PBA | Brooklyn Street Art

BSA Film Friday: 10.31.14

October 31, 2014 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :

1. “A Tale of Two Murals” Atlanta on PBS

BSA Special Feature: A Tale of Two Murals

Today we take you to the hot swampy south of the US to see two murals destroyed by Atlanta neighbors who are offended by the sight of bare breasts and surrealistic serpents.

PBS and PBA do an excellent job laying out the painful odyssey of organizers and volunteers at the Living Walls festival as they find themselves caught in the triangulation of “public art”, where great creative ideas go to die.

In a way, these events are all part of the conversations on the streets that we see daily in the Street Art world, minus the paperwork and hearings. Every Street Artist knows the stuff they put up may last a day, a week, or a year before it degrades naturally or by the hand of another.

But it is a special kind of torment that is activated by grandstanders and showboaters who wouldn’t otherwise take any interest in cultural edification of any kind – suddenly taking intense offense by the imagination of artists. Their outrage seems misplaced, to say the least.

As an addendum to this PBS piece, we’re told by Trevor Keller, the director of the documentary, that these murals are back in the news this week. “The public art ordinance that is debated at the end of the documentary is now back and being moved through Atlanta City Council,” he says, “re-igniting the public art/community/government debate.”