Friday, December 10, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Feeder 3.1
For most people, the term artist conjures such names as Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and maybe the more recent, Andy Warhol. While these classic artists are widely known, often the artistic talent around us is ignored. A prime example of this is known as street art, a growing movement including artists such as Banksy, Shepard Fairey, K47 and many more. Their art isn’t found hanging in galleries, but instead pasted, stenciled and stuck to our everyday surroundings. Large metropolises have traditionally been in the forefront of this new movement but more recently the Middle Eastern city of Tel Aviv in Israel has been targeted. The article Bursting the Bubble: Street Art in Tel Aviv is an insiders look at the cause and effect of street art in such a conflicted and restricted society, especially following the artist K47.
Mya Guarnieri is a writer who is based out of Tel Aviv, which allows her insight into the appearance of K47’s art in the bubble of Tel Aviv that an outsider could not possess. Her article is based around the thesis, “If Israel’s mainstream art is a creative result of the Arab-Israeli conflict then its street art is a more urgent product of this same environment” (Guarnieri). She goes on to further say that street art is a more raw version of Israeli art. It allows a peek into the “complicated psyche” of Israel much more than the gallery art (Guarnieri).
The article centers on the art of K47 and his most notable work in Tel Aviv, the Kiss of Death. This is an image of two men face to face, one with a Palestinian flag and the other with an Israeli flag covering their heads. The two men are almost kissing but cannot due to surgical masks covering their noses and mouths. She includes quotes from K47 explaining that an impenetrable but removable barrier separates the two. The article explains that this centers on the most obvious political issue in Tel Aviv, the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Although the author does fairly well being impartial towards either side in this conflict, she fails at being completely impartial. Through out the article there are small snippets of pro-Israel propaganda. The most obvious is towards the end when she is describing another street artist’s work on the same wall as the Kiss of Death, and says “hopeful- like Israel” (Guarnieri). Although her position on the Palestine conflict is subtle, it can be felt by a reader.
The author also enters another, larger conflict with in the article, which is the separation of politics from art. Obviously much of art has some sort of political root or message but sometimes art is simply that, art. It is apparent that Guarnieri feels that all the street art in Tel Aviv has some sort of political message. She includes quotes from the artists featured in the article that say the exact opposite: that their work is not political, but simply to brighten the very grey landscape of the city.
Another Israeli street artist, AME72, paints whimsical images on dilapidated buildings through out the city purely to beautify it. As the artist said, “the setting affects the art” (Guarnieri). The author feels that the intention was not just beautification because some of the whimsical scenes are on buildings that were bombed or on buildings that were next to bombed buildings. She feels that these scenes are statements against the struggling Israel, and this opinion comes through with in the article. An example is when she turns the artist’s words around saying, “the artist impacts the setting” (Guarnieri). She continues to say that these unexpected images make the viewer question their world and what is around them.
Although Guarnieri’s evidence and arguments are convincing, the direct quotes from K47 and the other artists that basically contradict her, derail her position on the totality of politics in street art. Her acumen of Israel and its problems strengthens her article, but her opinion on the dispute between Israel and Palestine weakens it. Overall, she brings an interesting view of street art in such a closed society, but her article is conflicted.
http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/results/external_link_maincontentframe.jhtml;hwwilsonid=LHODDCRURIZJDQA3DINCFF4ADUNGIIV0
Mya Guarnieri is a writer who is based out of Tel Aviv, which allows her insight into the appearance of K47’s art in the bubble of Tel Aviv that an outsider could not possess. Her article is based around the thesis, “If Israel’s mainstream art is a creative result of the Arab-Israeli conflict then its street art is a more urgent product of this same environment” (Guarnieri). She goes on to further say that street art is a more raw version of Israeli art. It allows a peek into the “complicated psyche” of Israel much more than the gallery art (Guarnieri).
The article centers on the art of K47 and his most notable work in Tel Aviv, the Kiss of Death. This is an image of two men face to face, one with a Palestinian flag and the other with an Israeli flag covering their heads. The two men are almost kissing but cannot due to surgical masks covering their noses and mouths. She includes quotes from K47 explaining that an impenetrable but removable barrier separates the two. The article explains that this centers on the most obvious political issue in Tel Aviv, the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Although the author does fairly well being impartial towards either side in this conflict, she fails at being completely impartial. Through out the article there are small snippets of pro-Israel propaganda. The most obvious is towards the end when she is describing another street artist’s work on the same wall as the Kiss of Death, and says “hopeful- like Israel” (Guarnieri). Although her position on the Palestine conflict is subtle, it can be felt by a reader.
The author also enters another, larger conflict with in the article, which is the separation of politics from art. Obviously much of art has some sort of political root or message but sometimes art is simply that, art. It is apparent that Guarnieri feels that all the street art in Tel Aviv has some sort of political message. She includes quotes from the artists featured in the article that say the exact opposite: that their work is not political, but simply to brighten the very grey landscape of the city.
Another Israeli street artist, AME72, paints whimsical images on dilapidated buildings through out the city purely to beautify it. As the artist said, “the setting affects the art” (Guarnieri). The author feels that the intention was not just beautification because some of the whimsical scenes are on buildings that were bombed or on buildings that were next to bombed buildings. She feels that these scenes are statements against the struggling Israel, and this opinion comes through with in the article. An example is when she turns the artist’s words around saying, “the artist impacts the setting” (Guarnieri). She continues to say that these unexpected images make the viewer question their world and what is around them.
Although Guarnieri’s evidence and arguments are convincing, the direct quotes from K47 and the other artists that basically contradict her, derail her position on the totality of politics in street art. Her acumen of Israel and its problems strengthens her article, but her opinion on the dispute between Israel and Palestine weakens it. Overall, she brings an interesting view of street art in such a closed society, but her article is conflicted.
http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/results/external_link_maincontentframe.jhtml;hwwilsonid=LHODDCRURIZJDQA3DINCFF4ADUNGIIV0
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