What exactly is the allure of street art?
This question has plagued me for a few years now, and when I say “plagued me” I mean I’ve committed 10 seconds of my attention towards it about 8 times in the past 3 years. I’m going to try and figure it out once and for all on this date, 18 October 2017, in front of your very eyes. In the words of the Eagles “we may lose and we may win, though we will never be here again” and to a lesser extent “so open up I’m climbin’ in”.
You guys trust me because when it comes to research you know I simply won’t stop digging until I find a reputable source, and today was definitely no exception. So, according the the first non-Wikipedia result “street art” was first seen in the 1920s along the sides of New York trains courtesy of local hoodlums and street toughs. It surprised me too. I could’ve sworn a student 3 years ahead of me invented it with the Stussy symbol he etched into his desk at high school, such is the sheltered life of a private schoolboy in Melbourne.
I don’t want to get too much deeper into the origins of street art and I really don’t want to get into the whole “Well actually the cave paintings of South Sulawesi in 40,000 BC by early homo-erectus or late homeopath could be considered the earliest ‘street art’, if we’re really being technical about it”. Well we’re not. In my definition street art is anything involving a spray can or an expensive coffee table book and I’m sorry but I don’t see where rocks and sticks fit into that definitive definition.
The gift that keeps giving.
I think the interesting thing about street art for many people is it provides them with a safe, council-sanctioned essence of edginess. They like to be edgy-adjacent. They like knowing that at some point in history there was a possibility that a criminal act had taken place nearby by shady characters and they’re somewhat connected to it, even very very very loosely, and that deep down imbues them with a sense of excitement. Those who travel somewhere specifically to take a photo of street art have realised their life is nice and sanitised and controlled but gosh heck it would be fun if they could pretend to be a bottomed-out crack fiend for a minute. “Wouldn’t that be fun, pumpkin?”
Not to oversimplify, but isn’t that why people travel or watch movies or do lots of things in life? To put themselves in someone else’s shoes and escape for a while? And like most things, you only get out what you put in. Different people require different amounts of danger in their lives, for example you’re never going to actually feel danger when you walk down a well-lit alley full of street art with 100 tourists taking photos, but if you try hard you might imagine a little bit of what it was like. On the other hand if you really want an authentic feeling of danger there are always plenty of places you can find it. But these street art people don’t really need that much. Just enough to last them til this time next year.
Or they’re just doing it for the profile pic ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I’m grateful for street art because it provides people with a whiff of danger and adventure without forcing them to actually encounter either.