Introduction - what is a subculture?
One particular term which is quite commonly used these days is ‘sub-culture’. One need to understand what is exactly meant by a subculture and how does the same have an impact on the socio-cultural frameworks in today’s world. A subculture is defined to be a specific group of people with specific behavioral traits who exist within a larger and more common culture . The subculture can be identified on the basis of ethnic, economic, social or regional characteristics and it needs to be highlighted that it is not always necessary that it will be formally enlisted or categorized by governments or government bodies. For example, Asian culture is recognized to be a culture; however the number of Pop music fans from Asia, even though significantly large in number (than the many individual cultures like Buddhism) will always be referred to as a part of a subculture. It is similar to the scenario of the current trend of an increasing number of ‘vegans’ emerging from vegetarians who unlike vegetarians, even abstain from consuming products which are derived from animal sources like milk, cheese and butter.
This presentation focuses on one particular such subculture which is based on performing and expressing – street art. Street art is termed as a subculture and is indeed a form of expression, yet the individuals who are part of this subculture differ from mainstream artists on the basis of choice of their medium of expression. The pages to follow will try to highlight to the reader aspects such as emergence of this form of art, the popularity and present scenario and also the direction in which this unique form of art is headed.
Emergence of Street Art
Over time, culture has been a witness to changes and trends as far as art is concerned. A few centuries ago, art was considered to be a traditional form of expression which was usually confined to exhibitions inside galleries or spaces like museums and auctions. Even the medium of choice for expression in the art was most commonly limited to the canvas or on to other materials brought by artists to be painted . However, it has been suggested by researchers that modern day street art has been directly deducted from early 20th Century practices such as painting graffiti on walls and other such surfaces of public property by groups of members commonly used to be termed as vandals. It has also been suggested that this was merely a form of revision of an ancient practice of more than tens of thousands of years ago, when early humans (cavemen) depicted their toils or an event on the walls of caves. Others are of the opinion that this form of art is nothing but the transcendence of the practice of tribal people whereby logos and symbols would be used to demarcate territories. There are a wide number of suggestions about the factors or reasons behind the revival of the practice during the end of the 19th century and early 20th century.
One aspect which has been widely suggested by authors is that the turmoil in the diplomatic relations between nations triggered the long forgotten practice. It has been seen that graffiti would be used against annexes of nations by another and meant to create an uprising during wars . Signs and symbols were commonly used to communicate in war torn nations or countries which were hit with civil unrest as the perpetrators would discreetly spread their message across the population without risking identification or prosecution by the legal authorities. Irrespective of the method and medium used, one factor which remained constant was that it provided the medium to reach out a large section of people on a regular basis by incorporating the message on a medium in a place which would be frequented by a large number of people . However, during 1960-1970’s this particular practice started to gain popularity, and with refinement over the years would provide the status and identification of a sub-culture.
It was during the era of post Cold War period when almost the entire Northern Hemisphere was gradually recovering from the outcomes of decades of conflict. Employment opportunities were comparatively low as the economy was still recovering from the outcome of extended funding into military upgrade, especially in Europe and America. Lack of opportunities to improve lifestyle resulted in a lot of crime and the most common everyday scenario was people being rounded up by police on the basis of suspicion. Resentment among the masses, especially the jobless youth somehow led to the situation whereby walls, cars, subway trains and other similar public properties started to bear the brunt of the poor socio-economic scenario . The erstwhile Berlin Wall was perhaps the most common and historical medium of such form of expression, before it was taken down. It is here that much controversy arises as to the emergence of street art.
Many researchers are of the opinion that street art was inspired by graffiti art and that there is very little to suggest a difference between graffiti art and street art. Others suggest that it is wrong to associate this modern form of expression with graffiti, as far from being criminal in nature street art is not a form of vandalism and it generates substantial money worth paid by collector buyers. Today, it has even become a professional art form for many artists, whose livelihood comes from the installation and sale of graffiti art to the connoisseurs. At least one thing has been clear – irrespective of being a criminal act or not, an expression of art inviting the praises of the connoisseurs or the ordinary passer-by, street art has been derived from primitive forms of sign language and the graphical illustrations from a couple of centuries ago as a means of communication. Thus, it now becomes important to focus on the present day scenario and also the expected future of street art in order to understand the matter even better.
Popularity of Street Art and Subculture Status
While Street Art is still considered by many to be a form of graffiti, the difference lies in the fact whether the piece of art has been commissioned or not. In today’s scenario, many people refer to street art as murals and the artists are sometimes referred to as muralists. However, it needs to be noted that even though every muralist is a street artists, not every street artist has to be necessarily a muralist. Another difference which has been pointed out by many authors is the fact that presence of a pseudonym is an important factor in the differentiation of graffiti and modern art . In case of graffiti, a pseudonym is present, which is not the case of a street art. The fact that street art has more acceptability in the modern society than in the case of graffiti is another important differentiation between the two. The reason behind this statement is that graffiti tend to be more obscene and explicit than street art – today, unfortunately in many cases it is merely the use of profanities directed at an individual, group of individuals or the society.
If one is to support the concept of street art, one of the strongest arguments that he or she can come up with is the fact that it is a form of art which has challenged the traditional concept of art by changing the perspective about the environment in which it is supposed to exist. Artists who are associated with street art stress that they are part of a larger urban art movement whereby more and more artists refuse to consider themselves and their art to be traditionally confined to pre-defined work environments. On the contrary, they believe that the city is their working environment as the most important component of creativity – inspiration, can be easily attained when artists are not confined to any particular space while expressing their creativity. This particular outlook is cited by many authors as the reason why street art is today considered to be a subculture. Obviously, the artists engaged in this form of expression differ in opinion from mainstream artists, yet their work and talent is part of a larger and more prominent culture of art .
