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The Graffiti & Street Art Thread

First picture taken around six years ago, when I was doing a job in Barcelona. Second from when I was living there last year:

Barca graff 2.jpg
Barca graff 1.jpg
 
And this was just round the corner from our kip. Currently my desktop:

Afro Hitler.jpg


(Okay...okay - so I have Hitler on my desktop. Come on there's worse things....like...I could have an afro!!)
 
It's not the case that all satirical or sociopolitically oriented street art is executed in paint.
'Yarn Bombers’ use craft to make a statement

Jessie Hemmons did her first public “yarn bombing” in 2009, crocheting a 12-inch cozy around a bike rack in downtown Philadelphia. It was small but colorful, tangible. She knows that most who walked past didn’t notice it.

Her more recent works in the city have been harder to miss: the words “TIME’S UP” in white letters on a 4-by-3-foot black background affixed to a wall; a pink bikini atop the business suit of a larger-than-life statue of a late politician known for brutish behavior; a quote from “Game of Thrones’” Daenerys Targaryen, “The next time you raise a hand to me will be the last time you have hands,” hung on a wall in pink letters on a green, 6-by-6-foot background.

“It started as something I felt I could do to insert a certain femaleness or womanliness into street art. I didn’t have to make street art as men were doing it to fit in,” said Hemmons, 32, of Philadelphia, whose Instagram tag is ishknits. “Now that the space and platform are there, I can start to be more overt and bring attention to certain issues like women’s equality and civil rights.”

Modern yarn bombing — also known as yarn storming, guerrilla knitting, yarn graffiti or graffiti knitting — has come a long way since 2005, when Texas artist Magda Sayeg used some extra yarn to knit a doorknob cover for her women’s boutique, then made a cozy for a nearby stop-sign pole, and then another. Sayeg, the “mother of yarn bombing,” unknowingly ignited a craft craze.

While some fiber artists choose to keep their statements simple and stick to snugly dressing items ranging from bikes to buses with interlocking loops of yarn, others use their knitting and crochet needles to create works designed to agitate, excite or inspire.

And they’re not the first to do so.

“There’s a long history of women using handicrafts, the tools available to them, for subversive aims,” said Hinda Mandell, editor of the upcoming book “Crafting Dissent: Handicraft as Protest from the American Revolution to the Pussyhats” ...

FULL STORY: https://www.apnews.com/88a205f41f2342ffb334b6ef1a32eb11
 
Should be tarred and feathered.

A piece of street art in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg featuring a large cross has become the talk of town after it was partially covered with asphalt just a few days after it was completed.

Local authorities blamed the incident on "miscommunication", the BBC Russian Service reports. The artwork - a giant black and red cross incorporating calligraphy quotes by avantgarde Suprematist artist Kazimir Malevich - was created by Russian street artist Pokras Lampas. It was painted on First Five-Year Plan Square near the Uralmash factory - one of the country's largest producers of heavy machinery. Pokras Lampas says it's the perfect location for a Suprematist display, because the industrial feel of the city fits well with the aesthetics of the early 20th century.

Because of its large scale, the work involved the help of 20 volunteers, and took three days to complete.

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-49074993
 
A piece of street art in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg featuring a large cross has become the talk of town after it was partially covered with asphalt just a few days after it was completed.
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-49074993

Reminds me a bit of Edinburgh's Rose Street mosaics. Some very nice stone mosaics that decorate the pedestrian Rose Street that have, through neglect and heavy delivery vehicles, been steadily damaged, half-arsedly repaired with tarmac, removed, sold off, replaced with more tarmac...

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman....ved-rose-street-mosaics-with-tarmac-1-4746183

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-48187756
 
Graffiti is made by aliens, just like crop circles, because we never see people writing it!
 
For years local taggers wouldn't touch Banksy stuff (and many still won't, as he has legitimised the good ones) but sadly there are a number of vandals who make a point of ruining street-art in Bristol especially, and some target Banksy in particular as they accuse him of selling out: the window lover, one of his most prominent, was attacked with paintballs: the below image is before.
window_lovers_park_street-63669.jpg

Nelson Street, which is wall to wall murals and part of the Upfest venue, sadly attracts a lot of badly-sprayed doggerel at street level, usually by the same people who think they're making some sort of anarchic point.
The latest victim is the Stokes Croft breakdancing Jesus, currently plastered in blue paint :( .
pg-32-jesus-mural-pa_1.jpg
 
Banksy's latest daubing has acquired some graffiti of its own.

Update ...
Banksy’s Valentine’s Day mural covered after it was defaced

The family that owns a house in southwest England where an artwork from Banksy appeared in time for Valentine’s Day has covered the mural after it was defaced.

Temporary fencing was also added Saturday to the home in Bristol and closed-circuit television has been installed to protect the artwork, which shows a young girl firing red flowers from a catapult.

The elusive artist confirmed the mural as his creation on his official Instagram account on Feb. 14. It was later defaced with an expletive.

Kelly Woodruff, the daughter of Edwin Simons, who owns the rented home on which the artwork appeared, said the family felt a “strong responsibility” to ensure that the artwork could be enjoyed by the general public.

“Due to the mindless vandalism to the artwork, the family have taken the very difficult decision to cover the artwork to try to protect it,” she said. “All measures are temporary and we ask that the public are patient while we work out the best way to clean the damage, restore and protect it for the future, so everyone can enjoy Banksy’s work.”
SOURCE: https://apnews.com/9395357a334dc928bf39bd50df2cb74e
 
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