Mobilization

Meegs, Melbourne, Australia

Barcelona, Spain

Often times, it is difficult for people with similar political ideas to organize, especially if they are in an environment where their views are not appreciated. While the Internet has helped create a space for any person to express themselves, they must first have access to the Internet. Even then, it is easy for our messages to get lost in the currents of cyber space if we don't know where to look. Graffiti that tells people about a community, happening, or movement will have a much easier time reaching a wide range of people.

For example, I took this picture a little over a year ago when I was staying in Melbourne, Australia. I knew a little bit about the political issues in Melbourne, but didn't know much about the political organizations or things they did. One day, as I left my apartment for my ten minute walk to class, I passed three of these stencils. As the stencil shows, they were advertising for an anti-war rally scheduled at the state library. For the next two weeks I saw that bright red stencil wherever I went. I was only able to attend the rally briefly but hundreds of people stood at the Melbourne public library to show their anger towards a war they didn't want to fight for. I wonder how many people would have known about the rally if they hadn't seen this stencil around the city.


Madison, Wisconsin

United Kingdom

Melbourne, Australia

NYC, New York, USA

NYC, New York, USA

Reclaiming the commons : Public Space

Civilian, Melbourne, Australia

Bansky's rats, Melbourne, Australia

Melbourne, Australia

Bansky, West Bank

Bansky, West Bank

Argentina

Graffiti art in praxis functions to reclaim what is collective or public space for a community. The basic idea is that as OntheCommons.org states,

some forms of wealth belong to all of us, and that these community resources must be actively protected and managed for the good of all....The commons also includes our shared social creations: libraries, parks, public spaces

As an art form, Graffiti and street art reworks ideas of enclosure and the encroachment of private enterprises into public lands. This second enclosurement movement is one of the mind. It is perhaps trite to say that ads dominate our visual landscape. And yet it remains more accurate assessment then ever of the world around us ( but not in Sao Paulo!)

This is a slice of that resistance.

Madison, Wisconsin, USA

United Kingdom

Arofish, Lebanon

Miami, Florida, USA

Canada

Denmark

United Kingdom
Melbourne, Australia

from Graffiti Research Lab








Legal Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain
http://www.creativecommons.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft

http://www.ourmedia.org/node/18378
http://www.artslaw.com.au/artlaw/archive/02CanCanArtNavigateLegalPitfalls.asp

Bush

What is there to say about President Bush that hasn't already been said? Well, these stencil artists imprint their own unique symbols of Bush's stamp on the globe.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

( HTML code for ending) Madison , WI
New Jersey
Manchester
UK
Unknown
Australia

War; what is it good for?

Unknown

"When war, as in these days in Iraq, threatens the fate of humanity, it is ever more urgent to proclaim, with a strong and decisive voice, that only peace is the road to follow to construct a more just and united society. Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of man."- Pope John Paul II

The 2003 Iraqi Invasion can easily claim to be one of the most highly opposed wars in modern history. Despite all these global voices in opposition, it went out. It still goes on. And not just in Iraq.

Art through the epochs as sought to not only to question , both home and foreign soil conflicts, of the moment but, say a collective NO to war as neccesary byproduct of human existance.

Bristol UK

United Kingdom

San Monica, CA

United Kingdom

Melbourne, Australia

Bansky, United Kingdom

Jerusalem, Israel



Barcelona, Spain

New York City

Unknown

Resources:
http://streetart.splitbrain.org/tag/war
http://streetart.splitbrain.org/tag/peace
http://www.flickr.com/groups/antiwarstencils/

Purpose

Graffiti are words or images written illicitly in a public space. Graffiti has been documented over time from writing on bathroom walls to Nazi propaganda during the second world war to student revolts in France in the 1960s. Graffiti blew up as an art form when teens began tagging New York City subway cars with spray pain in the 1970s. Since then, graffiti is not only seen as an art form but a political statement communicated to the mainstream through public space. Artists began using different materials to get their message up: from stencils, to wheat paste, to stickers, or paint, these artists attempt to express a message and ask those witnessing the graffiti to question their surrounding environment. These messages are powerful and give power to those who usually don't have a voice in mainstream society.

We wanted to research graffiti as a form of social resistance and chose to focus on stencil graffiti. While we tried to focus on forms of resistance through stencil art specifically, we have included some other street art we well.... just couldn't resist. We created this blog so we could look at stencil graffiti in a public cyber space so others can appreciate this art form as well.


As you look through the images in our posts, maybe you will be motivated to create your own stencil, or begin to look at your environment beyond the buildings and concrete to see the art that discretely surrounds us. Or maybe since it may be buffed or painted over tomorrow or on the other side of the world, you're glad you caught a glimpse. Either way the Internet offers a platform like never before to explore and share graffiti as an art form.

Dizzy Ms. Lizzy & Bethany Davison