Dave did an exhibition in Milano in 2006 and the small "Bein" upside down in the centre of the picture is part of my collection.
Here attached I report a recent post of Dave on his Fotolog.
Conversations with Street Art
I started painting in the street 10 years ago, and so I am often called a “street artist”. Personally I don’t like this label, as it calls something “art” which, more often than not, is more a form of advertising. But this is a discussion for another day.
As I am often referred to as this thing, a “street artist”, I tend to think a lot about this movement, or art form, this activity.
For me, painting in the street is a conversation with the world. A conversation with the street, the environment, the people around. My neighbourhood and my neighbours.
What is important here is what I consider a conversation. A conversation is not two or more people talking. That is just noise. And in a street art context, noise would be many people all sticking up their character, writing their tag, or spraying their stencil everywhere. The streets, especially here in Berlin, are incredibly noisy with imagery of this kind. It is like walking the streets of a densely populated third world country, with every street trader and beggar and hustler shouting and jostling you for attention. They are not trying to engage you in conversation, tell you a story, give you ideas and thoughts to chew over and contemplate. No, they just want attention, and in the case of the people rather than the ‘art”, they want your money.
A conversation is something different, and also something difficult. A conversation should work like this: one person says something. The other person (or people) listen to what the first person says, they digest and contemplate the words, then respond. The first speaker listens to the response, thinks about it, then replies, and so on. That is a conversation. A conversation is not one person speaking while the other thinks about what they want to say. That is just people talking. Me me me. Noise.
At present, street art mostly seems to be communicating in these ways:
1. People putting up the same image over and over.
This is not a conversation; it is akin to the crazy man, standing on the corner repeating the same things over and over to himself. People rarely listen past hearing enough to figure out they’re not interested, and almost never engage with what he says.
2. People putting up work without any respect to the wall or structure it is applied to, or the neighbourhood it exists in.
If we look at this in the form of a conversation, it’s like walking up to a stranger and just talking at them, whether they want to hear or not. And often it’s like talking about subjects the person doesn’t want to hear. Would you go up to an old woman in the street and start telling her about some disturbing sexual practise, your drug habit, or gangsta rap lyrics?
3. People putting work over existing pieces.
This is like talking over another person. It shows a lack of respect for others ideas and points of view, and also shows that the speaker is close-minded and not interested in hearing new concepts, new positions, new theories. In a conversation, everyone gets to speak and everyone gets heard. It’s ok to disagree with another persons view, but all should be allowed to speak, and there are plenty of walls in our cities to speak through.
4. People making really huge pieces.
Like being shouted at. Occasionally it happens, tempers fray and voices are raised, but imagine being shouted at, day in and day out. That is the conversational equivalent of living near huge pieces of very bold, very graphic street art. And as we all know, after someone has shouted at you for a while you tend to stop listening, stop paying attention.
So my challenge to all those making work in the street is for them to try and engage in a conversation with the street. To ask it questions, and listen to it’s response. To work with what the street offers you. To consider what you say to the street, and the people that live there. To be flexible, to bend and adjust your views and ideas as the conversation proceeds. To constantly learn, think, digest. If you want to shout, is there a way to do it without it giving people a headache? Can you shout in a way where your message will retain it’s potency over time? If you want to teach, can you be open to learning? If you want to preach, can you respect the disbelievers or the beliefs of the other preachers? Can you make your point, say what you want to say, in an interesting, intelligent, and engaging way, in a way that calls for an interesting, intelligent, and engaging response? Can you say your piece while still respecting the opinions and ideas of others? And most importantly, can you respect others when they don’t want to listen – can you know when to keep quiet, to shut up?
They say:
Don’t put your mouth into gear until your brain is switched on.
No comments:
Post a Comment