BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
What kind of monopoly money do you need to offer your CEO $ 1 trillion to incentivize him to stay? What power does an everyday person have in the face of such wealth? The national minimum wage, not updated since 2009, is $7.25 an hour. How stable can you expect the economy to be when a family’s two-month grocery bills are equivalent to one day’s yacht parking bill for others?
For Mr. and Ms. Everyday, there is a feeling of being financially trapped, with no relief in sight. Remember the Princeton study from a decade ago that stated average people have almost no voice in making change?
“The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.” (Read the full PDF here.)
Street artists often aim their spray cans at social and political fault lines, wielding invective and knife-sharp wit. Yet this week’s BSA interview with a pair of artists questions whether today’s practitioners still have the conviction to confront society’s social and economic ills. “One of the things I was playing with was the overly positive, banal affirmation-type quotes you see in a lot of street art,” says artist Alex Itin. “I see the country in a dangerous place, and positive bromides are not as important as anger and cogent analysis of our present state. So I wanted a bit of salt and burn… while still being funny.”
If the Princeton study still holds—and it does—then maybe it makes sense that artists confront this swilling morass of a kleptocracy and turn walls into soapboxes. After all, when billionaires and hedge funds treat your society like a yard sale and Congress keeps playing cashier, we could at least point out the absurdity. A stencil or mural won’t topple the problem, but it can cut through the haze, sharpen the joke, and remind us that resistance still has a voice—even if it has to shout from a brick wall.
This week, we have a lot of new stuff, particularly in the graffiti vein, from the Boone Avenue Festival in the Bronx a few weeks ago. Boone Avenue Walls is an artist-led, community-rooted street art festival in the Bronx, founded by renowned graffiti writer WEN C.O.D.. Organized by the Boone Avenue Walls Foundation, the event features large-scale murals and public art installations. Local and international artists are invited to paint in neighborhoods such as West Farms, Mott Haven, Foxhurst, and Hunts Point—often directly reflecting local pride and cultural touchstones of resilience and creativity. Many of these refer to music stars and reflect our fascination with celebrity. Some of these pieces were under production when we stopped by, while others were so fresh that you could still smell the fresh paint.
On our weekly interview with the street, we feature AESOP ONE, Albertus Joseph, Busta Art, Call Her Al, El Souls, EWAD, MELON, Miki Mu, NEO, Pazzesco Art, Persue, Pyramid Guy, Sue Works and Tony Sjoman.
