Play with the city

STREET ART ‘A WORLD VIEW’

The Starr Auditorium on Friday evening at Tate Modern was jam packed with an audience keen to hear The Wooster Collective talk about Street art, ‘A World View’.

Discussing street art from around the globe, The Wooster Collective used Banksy, Space Invader, Roadsworth and Mark Jenkins as excellent examples. Favorites had the crowd laughing included a piece by Josua Allen Harris and rather a strange collection of an urban problem facing us all, The Spinkle Brigade.

The talk revolved around the basics of street art; having a point of view, dedication, personal and intimate and surprise and delight. The talk concluded with two main points; Street Art is only successful when it has a dialogue, even if only with one person and its need by all to unify ‘ugly’ spaces before the ‘gentification’ of urban areas.

A fascinating talk which is to be followed Friday 25th July at 6.30-7.30 by a talk from Street Artist Pure Evil and art critic JJ Charlesworth on ‘Collecting Street Art’. Not to be missed!

PUBLIC SPACE - WHO’S IT FOR?

An energetic audience greeted the artists Brad Downey and Mustafa Hulusi first of several Street Art talks sponsored by Nissan QASHQAI at Tate Modern.

Discussing the history of fly posting in London during the 1980’s, Mustafa gave a humorous and personal insight into a decade when regions of London where controlled by fly poster ‘gangs’. An artist in his own right, Mustafa recalled his early days as a student and his first fly poster evenings though to the fall of the fly poster activity due to a change in society and the gentrification of urban streets.

Brad Downey showcased several ‘inspiring’ street art films, including ‘Spontaneous Sculpture’, shot on 35mm by a friend over a four hour period, ‘On/Off’ showing how he managed to ‘urban-hack’ thirty Parisian shop fronts, and a work in progress which showed Brad setting fire to a CCTV camera.

The audience presented a series of challenging questions to the panel, including why one of the presenters was actually at the talk to why Brad Downey doesn’t make it his agenda to set fire to every CCTV in London, Brad responded with ‘Why don’t you? Why does it have to be me to do that?’

If the rest of the Street Art talks are anything like this then we are in for a massive treat. Make some time for these talks, roll on Friday 18th July when Tate Modern present ‘A World View’ at 18.30-19.30.

NISSAN QASHQAI & TATE MODERN DRIVING TOURS

With east London being notorious for having some of the UK’s best street art, Nissan QASHQAI and Tate Modern have teamed up together to give you an exclusive free tour of the area.

Running on various weekends throughout July and August, Tate Modern and Nissan QASHQAI are giving you the chance to take part in a series of driving and cycling tours throughout the various streets housing these exclusive pieces.

To take part in Driving Tours, simply register using the form below and let us do the rest. Confirmation details will be sent to you once we have processed your application. For the cycling tours, simply turn up on the day and register at the Nissan Information Tunnel.

DRIVING TOUR DETAILS

Visitors can turn up at any time between 10AM and 4.30PM and should meet at the Nissan Information Tunnel outside Tate Modern. Pick up and drop off will be from Tate Modern and the tours will take approximately two hours; the walking tour takes one hour and the drive to and from Tate Modern takes half an hour each way. View the map to see an overview of the route.

REGISTRATION FORM

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THE HISTORY OF STREET ART

Street art legend Blek Le Rat tells the story of street art and talks about how New York graffiti inspired him. One of the first artists to have an impact on the European scene, he pioneered the stencil style (think Banksy) which has influenced many other artists. Joined by the street artist Rough, he’ll be providing an insight into the underground world of graffiti in the UK. This is one talk that you don’t want to miss.

Sponsored by Nissan QASHQAI, ‘The History of Street Art’ takes place at Tate Modern on Friday 1st August 2008 at 18.30–19.30.

NISSAN QASHQAI - BRINGING YOU CLOSER TO STREET ART

Tate Modern is proud to bring you six of the best documentaries on graffiti and street art produced over the last few years to accompany its Street Art exhibition.

Sponsored by Nissan QASHQAI, Tate Modern brings the art and artists to life with free screenings in the Tate Modern’s Starr Auditorium on August the 16th and 17th.

The rise of the art form has also seen an explosion in documentaries exploring this emerging movement. Tate Modern has selected a wide range of documentaries that showcase, explore and discuss the subject, countries and styles developing within the street art scene allowing us valuable insight and a complete picture of what is happening across the globe.

The screenings are divided over two days with day one featuring the ‘World wide’ programme - highlighting films that explore the new and old school artists and street art as a world culture. Day two features the ‘City style’ programme including films that look at specific city scenes, their history, development and style of street art and graffiti capitals including Amsterdam, Paris and Melbourne.

Don’t miss this opportunity to experience some of the most inspiring Street Art documentaries this summer, free and only at Tate Modern.

COLLECTING STREET ART

Pure Evil, a street artist with a gallery in Old Street, and art critic JJ Charlesworth discuss the various aspects of collecting street art and the pitfalls of this growing market.

Sponsored by Nissan QASHQAI, ‘Collecting Street Art’ takes place at Tate Modern on Friday 25 July 2008 at 18.30–19.30.

STREET ART NOW - A WORLD VIEW

The second event of the Street Art Now talks focuses on ‘A World View’ of Street Art, guest speakers will give an insight into the subject and how they see the future of the genre evolving.

Sponsored by Nissan QASHQAI, ‘A World View’ takes place at Tate Modern on Friday 18 July 2008 at 18.30–19.30.

PUBLIC SPACE - WHO’S IT FOR?

Tate Modern has released further details about its Street Art Now events. The talks and viewings include discussions on who owns the public space where artists create their work, and additional talks focus on collecting street art and the ongoing debate between street art being nothing more than glorified vandalism or a legitimate cultural movement.

The first talk entitled ‘Public Space - Who’s it for?’ discusses the ownership of public space and what happens when artists take it into their own hands to develop it? Brad Downey and Mustafa Hulusi are two artists who have subverted the use of these spaces and explain why.

Sponsored by Nissan QASHQAI ‘Who’s it for?’ takes place at Tate Modern on Friday 11th July 2008 at 18.30-19.30. Simply a must-attend event for anyone interested in street art.

STREET ART LECTURE AND FILM SERIES

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Tate is hosting a series of lectures and films while the exhibition is on - the dates are below. Tickets are not available yet, but we will let you know as soon as they are:

• 11 July; Street Art: Public Space, who’s it for?
• 18th July; Street Art Now - a World View
• 25th July; Collecting Street Art
• 1st August; The History of Graffiti and Street Art
• 8th August; Street Art Around The World
• 15th August; Graffiti, Utopia or a Bit Boring?
• 16th and 17th August; Two day film programme

STREET ART - A DEFINITION

Street art is a genre related to graffiti writing, but separate and with different rules and traditions. Where modern day graffiti revolves around “tagging” and text-based subject matter, Street art is far more open and is often related to graphic design.

There are no rules in Street art, so anything goes, though some common materials and techniques include fly-posting (also known as wheat-pasting), stencilling, stickers, freehand drawing and projecting videos. Street artists will often work in studios, hold gallery exhibitions or work in other creative areas; they are not anti-art, they simply enjoy the freedom of working in public without having to worry about what other people think. Many well-known artists started their careers working in a way that we would now consider to be Street art.
Tate has produced a book should you want any more information.