Street Art of London

Week 1 / 6

London is such a beautiful and busy city. There is a lot to do and a lot to see. One thing that i love most about London so far, is the amount of street art that can be seen all around the city. For my Media, Gender, and Identity course, we had an excursion by Old Street Station, where a French tour guide showed us around to see some very interesting and gorgeous street art pieces. She told us a lot about the artist and what they go through in order to make street art. Especially since street art is considered "damage to property", individuals in the street art game have to be careful from getting caught by the law. One artist that we learned about does not have to worry about his street art pieces ever being considered as "damage to property" or being caught by law enforcement. Ben Wilson has been granted special permission to make art on gum that has been stuck onto pavement without getting a fine or arrested because the gum pieces themselves can be seen as damaging. Ben Wilson paints different pictures onto these small pieces of gum, right on the ground, and they can last up to 3 to 5 years! We also learned about how the street art world is composed of mostly men. Street art is a form of artistic expression and we heard stories about how artist are trying to have their pieces of works recognized as art and gallery worthy due to the stigma and marginalization that they encounter from artists who do make it in galleries. Street art has been around for many years and seems to be expanding!