London Street Art, Graffiti, Vandalism... and all in between

For you homework, you will address the following questions. 

Over the next week, please capture street art as you explore London. 

Identify two locations (art/graffiti) that enhance the landscape -and two locations (art/graffiti) that diminish the streetscape. Feel free to discuss your opinions of vandalism, notions of beauty, historical significance, etc. Integrate photographs into your blogs with a short response for each of the 4 images. 

While traveling through London this past week I encountered some imagery that falls in the gray area of street art/graffiti as well as some pointless tagging and/or 'vandalism'. I differentiate the two groups based on personal opinion of what I find eye catching, aesthetically pleasing, thought provoking, rude, or unnecessary. 

Unnecessary and rude usually encompasses spray painted tags on random streets vending kiosks, construction sites, backs of street signs, and unfortunately in this particular example, obnoxiously on a telephone booth in Piccadilly. This I definitely do not consider art. I believe this to be the result of the protests which occurred last week because of the universal sign for anarchy. While this sign is recognizable and meaningful in a sense, I view this display as just vandalism. No effort really seemed to go into the 'statement' it was intended to convey and to me is just obnoxious and disrespectful. 

This second photo I would also classify as unnecessary. While it is a little less obnoxious than the telephone booth display, I still find it to be a little irritating. It's just a bunch of scribbled tags that communicate something that I don't feel like deciphering or even stopping to really look at (which probably can explain the blurry photo). [found in Piccadilly on a closed street vendor]

On the bus on the way to Piccadilly, i noticed this 'graffiti'. I don't really see this image as graffiti, nor art, since it's not some illegible tag and it's not a really creative artistic display. The word LOVE within the shape of a heart was eye catching for it's odd location and peaceful commentary. The location to me, indicates that it was meant to be viewed by drivers and there seems to be more effort and thought put into this simple display.  For some reason however, I find it difficult to categorize; it could be easily passed, it could be seen as unnecessary, but also could be appreciated. 

This last photo [courtesy of Lizzie Herrick due to my irresponsibly losing my camera] can be found in Bricklane. This absolutely falls into my category of street art-graffiti. It's a creative image, a stencil almost etched into the wall. Effort, thought, and purpose seems to be behind this display. It's a hard image to casually pass by without noticing and immediately provokes thought. I think the scribbled tags disappointingly take away from it as a whole.

Clearly my divisions do not have distinct basis for as I analyze them my arguments begin to play a tug-of-war in my head, but there are certain images that I can appreciate and others that I can do without. This world of street art and graffiti has always interested me though and I find it fun to explore in the different cities and areas that I visit.