Street-Art: From The Most Hated to The Most Loved

In October last year, a weird video clip of a street art auction shocked me and went viral around the world. It was the painting of a girl holding a balloon in her hand created by a pseudonymous street artist named ‘Banksy’. In the auction, the bidders around the world tried to bid fiercely until the last price was finalized around 40 million THB. It was worth a luxurious mansion in Thailand.

The climax of the auction was not the high price itself, but the process after the auctioneer knocking his hammer shocked everyone in the hall. After the final prize was called, the painting was slowly scrolled to the lower frame where the shredded paper machine was ready to work. All of a sudden, the picture of the girl became shredded. After a little while, the machine stopped working resulting in a half shredded painting. The silence blanketed all over the room. Every mouth hung open widely while spotting the unexpected event upfront. Even me, I still felt shocked by the clip.

In this incident, Banksy’s agent declared that this action was planned by Banksy himself whereas the auction house’s agent refused the plot of this destructive action that occurred to this pricey painting. Although the invaluable painting was half shredded, the winner of the bid did not show any outrage but great joy because this painting was named ‘Love is in the Bin’ thereafter. This event became the talk of the town overnight. At that time, street art was not my cup of tea, but I viewed it as something amusing.

Not long after, I had a chance to attend the Art Basel exhibition held in Hong Kong where a lot of art galleries came to present their artists’ works. In the same building, another exhibition was arranged to present the artworks to be auctioned. Among those awesome artworks, there was a cartoon painting created by a street artist named Kaws. His painting featured a vivid story with colorful paint in a modern style on which tempted me to place my bid for my home decoration. I don’t think it would be pricy, but I was wrong when I approached his painting. My idea was evaporated as soon as I saw the starting price which was about a hundred thousand or a million. I was not daring enough to pay, but my curiosity won overall, so I went to observe the auction for his paintings the next day. Perhaps, there would be a few madmen placing their bids who do not care how high the price for his painting. One of my favorites was ‘The Kaws Album’ which featured ‘The Beatles’ in Simpson’s Family in a satirical style. Finally, the time of the judgment was arriving; heaps of teenagers with jeans and sneakers who were fanatic of Kaws gathered in the hall bidding competitively against the others. I did not think the price would go that far from the start, but I was wrong again. The final price ended up at 450 million THB. Oh My God!! It’s unbelievable but true.

Before telling anything further than this point, we need to understand the term ‘Street Art’ which is literally defined in a dictionary that it is an art created in the public space. However, the history of street art, the most favorite among teenagers, is longer than anyone could think of. Dated back to ten thousand or hundred thousand years ago, humans tried to paint on their caves or space when they became upright men. Before that evolution, humans looked like apes calling the other like a monkey and eating fleas after snatching from the others’ backs. During the pre-historic time, they exhibited their imaginations in the forms of humans and animals in the caves as there were no streets or buildings available.

After the pre-historic period, public painting could be seen everywhere in the Ancient Roman time with a more complicated form and story. For example, there were paintings of praising statements for gladiators who fought against wild animals, condemnation to the politicians, propaganda, and so on in Pompeii, the buried city causing by the volcanic explosion in AD79. Fast-forwarding to the 1960s or the 1970s, aerosol color spray cans were developed. To spray-paint in a large area with some statements and pictures in a short time was very easy for some people. Hooligans in the USA sneaked to paint some statements in public areas to show off. Mostly, they painted their names or any proclamation of their power in the public resulting in an unpleasant look of the city.

After a while, the paintings by those hooligans have improved gradually and could be called street art. From nasty look statements, they have put some design and identity on their statements together with skillful techniques. This pleasing art has given a pleasant sight and has let the passing by treasured their time. Apart from the change in painting style, the area of painting has been extended to another public area such as the building surfaces, plank girders, billboards, trains, or the real elephant in the zoo that was painted by the nutty.

In the 1980s, street art became vehement along with the mainstream of hip-hop music and punk rock. Every corner of New York City was covered with millions of graffitis and pictures. The most favorite place for the street artists was the NYC subway trains which were full-scale covered without any free space both inside and outside the trains. Among those street artists, the arts created by Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat were hunted by the talent scout to be revealed in the museum and had been enlisted in a part of the world art history since then. This is the shifting point of street art from the most hated to most loved by the public overnight.

