Christian Holmes Outside Reading #2

            While it’s not a “reading” per say, I watched a documentary a few weeks ago on the street artist Banksy, whom I am writing my final paper on. The documentary showcased a variety of both street art and street artists. Throughout the film, the origins and modern state of street art is explored and unpacked. The film spends a good deal of time discussing how street art has become and exhibit spectacle. This has led many street artists and critics to wonder if he exhibit has killed the art because it has destroyed the power of its original setting. Where street art was once something that disrupted common space and inserted a theme or idea in the midst of mediocrity and the normative state, putting it in the exhibit removes this element. In the exhibit, we expect symbolic expression. Therefore, the shock and counter-cultural power of street art is made moot.