July 4: Street Art Around Paris

Street Art

I love seeing how people in Paris choose to express themselves through street art. I think it is very interesting how some of the busiest, most well known places in Paris can range from having the most beautiful form of art on their walls to somebody who is struggling to come up with ideas so they just write their name. Either way, I love how the art gravitates more towards populated city areas, specifically areas that are used more frequently, like the RER or metro stops. Despite your thoughts about whether graffiti counts as art or vandalism, and if that is a good or bad thing, I do think there are interesting perspectives on it. Some people feel like it takes away from what they are seeing, especially in a city like Paris that is so historical and tries its hardest to preserve things. Others feel like it is a way to express themselves, and that graffiti is only illegal because it doesn’t allow people to sell things to others as easily. For example, there is a photo at the very bottom of this post where we were on the Seine River boat tour and we were in front of a famous building, but a barricade in front of it had graffiti on it. Some people might think this takes away from its historical value or significance. While I agree that we should not directly deface things that people work very hard to preserve (like Versailles or Notre Dame), it is interesting to see what toes the line between vandalism and art, and where it is and is not acceptable, especially in a city seen so highly from others.

Space Invader

I am dedicating an entire section to the anonymous street artist commonly known as “Space Invader” because 1) I absolutely love their artwork and want an excuse to just go on and on about them and 2) I have the most pictures of their stuff soooo. A lot of their work feels reminiscent of early arcade video games like Space Invader (hence the name) and Pac-Man due to their bright, limited colored palettes and big squares that represent pixels. As a lover of older video games, and the history of digital media in general, I love how nostalgic their works feel. It feels like a homage to older technology/media and how far we have come. They have works that are featured on Versailles, the Eiffel Tower, and even outside of France. Which, it’s interesting to see how people think Space Invader’s works are acceptable enough to be on famous landmarks like Versailles and the Eiffel Tower, even when others consider it vandalism. Moving away from that argument though, since this post is already so long, I think that Space Invader’s bright colors help it stand out against the beige, tan, and gray architecture in Paris (which is not a diss to Paris since they have a ton of greenery and its a BEAUTIFUL city, but it’s interesting to see the contrast). I was reading Space Invader’s About Page, and there was a section where they talked about how their goal was to “invade” heavily populated urban areas, which I think just makes their works that much more personal. Anyway I’m done rambling about Space Invader, I just love their work so much ok moving on…

Written Words / Abstractism

I also find it interesting how street art can also come in the form of letters/words or abstract art. While this might start going into the whole “what counts as art” debate, for the sake of my sanity, I’m referring to this section as art. I also love the range that this category has. For instance, somebody might just scribble a few lines or quickly write a word out just to say that they did it. I saw a lot of this on the RER between stations, specifically coming from Luxembourg to the Cité Universitaire. I think this section is more likely to be referred to as vandalism or graffiti, since it’s not as nice to look at and does not have a clear message behind it.

Another form of this is what I refer to as “gucci letters” where it’s just somebody’s name or something, but it has different colors, shading, and texture to it. In other words: letters with effort. A lot of trains around Richmond have this (since that’s all I know), and I even saw some on a few buses passing by in Paris, specifically around the university. Sometimes it’s used to express someone’s political beliefs or they just really like writing their name. I don’t have much to say about this section, I just think it’s neat how people choose to express themselves, and how that compares/contrasts from across the globe.