I’ve been thinking about how people actively connect to place. Not everyone is active in this process; many let it happen to them; many do not notice. But my cousin Lauren is always in an active phase. She strolls through cities with her point-n-shoot in her pocket–looking for street art. I even had the privilege of her showing me around NYC, the city I lived in, and indoctrinating me into who painted what, who pasted up what, how, why. It is a knowledge she has cultivated. And done best in her own hometown of Chicago for the past three years. For example, her photo to the right is a “tip toe heart in hands paste-up, chicago.”
“It’s the reason walking these streets I’ve walked for 25 years stays interesting. My eyes are always darting around. Down alleys and around corners.”
She likes observing how a community represents itself in its own space. Now she sees every city she goes to in the context of street art. It’s like being a cyclist who notices the detailed cracks or fissures of any road. It’s a lens–perhaps a way of claiming place. Even Chicago Public Radio has discovered her flickr site and showcased her photos.
WHERE DO YOUR EYES GO IN YOUR LANDSCAPE?
Below is a story straight from Lauren’s email to me: (three of her photos here are #1 choke and goons paste ups, chicago, #2 miss van ice cream girl, toulousse, #3 C215 stencil on the pompidou, paris)
“i went to the countryside in northern england to meet and stay with a friend. our first day was spent in hedge rows picking blackberries. she spotted the little buggers effortlessly while i struggled to find my footing on the wet soil. thought to myself, damn. she sees berries like i see graffitti. the next night we drove an hour to newcastle for the ballet and a funk dj later. on our dark walk to the club i kept stopping to shoot stencils and stickers up on walls and electric boxes. (newcastle is certainly not a hub of public art but i was seeing what was there.) after a couple shots she turned to me and said, you find graffiti like i find blackberries. it was like a meteor shower of that full-circle connection we all want so bad. and you know i want to find blackberries like she does. i want to know the difference between the ones that will kill you and the ones you can make a pie with. but i don’t. i know cities. urban landscape and it’s layers. so together we were an unstoppable team. ready to fight crime and can jam on the regular.”
Tags: street art
this is cool. my husband is working on an architecture project related to street art/graffiti right now.
Not only do I enjoy the photos Lauren takes, but I also love her writing. Wish she would attempt a book.
San Francisco. Living in a big city for the first time in my life…. I have never experienced such amazing public art. Art that is made with the intention of being viewed by many…Artists putting themselves out there with no intention of reciprocity. It is a gift for the community. Often times political, controversial, critical, humorous, it mixes together to become the collective voice of the place. Regardless of whether I agree or disagree, like or dislike, it puts forth something to react to…it changes my interior dialogue as I walk by unconsciously at times, going through the motions of my day… it inspires me to put my own voice out there, and actively engage as you say, with the place I have chosen to be.
Dang Moll, this is excellent!
Thanks everyone. Jen, I especially appreciate how public art inspires you to be brave about exposing your own art. Yes indeed, what Lauren is capturing is excellent.
It’s funny, I’m also living in SF/Oakland right now – not Northern England where I picked blackberries with Lauren. And not only do I get to experience the incredible street art that Jen has so artfully described but I also marvel daily at the extreme amount of abundance there is in the form of plums, loquots, grapes, apples, pears and now ripe blackberries too – fruit trees flanking bustling sidewalks and rail tracks, vines crowning barbed wire fences, lazily draped along brick walls to catch and stroke the heads of passersby. Never have I lived in a city where the natural bounty is so accessible. I’ve got the scraped knees from multiple tree trunks to prove it!
Thanks Molly, I really liked the piece.
http://www.producetothepeople.org