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Graffiti or art?
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Swoon aka Callie Curry
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Lately I have been coming across the question about whether graffiti is art, and the difference between graffiti and art. Graffiti artists use the back wall of our school as a place to do their work. For the last mural, the graffiti artists told me, "We aren't going to do graffiti this time." My perplexed look prompted a clarification: "We are going to do art." I was very curious about how graffiti artists saw the difference between graffiti and art, so I asked that question, and they said "the difference is graffiti has text and art doesn't." (Of course this isn't exactly true but it wasn't the time to go into the history of text in 20th and 21st century art, I did however, find it interesting that the defining line between graffiti and art was so clear to them).
VISA Diploma graduate Jessica Jean Kuyper created a beautiful mural for the Citizens' Counselling Centre at 941 Kings Road in Victoria. In the initial planning of the mural, much concern was expressed about not wanting it to look like graffiti. She was discouraged from using the usual graffiti devices such as spray paint or stencils (again, there is long history of contemporary artists using these devices for non-graffiti purposes). The result was something that referenced graffiti art, Carl Jung's mandalas, Islamic design, decorative floral patterning and contemporary art such as seen in the work of Beatriz Milhazes.
New York artist Caledonia Curry (who goes by the street name Swoon) definitely bridges the gap between art and graffiti straddling both worlds and merging them into one work. I first saw Curry's work (she actually prefers to be called by her real name) at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston a few years ago. It was a combination of paper cuts, stencilling and painting. Curry's work is currently on display at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and a write-up about this exhibition can be found in the New York Times: Life of Wonderment. Curry combines representational images with detailed patterning and does not use any text, so according to my graffiti experts, it is art, not graffiti.
In addition to making art inside and outside of the gallery, Curry has done things such as construct fantastical functional boats that sailed on major waterways such as the canals in Venice or the Adriatic Sea. She also assisted in building pre-fab housing structures for post-earthquake refugees in Haiti. She describes some of her artist-as-activist practices in a TED talk given in Brooklyn. For more information on the shelter project that Curry helped initiate, see The Konbit Shelter Project.
People have many negative associations with graffiti. Admittedly much graffiti is boring and derivative. And tagging is the most dull and tedious in terms of public "creative" gestures. At the same time there are a lot of murals (so-called "art") that are equally boring and derivative. The interesting thing about Swoon is that her work is both graffiti and art, as well as activism and art. Instead of encouraging the making of murals that are poor imitations of the post World War I social realism style of Diego Rivera, perhaps city planners and citizens can discover that there are ways to combine graffiti and art to create fascinating and compelling results, relevant to today's world, and that perhaps the ever fervent graffiti removers are in fact sometimes removing art!
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ENCAUSTICS (two spaces left)
August 19-22, Tuesday-Friday, 10am-5pm 
Encaustic is a wax-based paint composed of beeswax, resin and pigment that is kept warm while painting. Encaustic works are among the oldest surviving paintings and are as vivid today as the day they were painted. You will learn the ancient technique of traditional encaustic as well as explore the mixed media possibilities such as: collaging with wax, layering with inks, watercolour or gouache, or combining wax with oils on a paper or panel surface.
Instructor: Neil McClelland
Tuition: $450.00 (24 hrs)
All materials included; includes paint, wax and supports.
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ONE PAINTING A DAY
August 26-29, Tuesday-Friday, 10am-5pm
In this workshop you will make four paintings, one painting per day, using what you see around you as subject matter. The instructor will lead you through the process of making preliminary sketches, developing a colour palette, as well as techniques such as brush handling, paint mixing and application. The focus will be on paying attention to what you see in front of you and the process of making a painting. Suitable for beginners.
Tuition: $365.00
Supply list
Don't worry if you don't have all the supplies on the list as we have lots of extras at school (paint, brushes, medium, gesso, paper, etc.)
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INTEGRATE ARTS FESTIVAL
Starts tomorrow Aug 15
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EMILY GEEN at Xchanges
Double View, Opening Friday September 5 at 7pm
In her recent work with digital video, Emily Green expands her exploration of the double exposure by shooting through panes of semi-reflective glass, situated in varying angular relationships with a video camera. The camera sees both through the glass and its reflected surroundings, resulting in a poetic interplay between aspects of the landscape.
Exhibition runs through Sunday, September 21th
Gallery Hours: Saturdays and Sundays, 12 to 4 pm or by appointment
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VISA FALL WORKSHOPS ARE NOW POSTED ON WEBSITE
All workshops are on Sundays (Sept-Nov) and run from 1-4pm.
Cost: $65 (all materials included)
Fall Workshop Schedule
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FALL COURSES START SEPTEMBER 9
Many of our courses are starting to fill up.
Register today to be sure to get in!
Fall Course Schedule
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For more information contact Melissa in the office |
