Street Art Of Resistance

This book explores how street art has been used as a tool of resistance to express opposition to political systems and social issues around the world. Aesthetic devices such as murals, tags, posters, street performances and caricatures are discussed in terms of how they are employed to occupy urban spaces and present alternative visions of social reality. Based on empirical research, the authors use the framework of creative psychology to explore the aesthetic dimensions of resistance that can be found in graffiti, art, music, poetry and other creative cultural forms. Chapters include case studies from countries including Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico and Spain to shed new light on the social, cultural and political dynamics of street art not only locally, but globally. This innovative collection will be of particular interest to scholars of social and political psychology, urban studies and the wider sociologies and is essential reading for all those interested in the role of art in social change.

Recent global events, including the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings, Occupy movements and anti-austerity protests across Europe have renewed scholarly and public interest in collective action, protest strategies and activist subcultures. We know that social movements do not just contest and politicise culture, they create it too. However, scholars working within international politics and social movement studies have been relatively inattentive to the manifold political mediations of graffiti, muralism, street performance and other street art forms. Against this backdrop, this book explores the evolving political role of street art in Latin America during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It examines the use, appropriation and reconfiguration of public spaces and political opportunities through street art forms, drawing on empirical work undertaken in Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina. Bringing together a range of insights from social movement studies, aesthetics and anthropology, the book highlights some of the difficulties in theorising and understanding the complex interplay between art and political practice. It seeks to explore 'what art can do' in protest, and in so doing, aims to provide a useful point of reference for students and scholars interested in political communication, culture and resistance. It will be of interest to students and scholars working in politics, international relations, political and cultural geography, Latin American studies, art, sociology and anthropology.

This stunning book of photographs captures the graffiti and art that have transformed Israel's wall into a living canvas of resistance and solidarity. Featuring the work of artists Banksy, Ron English, Blu, and others, as well as Palestinian artists and activists, these photographs express outrage, compassion, and touching humor. They illustrate the wall's toll on lives and livelihoods, showing the hardship it has brought to tens of thousands of people, preventing their access to work, education, and vital medical care. Mixed with the images are portraits and vignettes, offering a heartfelt and inspiring account of a people determined to uphold their dignity in the face of profound injustice.

The best way to learn history is to visualize it! Since 1998, Josh MacPhee has commissioned and produced over one hundred posters by over eighty artists that pay tribute to revolution, racial justice, women's rights, queer liberation, labor struggles, and creative activism and organizing. Celebrate People's History! presents these essential moments—acts of resistance and great events in an often hidden history of human and civil rights struggles—as a visual tour through decades and across continents, from the perspective of some of the most interesting and socially engaged artists working today. Celebrate People's History includes artwork by Cristy Road, Swoon, Nicole Schulman, Christopher Cardinale, Sabrina Jones, Eric Drooker, Klutch, Carrie Moyer, Laura Whitehorn, Dan Berger, Ricardo Levins Morales, Chris Stain, and more.

In Graffiti: Vandalism, Street Art and Cultural Significance, the authors first present a study wherein a political dimension of art was analyzed using Jacques Rancière's theory, the micropolitical context in contemporary cities was analyzed using Michael Foucault's theory, and the research methodology was based on the urban ethnography of Italian author Massimo Canevacci. They present the experiences of five graffiti writers, exposing themes of resistance against societal rules. Next, the books examine an event that happened during a graffitti workshop with youths in a city in the South of Brazil. The attempt to draw graffiti on a schools white wall, seen by the youths as transgression towards the institution and its rules, brought about a variety of reactions. The security guard reprimanded them, and the pedagogical coordinator listened to them, but also mentioned the possibility of asking the directors permission. After listening to the youths arguments and negotiating the image which would be drawn, the director ended up allowing the graffiti to be created. Next, the authors present a study on graffiti art in a skate park in Malta, with the goal of exploring some of the functions the artworks serve. The skate park authorises graffiti in an attempt to create safe spaces for young people aimed at engaging them in creative, recreational activities they enjoy doing. The authors suggest that graffiti art in designated spaces could potentially reverse the association of graffiti with social unrest, fear, vandalism and crime. Following this, the book analyzes graffiti and street-art production of the extreme right-wing groups in Slovenia. The authors state that modern fascism is direct, exclusive, and aggressive, while postmodern fascism has the potential to be even more dangerous, because it looks inclusive, conciliatory, and its diction seems integrative. The concluding study explores the efficiency of the laser cleaning of graffiti spray paints on different types of stone. Five graffiti spray paints are applied on marble, limestone and granite. After that, they are treated with two laser cleaning setups and the potential of the CuBrVL for cleaning of graffiti spray paints is demonstrated for the first time.

This stunning book of photos captures the graffiti and art that has transformed Israel's wall into a living canvas of resistance and solidarity. Featuring the work of artists including Banksy, Ron English, Blu and others, as well as Palestinian artists and activists, these photos express outrage, compassion, and touching humour. They illustrate the wall's toll on lives and livelihoods, showing the hardship it has brought to tens of thousands of people, preventing their access to work, education and vital medical care. Mixed with the photos are portraits and vignettes, offering a heartfelt and inspiring account of a people determined to uphold their dignity in the face of profound injustice.

This book is about resistance in everyday life, illustrated through empirical contexts from different parts of the world. Resistance is a widespread phenomenon in biological, social and psychological domains of human cultural development. Yet, it is not well articulated in the academic literature and, when it is, resistance is most often considered counter-productive. Simple evaluations of resistance as positive or negative are avoided in this volume; instead it is conceptualised as a vital process for human development and well-being. While resistance is usually treated as an extraordinary occurrence, the focus here is on everyday resistance as an intentional process where new meaning constructions emerge in thinking, feeling, acting or simply living with others. Resistance is thus conceived as a meaning-making activity that operates at the intersection of personal and collective systems. The contributors deal with strategies for handling dissent by individuals or groups, specifically dissent through resistance. Resistance can be a location of intense personal, interpersonal and cultural negotiation, and that is the primary reason for interest in this phenomenon. Ordinary life events contain innumerable instances of agency and resistance. This volume discusses their manifestations, and it is therefore of interest for academics and researchers of cultural psychology, cultural studies, anthropology, sociology, and human development.

This study focuses on street art and large-scale murals in metropolitan Miami/Dade County, while also foregrounding the diasporic and aesthetic interventions made by migrant and second-generation artists whose families hail from the Caribbean and Latin America. Jana Evans Braziel argues that Caribbean and Latinx street artists define and visually mark the city of Miami as a diasporic, transnational urban space. These artists also help define Miami as a cosmopolitan city, yet one that is also a distinctly Caribbean and Latinx urban space, and simultaneously resist but also (at times reluctantly) participate in the forces of gentrification and urban re/development, particularly through the myriad and complex ways in which street art contributes to city branding and art tourism. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, urban studies, American studies, and Latin American/Caribbean studies.