Questioning graffiti and street art as acts of resistance
<p>Over the past half century, not only has there been an increase in the amount and types of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Routledge-Handbook-Graffiti-International-Handbooks/dp/0367335972/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1680193994&sr=1-21" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">graffiti and street art</a> appearing in large urban centers, but so too has attention paid to this type of urban public art.</p>
<p>One of dominant questions, however, that pervades this activity is why do people and groups engage in graffiti and street art?</p>
<p>Temporarily setting aside <a href="https://works.bepress.com/jeffreyianross/106/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">definitions of graffiti and street art</a>, since the emergence of these activities, one of the dominant perceptions is that graffiti and street art are acts of resistance.</p>
<p>Indeed a considerable amount of graffiti and street art has been produced during major social and political revolutions, protests (e.g., <a href="https://jeffreyianross.com/graffiti-street-art-in-reaction-to-the-death-of-george-floyd/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Black Lives Matter</a>), and campaigns of resistance (e.g., <a href="https://jeffreyianross.com/painting-without-permission-graffiti-street-art-as-a-response-to-the-russian-invasion-of-ukraine/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">against the Russian Invasion of Ukraine</a>), etc. (thus leading to the term <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Conflict-Graffiti-Gentrification-John-Lennon/dp/0226815692/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2BBMSZEKMOI2N&keywords=conflict+graffiti&qid=1680193791&s=books&sprefix=conflict+graffiti%2Cstripbooks%2C69&sr=1-1" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">conflict graffiti</a>), but there is a significant amount of graffiti/street art that is put up that bears no connection to these types of events.</p>
<p>Thus to suggest that all work done by street art luminaries such as <a href="https://works.bepress.com/jeffreyianross/107/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Banksy or Shepard Fairey</a>, for example, are works of resistance is a gross simplification of their body of work.</p>
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