LAS Post #6

Day 6:

The documentary "Bomb it" is an in-depth look at the cultural memory an heritage that comes along with street art, specifically graffiti. The documentary starts out with some artists talking about their experiences with street art and how they got into it. This is very interesting because many of the people sacrifice quite a bit to go into street art, it is a risk. So I think that adds to the importance of it all for them. The fact that it is considered a forbidden activity makes it more appealing to them, and they refuse to be oppressed by the more police and powerful "privileged" people. They feel that it is important to share their cultural message with the city in which they reside. There was one African-American artist that has been arrested several times because of his street art, he even tagged an elephant at a zoo once (which obviously got him into a lot of trouble). The artists are all in different situations though, and that shapes their art. One man was involved with gang violence and he spoke about killing a man who threatened to kill him while he was doing his art. He went to prison for "gang-related violence" because of it. 

Street art to these artists is a way of life, a culture, sometimes it is even passed down from family members. Although, even if these artists did not grow up with street art in their community, they still feel that this is a cultural heritage for them and their fellow artists. Obviously, there are some people who may get into it for the wrong reasons, for gang-related activities. But, it still gives them some street cred if they know how to tag their name under a bridge somewhere.  

 

The main takeaway from this documentary is that people take a lot of pride in this culture, and there is a lot to be said about the importance of heritage and cultural memories being passed down and created by artists everyday on the street.