Right Wing Street Art?

by Ruth Barker, 5 Aug 2009

Hello,

Actually a nice little analysis here of what now seems to be called ‘street art’ (back in my day we called it ‘intervention’. ‘Street art’ is more catchy I suppose. The kids’ll love it…).

Is it street art? Tough call seeing it in isolation like this. Propaganda (from right and left) has always had a interesting (sometimes caustic) relationship with other art practices. For what it’s worth, I don’t think this is a good example of a propagandist image. It’s a bit clunky and there isn’t that ‘grain of truth’ factor – the point at which the image somehow should ‘ring true’ even if (like me) you don’t agree with the sentiment ¹.

Still, good to know that people still realise that images can be powerful, and that people still notice flyposting – for a while I was worried that anything 2D in public space was interpreted as a teaser advert.

More later,
R

¹ After all, the Joker isn’t a socialist, is he? Or did I completely miss the point of that film? Um, and I don’t think Obama is actually a socialist either… Not totally sure where they’re going with that analogy, but nevermind.