The merits of graffiti and urban art
It’s bright, bold, imaginative, expressive, and urban – and comes from a spray paint canister. Street art, or graffiti art, takes public spaces as blank canvases and brings life to city streets. It’s a medium that encourages a more democratic, collaborative approach to creativity within the urban community, but where does it fit within the larger context of the art world?
Artists occupied Cork Street for Guelph Street Art Fest on Saturday, Sept. 28. According to street artist and graphic designer Ean Kools, the event provides artists working outside of the mainstream art scene an opportunity to present their work to the public. Kools attended the festival and created a spray painted mural as part of a duo called Gruesome Twosome. The artist belongs to a street art collective in Cambridge, called CMD crew.
“I think the goal of street art is to give artists that don’t show in galleries a place to come and share their work. It’s an entirely different section of artists that show up to these things. It’s not your typical landscape artist or artists that are the majority [shown] in galleries,” said Kools.
The event was formerly called the Graffiti Festival, but this label carried some negative connotations, and some people associated it with crime, vandalism or haphazard tagging.
However, Guelph Street Art Fest highlights the artistry and skill required to create aesthetically engaging and appealing work within a medium many people might not consider “art.” Amidst a chemical haze of spray paint, spectators could watch the artists create work on large boards, utilizing a variety of techniques, ranging from drawing, to stenciling, to blending the paint to create areas of smooth, gradient colour.
“It’s done with spray paint, it’s done with stickers, it’s done with everything, I think it’s all just art,” said Kools.
This approach stands in contrast to work shown in galleries, typically created by individual artists working within a studio, a more solitary process in which the end result is displayed in the gallery. But with street art the creative process is made public and also reflects the culture of a city in a more accessible way.
“I think street art is great, because it shows that there are artists in the community and they’re willing to come out of their houses and they’re willing to communicate. Because when I’m out painting, people come and talk to me. I’m not there hiding, I’m out in the open, and it creates an open environment for members of the community who don’t do street art to talk to artists in a casual environment,” explained Kools.
When asked whether street art is truly a part of the established arts community here in Guelph, Kools compared Guelph’s arts scene to Cambridge, where he currently lives and works. “Cambridge has a lot of public art, and it actually has a 150 foot wall that’s a legalized graffiti wall, so it’s not a mural – if you want to show up and paint, you can. That’s been going on for two years now,” said Kools. “I don’t really see that in Guelph here. I think that they need to step up their game with public art.”
While Street Art Fest seems to be a good first step, Guelph may need to step up their game.