Perspective checked! Ani & Lyn explore the importance of travel.
What did you do on your summer vacation?
Ani accompanied her partner to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for a little medical tourism. She wandered a city rich in street art and protests, and is left with the nagging question, "What can we do to bring people in the US out of alienation and apathy?"
Traveling is a great way to gain a new perspective of what is all around us. As we live our lives day to day, our surroundings often become invisible. Every now and again it's crucial to get out of our own fishbowls, so we can really see what's going on inside.
Please join us with your stories, your questions, and your comments at 503-231-8187, or email us at positivelyrevolting@gmail.com.
Graffiti Art:
*The full version of the intro song is at the end of this audio file. -AO
- KBOO
Comments
Posted in the Mercury
The more we support murals, the more effort, love, time and attention muralists can devote to their pieces, resulting in large-format works of art (witness SE 8th & Ankeny). As an added benefit, when artists generally have access to walls, they tend to respect those few spaces we declare off-limits (witness Buenos Aires and San Francisco).
Repression results in all spaces being covered with hurried ugly scrawls wherever taggers think they can get away with it, breaking and entering, injuries from the inevitable accidents (falls, dropping things on others), and diversion of resources from addressing actual harms. The fact that the city seems more concerned with there being nothing interesting painted on a bridge than on making sure no one has to seek shelter from the elements under that same bridge puts our priorities in a very shameful light, indeed.
Since we will have graffiti in any case, it seems obvious that the best course is the one that allows everyone to have what they need. Artists get space to create, the general public gets stimulating art, and landholders get respect for their property. Conversely, it seems obviously stupid to spend time/money on making the problem worse.