Understanding Commodification through Street Art in Guwahati

2013

Chapter 1-Introduction 12 1.1 Objectives of this text 12-15 1.2 Guiding questions 15 1.3 Case selection (I) countries 16-19 1.4 Case selection (II) actors 19-21 1.5 Using images as source material 21-22 1.6 The organisation of this text 22-24 Chapter 2-Finding ground: a literature review and elaboration of my conceptual framework 25 2.1 Reflections on stray cats: popular mobilisation and art in International Relations 25-27 2.2 Social movements and International Relations 27-30 2.3 The feminisation of art and aesthetics in International Relations 30-33 2.4 Art, democracy, folly 33-37 2.5 The category of 'political street art' 37-39 2.6 A review and refashioning of Social Movement Theory 40-41 2.7 Revisiting political process: revealing gaps, revising 'performance' 41-46 2.8 Framing political contention 46-50 ! 3! 2.9 Expanding the parameters of political opportunity 50-58 2.10 Synthesising insights, cues and precedents 58-68 Chapter 3-"Tupinaquim o Tupinãodá?" Brazilian artist-activists in confrontation with power 69-70 3.1 Surfacing: street art as campaign tool 70-76 3.2 The push for plurality 77-83 3.3 Os anos de chumbo and the retreat from the street 83-87 3.4 Colouring the streets: the emergence of Tupinãodá 87-92 3.5 Collective interventions: from cannibalism to political critique 93-97 3.6 Mounting articulations: civilian government and its discontents 97-103 3.7 Brazilian street art articulations in summary 103-107 Chapter 4-Articulations in the clouds-street art and contentious politics in the city of La Paz 108-111 4.1 Federal war to revolution: Indian affirmations, performative precursors and early political street art in Bolivia 111-115 4.2 Hacia la Revolución Nacional (Towards the National Revolution): regional influences, domestic uproar and 'the social painters' 115-120 4.3 Contra La Dictadura-Street art as resistance to authoritarianism 120-128 4.4 Mujeres Creando, mujeres!denunciando: transition, patriarchy and the push for deconstruction 128-130 4.5 A new 'craziness' 131-135 4.6 The task(s) of street art in the wake of a hollow democratic transition 135-143 ! 4! 4.7 EVOlution in articulation-graffiteando por el TIPNIS 143-145 4.8 Background: on the ambivalent discourses of Bolivia's first indigenous president 145-148 4.9 The plans for el TIPNIS 149-151 4.10 Street art in defense of the 'unauthorised indian' 152-158 4.11 Los animales 158-162 4.12 Three mo(ve)ments in discussion 162-165 Chapter 5-Insights from the Southern Cone: Argentine street art in contention 166-167 5.1 La edad de oro and embryonic articulations 167-170 5.2 Developments and contingencies in the "infamous decade" 170-174 5.3 Political street art and Peronismo: a marriage of convenience 174-179 5.4 Peronismo and political street art: from anti-system to pro-system 179-183 5.5 Political purges, artistic rebellion and the peoples' spring(s) of '68 184-195 5.6 Silencio en la calle? from organised state terror to the Siluetazo 195-207 5.7 Street art and the democratic restoration 208-210 5.8 Human Rights, market cooptation and the peso crisis: political street art from the nineties 210-214 5.9 La calle to the white cube 214-223 5.10 Argentine street art: a landscape in motion 223-226 Chapter 6-Discussion and Conclusion 227 6.1 A restatement of purpose and intervention 228-229 6.2 Evidentiary street art practices: summing up 229-235 ! 5! 6.3 Locating International Relations 235-238 6.4 Concluding remarks 238 Bibliography 239-260 Image References 261-264 ! 6! LIST OF PLATES CHAPTER 3 between pages: Plate "NÉGO" (I deny), an Alianca Liberal campaign poster. Lithograph 76-77 ! 8! Plate "Un Desaparecido" (A disappeared person). Photograph 207-208 Plate A Neighbourhood Memorial in San Telmo, Buenos Aires. Photograph 213-214 Plate An escrache. Photograph 213-214 Plate An escrache. Photograph 213-214 Plate Bush/Mickey Mouse Stencil by Bs.As.Stencil. Photograph 222-223 ! 9! ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are a number of people who have contributed to the formulation and eventual completion of this project, and to them I owe an enormous debt of gratitude. I must firstly thank my supervisors Dr Thomas Richard Davies and Dr David Williams, both of whom have provided me limitless support and encouragement since I arrived at City University as an undergraduate nearly ten years ago. David's engaging lectures on the politics of development and the many contradictions of the International Financial Institutions secured my commitment to the discipline of International Relations and Tom's patience and encyclopaedic knowledge of all things 'revolutionary' really gave me something to aspire to. Additionally, I am eternally grateful to Professor Peter Willetts who entirely altered my fate by allowing me to transfer my undergraduate studies to City's then 'Centre for International Politics' in 2005. Professor Kim Hutchings, Dr Peter Wilson and Dr Francisco Panizza from the London School of Economics also deserve a mention for showing me great kindness during my Masters degree and encouraging me to pursue my doctoral studies in the subject. Importantly, this thesis is founded on my interest and more fundamentally, my belief in the power of 'politics by other means'. For developing my understanding of activism in theory and in practice, I have to thank comrades from the Housman's Bookshop on the Caledonian Road, my friends and teachers Louie Jenkins and Omar Mansur as well as protagonists in Chiapas, Mexico, whose activities captivated me and gave me the material for my very first piece of extended research. The biggest credit due here is to the wonderful people whose stories I have touched upon in this thesis. It has been my great honour to have met artist-activists and their families as I made my trails across Latin America and words cannot express how grateful I am for their ! 10! time, openness and generosity. I am especially grateful to Stanislaw Cabezas for being the most informative and intriguing guide in La Paz; to Adri Ballon-Ossio for the comfort of her blow-up mattress and for my introduction to salteñas. Thanks also go to Jaime, Neta, Lina and Anita Prades for taking me in, feeding me and providing me access to their wonderful archive of photographic slides from the 1980's. Many friends deserve a mention for their support and understanding but to list them all here would be to compete in length with the dissertation itself. In particular, I must thank my PhD colleagues for their advice, encouragement and solidarity. Without their collective madness the office would be a far gloomier place to work. I am also immensely grateful to the lovely ladies that I lived with during my write-up period in Brunei Darussalam-Aline, Madlen, Ivonne and Mariam-you are all stars and I am lucky to have met you. Last but certainly not least, my mother, Runeika and my partner Tom have suffered the most through these three and a half years. Their ability to provide unending love and support, to put up with my ungodly hours of work and to revive me when I feel defeated never cease to amaze me. Without their backing, I could never have reached this point. My mother has made many sacrifices to see me through higher education and give me a chance to flourish academically and I hope that I have made her proud. Meanwhile, Tom has been an inexaustable motivating force since he appeared in my life in 2009. Always keen to see me reach my potential, his faith in me has never diminished, even when my own faith has dwindled. To him I owe so much. I wish also to express my gratitude to my father, who sadly isn't here to witness me win this battle, but whose rebellious spirit, determination and fascination with foreign affairs I have inherited and are almost certainly what have given me the drive to see this project through to completion. I dedicate this work in memory of my dad.

