Street Art

I've always liked street art and i've developed a pretty big interest in it over the past six months. I first realised that street art was different from simple graffiti when I came across prints of Banksy's work in Covent Garden markets a few years ago. I had always thought that graffiti was just vandalism and that its sole purpose was to maliciously damage the look of people's walls. To me it was criminal. However, in Banksy's work I found that I loved his humour and satire and so, when the film Exit Through The Gift Shop came out I jumped at the chance to watch it.

According to the film's website:

Exit Through the Gift Shop follows an eccentric shop-keeper turned amateur film-maker as he attempts to capture many of the world's most infamous vandals on camera, only to have a British stencil artist named Banksy turn the camcorder back on its owner
with wildly unexpected results. 

If you're interested, check out the trailer below.



Here are some examples of my favourite pieces of Banksy's work.

Courtesy of Smosh.com

Courtesy of blogdowntown.com

Courtesy of vostokzapad.files.wordpress.com

When I decided I was going to be visiting Berlin I went about researching some of the best street art to see while there. Berlin is famous for its graffiti and, if you know the right places to go, it's as though you're in a never ending art gallery.

My friend Sarah-Jane managed to find a wonderful free walking tour called the Alternative Berlin walking tour which we took, and this tour opened up the doors to this other world beneath bridges and in grubby side streets.

These are just some of our discoveries.

 As you can see, there's plenty of colour and vibrance to the walls of Berlin. I think we need special areas in Sydney just like this which allow more creativity and 'life' to be injected into our city!