Street Art as Political Currency
Residents were encouraged to stay home that night — SF was facing some of the worst air conditions in its history — but a large crowd made its way to SFMOMA’s Public Knowledge Annex, an inviting library adjacent to the main lobby. It was the first time SF Urban Film Fest and SFMOMA collaborated, and the result was a cinematic tour of street art in Bogotá, Detroit, San Francisco, and Oakland — but the films were really about the stories behind the art. Some were age-old clashes with the establishment, and some told of a new, tense symbiosis between artists and cities.
Not with Fire, But With Paint, by Molly Manning Walker, is a documentary about Bogotá right after Mayor Peñalosa’s 2016 crackdown on street art. As police brutality escalates, 17 year-old Diego Felipe Bercerra, AKA “Tripido,” is shot by cops while out painting; the street art community rallies to support his parents as they fight for justice. The corruption case for the cover-up is still open, and the officer who murdered Bercerra was found guilty, but fled the country. There’s been a victory, though: in 2018 a new law made it illegal to confiscate materials from an artist.
Detroit artists are the enthusiastic vanguard of a survivor city that’s painting its next chapter in vibrant color.
In Painting the Town by William Higbie, artists from Detroit have looked around at their “post-industrial, post-capitalist” urban landscape, and discovered that “opportunity thrives when you’ve hit the bottom.” Street art is flourishing since the space is abundant and the cost of living low. And there’s lax enforcement; after all, the art has attracted corporate investment, worldwide tourism, and a wave of artist immigrants. Despite discomfort over these changes — the competition is not always welcome; outsiders have to “peel off a lot of ego” — Detroit artists are the enthusiastic vanguard of a “survivor city” that’s painting its next chapter in vibrant color.
Concrete Canvas, by Gema Ceron and Nicole Rivera, took us home to San Francisco, where street artists are navigating a saturated landscape, with developers and the city government divvying up many of the best canvases. It’s an uneasy arrangement, but not without its success stories, like when the SF Public Utilities Commission held a contest for art around the storm drains to deter littering. The winning art (which can be found in Mission Bay) has life-sized marine animals staring up from a mess of trash so realistic, it would make you look twice.
“You can try to keep these walls from talking, but you can’t.” — Mike “Dream” Francisco
The final film delivered some old-school artistry with a send-up of the legendary Oakland street artist Mike “Dream” Francisco. In TDK: The Dream Kontinues, filmmaker Pendarvis Harshaw starts out wondering about the word “Dream” on a wall near his home: who painted it and why? He soon finds himself rolling with Mike’s old crew (“Those Damn Kids,” although they’re constantly riffing on new names with the same acronym). Francisco was murdered in 2000, and street artists still come from all over to visit his murals at the 23rd Street train yard in Oakland and mourn the loss of an untouchable artist and leader. “Just seeing his styles burn made you wanna burn,” says one friend. TDK is carrying on his legacy with pride.
Deena Chalabi, a Public Dialogue Curator at SFMOMA, joined Robin Abad Ocubillo from SF Urban Film Fest for a discussion and Q&A after the films. (Two of the panelists, muralist Mona Carson and Imprint City director Tyra Fennel, unfortunately couldn’t make it due to sudden illness and family emergency, respectively.) As Chalabi said, street art has historically been the result of “someone who the dominant culture doesn’t recognize” finding a voice outside the walls of the traditional art world. Wanting to support street art without coopting it, SFMOMA advises artists and gives space to local galleries.
The discussion explored the complexities of appropriation and the effect of capitalism on the artistic ecosystem. When it comes to street art commissions in the city, Ocubillo said, “We have to look case by case… Who’s really benefiting from this?” Lorraine Morland, a panelist at an earlier event who had joined the audience, made the final comments of the night, reminding us that for many artists, it’s simple: “Young kids want to prove that they can make something.” As Mike “Dream” Francisco once said, “You can try to keep these walls from talking, but you can’t.”
Dive into the panel discussion:
This event took place on November 15, 2018 at SFMOMA in San Francisco, and was co-presented by Public Knowledge. For more information about SF Urban Film Fest, visit their website.