Although graffiti, street art, stencils, urban culture, etc. are understood as an art form by some, these words still are synonyms of vandalism for others. In many countries street art is considered to be illegal; however there are several thesis works about understanding the street art, interpreting it as a form of narrative.

2018

Urban aesthetics in India today offer multiple resources for anthropological and art research. The current paper considers a selection of artistic projects pursued in different cities of the country, which highlight particular aspects of ethnographic research and awareness on contemporary social issues. Questioning the relationship between art and ethnography the case studied here analysed show a particular commitment of the artists and art festivals to the truthful representation of sociocultural aspects in the local specificities of operation: concepts of site-specificities, relational, critical and dialogical art, sensory ethnography, participatory observation and activism demonstrate the multiple techniques adopted in the different art practices. Despite the distinct sites (cities) of production and exhibition, the case studies selected with their similar ethnographic methodologies and their provocative social meanings show how public art in India is an art from the people to the people.

The aim of this paper is to study the importance of urban street art as an integral component of the city image, rather than being just defined or limited to wall graffiti, it has been extended to contain other forms of arts, compositions, sculptures, and various forms of mural arts, that were applied and integrated an applied on building walls, streets, landscape, fences, street furniture, and many other components of the built-in environment, these various forms of urban street arts represents different values of the society, and reflects various waves of development in political, cultural and socio-economic contexts. while urban street art is considered as a direct reflection of many changes that happens to a community, as the people try to express their impressions, views, anger, etc. in different forms, using street art as a documentation for such movements, and dynamics that happens, whether on the walls of buildings, railway/metro fences, underground stations, and other urban forms as mentioned above. Thus leading to a change in the built in environment features, sometimes positively by adding a more living sense & aesthetic value to it, and sometimes negatively by adding some drawings or writings that only express the feel of anger for example with no recognized aesthetic value, and a third extreme possibility of vandalism. This type of art was always relevant to a certain level of democracy, and political systems that can accept such way(s) of expressions, and in a context that creates art, appreciates arts in general, and use it in expression. While the case was different in other countries, where art wasn’t that important value, and where the political systems deprived people from expressing their views even in the most traditional ways, being involved also in an endless cycle of socio-economic complicated problems, especially in the developing countries, and the image was clearer in the under developed countries. in other words, this means that such type of art was developed in already developed countries, where urban contexts, and architecture were already well established, settled, organized, and all the channels of expression are maturely used by the communities. How this type of art represents the peoples’ culture, values, and the country’s political & economic positions are the different questions this paper is targeting to find the suitable answer, in addition to how it was integrated with the built in environment represented in architecture and urban contexts and adding a living sense to them. on the way to answer the questions of this research paper, the research will make a literature review of the various definitions of urban street art, graffiti, and other forms of street arts, in different contexts, exploring the different experiences from many countries all over the world including arab countries, with an analysis for some of these experiences leading to a further understanding in order to conclude the answers to these questions. Street art is the art on the streets, with all the components of these streets, and with all the streets can do in or for the city, accordingly it’s a very true expression and reflection of the city life, culture, economy & policy. Urban art cannot and does not exist in a vacuum, the built fabric of cities and towns provides the canvas on which street artists exhibit their creations, inextricably linking it to its environment.

Graffiti came in the west as a response to over designed serenity. So in other words these painting in the cluttered Indian urban space cannot claim the historical or theoretical relevance of Graffiti language and its expression. It cannot claim the ritualistic or embellished expression of Indian traditional wall paintings as well, as it requires a cultural and historical connection between the painting, inhabitants and its dwelling or home. If one take a close look at these street art that are taking place in Indian cities, one will find the design influenced contemporary western narrative illustration form in it. More than a style value or the innocent sight value, they do not convey any critical argument in these art works. Even as many of them copy Banksy’s social critique format, they seems unable to put forward a strong argument to defend the language of art as they wanted to call it like Banksy or for that matter Jean-Michel Basquiat by differentiating their distinct artistic language.

The concept of the city has come to play a central role in the practices of a new generation of artists for whom the city is their canvas. Street art is a complex social issue.

Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, 2020

Street art has been both a product of and a response to the unequal distribution of resources and visibility in the city. A dialectical study that investigates both sides of the coin showing art’s aesthetic, spatial, social and political situation in the changing neo-liberal urban landscape is needed. Analyzing simultaneously the hegemonic restructuring of the urban environment and the growth of counter-hegemonic resistance on the streets requires taking into account the plurality and complexity of the links between the urban environment, society and arts. This article discusses how street art, as an aesthetic dispositive, functions dialectically as both resource and resistance in the sociopolitical make-up of the urban landscape.

The Conversation, 2015

Street art -as well as its artistic forebear graffiti -are often thought of as radical, rebellious aesthetic practices. Both the artists and their works are portrayed as the very definition of "edgy"; dangerous and dissident, but also creative and avant-garde. Yet within the last five years or so, street art (and I use this term here in distinction to graffiti) has been commandeered by the corporate interests of the "creative city".

Art permeates its conventional boundaries of mere expression and expands itself to be a tool for social change, it aids critical reflections and provides insight into the socio political characteristics of a given space or community. Art therefore, besides being a media of expression is also a reflection of a society, an indicator of its wellbeing and development. It has brought about visible social change by being an essential part of the social movements over the years. Amongst the many art forms that have developed with our growth as a civilization, street art is the one, which majorly and rather obviously plays the role of an advocate. It is a very versatile medium for innovative social commentary, criticism and sometimes harmless or offensive mockery. It works with the intent to trigger a thought, a meaningful purposive reaction, and a call for action too sometimes. This paper specifically attempts to study the expression of a certain sporadic awareness, which resulted in purposefully colored walls in the city, many of which did talk about gender. These walls expressed what the people felt about women, at that time. December 16, 2012, was a decisive date for public enlightenment on prevailing gender injustice and violence that gave rise to the Nirbhaya movement (a moment which started as a reaction to the gruesome gang rape of a 23 year old girl from which she could not recover and died on the 29th of December, 2012). Street art had come to Delhi a little before this incident, but after the Nirbhaya movement it became more visible.