BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
Spring is arriving, but conversations around the city keep circling back to the war—bombings, oil prices, and the prospect of boots on the ground. At bars, clubs, and bagel shops, the mood turns serious quickly. There’s little joking about it. Mostly, people wonder how this war began when so few seem to support it; recent polls put approval around 29%. Meanwhile, governments in more than 50 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and the Americas have called for a ceasefire, de-escalation, or a return to diplomacy in the widening conflict involving the United States, Israel, Iran, and others in the region. In New York—home to large communities from many of those same countries—the conversations feel personal, and the tension is easy to notice.
The famous yet anonymous Banksy has finally been revealed—at least according to a lengthy new piece in Reuters. Over the years, the elusive street artist has weighed in on the plight of Palestinians, Ukrainians, and African and Syrian refugees, and has often returned to the images of children as a symbol of hope, innocence, and loss. But at the moment, as events around the world turn darker by the day, few seem to be talking about his wry interventions.
In Washington, a satirical sculpture that appeared on the National Mall has been drawing laughs—and, for some, feelings of nausea. The piece depicts Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein in a Titanic-style pose and is titled “King of the World.” Reuters reports that the installation was created by the anonymous collective Secret Handshake. The Epstein scandal has been mentioned in some circles as a possible motive for distraction in launching the war, though others argue the drivers are more likely rooted in geopolitics—namely oil, and the petrodollar that runs through it.
Elsewhere on the Mall in February, near the Lincoln Memorial and the steps where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, a troupe of dancers staged a choreographed public performance. In stark, coordinated movements, the piece portrayed what organizers described as an erosion of civil rights and the violence of the state, referencing masked ICE raids in communities across the country. Part protest and part memorial, the performance used the site’s symbolism to connect today’s immigration-enforcement debates with the unfinished legacy of the civil rights movement. (video below)
Here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Alice Mizrachi, Calicho Art, City Kitty, Clark, Crash, Fun Quest, Humble, IMK, Inphiltrate, Manuel Alejando, Must Art, OSK, Outer Source, Rats, REPO, REVOLT, and TOWER.
