Monday, March 28, 2011

Rome: Street Art

One of the things I always find myself snapping while I travel is street art and graffiti. I know it doesn't appeal to everyone and some people find it destructive and annoying. A lot of it is truly ugly, but with the rise of artists like Banksy, Shepard Fairey and SWOON, people (sometimes grudgingly) give it credit. I saw an Invader mosaic as we were driving through Trastevere and I wondered if it were authentic.

From Rome

Turns out Invader had just had a show in Rome and had gone around putting up mosaics around the city. I didn't get a picture of the one by the Museum of Modern Art, but I did get this one at the top of the Spanish Steps.

From Rome

I love the mash-up nature of a lot of street art: you can combine anything and see the parts in a new whole. This artist uses the tag "hogre" it seems.

From Rome

In the ancient living history that is the Coliseum, people still want to leave their mark.

From Rome

We were intrigued by posters with enigmatic messages when we went out to dinner in Trastevere. I remembered to look for some clues online and found this was part of an exhibit by Jeremy Mende called "100 Years from Now" which looks back to the Italian Futurist movement about a century later. The Futurists fascinate me -- and always make me want to write manifestos. There was a terrific Futurist exhibit at the Tate Mod not long ago, which I really enjoyed.

From Rome

And of course I was welcomed to Rome with some very heartfelt art: Thanks, Edo!

From Rome

2 comments:

Alessandra Bava said...

Lovely Street Art and thank you for introducing Invader to us. We spotted another one last Sunday!

C. Margery Kempe said...

Oooh -- where?! You should take a picture :-)