Street Tart

Street Art-Contemporary Prints from the V & A

This street tart went to see some street art yesterday. Except it wasn't on the street. And therein lies the problem. This was artwork by street art and graffiti artists from around the world, presented out of context, not in it's gritty home in the favelas of Brazil or the arrondisements of Paris, but displayed very nicely and orderly on the clean, white, clinical walls of an art gallery in Carlisle. I felt that with the absence of a cultural setting something was lost. Instead of being 'street art' this was just 'art.' Don't get me wrong. Some of it was very nice art. The very nature of street art is that it 'lifts' iconic images and juxtaposes them to create meaning, perhaps I am jaded but I just felt that I'd seen it all before. It felt somehow, lazy. Perhaps I am missing the point. Perhaps this exhibition was about bringing 'classic' street art images to Carlisle, I suppose when these images were new, they were groundbreaking and set the stall for other aspiring artists from disadvantaged areas. But when the images are painted on canvas instead of brick, and screen printed on silk instead of stencilled on a wall, they become just another magazine spread or funky shoe box, instead of a comment on social  and political injustice or an endeavor to elevate an existence or make a mark on the world.