In the eyes of the law, there really is no such thing as "public spaces".
Even the street itself is owned by the city and I believe that we are technically renting it with our taxes.
I'm using "public space" to refer to spaces that are, of course, privately owned; but are "felt" to be owed by the group.
Spaces like parks, hydro poles, electrical boxes, and parts of the streets, ECT.
Like most everything else, our public visual landscape is dictated by the bottom line. By finances. Sure advertising is legal and graffiti is not, but that doesn't mean that one is good and one isn't.
Advertisers are bigger bullies than graffitos; they just have the money to buy legitimization.
There simply is no profit in permitting graffiti, so it will never be legal. I find it very sad that our shared spaces (yes, privately owned but we SHARE them damn it.) are bought and sold by the powerful but can't be used by the very people who live and work there.
Artists are carefully contained and kept in their studios.
We are left with what I think is a problem, The city is privately owned, but sold to those rich enough to afford it. As citizens we are left without a sense of ownership of public space, without a sense of ownership of the city, because there really is no such thing as public space, and the people who live in a city don't shape the visual landscape nearly as much as big business does.
The end result? We live in malls.
Not really, they are just "renters", passing though. They don't claim ownership. They just want it to be nice and neat and ordered. They want their boat un-rocked. Most anyway. One group of people who do claim ownership are street artists, who say:
"Hey, this is our city; this is my city too.
I want it to be interesting. I want it to be exciting.
I want it to be unique.
I want to be a piece of it."
As much as I dislike the how our system has had an effect of handing over the reins of our visual landscape to those rich enough to afford it, If a property owner want to sell advertising space to companies, that's his prerogative, and it may be an important source of income for him/her. And I can't deny that if someone were to put up an image on their wall, unasked for, it would be a violation of their freedom to have their wall look just as they want it to.
That's the crux of the issue, isn't it? It's not whether graffiti is ugly, or advertising is ugly, it about freedom and right to private property.
I like the fact that I can own stuff and if someone else unrightfully takes it, the government will send big guys in uniform to get it back. Or if someone unrightfully smashes it, the government will send the big guys to get the buggers who did it and punish them. I like that I don't have to defend my house with a crossbow. I pay a man money so I can live in his house, and we both pay the government money to take over the whole crossbow thing.
I think most people confuse street art with a genre
Street Art does not just equal Tagging
Just like
Comics does not just equal Superheroes
Street art is not a medium -Spray paint
Street art is not a style -Typical and popular 80's New York style.
Street art is not even a thing, it is a practice. An Activity.
If I can offer my best definition:
Street art is art made for and put up in "public" places.
It doesn't have to be illegal. It doesn't have to be free.
You might have noticed: Under this definition advertisements qualify as street art, but it IS only made to sell something, not for any sort of loftier goals. And it's too bad that it is mostly all of what is out there.
I hope to have an impact (however small and short term it may be) on the city at large, and to grow a reasonable amount while I do it.
I have found that most people have an attitude to street art that goes something like this: "I believe graffiti is analogous to the way dogs mark their territory. It's unfortunate that so many dogs have to piss all over public property just to assert themselves."