Community
Around the Block
Jean-Michel .
Banksy
Nunca and Os Gemeos
Community should not only be limited to people, as buildings are what set the grounds for most communities to form. Buildings are the first signs of civilisation in the area. Many people do not realise it, but the type buildings in community can be very telling of the culture and community. For example, the apartments in Europe can look extremely different from the apartment buildings in Asia and this can tell you a lot about the society and community. The artwork found in these communities are also very telling about the community. Art is usually a reflection of the feelings of the people or the situation of society at that particular moment. Compiling all of these works give the community a sense of individuality, allowing it to stand out from other communities. This collection of works embody how artworks that anybody can view can set the tone of the community, embody the status of society, and show what the culture of the community is about.
This work by James Cochran can be found in Shoreditch, London. This piece of graffiti work can be found within a community and has become a part of everyday life in the community. This work has been become a part of the community's life as it many people pass it by everyday while carrying out their daily activities. This mural is in a part of town which has many passers-by and is in a place where many people go just to view the graffiti works. This shows how the work has become a way of showing the culture of the community and how it has added to the individuality and personality of the area, really becoming ingrained as a part of the community.This piece of work embodies Cochran's unique signature aerosol pointillist style of graffiti. He achieves this style by simply spraying dots of differently coloured paint together to achieve dimension and tonal differences. This shows well in this piece where several spherical orbs are incorporated into the design.
In this work, he had even given a 3D effect to the piece, which makes it even more unusual and sets it apart for most other graffiti artists and well as his own works. Cochran had further made this pointillist style his own as he allows his dots to have drips, he himself calling the style of these paintings "drip paintings".
This work by Banksy is called the "Mobile Lovers" and is painted on a side door of a youth club in Bristol. The piece garnered a lot of attention as per usual with all of Banksy's works, however this piece is unique as the club door it was painted on is a 120 year old youth club which was in danger of closing. This work is featured here as it was not only located within the community, but it helped to save the club buy acting as a source of monetary profit after it was sold for £403,000. The piece also raised awareness of the club's existence in the community as well as helped to preserve an integral part of the community with many years of history behind it. This painting in a way helped to save years of work done and collated by the youths in the community, saving something that held a lot of meaning to many people.
This piece is done using Banksy's signature technique of using stencils to create his graffiti art. This work also contains his usual dark humour, in this work the subject confronting the fact that people have become increasingly absorbed by their mobile phones. Another way of interpreting this painting is that people have become so absorbed by their social media websites that it actually interferes when they are socialising in person. In this is shows how relationships are affected by social media and its attention grabbing nature that it shows how people have become unable to spend quality time with each other. It is interesting that this piece was painted on the side door of a youth club, the youths being the biggest culprit of having their lives taken over by social media. This means that the work was meant to be a statement for the youths who hang around the area or those who visit the club, although the audience is not limited to that specific group of people within the community.
This work can be found in Boston, USA on the Institute of Contemporary Art. The location of this work really makes it a stand-out piece in the community that everyone can see as it is directly across the main train station of the city. This means that this pieces is easy to locate and will be viewed by many people in the community regardless of their social stature, age or whether they live nearby the area or not. The work being a free piece of work to view also makes art more accessible to the community. This mural is not only extremely visible to its location but also because the mural takes up an entire side of the institute, making it extremely large. Although the artists are not from Boston the mural had opened a lot of doors for the artists within the communuty of Boston as it is the first mural of that size in the city. Hence this work helped to give the artists in the community more freedom for their work which can also equate to the freedom of expression in the city. This can help facilitate in further creating the community's individuality.
This mural was put together using spray paint on the wall of the actual institute building. The OSGEMEOS were invited to create this work together with a solo exhibition held for them in the institute. The piece does not hold any political or contemplative meaning as per what the artists intended with this piece. The aim with this mural was to add a sense of playfulness to the city, something which they often try to achieve with their other works. To them, their works should always carry forward a positive message, which is successfully carried across with their extensive use of bright and eye catching colours in the entire painting
James Cochran
Girl with Spheres in 3D, 2012
Spray paint on concerete
Banksy
Mobile Lovers, 2014
Spray paint on metal
OSGEMEOS
2012
Spray paint on concrete