Anarchism and Art by Mattern Mark

Author:Mattern, Mark
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2016-05-16T16:00:00+00:00

Equality

By emphasizing the importance of private property, and establishing a government to protect it, the liberal democratic social contract practically ensures that property owners wield power over those who own little or no property. Liberal democracies offer little remedy for this, resorting instead to fictions of political equality and equal opportunity. Although popular resentment occasionally surfaces, as it did during the Great Recession with the Occupy movement’s 99 percent message, in general this formula remains an enduring and rarely challenged fact of life in liberal democracies.

Graffiti and street artists rebel against this status quo. If the walls of the city represent property and authority, graffiti and street artists attack both in a sustained, graphic assertion of equality. They assert their unwillingness to accede to the terms of a social contract that grants power and authority to property owners and the state institutions that protect them. They engage in a struggle for greater equality, pitting a ragtag army of artists against powerful, well-funded commercial and state forces intent on eliminating them. If this is a war, it is a war that graffiti and street artists can scarcely hope to win against such overwhelming odds. Graffiti and street artists remain marginalized, always subject to punitive responses by the authorities, their work vilified and buffed. On the other hand, most urban environments offer ample evidence of resilient graffiti and street artists, suggesting that powerful commercial and state forces can never fully win without resorting to an Orwellian police state.

Generally, mainstream media present the perspective from above; graffiti and street artists present the view from below, from people with little or no access to sanctioned means of communication. Graffiti and street art provide a way to speak back, to deny the terms imposed by dominant forces and to assert different terms.52

Most graffiti and street artists work outside the system of commodity production and exchange. They produce art for art’s sake, for the sake of their inner muses, and for the sake of community members who share an affinity for it. Graffiti and street artists do their work with the expectation that their art may disappear quickly, buffed out by government workers or property owners. This ephemeral quality of graffiti and street art helps prevent its commodification. The “canvas”—concrete walls, steel beams, billboards, railroad cars—also defies commodification since, with rare exceptions, it cannot be purchased and moved into a gallery or private home. This makes graffiti and street art a truly public art, in which anyone with a spray can or enamel marker can contribute as an artist, and in which the art itself remains accessible to all, not just those who can purchase it.

Within the graffiti and street art communities, there are few significant barriers to entry. Costs of materials such as spray paint, markers, yarn, or stencils are minimal. Becoming a graffiti or street artist is a viable option for anyone who has a spray can and is willing to risk an encounter with the police. Talent and skill are recognized and valued, but beginners are welcome.

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