tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post619309396625539598..comments2024-03-26T23:41:10.319+00:00Comments on Authors Electric: Out on the Street, by Mari BiellaKatherine Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-88161968963386077722016-05-03T20:28:48.875+01:002016-05-03T20:28:48.875+01:00Fascinating post, Mari. Thank you for bringing bac...Fascinating post, Mari. Thank you for bringing back memories of my days in Los Angeles - always a great street art battleground and showcase. Los Angeles was the Paris of wall art in the 1960s, with a proliferating of brilliant images by Latino and counterculture artists, always in a tense cold war with commercial interests and authorities. About 10 years ago, media-corporation ad agencies and billboard companies got the city to ban street art outright by threatening to sue the city into bankruptcy. The tide turned in 2012 when the city made wall art legal again, with certain strictures that haven't prevented another renaissance. http://mic.com/articles/128455/latino-street-artists-levi-ponce-kristy-sandoval-and-hoodsisters-lead-los-angeles-mural-renaissance#.Cb1FxaH9aUmberto Tosihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04939504157464234443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-55017471293131830512016-05-03T10:10:02.523+01:002016-05-03T10:10:02.523+01:00Mari, I agree with your sense of unease - but I th...Mari, I agree with your sense of unease - but I think it's all part of some predictable and quite fascinating cycle. For example, I admire Tracy Emin hugely, not least because I think she always had an eye to the commercial possibilities of her 'subversive' art, and cleverly exploited the desire of millionaires to buy into authenticity! Good for her. She didn't buy into the idea that there was some virtue to be had by starving in a garret. But I don't think art or fiction should always be subversive any more than I think food should always be exciting and experimental. Often I want plain bread and butter or fish and chips (although I'd agree that it needs to be good bread and butter, fresh fish, well cooked chips!) A diet of fine dining would be exhausting. Sometimes, when I'm reading or engaging with art in some way, I want to be stimulated and dazzled, but - more often, if I'm honest - I want to be comforted, reassured, simply entertained. If we always make our art or write and publish to 'be subversive' a kind of self consciousness can enter in. Catherine Czerkawskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14554969254207924049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-58916852745666783772016-05-03T10:05:37.089+01:002016-05-03T10:05:37.089+01:00Ah, but subversion against who or what, Lee? I mus...Ah, but subversion against who or what, Lee? I must admit, that's no longer quite as clear to me as it once was...Mari Biellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14221256993468150226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-17932063366565540272016-05-03T09:12:02.092+01:002016-05-03T09:12:02.092+01:00Art should always be subversive. Why else make it?...Art should always be subversive. Why else make it? So do I believe there is a moral for self-publishers? Yes, I do. Unfortunately, I don't see much subversiveness in evidence. Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13770069472552779217noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-81983811470814306702016-05-02T14:33:57.802+01:002016-05-02T14:33:57.802+01:00Thanks for the comments, all. (And Wendy, that is ...Thanks for the comments, all. (And Wendy, that is surely one of the all-time classic typos!) Valerie, the comparison with fashion occurred to me too: the mainstream has a tendency to subsume the eccentric and unusual but, like Bill, I find the idea of Banksy's work hanging in a millionaire's home a bit much to stomach...Mari Biellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14221256993468150226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-70522504789597746122016-05-02T13:04:17.961+01:002016-05-02T13:04:17.961+01:00Some of that street art is beautiful, thanks for s...Some of that street art is beautiful, thanks for sharing Mari. I've only been to Brighton once (for the World Fantasy Convention plus an event in an indie children's bookshop where we all got to dress up as witches). It was Halloween so the weather wasn't great, but it felt to me like a London-playgroundish version of my own living-on-a-shoestring seaside town of Torbay, only five hours along the south coast on the train...Katherine Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-49453249016056846332016-05-02T12:21:21.982+01:002016-05-02T12:21:21.982+01:00Great post again, Mari. The thought of Banksy'...Great post again, Mari. The thought of Banksy's subversive insights hanging (or daubed) on the walls of Philip Green and his ilk is beyond satirical. And I, too, agree about Brighton. My daughter and family are there but I'm not sure there are enough fascists around to achieve any significant mating. (Good one, Wendy.)Bill Kirtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16345949773423764808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-13804998586270556152016-05-02T10:22:42.864+01:002016-05-02T10:22:42.864+01:00Yes, best typo ever Wendy! Thanks for an interesti...Yes, best typo ever Wendy! Thanks for an interesting and 'different' post Mari. The same thing happens in clothes, where rebellion against fashion diktats becomes designer, then high street. There is no 'quality control' for street art as such, similar situation to that insisted on by those who don't like self-pub or indie publishers. Yet some vibrant and wonderful work has emerged from this lack of regulation.Lydia Bennethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09328239009863878547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-73018768567111674382016-05-02T10:06:46.441+01:002016-05-02T10:06:46.441+01:00Fascist mating! Do they do that in Brighton too? I...Fascist mating! Do they do that in Brighton too? I must tell my friends and rellies wot live there.Jan Needlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15823078224282953782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-63575832411749345032016-05-02T09:21:41.125+01:002016-05-02T09:21:41.125+01:00I love your comments about Brighton, Mari. My daug...I love your comments about Brighton, Mari. My daughter lives there, on a shoestring, as a designer-maker and half of a duo running circus workshops. It's full of such off-the-mainstream people. <br />Street art can be anything from amazing and thought-provoking to sad ugly rubbish (c/f books?)but I know not everyone agrees about how to judge its merits - my daughter and me, for example!Sandra Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01761260568729338471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-6389353285340906962016-05-02T09:02:18.090+01:002016-05-02T09:02:18.090+01:00A fascist mating insight into a topic which is oft...A fascist mating insight into a topic which is often ignored. Street art is always a contentious issue yet is strikingly beautiful if it becomes mainstream it will lose some of it's power and lesson it's intrinsic value of being free art. Wendy H. Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04022089775887274043noreply@blogger.com