For my blog post I have chosen a form of artwork that has a trivial past. Graffiti art has not always been regarded as such. In recent years graffiti art has become more and more accepted in art culture with writers even opening their own galleries. This piece, entitled COMBO is a collaboration between famous street artists Blu and David Ellis. It was produced in a week during FAME Festival, a gathering of street artists from around the world, in Italy.

What really intrigued me about this piece in particular is that it is actually a few art forms combined into one. By using time lapse video and stop frame animation they are able to make their paintings dynamic and moving. By creating the video they are able to use their painting space in a totally new way. Capturing the work in video and pictures allows them to create multiple pieces within the same space simply by painting over a previous one.

In making this video they have created multiple pieces of art that can be viewed in a variety of ways. The main piece is obviously the video itself. It allows them to expose their work to a larger number of people, where as in typical graffiti art a painting may only be viewed by those who pass it on the street. Another piece they created by making this is the monastery itself. The remaining art from the video is left on the floors and walls for anybody who wants to see.

To me this piece can be most closely related to the formalist theory of art. By watching the video you really get to see the challenges and all of the work that went into painting it. The setting they chose for this is an abandoned monastery on the outskirts of Grottaglie, Italy. The choice of setting is interesting because a monastery is not a place you would typically find art of this style. It shows how they used an unconventional medium or space to produce this piece.

What is your view on grafiti? Do you consider it art?