Article by Brandon Choi

IN MY MIND a documentary about street art written and designed by Brandon Choi

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sudden hiss breaks through the silence. As the city of New York wakes up from its slumber, a hooded figure dances and weaves along a train car, rattling the spray can in his hand. He pauses underneath the rising sun, scanning the battered metal carriage. The chirping of birds and the honks of bustling cars can be heard starting up within the city. The figure begins.

Hiss! Crackle! Pause. Hiss! Crackle! Hiss! Crackle!

Pause. This continues as the figure expertly alternates between cans, the car gradually coming alive with vivid colors and vibrant faces. The figure looks up when he hears a shout from the other side. He runs, his pounding heart deafening his ears. He hears footsteps kicking away the gravel behind him. As he approaches another train car, he slides under the carriage as he hears the voice cursing behind him, trying to find a way to get to him. The man then walks out into the rising sun of New York city, looking for another wall to tag.

This is the life of a street artist in the 1970’s.

Art has acted as a vehicle for many aspects of human culture, allowing mankind to channel their creativity and express their individuality through a variety of forms; music, paintings, films, etc. The art form of graffiti was meant to be transgressive, meaning that it was created to combat and alienate the power of commercialism and government infrastructure. Street art was viewed as a negative staple to the society at the time, however it served many benefits. The art itself created a creative outlet for the disenfranchised groups of the city to convey their dissatisfaction with the society, which at the time did not serve the minorities or the poor much justice and aid.

New York City in the 1970’s, amidst the quickly arising graffiti scene.

“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” - Banksy Graffiti art, or “tagging”, was introduced first in Philadelphia in the 1960’s, when graffiti artists “Cornbread” and “Cool Early” started to use their black markers to tag their names on public property. But the popularity of tagging really began to skyrocket when artist “Topcat-126” brought over the practice of tagging walls to the city of New York.

When in creating his tagging signature, Topcat-126 combined his nickname and street number. This method was widely adopted throughout New York. The taggers from Philadelphia and New York had a lot in common, despite being from different states.

Yes, they were all bold and creative, but also young and poor, with limited choices of how and where to spend their free time in a time of rampant gang violence.

Street art has evolved immensely from when it first originated. What was once considered vandalism, has now become a lot more urbanized and socially acceptable. Towards the middle of the 1980’s, we saw the CCP (Clean Car Program) clean up the subway cars from all graffiti, understandably so. This proved to be very successful, as subway cars also started to begin to be fenced in with dogs, restriction on paint sales were created, including an 18 years or older age restriction on buying paint from stores.

Although short-lived, the era of subway-graffiti is still an iconic one to the citizens of New York and the street art community that has paved the way for innumerable artists to step forward and create their own art.

At the turn of the 21st century, we began to see the public slowly open up to street art. Street art galleries began to get set up, where they would hold shows and showcase the beautiful artwork of the street artists. This opened up a lot of doors for young artists and also provided a new perspective to the community that had once considered street art to be detrimental to society. They were able to view art as a positive, impactful force to the world.

“I laugh at the way some people think graffiti is all selfish tagging and vandalism. Thoughtful street art is like good fiction – it speaks out on behalf of everyone, for us all to see.” - Carla H. Krueger The needle is moving and cities all throughout the US are supporting this new movement of promoting art and propagating its artists. Some cities have even started to decriminalize graffiti. For example, San Francisco, California, have created a variation of programs to funnel the talent of young artists into benefits and away from vandalism. (Although still acknowledging graffiti on public property as a crime) The approach was to use commissioned murals or other works of art to ornament buildings that would be taken down otherwise, which would cost more money.

Street art is also being used as a tool for gentrification in urban communities, which is often looked down upon in the art community. However, when looking in hindsight, these works of art greatly benefit not only the community’s outside appearance, but also benefits the spirit of the community and allows them to unify as one whole populace.

Although the world is far from perfect, if the world can evolve into a happier place through art, even slowly, then it is worth a try to sustain and nourish the culture.

sdfldfnBrandon Choi is a junior who attends Mountain View High School and Freestyle Academy. He is an aspiring videographer/designer who has professional experience in the entertainment industry, primarily through music videos and album cover design. He hopes to reach/inform a mass public about street art and it’s history through this documentary project.