Another important argument which is given against this form of contemporary art by artists is that it is almost not art at all – that it lacks creativity and originality. Artists and experts who speak out against contemporary street art are armed with the allegation that almost the entire street art seen today is not at all an original expression of the artist. It is basically a vexation of too much influence of the internet, magazines, newspapers and other forms of media which has sort of glorified the context of street art . For many of the experts in the field, much of today’s street art is nothing but merely a manifestation of another street artist’s idea which ultimately turns out to be the influence of the artist on the almost replicated work. It is often suggested that the mere similarity in the various installations of street art forms are themselves testimony to the fact that street art is nothing but a form of imitation of graffiti with more colors, and the attempt to enforce a sense of meaning into the art .
It seems that the main point of contention between traditional art and street art is the use of material and the means of producing it. Yes, it is true that most of the street art which is produced by the artists are the result of abundant use of spray-paint; something which has not changed since the 1960s and 1970s when these items used to be the most common weapons by vandals to spoil a car, wall, public transport or someone’s property. At the same time the fact that to be called a street artist, all someone needs is the acceptance and appreciation of passers-by seem to have enraged the situation even more.
As an example and for this presentation two situations need to be taken into consideration – two artists, one a following a traditional path and the other, a street artist, following the more contemporary street art path – working on producing a piece of art. The traditional artist is confined to his/her work environment, which is usually a private place. The street artist, on the other hand is free to choose his or her work environment. It can be a wall or any surface around the city where he/she is able to find ‘inspiration’. While the traditional artist will stick to traditional tools and medium – colors and canvas, the equipment at the disposal of the street artist is bound to be modern and more interesting – spray paint, for example. Next, the process of working needs to be taken into consideration. While ideally the traditional artist will be confined to his/her working space – probably a quiet corner of a room, the street artist has already started to gain popularity and interest as it is highly likely that passersby will become curious, and possibly intrigued by the question – what is going on? It is at this point that interaction and participation in the production of the work of art increases greatly for the street art. It is definitely bound to gain more popularity as compared to a painting or piece of art being done by the traditional artist – largely due to the absence of a crowd to say in a very basic fashion. So, while for a traditional art, acceptance is dependent on the people at the designated venue, for street art, it has already gathered some fan following in those who might have even stop for a minute or two every time they pass by the location where the street artist is working. Next, even upon completion, the traditional piece of art will be dependent on the number of attendees for the exhibition and the mere few minutes of probable coverage on the TV or internet or some other such medium. While for the street art, it is available round the clock for appreciation – furthermore, it is more likely to gain wider audience by way of passerby people sharing pictures of the art or its presence and information more freely. So, at the end of the day, the street art gets much greater coverage and attention than the contemporary piece of art which usually ends up in a museum or gallery or on the walls of the house of a buyer, which is seen only by the handful of people who has access to these places.
There is also another point of contention which is considered to be the probable reason behind resentment against this subculture by traditional artists. It comes in the form of understanding and popularity. Here, mention must be made of the most well known fact about humans and society – that it is more likely for a concept to be appreciated and exchanged in the society which is simple to understand and relatable to comprehend than one which is not . To make the point clear, one needs to ask himself the question as to why do most people wear clothes that are worn by others, easily affordable and worn by others than the ones which are exactly the opposite? The answer to this question lies in the term called relativity. By nature, human beings are always more prone to accept things and concepts to which they can easily relate than ones which are comparatively difficult to understand and comprehend. Street art is somewhat similar to this ideology. Most of the installations and works by street artists are based on concepts and aspects that are related to everyday life. Street artists take pride in expressing facts or aspects related to life and in most cases, these are very simple concepts which are comparatively easy to grasp. Many traditional artists on the other hand, express their complex emotions and feelings through their paintings. In order to understand their paintings and the message they try to get across, the recipient needs to either have similar mental prowess or needs to be brought up to the required level.
Art is purely a form of expression and it is expected that the more complex the emotion or state of mind of an artist, the more complex will be the work as well. Art has always been like that and it is the reason why not everybody is fond of the subject. However, in most street arts, this is not the case. Passersby and people viewing the art are able to capture the intended message because of the relative simplicity as compared to traditional art. As a result, there is a greater fan following for street art as compared to traditional forms of art. Summarizing the factors which have worked well for street art, the aspects of convenience in production, exhibition to a large number of people at any given time and the acceptability need to be highlighted, as these are critical components for discussion about the future of street art which happens to be the next and concluding section.
Future of Street Art
There have been major changes in the world of Street Art. Once seen as a menace and often denounced to be a disgrace to traditional art, the world is slowly awakening to the change. Many of the street artists have been able to successfully establish large fan bases around the world and travel the earth in their quest to produce great street art. Even then, it largely stays as a mean of self expression through talent and at present is not as financially rewarding as traditional art. While pieces of work of renowned painters around the world sell for millions and sometimes billions of dollars, the highest value street artists could expect was GBP 60,000 in 2014 in Dublin Ireland . As has been highlighted in the dissent of traditional artists, it has recently become popular and yes it is true that the popularity of Street Art has largely been fuelled by the internet and social media in recent years, so much so that it has been able to gain the status of a subculture. However, what remains to be seen is whether this subculture is able to withstand the test of time and continue to inspire millions around the globe to express through art, without the barriers or limitations of physical boundaries.
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