Abstract
This study examines the proliferation of graffiti in the wake of the George Floyd riots. In what ways did Europe, under austerity, anticipate the riots in the United States? I compare the graffiti artists of Athens in 2014 with those in Chicago and St. Paul in 2020. My argument is that graffiti is a form of political prophecy, one that has an increasingly global reach and message. The effort to relegate Athenian graffiti of 2014 to a museum in Chicago in the summer of 2015, however well intentioned, aestheticized what was essentially a form of political protest. I compare the graffiti on the letters outside the CNN building in Atlanta during the George Floyd protests with the recent controversy regarding a mural to John Coltrane in Philadelphia. What is street art and why does it matter? How do graffiti artists rewrite the landscape of political protest in real time, leading to political change in the aesthetic realm, such as the removal of statues of Stephen Douglas and Christopher Columbus in ways that challenge the role of museums and curators as custodians of culture.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Vectors of Society and Culture
KEYWORDS
George Floyd, Political Protest, Graffiti, CNN
