on the walls of their fair city – with respect for all. Finally, the true rebellious spirit of this organically grown and democratic global people’s art movement was preserved by encouraging artists to select a modern-day societal ill and address it with their work.
It’s refreshing to experience a themed public exhibition like this that has not been censored by commercial interests but that endeavors to speak openly with its artworks about potentially difficult subjects to address the everyday passerby. “Street art has always been a means to criticize, reflect, and question,” says an online description of the scenes’ nascent beginnings, and that couldn’t be more true from our perspective. MEMUR 2022 calls it ‘Evolution of a Revolution,’ and since there is a widespread notion across developed world countries that leaders are not representing citizens anymore, you can imagine that these works may get people talking together and realizing that we are not polarized left-right, but top-bottom.
Today we’ll show you images from the street art muralists’ walls on one side of the 280-meter-long wall of the railway elevation on the Oldenburg federal railway path, and tomorrow we’ll show you the ‘Wall of Fame’ created on the other side by a stunning array of graffiti writers. In both cases, we extend our heartfelt thanks to two of the main participants in the event, photographers Martha Cooper of New York and hometown superstar/international photographer Nikka Kramer. Thanks to both for sharing their images with BSA readers.
Bulgarian muralists Arsek & Erase may have chosen one of the hottest current topics to address in their mural; the fear of hyperinflation and the severe damage it can do to individuals. The illustration-style painting features a vicious snake enveloping a jar of “savings”, preparing to consume it whole. Here in Oldenburg, where German inflation rose to its highest level in almost 50 years in August (8.8%), people are familiar with the topic. In their hometown of Sofia, Aresek & Erase are experiencing a 17% rate of inflation as of last month. Technically the term “hyperinflation” is somewhere above 50%, and 60 or so countries have fallen into it in the last hundred years, including Argentina today, and rather famously, the Weimar Republic (of which Oldenburg was a federated state) exactly 100 years ago, from 1921-23.
Suffice it to say that today many of the world’s currencies are in danger of inflationary pressures, including the dollar and Euro. There was talk amongst participants and organizers of MEMUR that the costs of the festival itself had to be recalibrated a few times because of increased costs in lodging, transportation, labor, and art materials.
“Thanks to everyone who came despite the heat to watch the artists paint, participate in the graffiti workshops and try their luck at the raffle,” said the organizers in their Instagram posting.
“All the positive feedback on the festival and the exhibition “Evolution of a Revolution” in the Kulturhalle am Pferdemarkt has only strengthened our belief that Oldenburg is ready for street art and that we definitely want to continue!’
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
