Back in the mid-80s street art as much a part of the urban scene as cardboard breaks, track suits, ghetto blastas, and fat laces. The art was big, bold and neon fantastic, proclaiming individuality and life on the front lines of the hip hop revolution. Some people dismissed it as vandalism, and connected it to gang activities, but others saw it as an almost tribal cry for preservation of culture, and a symbol of neighborhood pride. Graffiti got into a lot of people’s heads, and hearts. Remember Beat Street ?
Later on, street art evolved into a world wide phenomenon showcasing new cultural influences, messages, and wilder, more eye-catchig styles (Warning : watch out for the “F” Bomb). A lot of modern taggers acknowledge the nostalgia intrinsic with picking up a spray can and leaving your mark on your home town. Laying down your ideas on walls caked with remnants of past revolutions connects you to a place and it’s people, and makes your shoes magically transform into high-tops… at least that’s what I’ve heard.
A lot of modern street artists have embraced a more nostalgia and nerd-oriented style, incorporating Saturday morning cartoon icons and pixel-ised video game characters into their wall scrawls. It’s not rare to be staring out the window of the bus cruising East-end Vancouver and spy a seven foot tall blinged-out Q-Bert scratching on monster turntables. Hip-hop and geek-chic have finally met halfway, just look at the recent Vinyl Toy popularity explosion.
So I’ve been doing some image collecting, and hopefully haven’t completely obliterated any copyright laws. I’ve got a retrospective of classic styles, a couple ‘o Flickr sets, and one or two modern bombers who have made an international splash with their personal nod to nostalgia. I’ve linked each image to it’s source and did my best to acknowledge the artists, but if you see a mistake, or whatever, lemmie know.