Street Art WarsStreet art by nature is temporary. So when Hamburger Mary’s received notice that the mural of only a few days had to be taken down, our response was simply of gratitude. When the day came for the mural to be painted over, Hamburger Mary’s reached out to the community, asking all their fans to call the mayor’s office and try to save the mural. A few dozen comments later, one thing was clear: the people of Portland are not only pro-street art, they are pro-graffiti art. One Portlander mentioned that she loved the mural, and that “street art is very popular in many places” and she was surprised to see Portland have an issue with it. Sadly, their protests went unanswered and on March 21st, the mural was painted over. However, the situation did bring up a hot topic regarding the legality of murals for businesses. About a decade ago AK Media (which is now Clear Channel) saw murals as a threat to their more corporate forms of advertisement, and sued the city. Since that day, murals are now treated as a form of advertisement and therefore bare the same financial burden on business owners. But art is much more than just advertisement, and even the Willamette Weekly agreed that for one week the otherwise dingy area appeared to be full of life. Street art, and murals in particular, offer a chance for communities to become closer through vibrant colors of expression. Similar to the states, in 1999 Rio de Janeiro drafted a law banning illegal graffiti tagging. However, what came out of this law was something greater than ever expected. Rather than a retaliation against the government, street artists gathered together to paint beautiful, bright murals all over the city. A differentiation was made between taggers marking their territory, and street art in the form of murals. From there a relationship began to form between shop owner and artist, and in an attempt to deter illegal tagging, murals began to pop up on ever corner. To this day, street artist in Rio are credited for bringing the community together, creating areas of informal public spaces for residents to engage with one another. In fact, graffiti murals proved to be such a positive influence on the city that in 2009 a law was passed stating that street art was legal if done with consent from the building owner. What a difference from our story here in the states. We are in the year 2012, and we still live in a world where owning something doesn’t make it yours. Perhaps one day we can at least spend our days in a city rich with color, passion, and a sense of community, rather than homelessness, economic depression and dreary grey skies. Here’s hoping. -TMK1 Published March 2012
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