New Book by Patrick Verel Attempts to Untangle the Graffiti Mural Discussion
In Graffiti Murals: Exploring The Impacts Of Street Art, a methodical study of graffiti and murals in Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Staten Island, Jersey City, Philadelphia, and Trenton (New Jersey), author Patrick Verel talks to all of the stakeholders he can find, revealing much in the telling of his findings. The author says he created this book from a paper he was researching for while completing his masters degree in urban studies, and you can tell his intention was to turn over as many stones as possible to study the impact this grassroots art movement is having on the communities that murals appear in.
Within an academic framework Verel makes sure to interview artists, property owners, local neighbors, law enforcement, and even the occasional Marxist scholar who explains the concept of “creative destruction” in capitalist global cities and the “necessary” cycles of gentrification they go through, often abetted unwittingly by artists.
He carefully studies some causative factors for graffiti writing, metrics for measuring in a sphere of criminality, the difficult distinctions we make between tags and throwies versus pieces, productions, and graffiti murals, and the sneakily deliberate practice of using sanctioned graffiti and Street Art as a deterrent for the unsanctioned stuff.
In the context of urban studies and planning, the creativity here is sort of reduced to pawndom, but as a social factor, he provides examination of the intersections of invested parties. It’s a tricky line to walk with possibilities of triangulation everywhere on this tightrope, but ultimately a wide swath of opinions is sampled by the author and given to you to assess.
Oh, yes, there are also murals – captured in situ, without romance. In this way the images are illustrative and informational amidst fields of text that sometimes gets into the weeds.
Couched in the agendas of city planners, business improvement districts, policy makers, landlords, and straight up economic lever-pullers, the aesthetic and cultural growth of the graffiti scene (and its various tributaries) takes a little bit of a backseat in this version of an enormous half-century long story.
Undoubtedly, every reader will come away knowing something new from “Graffiti Murals” and with a greater appreciation for many of the complexities around them in the US. Congratulations to Verel for trying to make sense of the contradictory laws, opinions, and social strategem that currently guide our path.
Graffiti Murals by Patrick Verel. Schiffer Publishing. 2016 (photos of plates by Jaime Rojo)
Graffiti Murals: Exploring the Impact of Street Art. Patrick Verel. Schiffer Publishing. 2016
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Now screening : 1. BEGR: Snow Painting 2. Gonzalo Borondo - ANIMAL 3. 2017 Women's March from 50/50 Skatepark 4. What's Your Story? PREZ
Street Artist Faring Purth is back on BSA again after a little while, this time on a commissioned piece in Old North St. Louis, Missouri. Typically known for its historic 19th-century brick homes and...
What a week - as bad news is replaced by horrible news. But seriously, the summer has been beautiful in the streets of New York in so many ways, and we feel lucky here - even though there appears...
Street Artist 0907 is somewhere in China today with this new multiples stencil of Jean Michel Basquiat as shot by Andy Warhol. If you had a doubt about the global appreciation of these artists on the ...
For those who were here, you'll never forget. Who did it and why? Depends on who is telling the story. Who made money in the 20 years afterward as a result? Good question. The plumes of sm...