Ana Simon

To me, art is always most impactful when I get a deeper understanding of it or of its background. As much as I love aimlessly wandering through the intricate maze commonly known as the Louvre and absorbing the history and the multitude of paintings and styles, I am most captivated when I can fully engulf myself within a work and the entire story behind it. The art we observed at Street Art Avenue did this for me.

I will not sit here writing this review and pretend that when I used to look at tags on the street, I thought they were beautiful works that should be more widely spread. I grew up going to Venezuela where graffiti was everywhere and because it was usually paired with dirty sidewalks or flickering streetlights, it never seemed artistic but rather vandal-like. Growing up and getting a better grasp of the world, I stopped thinking of graffiti, specifically tags, as vandalism and more so as just a fun hobby people did, but I still never classified it as beautiful. Now, after the tour we had, I cannot say that I find small little quick tags beautiful, but I can definitely say that I have an appreciation for them, and I certainly believe that the bigger tags, characters, and art that I saw, I do consider intricate, striking, and intriguing to look at.

There were so many great “pieces” to look at that captivated me, but one specific piece was the piece pictured above by the graffiti artist Dawal. The work was done with spray cans and if you look at the piece, it is absolutely incredible that he was able to do what he did with such an uncontrollable medium. It is impressive how he is able to manipulate the spray can and make it work for him in a way that enhances his work and makes the viewer dwell on the intricacies. The piece is very detailed with small components in it that require focus and skill to be able to do with the materials involved. Just thinking about the expertise it took baffles me and makes me admire the piece.

Beyond the sheer mastery behind the art, I truly enjoyed the colors. They were both bright and muted at the same time, allowing the viewer to convey the piece in different or multiple ways. At first, the bright pinks, yellows, oranges, and greens grab your attention and draw you in. The colors mingle in an aesthetic way, as they bring together an idea of a happy scenescape. I almost felt as though I knew exactly what it would sound like if I had the ability to animate the piece—a Disney ride with welcoming music that makes you want to bounce along and walk into the sunset with the other singing characters. To me, the colors bring a child-like wonder to the amorphized buildings and other inanimate objects and figures, truly enhancing the idea of the piece depicting a utopian storyline, reminding me of a Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon cartoon, making you nostalgic for you childhood and the memories of television. But like any good Cartoon Network cartoon, there is a dark side to it. It almost feels like you are on the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disney and the animated figurines’ eyes start to turn red and become creepy. The piece seems to contradict itself as the colors initial bright colors are muted by blacks and darker undertones, calling into question the happiness of childhood that it initially brings to mind. It creates a gloomy atmosphere around a piece that initially is eye-catching because of the color combination and vividness. The way the darker colors intertwine with the bright ones, almost slithering through the piece, reminded me of storylines that take a utopia and uncover it as a dystopia; you begin to uncover the quirks and get an uneasy feeling about how cheery everything seems.

The more you look, the more you realize that the dark colors are not the only aspect alluding to a darker presence within the piece. The faces being portrayed seem soulless, as their eyes are completely white; their expressions portray angry and bothered figures, demonstrating that the happy colors are merely a façade trying to distract from the cross faces. Along with the soulless figures, there are factories, smoke, and a gloomy city in the background.

Putting this idea of what initially seems like a sunny depiction and realizing that it is dim the more you look brings to mind the political undertones of a lot of the graffiti and street art. Specifically for this piece, there is a parallel between the real world and what is depicted. So many devastating occurrences are constantly happening, but people try to cover up devastating news and unfortunate circumstances with things that make them happy on a surface level. This piece uses bright colors to distract the viewer initially, but as you focus, you realize that the piece is rather sad. The figures and objects being depicted comment on the monotonous nature of capitalism and mass production as well as the hypnotization of society by technology. We are all little worker bees captivated by the constant hum of the day to day. This feeds into the idea of continuous consumption, and the reference to technology along with the factories and the multitude of little figures used to represent humans highlights this idea of masses and intake. You can really understand the message of overabundance. One key part that lends to the lack of boundaries is what looks like a Nintendo Gameboy sucking water out of the river; this reference to technology going too far and hurting the Earth truly helps depict this idea of overuse. This piece compels you to dive into it, and I enjoyed doing so.

Graffiti and street art is very political. Whether artists do it just for the purposes of it being illegal and sticking it to the man or because they want to share an important message about the world, the art is intricate if you take time to analyze what is in front of you. I really enjoyed getting to dive deeply into the piece and uncover different meanings and statements being made. I love how it draws you in with the colors and then makes you think more deeply about what meaning it is really trying to get across. I thought the different statements it made about mass production, the impact of technology, and the overall negative undertones of the world around us currently was stimulating.