Ephemeral – lasting for a markedly brief time.
Street art is, and always should be, ephemeral. In theory I should be able to end the article here, but that’s not a very good read now is it, so let’s get a bit deeper.
Almost every time an artist paints over a piece of work the online community kick off like youtube has banned videos containing cats or fat kids. Change is part of the organic nature of street art, it’s not meant to last forever and many viewers and contributors need to get their head round this.
A quick wander round East and you’ll see what I’m talking about. A handful of artists seem to be claiming more and more wall space as their own.
We’re amidst an invasion of moderately talented street art Nazis all armed with spraypaint and a strong desire to take on the liberated free world to claim as their own.
We’ve recently been lucky enough to have the Chinese artist Dal East visit London. For those unaware, this is a pretty big deal, the dude is about as big as they come. If you don’t believe me just try and buy one of his prints when he next drops one and you’ll soon see. Dal has hit up a few spots recently and I think it’s pretty safe to say he’s successfully made his mark.
However, despite the magnitude and ability of Dal, people still feel the need to kick off. In order for Dal to paint, he has to paint over other artists work, this is part and parcel of the game. His piece in Sclater St car park has marked the loss of Jimmy C’s ridiculously popular portrait of Usain Bolt, not Eddie Murphy as I once overheard. A glance online and you can see the true colours of rage emerging from those living on both sides of the can.
Let me break this down for you. This was a portrait of an unbelievably successful Olympic athlete who by no means needed any more promotion. This piece has remained unscathed for the best part of a year, serving as a constant reminder of that time when we all said to ourselves, I should probably join the gym. A symbol of countries uniting to celebrate different cultures and backgrounds, perhaps it is. Borderline Puma advert, it definitely is. Worthy of permanent placement on a prime location, sorry Jimmy, but as talented as you are, no. Cue Dal East. Now we have something fresh to look at and so the circle of life continues, we should feel lucky that it does.
Not only is it the fans jumping in, it’s very much the artists themselves kicking off. I’m not one for naming and shaming, but there is far too many artists feeling they have to spend years returning to pieces to touch them up. Would it be so bad to just let something go and see what naturally unfolds with time?
A “prime” (pun intended) example of this is the contrast between Hanbury St. and Bacon St. Two fantastic spots directly off Brick Lane but both are incredibly different. Hanbury is Darwin’s wet dream, a tribute to evolution. The street is constantly changing, of course excluding the infamous Roa crane. Bacon St on the other hand remains more stagnant than Michael Barrymore’s pool water. In the last two years I think I’ve seen Bacon St. change maybe once, but I genuinely couldn’t count the number of artists we’ve had on Hanbury. Some of which have provided my all time favourite pieces. It’s the element of discovery that makes street art fun, the hidden jewels of the city that disappear just as quickly as they mysteriously once appeared.
In the last few months there’s been a massive rise of post-graff street artists floating around. Hit the streets by all means, but how many walls do you need to fill with the exact same unchallenging content? How many times do you think it’s ok to come down and touch up your work? Would it really be too much to see how another person can use the space?
Questions should be asked and debates should take place. There is no scripture, no clear-cut definition of right and wrong in street art, but surely we can all agree that there’s beauty with being in the right place at the right time, simply lucky enough to witness something special that we know won’t last forever.
