The Bushwick Collective showcases some of the best street art in the world. Walking through the neighborhood in Bushwick, Brooklyn we saw many artists paint over the graffiti art already present. We were curious, what’s going on and why? The Bushwick collective is a collective that is meant to revolve each year because it’s an outdoor gallery show of graffiti. How cool is that!
This June 1st (on Saturday) The Bushwick Collective Block party is going to happen. It’s an annual art event in Bushwick, Brooklyn. There would be 10,000’s of people, artists painting, music down the block. The nearest subway station is Jefferson St.
Graffiti is in us
Graffiti is nothing new to humanity. It has been there since the dawn of time for about 85000 years. It’s an oldest known form of communication. The word Graffiti comes from Graph-Grapho-Grapha-Graphics-Graphite-Photograph-Sonograph, all has to do with writing and communication. We know of graffiti found in caves of Australia, Africa, Spain and France.
We all have done Graffiti in some point in our lives. Whether its writing on a bathroom wall, or writing on a chalkboard, or a school desk, we have done Graffiti. Even our Facebook pages are a virtual Graffiti where we tag our names onto the virtual wall.
Language begets culture and the foundation of culture is how we express, how we dance, how we eat, how we celebrate, how we paint, how we right, how we are int eh community. Graffiti is a modern day culture.
How did Graffiti start in New York?
Graffiti was born out of a sense of hardship by children finding belonging in their lives growing in tough dangerous neighborhoods. Most of these had grassroots messages. Here in New York, the birthplace of Graffiti is Washington street, Spanish Harlem and Bronx – all areas of minority community. In the 1970’s, the whole idea behind it was to write your name everywhere on the wall to call it your own city and to brag to your peers that you were not afraid of anything. We saw one memorial piece “41 shots” , which was in memory of Shooting of Amadou Diallo who was shot 41 bullets by 3 police office , a case of mistaken identity. A lot of people then had been painting it. When things happened in the community, people would be writing about it on the wall.
In the 1970’s, if you got one of those graffitis on the train, it would be like a blockbuster because the graffiti on the train would last for months back and forth. Back in those days, you would have to sneak in the middle of the night and paint on the trains, hoping that you don’t get caught. And one way to do that was to hang out with friends who had their someone’s in MTA, or the train Yard, get hold of the keys and paint by the night. Think of yourself as a modern day explorer exploring the environment. By the 80’s, they had the budget to clean the trains.
Some did Graffiti for the sake of doing it, others did it for the sake of becoming artists. From Tagging-throwing-hitting-bombing-striking to comics inspired art (remember those Star Wars/Kung Fu Panda days) to grassroots messages as rights of passage, Graffiti has come a long way.
Today, painting a Graffiti without permission on walls is considered vandalism / defacement off property. Since 1980, it was made an illegal form of expression if you just want to do that without permission. It is a crime – crime that can get you arrested or you may have to pay heavy fine if you are doing it without the permission.
Anyhow’s, without further ado, lets get into The Bushwick Collective 2019 | The Art in Making Photoessay
