The Word in the Street
The Fight Continues poster from the Paris
streets of 1968 and Banksy’s policemen in Brighton, 2005
(Poplar Prints. Chris Sterne)
Like advertising, billboard street art is seen by everyone. Loyalist
and Republican murals produced in Northern Ireland since the mid
1800s have now developed into a mature art form – while delivering
a powerful, even intimidating, message.
In May 1968, posters were produced by art students and striking
workers occupying Paris’s Ecole des Beaux Arts. The screen prints
pasted up in the streets had slogans like ‘Under the Paving Stones,
the Beach!’ and ‘Demand the Impossible’, focusing the feelings
of young and disaffected people around the world. Millions in
France went on strike against de Gaul’s government and, among
other things, the Vietnam War, global capitalism, racism and authoritarianism.
‘It is not art, it is a crime’, said San Bernardino police sergeant
Dwight Waldo recently of graffiti in the US. Graffiti with something
to say usually just says it – in huge letters – often on flyovers
and bridges. Graffiti artists say that highly visible bridges
can be safely sprayed, unseen by passing police. They don’t notice
because the peak on their caps stops them looking up!
Bristol-born artist, Banksy, is famous for his subversive stenciled
works. They appear overnight in British cities. Brighton now boasts
a life-sized image of kissing policemen. He designed the cover
of Blur’s album Think Tank. But he is best known as the
urban graffiti artist – even though no one really knows who he
is. He never appears on camera, adding to his mystique, of course,
but crucially, keeping him out of court!
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