Christian Holmes Class Reading #2

Heidegger’s point that art reveals truth by presenting objects outside of their primary and normal environment makes me thing a great deal about the European street art movement. Much of the foundations of European and North American street are rooted in taking pop culture symbols and repurposing them for the artist’s own creative purposes. For example, one of the early American street artists “Space Commander” would create stencils of classic Space Invaders buildings and place them around urban areas. His art took a symbol completely out of its normal state and represented it as something new. In this way, Space Commander achieved art through taking an old symbol and making it new through new context. This shift in context allows both the object itself and the audience to be unique participants in the artistic experience because both are unique due to the shift in context.