A lot of teens see street art as disrespectful and illegal. I don’t think they realize each picture holds a story and is told in a creative way. Street art creates depths to a plain wall. A lot of different techniques go into street art such as LED art, video projection, street installations, etc.
LED Art is a style of light art constructed from light-emitting diodes. An LED throwie is a small LED linked to a coin and electrically tape. This is used so the LED lights don’t contain too much graffiti. Once an artist throws a LED throwie at a magnetic wall it will stay there. Many artists in this field of art are considered guerilla artists, incorporating LEDs to exhibit temporary pieces in public facilities. One of the most known artists in this field is Jenny Holzer. She went to Duke University and studied general art. Truisms are probably her best known work. This was a series of her work displayed in telephone booths, street posters, and even on Time Squares LED billboard. She uses statements linked from issues that were covered such as oppression, feminism, and violence.
A new form of modern art, I believe will be taking over museums is video projections. Video projections are a long term work of street art. This is where an artist paints an image and keeps on re-painting it to give the illusion it is moving. It is as though you are watching a movie, but in the form of images. One of my favorite artists who use this skill is BLU, who likes to be anonymous with his true identity. BLU is an Argentinean artist who has work throughout Europe. The collaboration of work between Ericailcane and BLU has a lot of popularity. This is because while BLU prefers to drawing humans, Ericailcane prefers animals. Each has their own twist that complement each others work. My favorite video projection is called Warszawa located in Poland.
Street installation is a now growing trend in the street art community. This is where instead of using flat surface, 3-D objects are used to interact with the urban environment. Some artist exploring in this new technique are Mark Jenkins and “above”. He is an American artist who uses box sealing tape to make the base form of the object being created, in which the object is encased in plastic wrap and then in tape. Jenkins’ first street project in 2003 was a series of clear tape casts made from his body that he set up on the streets in Rio de Janeiro. In 2006 Jenkins began the Embed Series, which is when he began dressing his casts of himself and Fernandez to produce realistic sculptures. “Above’s” birth name is unknown and is said to be 30 years old. He is known for his multi-layer work addressing issues in the world. He has his art all around the world in 50 countries and countless cities. My favorite is a stencil in Lisbon, Portugal which addresses the issue of the homeless citizens in our world. I admire the intensity of his sign-language tour; this was brought to 27 countries. It is all about a play on words and makes you think about the meaning for a while after reading.
As you can now tell street art is not a waste of time. This is a form of creatively addressing problems surrounding us. These are just some new and interesting forms of modern art. Art is becoming more modern by using electricity to bring their art to life.