Street Art in Salt Lake City

When I first moved to Salt Lake City from Utah County a couple of years ago, someone from my hometown asked me what I liked about living in the big city. One of the things I mentioned was the beautiful street art that we seem to be surrounded by here. However, I have just recently started to understand the actual significance of street art that is always being thrown in our faces. For one, I had never been much of an art buff before, so I would rarely seek out looking at art. One cool thing about street art is that it isn't just for people who want to see art. Everyone will see it. It makes art accessible to people that aren't necessarily art connoisseurs.

I went on a street art tour with Betsy Brunner, someone who has plenty of knowledge when it comes to art in general. She made a really good point that stuck with me. She asked us about the tags on walls and garbage cans, specifically the illegible ones. "What's the point of the illegible tags?" she asked us. "Because, maybe, it isn't meant to be understood."

This was a new idea for me. I had always thought of art as needing to be read, needing an audience in order for it to be effective. I thought that was the point of art: for a viewer to look at it and interpret it. The thought that maybe people were making art that they didn't want to be interpreted, read, understood...what a new concept. 

I think the point of these types of works can be more for that artist him/herself versus art being made for the audience. An artist has a personal connection with their work (at least, I'm assuming...I've never been much of an artist). An artist doesn't need to make work for other people; they only need to make work for themselves.

Thinking about art in these terms kind of changes all art in general for me. Often times, the artist isn't making art for me to look at it. That's why not all of artists' pieces are always published or displayed to an audience -- that's not what they are for. I can learn from art that is meant to be interpreted, but I can also learn from art that isn't. Not everything needs to be broken down, over-analyzed, and understood, In the case of these pieces of street art, we can just let them be and enjoy them for their simplicity, without trying to read them. Although it may not feel like it, simplicity is still present in this world.

I think the reason we went on this tour for our global citizenship class is that art and activism really have gone together hand-in-hand in the past. Especially street art is becoming more known for its activism. What art is put up on the walls of our city can help people identify what issues are important to the people living here. Simply stopping and looking at the art can help one become more of a global citizen by paying attention to what conversations others in our communities are having.