Illegal fads ????-2010:

+underage drinking

+weed

+tripping balls

+pirating music/film/porn

+meth labs

+trespassing private blah blah

+street art, or should I say “graffiti” or “VANDALISM” because art out in the street is shit so it doesn’t even deserve to be called “art.”


Oh yea? Well then why it on the streets where it gets most exposure. People underestimate street art as simply being vulgar and intrusive, but it’s there in everybody’s business (and face) for a reason: the urban “written word.”  Banksy is one artist- I’m sorry, I mean vandal - that’s in my face, in my mind and there to stay. His illegal works are more valid artistically than some bullshit in downtown’s museum of modern art. (Yea, fuck paying $$$$$$$$$$ to see art because this, I’m pretty sure, is 2010 and elitism in art exists no more. *** Inversely, I guess puttng a monetary value in art makes sense in this era…$$’s so prominent that that was most likely on the artist’s mind when he submitted his silly painting to the MOMA.) But! I am discussing art that are out of building anyways.


Probably the best example I can give is Banksy’s scribbles and doodles on Israel’s 425 mile long barrier that bounds Palestinians from freedom. Maybe out of context, this series of graffiti in Palestine is just some rich dude’s nightmare, but it says a lot about the social and political toils of this country…I’d say it’s more meaningful than the overrated Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.


Although not Palestine, I’m sure some anonymous artist who’s faithful to progression toward improvement left a mark even in your dwelling place.Just keep a keen eye; you’ll notice more (of many many things).

——-written by helen koh