This new film by Peter Drew is a great example of how street artists can continue to mess with authority even as they are embraced by it. Rather than saying, “Awesome, thank you! Guess it’s time for me to go legit,” when the Adelaide city council began to support his street art, Peter very publicly asked, “Why me?” and looked at larger questions of how and why institutions and governments respond to street art and graffiti.
The questions that Peter brings up in this video are close to my heart. I used to give tours of London street art and graffiti, and I tried to start each tour by pointing at a tag and saying, “Everything else I’m going to show you today, all the stuff that you want in your neighborhood or maybe even on your own house, began with and is forever linked to tags like this.”