Title
Of Materiality and Meaning: The Illegality Condition in Street Art
Abstract
Street art is an art form that entails creating public works incorporating the street physically and in their meaning. That physical property is employed as an artistic resource in street art raises two questions. Are street artworks necessarily illegal? Does being illegal change the nature of production and aesthetic appreciation? First, I argue street artworks must be in the street. On my view, both the physical and sociocultural senses of the street can be constitutive of meaning. Second, I argue that illegality is a prototypical and paradigmatic feature of street art. While illegality alone does not make works better than sanctioned street art, it affects the production process and changes what is available to appreciate.
Department(s)
Philosophy
Document Type
Article
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/jaac.12325
Publication Date
2016
Recommended Citation
Chackal, Tony. "Of materiality and meaning: The illegality condition in street art." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 74, no. 4 (2016): 359-370.
Journal Title
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
