Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Carter, and today we're going to be looking at our lesson Street art: power to the people.

We're gonna be thinking about what is street art, why do street artists make street art, and how you might be able to design a street art piece of work.

I'm sure we're going to do some fantastic learning today and you're going to engage really well with everything that I ask you to do and give it your best.

Let's get started.

By the end of today's lesson, you're going to be able to say, "I can create a street art design that represents my aspirations," and explain how street art has been used to address exclusion.

Such a lot of big topics we're going to cover in today's lesson, and we're gonna have to do some hard thinking.

I'm sure we're going to do a fantastic job.

In order to be able to access today's learning and to make loads of progress, we need to be comfortable with the following keywords.

Aspiration, a strong hope or desire to achieve something great in the future.

It's like a dream or a goal that you want to work towards.

Representation.

How various groups, cultures, or issues are visually portrayed in art to reflect their experiences and viewpoints.

Street art.

Art in public spaces, including commissioned works such as murals and non-permitted works such as graffiti.

Our lesson today has two learning cycles.

Firstly, we're gonna look at how we can react to social issues through street art.

We're then gonna move on to designing street art to envisage a better future.

Let's get started looking at reacting to social issues through street art.

Street art means a lot of different things to different people.

What do you know about this art form? Pause the video and either decide for yourself or have a discussion as a group about what street art means to you.

Okay, first check for understanding.

True or false? Opinions on street art are universally similar.

Pause the video and decide whether you think that that is true or false.

How did you get on? Well done if you said false.

Opinions on street art cannot be universally similar because people have different associations with street art.

Street art is made for different purposes and this impacts how people think of it.

Street art is an innovative practise, which takes many forms. Aisha and Jun are discussing terms that they think are linked to street art.

Aisha shares the words, yarn bombing, guerilla gardening, murals, public spaces, and clean graffiti by which she means when artists use a stencil and a pressure washer to remove dirt from a surface and then remove the stencil.

So they've actually cleaned the surface rather than adding paint.

Jun has different associations and he said vandalism, stencils, spray paint, illegal, activism, tags, graffiti, and urban.

I wonder which of these collections of terms you thought of or maybe it was a cross between the two sets of terms. So as you can see, opinions and ideas about street art can be very varied.

Street art has a long history with its roots in graffiti.

Although graffiti is an ancient art form of communication and it connects us back to cave paintings, what we now think of as graffiti has its origins in the mid 1970s in New York streets and subways, where young artists repeatedly wrote their tag name for notoriety in their community.

TAKI 183 was the first artist to become famous for his tagging nickname.

Okay, check for understanding.

True or false? Tagging is always a detailed signature of the artist's real name.

Pause the video and decide if you think that that is true or false.

Well done if you said false.

Tagging is when an artist uses their tag name, which is a type of nickname, for notoriety within their community.

This would not normally be their real name.

This work then developed into a community of young street artists who use spray paint to develop art through size and colour, including Lady Pink who created work in the New York Subways, Dondi who used the tags, NACO and DONDI, and then refined his style into elaborate pieces.

Seen created dozens of artworks covering the whole of a subway car.

Graffiti artists were mainly interested in speaking to other graffiti artists, but street artists became interested in speaking more broadly to other communities and society more widely.

The 1970s New York Street art was historically based in rebellion.

Artists were often from marginalised communities and often faced inequalities in society and lacked representation.

Doors to opportunity were often closed to them.

Originally, their art was created directly on the streets and was seen by the authorities as illegal.

Why might artists risk illegal activity to make their mark and speak to their community? Pause the video and either decide for yourself or have a conversation about why you think an artist might do this.

Okay, check for understanding.

True or false.

The 1970s New York Street art was seen as positive by the authorities of the time.

Pause the video and decide if you think that is true or false.

Well done if you said that was false.

This street art was an act of rebellion and seen by authorities as illegal.

So why do artists make street art? Maybe the artists are reacting to something in their life.

When it's illegal it might be a stance against authority, but some street art is about reflecting the local community.

Street art could also reflect marginalised group, like young people in our community.

I wonder if you can think of any other reasons why artists make street art.

