(written by Kaitlin Fitzmahan)
In San Francisco’s Mission District, between Valencia and Guerrero on 18th, there lies the MaestraPeace of The Women’s Building. The mural is filled with women of diverse backgrounds and ages. Painted in animated colors from corner to corner, these women speak for the mission as they weave together a three-story illustrated narrative. Fifteen years ago, a group of locals decided that rather than Sony and Sketcher ads littering the building, they’d line their streets with morals and cultural icons. The neighbors painted on this wall their vision of community.
The status of our urban space has become a subject of increasing relevance as capital and economic priority encloses more and more on what we once thought of as ‘public.’ Although not typically considered public space, privately owned buildings whose walls face sidewalks and public thoroughfares affect the public visual landscape.
Increasingly, outdoor advertising in major metropolitan cities have appropriated ‘private’ walls. Advertising, the tacit co-opting of sights and sounds, is one of the most dominant visual presences in our cities on buildings, billboards, buses, walls, cars, sidewalks, and lampposts. Author John Jota Leaños notes in his work on public space and cultural identity, “Advertising zones are panoptic, penetrating, and borderless. Programmed with complex ideological code, corporate advertising has placed itself at the forefront of a new architectural landscape.”
There have also been increasing efforts by police and urban planners to control public spaces through architectural and technological tactics, in order to protect private property and maintain the stats quo.
What if communities are tired of the status quo?
It is time to address how we view public space and what to do with it. Isn’t it the community’s choice not to be bombarded by advertisements or bored by oppressive concrete walls? We can redefine our neighborhood and the city by bringing people together to inspire an urban transformation – an urban beautification.
Public art campaigns reconstruct the visual environment with the input and involvement of local city dwellers who crave to be made a part of city planning and urban development. Urban beautification – art in our streets – brings to the forefront the individual’s ability to talk back to our consumer-based city and its accompanying billboards.
Like the Women’s Building, the beautification of our cities calls for active involvement of our neighborhoods. Murals and community art campaigns exist throughout San Francisco and the Bay area: from the Deboce Biking Mural to convenience stores. Murals make our city an urban gallery. City programs such as the San Francisco Arts Commission and community projects like The Mission Arts and Performance Project (MAPP) encourage community empowerment through art.
Being a part of urban beautification means changing our urban surroundings to reflect our interests, our aesthetic, and our community. Despite the bureaucracy of the city and the deficit of the state, you can always hold up your paintbrush, your spray can, or your canvas and create a visual reality around you.
Want to be a part of urban beautification in your community?
Here are a few things you can do:
- Open up your own space (garage doors, sidewalks, building walls) and invite art projects and public involvement.
- Get involved with the many organizations who are taking part in urban beautification.
- Encourage more public space and more interaction by the people - leading to a greater awareness of the surroundings and more of an investment in the community.
o Get in touch with MAPP and become involved with their projects
o Stay up-to-date with city plans and projects for our streets. (City Design Group and San Francisco Arts Commission are good places to start)
o Walk through your city and find inspiration all around you. (For San Francisco dwellers, Balmy Alley and Clarion Alley are filled with artwork).
- Pick up a paintbrush or a spray can or a poster and make the change you want. Act proactively and CREATE. Make your neighborhood beautiful.
Related Readings
Jota Leaños, John. “The (Postcolonial) Rules of Engagement: Advertising Zones, Cultural Activism, and Xicana/o Digital Muralism” Jacoby, Annice ed. Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 2009.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment