The word graffiti comes from the Greek word, ‘graphein,’ which means to write. Another variation is the Italian word, ‘graffiare,’ which means to scratch. Graffiti, or drawing goes back to even Mayan ruins.
Making art to express how you feel isn’t new, and with the recent climate of the world, there has been a lot of art being made. There are several artists people take inspiration from, Banksy, Marina Abramovic, Shepard Fairey, and many others that have taken inspiration and gone to the streets and art studios to spread their voices and opinions through art.
An art show in the Recycled Propaganda Gallery from February 7th – March 29th has works of art reflecting their political opinions about the fascist systems at play in the US.
One of the pieces was a collection of photographs called Freedom Kick, photos taken by Jason Goodrich and James Schneiber, with the heads sculpted by Eugenio Merino. The photos are used to reflect how geopolitics is just a rigged game, with the sculpted heads of “tyrants” being posed as the ball in the photographs. To really drive the point home, they took the heads to places, such as the Washington Monument and took photos of people playing futbol/soccer with them. As their artist statement says. “What football shares in common with activism, with community building, is that it can happen anywhere. Anything can become a pitch, as we tried to demonstrate… But we can play our resistance anywhere, with whatever is available, with whoever is down.”
Another piece titled Liberated Vinyl (Steal This Billboard) is vinyl taken off billboards and repurposed into art pieces. Not only are they stunning, but they also have a much deeper meaning. In their artist statement, they say, “Then we thought, what about just stealing them? Like, we could liberate the billboard the same way we hope the edits we make might liberate the minds of the people.” In a world where we are focused on what we are being fed by the media, it is hard to see what is really going on. Another piece in the show is some photos, (which could be considered vandalism) the photos of before and after editing by the artists. The result is a work of art with real billboard images with altered messages that reflect what is occurring in the present.
Of course, one of the most interesting pieces of the show that caught a lot of attention is titled, The Emperor Has No Balls. The sculpture is a recreation of Donald Trump’s likeness, unclothed, with painted tattoos. The tattoos seem to be obsolete, but if you look closer you can see ones that have deep meaning to how he may be perceived by the opposite political party. Trump’s actions have been subject to scrutiny, being said that he censors anyone who doesn’t agree with him, and the artist explains, “We wish this one hadn’t been so prescient. And brazen enough to still believe in a couple things worth fighting for. We won’t bore you with them here. But the freedom to make a statue of a politician with a micropenis is one we hope survives the next election cycle.”
Whether the art is saying they want to keep our freedom, life is not fair, or, as Banksy said, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” So whenever you see art next, whether it’s in a gallery, or in an alleyway, think of not only its aesthetic purposes, but its social purpose to reflect what the artist could have been thinking.”
