“In Brooklyn, people did graffiti in the 1970s because they were suffering in society, they felt like they were on the bottom. In China, street art is more like a fashion, like a culture. I feel sad because I see the fashion overseas come to China, but the way people experience it is not the original way – something’s changed.”
DALeast in The Independent
DALeast is a street artist from China, currently living in Cape Town. Speaking in The Independent he makes a clear statement about the motivations of street artists in China today. I think you could extend this analogy to many examples of street art today.
Street art is definitely fashionable in the UK at the moment. I’m not saying it is necessarily all devoid of political statement, but DALeast’s statement about China seems relevant to me from my spot in Bristol UK.
That point aside, his work is really beautiful and some of the most original I’ve seen in a while – even if just through online documentation at this point!
Rochester NY
Vienna, Austria
Old Street, London
Via Colossal and The Independent
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