Street art life in Manchester

Street art is common to see in Manchester city center, either on the side or the back of the buildings, on the surface of the objects in the middle of the street or on the back of the billboards. Graffiti and Mosaic are two of the street arts I have seen while I was visiting, as the two images are shown below.

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Graffiti

Graffiti used to have a negative image associating with youth rebellious behaviour against the dominant societies. Many of the Graffiti designs in the past contain foul languages or offensive associations relating to sensitive social or political issues. The dominant parties would see it as dirt which damages the social reputation and people who commit Graffiti activities would be considered as attention seekers. In the past, it was easy to find graffiti on government-owned properties such as trains, subways, tunnels, also, on the back or side of some private-owned properties. I believe societies are more open-minded nowadays finding the balance between the rebellious people who likes graffiti art and the conservative party, in a way accepting Graffiti as a form of human expression or a form of art in a condition of people are allowed to do in an assigned area or an arranged space with additional regulation or guidelines, as we can see the graffiti evidence in the post.

Latest Graffiti style

The design of Graffiti I have seen used to be messier and the content tended to be sarcastic. However, as social acceptance towards graffiti has improved to a certain level, the designs we can see today in Manchester are clear and neat, and the content tends to be casual and laidback, As you can see the image below, the content is quite simple, two clear cartoon form of feminine characters with some dramatic elements, one of them is in blue which can easily associate with alien identity. The tone I believe is quite casual.

Size of Graffiti

Graffiti includes small to large, as you can see the first image below shows a couple of small to medium graffiti designs, a dark grey cartoon cat with a plain sky blue background, a western red cartoon dragon laying on yellow coins, also, a cartoon monster in purple-blue wore a white cap. For larger graffiti design, which is usually covering the whole side or back of the buildings as you can see on the second image below, a bird with two purple flowers, it looks impressive to me and you can see it from far.

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Commercial use of Graffiti

An interesting phenomenon that the mainstream makes use of graffiti for a commercial reason to promote its products, which is one of the newest advertising methods. Regardless of how effective the commercial messages, I believe it has drawn some attention from the passengers with the visual art element, in a way that people are tricked to view the commercialised graffiti pieces: for example, the image below is a beautifully detailed piece of graffiti shows a fox, a bird, some tree and a building, and in fact, it is a commercial piece collaborating with a broadcasting company, however, the brand name is not captured in this image.

Mosaic

Mosaic is commonly used on floor or glass window designs in the past, we can see it in some of the old churches and historical cathedrals in some of the cities. Today, some mosaic element of artworks still exist in Manchester, as you can see in the image below is shown a mosaic design of bee (the bee symbolizes the city of Manchester), and I hearted MCR.

 

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Disclaimer: All images are documented by www.angelalee.co and use for purely art share purpose to empower the art community and all credited to relevant artists and art galleries. It is written by editor of www.angelalee.co and no integrated ads involved.