Street Art As An Act Of Vandalism

Street art is conflicted. It is both loved and hated. It is illegal, appreciated, misunderstood; it’s controversial, to say the least. Its founders and proponents, famous street artists with household names that include Banksy, Space Invader, and Shepard Fairey, are widely celebrated for their work which is auctioned off for thousands of dollars while lesser known street artists are rewarded with little more than prosecution for vandalism, their artwork likened to gang-related graffiti. It is with this in mind that I’ve chosen to examine, for this visual rhetoric analysis, a piece by an artist who thrives amidst contradiction. Banksy, an Englishman, who despite being perhaps the most famous street artist in the world today, releasing his own award-winning documentary in 2010 called Exit Through the Gift Shop, has managed to keep his true identity a secret since his humble beginnings in the early 90’s (Wright, et. al.). The piece, for which he is responsible, pits modern society’s increasingly obsessive-compulsive need for cleanliness against the preservation of culture through visual art.

This is not a new concept, as visual art has fought to be preserved throughout the history of man. Dating back to 30000 BC, cave drawings constituted the earliest known forms of graffiti (Stowers, HipHop-Network). Today, graffiti is not only limited to caves, but can be found on buildings, trains, and sidewalks on the street, oftentimes in its more sophisticated form, street art, where it is either hated by property owners or appreciated by other artists.

Looking at this wall, which the large painting nearly covers, the first thing one notices is the stark contrast between the color and tone of the street cleaner with his water hose and the backdrop of the cave drawings. Whereas the cave drawings are a dark, warm brown color reflecting the look and feel of the inside of an ancient cave, the street cleaner wears a bright orange vest and cold gray pants to convey the intrusiveness of modernity. The water hose is also a lighter gray in continuance with the street cleaner. In addition, both the street cleaner and his water hose are outlined sharply against the relatively muddy cave drawings. This highlighted contrast is meant to alienate the street cleaner as a completely separate entity from the cave drawings.

The reason the street cleaner is meant to be seen as separate from the cave drawings is what they each represent. Banksy skillfully uses the cave drawings as a symbol of history and the past, both in regards to street art and the larger context of culture. The street cleaner and his water hose are meant to symbolize modernity and technology, wiping out the cultural past represented by the cave drawings. They can also be seen to represent the tail end of society, cleaning up the things we don’t want to see. Rarely, if ever, are street cleaners placed in the spotlight. Their activities are largely unknown to us because we do not care. Thus, the cave drawings are being washed away by a man from the sanitation department like it’s an afterthought, like it’s nothing more than really old graffiti. These symbols, brought together in this piece, build a theme and that theme is our cultural history being quietly erased by our modern wants and needs.

The emotions brought on by this image vary. One is a sense of loss. It creates the feeling of history and memories being lost, swept away without our conscious awareness of it. There is also regret for the history that’s already been washed away as part of the cave drawing has already been hosed down. And finally there is a feeling of cognitive dissonance since we want to preserve the cave drawings, but we also want the street cleaner to do his job of keeping our streets clean and tidy.

Yet despite the symbolism and the emotions evoked by this work of art, some people still consider it to be vandalism. And while it may be illegal, I still believe that this piece stands apart from any other meaningless graffiti because it makes a statement that can be universally understood. That statement is the (need for) preservation of history and cultural art.

With all this taken into account, I really admire the many levels on which the piece speaks to the viewer. Its main conflict is preservation and I find that to be a very intriguing theme for a piece of street art. Street art itself is unique from other forms of visual art in that it struggles to be preserved as city maintenance workers and disagreeing citizens attempt to wash it away. The art form itself also seeks to be preserved while governments outlaw it categorizing it as vandalism. And finally, it speaks for the preservation of art as it slowly begins to lose its apparent societal value with schools and industries placing less importance on the acquisition of art-related skill and appreciation.

So with its depiction of cultural art and modern society at odds – the stark contrast between the two entities, the representation of a history that has become lost, and the conflicting emotions brought on by it – this particular work by Banksy reminds us of the need to preserve society’s history through art (street art in particular) before it is washed away. Sure, it’s conflicting, it’s controversial, and it doesn’t even really seem to last on its own, but street art, like the cave drawings of old, is one part of today’s culture that we can preserve for the sake of tomorrow.