Street Art - Park Street Croydon, London - mural by Leon Seesix @dotmasters
Splashing love across traffic-splattered walls, this LOVE mural transformed my wait for a bus on a dingy February day. Now embellished with graffiti slogans, multi-layered visual voices impart love n street wisdom - READ BETWEEN THE LINES and BEAT THE COST OF LIVING GROW FOOD.
Twice imprisoned and exiled for his skirmishes with French authorities, rebel writer Voltaire (1694-1778) described writing as the ‘painting of the voice,’ and (spray) painting is also the writing of the voice. Researchers have found that cave paintings were created in particularly resonant spaces of caves, suggesting an intimate connection between the painted and sung/ spoken voices of our earliest ancestors. Today’s street artists leave their prints on visually and sonically resonant spaces - the under belly of bridges, subways and tunnels - surrounded by the rattle of traffic and the soundtrack of their earpods
The beauty of the visual voice is subject to the eyes and ears of the beholder. Inhabiting the fringe and taboo spaces, art often encounters censure from the culture to which it speaks. “People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish... but that's only if it's done properly,” says Banksy in Wall and Piece (2005). The condemnation of graffiti as visual litter fails to hear the voices resounding within the devastation of urban society. Protest, rebellion and provocation are not only born of rage with the world as it is but also hope that it might change - even if only on this piece of wall.
“Some people become cops because they want to make the world a better place. Some people become vandals because they want to make the world a better looking place.”
- Banksy, Wall and Piece
Graffiti and street art remind us that our vocal expressions - be they spoken, sung, written or signed - make their mark on life’s canvas. Like a stone skimming across water, our voices have a potentially vast ripple-out effect - one ruler’s declaration of war can forever change life locally and globally, not just in the present but for centuries to come. I’m just one of a sea of people passing by this mural daily on foot or bus, prompted to stop, look and listen. Art is an act of love, an invitation to look at the life from a new angle, and a challenge to become aware of what marks we are making - and voicing - in the world.
Banksy - There is Always Hope