Street Art: Daichendt's voice thread

Street art, by its positioning in the public domain, requires a response from the passer by. It often causes us to look again, to reflect and see something we have always seen in a new way. The familiar is often largely invisible; street art can make it strange and interesting again and articulate a wide range of ideas, concepts, complexities and contradictions. For example:

A gallery piece by Banksy that makes the familiar new and causes you to look again!

And a preliminary street art sketch that really made me think about my own attitudes and those of the western society as a whole. Very thought provoking:

One of the most thought provoking street art projects I know of was where an anonymous French street artist called JR took photographic portraits of Palestinian and Israli people of different occupations. He then paired them up and pasted 2 large portraits of taxi drivers / teachers / shop keepers/ etc (one Palestinian and one Israli) in different locations either side of the border. The artist and his team then observed reactions and discussed the works with passers by - nobody could tell who was Palestinian and who was Israli, they were just 2 faces of 2 people doing the same job. But there was so much animosity as soon as the label of nationality was placed over them. Very interesting stuff. Watch the TED talk - it is fascinating.

Images of Banksy's artwork are photographs I took when visiting an exhibition he held in Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery in 2009.

JR, 2011. TED talk: Use Art to Turn the World Inside Out. [online] Available at: [Accessed Oct 2011].