Streets ahead

Street art is a worldwide cultural phenomenon of revolutionary art which questions the existing environment. Street artists use urban settings as a platform to reach everyday people in order to influence the collective behaviour. Their pieces have their own language to communicate activist and social themes.

A large variety in street art media and techniques can be perceived, going from murals, installations, video projections, wheat pasting, flash mobbing, over stencil graffiti, LED art, poster art and sticker art to large graffiti master pieces made with aerosol paints or marker pens.
Graffiti is an initially unconventional art style which is associated with hip hop music. Hip hop, a subculture of our times, consists of several elements such as DJ-ing and scratching records, rap and beat box , graffiti and break-dance. MC’s spread their messages by rapping to beats.


Hip hop graffiti originally emerged from the inequalities poor urban youth in New York city were facing. Many poor residents were confronted with racism, class struggle, violence and total chaos. Imprisoned in their social situation, disenfranchised youth used this urban art style as an artistic resistance to authority. In New York Julio 204 and Taki 183 tagged their names in public spaces to reject their poor environment during the 1970’s.


The first hip hoppers voiced the frustrations of urban minorities on vehicles such as subway trains, public buildings, roofs, billboards, ... Graffiti artists use their pieces as a means of expression of the subculture, sharing their views on political and social misconduct in a dysfunctional society. It is not merely used to utter criticism but also spreads positive messages to inspire youngsters.


Street art is booming. Street artists as Aérosol and Banksy have achieved commercial success and seized the opportunity to show their art in museums or galleries. Or how underground became mainstream.


Article written by Ann Timmermans