Modern forms of street art can have aspirations of reaching a wide audience, allowing artists to share messages and bring attention to important social issues.

Can you think of any examples in your local area that highlights important social issues? Street artists who've used public locations to represent social issues include Shamsia Hassani, Lady Akio, and Laila Ajjawi who create work which explores women's experiences in their respective communities.

Jelly J's street art confronts issues of health, disability, and human rights.

Banksy is well-known for his humorous take on social issues.

Okay, another check for understanding.

Complete this sentence with the most appropriate option.

Street artists often A, a way for young artists to make money quickly.

B, employed by artists to express their views on social issues, or C, focused on decorating public spaces.

Pause the video and decide which you think is the most appropriate option.

How did you get on? Well done if you said that street art is often employed by artists to express their view on social issues.

Some street artists react to a lack of opportunities, the door change being closed.

The symbol of a closed door can represent the lack of access to opportunity.

Nathan Murdoch has used doors as a backdrop to reflect social issues in their art.

We may all feel like we don't have access to certain opportunities or privileges.

Education is often seen as the key to opportunities.

How do you think it might feel to have the door to aspiration closed? How do you think a street artist could approach this idea? Okay, so we're going into our first practise task.

I would like you to discuss what would change if you did not have access to education.

You could talk about how would your daily routine look different if you didn't go to school? What skills or knowledge would you miss out on if you didn't have access to education? How might your life aspirations change without an education? And how does education help you better understand the world around you? Pause the video and have these conversations now.

How did you get on? Did you find you had an awful lot to say? It's quite a big topic to consider, and you may have found that you had varied opinions about the impact that it would have if you didn't have the opportunity to get an education, you might have had a conversation and shared some of these statements.

So Lucas has said, "I might feel like I don't fit in with others who get to learn and have opportunities." And Sam added, "I might not be able to get a well-paid job." Lucas developed this further by saying, "I would not learn the skills I need to achieve my goals." Sam's further included, "I might not learn about new things which are important in today's world." Alex shared, "It might be harder to understand how to make informed choices in life, like about money or health." I wonder what you came up with.

Okay, for our second practise task, I'd like you to draw a closed door and then record your ideas from task one onto this door sketch to bring attention to this social issue.

You could think about your composition.

So how are you going to position all the different information on top of your door? There are endless opportunities for this to really tap into that creativity and come up with something that you feel is really effective.

Think about putting those ideas in a hierarchy.

Which one of those ideas did you feel was really important? And then there might be others that you don't think are as important maybe for you or your circumstances.

Change the colour or size of your text to create emphasis.

There might be key words in each one of those statements that you really want to highlight and this is an effective way to do this visually.

Add sketches to illustrate your ideas, further bringing attention to the context that you're trying to put into your work.

Pause the video and start your door design now.

Well done.

How did you get on? Did you find it was really important to you to consider the type of door that you drew on? Maybe you were thinking about the front doors to school, or what the classroom doors looked like at school, or maybe you were thinking about different kinds of doors.

You might have produced something that looks like this.

Jun has shared, "I made important words more bold so that they stood out." I think Jun might have been inspired by a school door.

Aisha adds, "I wrote the words as bars over the door to reflect being trapped." She's really captured the idea that that doorway isn't accessible anymore.

Okay, so we're moving on to designing street art to envisage a better future.

Street art today is a complex art form.

It can include commissioned works of art as well as pieces created without permission.

Sometimes street artworks have been commissioned to have a positive impact on an area.

I think that illustration suggests really positive street artwork.

Have you seen any street art that has this effect? Street art can be used to create a sense of community identity and representation by reflecting values, struggles, and experiences of local people.

Telling local stories.

Highlighting cultural symbols, traditions, and influences, and addressing social issues within that community.

Okay, so check for understanding.

How can street art create a sense of identity and representation in a community? Is it A, by focusing solely on global themes, ignoring local culture? B, by only decorating private spaces with no relation to the public.

C, by reflecting the values, struggles, and experiences of local people.

Or D, by using only abstract shapes and colours with no connection to the community.

Pause the video and decide which you think is the most appropriate answer.

How did you get on? Well done if you said C.

Street art can create a sense of identity and representation in a community by reflecting the values, struggles, and experiences of local people.

Artists can collaborate with a community to build pride, ownership, and a sense of belonging through the making of street art.

These projects might reflect on past events, celebrate cultural tradition, act as representation of local people, address current social issues, express aspirations for the future.

What imagery could you use to represent community and aspiration? You could pause the video now and have a conversation or note down your ideas.

Okay, check for understanding.

Fill the gaps in from the word bank.

Collaborative community street art projects can reflect on events.

Celebrate cultural.

Act as representation for local people.

Address social issues.

Express aspirations for the.

Create a sense of in local spaces.

Your word bank words are current, future, past, pride, and tradition.

Pause the video and fill in those terms. How did you get on? Well done if you remembered.

Reflecting on past events, celebrating cultural traditions, addressing current social issues, expressing aspirations for the future, and creating a sense of pride in local spaces.

Street art focused on building community and representation include the Living Walls project in Atlanta, which creates street art for and by marginalised communities.

The Australian art silo trail, which features community painting on farm silos, which reflect local cultural heritage.

And the Kampong Glam, Singapore's historic Malay and Arab quarter is renowned for its vibrant street art that reflects the area's rich cultural heritage.

A focus on celebration of cultural traditions and aspirations for the future allows for optimism and community building.

This is more like an open door to a better future.

Symbols can be used to communicate ideas about aspiration.

What aspirational symbols could you include? You could pause the video now and note down what you think.

What aspirational symbols has this artist used? There are stars and trophies to indicate achieving goals.

There's a bull's eye target pattern to represent goals.

Flowers might represent growth.

Stairs might represent progression.

And the artist has used bright, happy colours, which creates a sense of optimism.

So, for our practical task, I'd like you to turn over your page from task A and draw the door to your future.

You could think about the doors in your house, the doors in the street, doors at school, or if your chosen doors has windows or locks on it.

All of these things create a symbol of aspiration.

So try and make it personal and think about what you feel best communicates positive aspirations for the future.

Pause the video and draw your door to the future now.

Well done.

How did you get on? You might have chosen a door like this, and Jacob here shares, "I chose a door to school as it represents where I gain future skills." Laura adds, "My door has windows to represent possibilities." Okay, so for our second task, I'd like you to create a design for street art mural, which expresses your aspirations for your future.

You're going to work on top of your door drawing from task B one.

You could include imagery celebrating your culture, reflections on your community, your goals and aspirations, visions for a better future.

Pause the video and give yourself time to create your design.

How did you get on? Did you enjoy making your design? Well done.

Your work might look something like this.

And Lucas shares, "I like the bright colours in these designs, but I would add to the wall around the door too." He's really starting to think big now.

Okay, for your third task, I would like you to discuss how you would display your design as street art.

You could think about the location, the scale, the audience, and the community.

All of these things will shape how your street art design would be received.

Pause the video and have these conversations now.

Well done.

How did you get on? Did you find you had lots of ideas about where would be the best place to put your design or did you have lots of varying ideas about how large these doors could be? Would an absolutely enormous door have a huge impact on the idea of big, open, wide, positive future? Did you have a specific community that you wanted to engage with your work? You might have had ideas such as these.

And Andeep shares, "I would paint this on the door to our local leisure centre to connect with my swimming team." Izzy adds, "I chose the bus depot door because it symbolises moving to a better future and lots of people would see it." She's right.

Bus depots are really busy places.

Sofia's added, "I paint a door and the design on the wall by the play park to connect with children." I wonder what ideas you came up with.

So, in summary of our lesson Street art: power to the people, street art means a lot of different things to different people and can be used as an act of rebellion or to improve an area.

Street art's public location reach a wide audience, allowing artists to draw attention to important social issues.

Street art can create a sense of community identity and representation.

Artists can collaborate with the community to build pride, ownership, and a sense of belonging through the making of street art.

These works can build aspiration and celebrate local communities.

Well done for all your hard work today and what a lot of hard thinking you've done.

I look forward to seeing you in our next lesson.