Emily Breedlove and Shauna Beckstein prepare a photograph at Max Collins’s workshop outside of Rockefeller Arts Center.
Photos courtesy of Leesa Rittlemann
HANNA NEUMANN
Staff Writer
The department of Visual Arts and New Media stepped out of the gallery scene and provided a theme focused on urban street art last Thursday.
Associate Professor Dr. Leesa Rittelmann is the faculty facilitator of the Visiting Artist Program, which is required for all art studio and art history majors each semester and also open to the public. Rittelmann, to complement a course she is teaching called “Graffiti, Guerrilla, Street Art,” brought in a panel made up of three young artists and filmmakers to SUNY Fredonia to share their experience in the art world — an experience focused on street art.
“VAP lectures often feature mid-to-late career artists with a vast body of accomplished work. I wanted to bring in younger artists who could share the path they’re pursuing just out of undergrad and grad school that our students could connect and identify with,” said Rittelmann.
The urban art form of street art is a medium that is not always recognized as being part of the art world. Street art, however, provides a larger means of functioning as an avenue of communication to a larger and more accessible audience than art typically found in a gallery. The panel provided various views on street art both locally in Buffalo, New York, and internationally in Manila, a city in the Philippines.
“Although VANM is an academic art department charged with providing students with exposure to traditional fine art media, techniques and history, it’s vitally important that students are also exposed to possibilities beyond the art academy,” said Rittelmann. “Street art is part of a DIY [do-it-yourself] culture that offers a cheap, relatively easy way for artists to express themselves outside the world of juried art exhibitions,” she continued.
Max Collins, Kim Dryden and Austin Smith host a Q&A session after the panel discussion.
Thursday’s panel consisted of two filmmakers, project directors and producers of the Filipino Street Art Project, Kim Dryden and Austin Smith, as well as a Buffalo based photographer/street artist, Max Collins. Topics such as the distinction between graffiti and street art, legal issues and the ephemeral nature of street art were covered, along with others.
The Filipino Street Art Project consists of film, multimedia art and community engagement, and it involves a whole lot of creativity.
“We are trying to tap into the creative and sometimes politically-charged art that finds its way onto city walls, subway stops and abandoned buildings,” Dryden and Smith state on their website. “By examining this movement, we ask, ‘Why is street art taking off around the world, and especially in developing countries? Why do artists continue their work on the street when they have traditional, paying careers? Why and how do street art scenes
evolve, and is that okay?’”
This project consists of two full – length documentaries, an interactive website and
various videos, articles and photos.
But, why street art?
Dryden and Smith focused on street art due to it being accessible, approachable and populist. They emphasized that street art is cheap to make, free to consume, widespread, public and non-elitist.
The international location of this project is the Philippines. Dryden and Smith focus on this location due to it being the fastest growing economy in Asia, the government corruption, as well as it being in a transition of huge sociopolitical change. What they were looking for and asking from the street artists in the Philippines was: who are these artists, what compels them to create, what does their art say and how does it reflect culture? A few examples of street artists that they shared with the audience were Brian Barrios, Lee Salvador and Dee Jae Paeste, who are all from various socioeconomic backgrounds.
“It’s like watching a documentary in a real life form because you’re meeting the editors and the directors and talking to them. Also getting a better perspective on what they’re focusing on and what they experienced when they moved to these areas,” said Emily Breedlove, senior BFA sculpture major.
Collins, a recent college graduate, brought a different perspective to the audience by showing his firsthand experience with making street art in Buffalo. Although he is a well known photographer, Collins has recently been experiencing the expanding art forum of street art in Buffalo.
“ I have a conversation with the community,” said Collins when talking about his work. Most of his work deals with a social issue that he is trying to address with the subject matter and location the work is presented.
“I’ve honestly reconsidered my need to leave the country because of Buffalo. You know, I’ve heard a lot of hype around Buffalo about being an art community that is growing and becoming a sought out location,” said Alex Glazier, a junior visual arts and new media major. “I think Max gave a very good representation of that today. It is interesting how they [the local and international perspectives of the panel] complement each other,” he continued.
The panel showed an array of perspectives on the theme of street art that left the audience wanting more.
“I think it’s important for students to see in-process work like Kim Dryden’s and Austin’s Smith’s documentary film on Filipino Street Art in addition to the kind of finished works like those Buffalo photographer/street artist Max Collins shared in the lecture,” said Rittelmann. “I hope they’re inspired to think of the ways they might intervene in mainstream visual culture by creating street art of their own,” she continued.
Although the panel has concluded, Fredonia’s street art experience is not yet over.Three student groups in Dr. Rittelmann’s ARTH 440 Graffiti and Street Art course will create their own projects. Their projects will be comprised of portrait photographs of Fredonia students, downtown residents (homeowners) and shop owners. Subjects will be asked to adopt a facial
expression reflecting their attitude toward Fredfest.
Although the exact location of these campus projects hasn’t yet been determined, installation is
scheduled for Wednesday April 30. Collins will also return to install a large-scale installation in the week prior to Fredfest. Keep your eyes peeled and stay tuned.