“ An implosive new movement that would be known as street art. This hybrid form of graffiti was driven by a new generation using stickers, stencils, posters and sculptures to make their make their mark by any means necessary. Street art was poised to become the become the biggest counter cultural movement since Punk ” – Exit Through The Gift Shop
The above is a quote from the highly anticipated documentary on England’s own Bansky – who needs no introduction, recital of accolades or lesson about. I’m pretty sure you have heard of or seen personally this guy’s great work about London town. The extended trailer of the movie provides with you with a sneak peak into the inspiration behind the documentary and Terry Guetta’s vision in capturing the greatest street artists of our generation.
Those words stood out to me particularly as it rememinded me of my induction into street art and sticker culture this past weekend.
Living in Philadelphia for the past eight months now and have witnessed and been submerged into a new everything – surroundings, education, people and most importantly culture. The City of Brotherly Love definitely has it’s own style and feel to it and that is really clear in it’s Graffiti culture out here. I came up with a concept called Philadelphia People to capture the city and how people connect with it by interviewing a series of people in the field of art, music, politics, film and even education.
My first episode of Philadelphia People was with Graffiti Artist El Toro who took the time to break down the origins and birth of the Philly Graffiti and sticker culture and how it had interestingly enough existed in Philadelphia before New York. We talked about the progression of Grafitti Art from the streets to the galleries and he spoke at length with me about just how BIG the sticker culture was out here in the Illadelph.
El Toro invited me to capture his latest installation of work along with other renowned Philly artists: Bob Will Reign, UWP, Ticky, Question Josh at an art show called Friends With Benefits this past weekend.
In all honesty, I’m still in awe of what I witnessed that night as I’ve never seen anything like it before.
This was a convention and community of artists and the event was more active than I could have imagined. Kids as young as 14 handing out their own stickers and talking to their peers or to people even older about their style and inspiration was a heck of a thing.
Outside a mass of people sitting on the stoop or standing outside on Broad Street (the main road that connects North and South Philly) black booking – a term which means tagging and swapping each other’s books.
The whole night was breath taking and beautiful and I enjoyed seeing this culture first hand and meeting some really influential photographers and artists that have made documenting and drawing this culture a massive part of their lives.
I interviewed a number of people about Grafitti art and culture and how whether moving it to galleries was an attempt to finally legitimize this art form? However, the responses I got were the same, that this was a progression of the culture rather than selling it out.
Graffiti and sticker art is inextricably tied to the streets and the artists or viewers never forget this. The art produced although under a different setting maintains the same ethos and statement it would on the side of a calling box as it would on a canvas.
All great street artists have made this transition: Basquiat, BNE, Warhol, Futura, Insa and Banksy.
It’s a progression more than anything a chance for more people to see your work and bring together the community that admires it.
I’m in the process of editing over 4GB worth of footage from that night and hope to share it with you all soon.
Friends With Benefits wouldn’t have been nothing if it wasn’t for the people many thanks to El Toro, Erick, Steve, Bob Will Reign, UWP, Ticky, Question Josh, Thor, Lord Gold, Jack, Reid Harris Cooper, Signs2, Fish, Matthew and many many more!
For more from the above artists go to the Friends With Benefits blog and also Rarebreed 215, which was the venue for the show and will be running a monthly art show from now on.
All images belong to Lemara Lindsay-Prince.
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