Street art has been acknowledged by galleries, museums, collectors, and marketers in the modern world because it is trendy, enjoyable, and unconventional. Most street art artists are the new generations born who think out of the box. They have the freedom to do everything they like to. Not only is spray painting performed in the public, but scratching or sticker posting is also acknowledged as street art. Sometimes, they made a patched cloth to cover something in public. This kind of art includes some artwork in private areas or on any objects, too. This is because the artists would like to enjoy their fan clubs. For example, they created their art on canvas, toys, or dolls. The most striking one is the auction of Kaws’ piece whose price was incredibly high.

After returning home from Hong Kong, I felt curious about Thai street art whether it still exists or not. Should there be some hard-cored proclaimed statements like, ‘My (vocational) school is the father of all!’ I wouldn’t dare to ask the painters from such a school about their inspiration as I’m afraid that they might be busy taking care of all schools in their control. Therefore, I asked my friend to introduce some street artists for more information. It is found that Thai street art can be compatible with the ones from the western world. Street art in Thailand started 20 years ago when the trends of hip hop music and half-butt wearing jeans were widespread among teenagers. Moreover, the B-Boy dance and extreme sports like skateboarding or roller-skating were popular in Thailand. There was no exception for street art which also jumped on the bandwagon.

During the pioneer time, most street artists in Thailand had to create their work secretly. Otherwise, they would be fined heavily for staining the public area according to the law on the maintenance of the cleanliness and orderliness of the country 1992. If the police found out, the artists would get fined 5,000 THB for vandalizing the public properties. At that time, the fine was as high as a down payment of a motorbike. Despite the heavy fine, those artists tried to risk themselves leaving their works and identities on any highly seen-areas. Street art is better off than other kinds of art owing to its easy accessibility in daily life. You do not need to enter the museum or art gallery. By the principle, if the artwork is frequently seen by the public, the artist will become famous in a short time, unlike the ones who were under skepticism in the past. When these street artists have been widely admired, they do not need to commit their works furtively.

From the messy scratch to the trendy art; should there be any kinds of street art on the buildings, those will reap a good review from the passing by. In the past, street artists were put in jail for their unacceptable stain on the public surface. When the perception of the world has changed, the perception of the city municipal has changed too. The street artists have been wholeheartedly invited to paint on the wall in public to attract visitors and boost up the tourism industry. In Thailand, there are numerous artists from the north to the south waiting to show off their skills to promote their local tourism resulting in millions of selfies from the tourists with their street art. Most shots are publicly shared with the location and posted on online platforms: Instagram or Facebook, etc., so the locals will be able to earn more profit from this kind of tourism. Not only are these street artists well known in Thailand, but some of them have also been invited to show their art skills abroad. Moreover, some of them have a great chance to design the pattern for global fashion houses or luxury goods.

After gaining a comprehensive understanding of street art, as an art collector, I don’t think I would miss owning a piece of street art for sure. I should have one of them at my place for taking pride in myself. Until one day while strolling with a cup of ice cream in the middle of the Central World Department Store, I was attracted by models of grumpy girls with rabbit attire created by Alex Face, the famous Thai street artist. After spending a quarter of an hour licking the ice cream cup until the last drop of ice cream on a spoon, I finalized my decision and told the shop assistant that I wanted to own the model. It should have been simple trading as I expected, but it was not. I had to buy something at the shop to be eligible for the lucky draw from the receipt. After all the receipts were pooled in the box, the shop owner will pick a piece of receipt to find the lucky one paying for the grumpy models which cost almost ten thousand THB each. After spending three hours on the movie in the same building, I returned peevishly to the shop perhaps there wouldn’t be many people coming for the lucky draw; then I would simply negotiate for owning the model within a short time.

Unfortunately, it did not turn up what I wanted. I was stunned by the large number of people gathering in front of the shop. They all were teenagers of all ages who both were Thai and foreigners waiting for the lucky draw process with their heart-pounding. The winners of the draw, who could not conceal their exuberance, felt like they get those models for free. If I asked them to sell the model to me right away, they would condemn me including my parents.
Next time, I must be better prepared for the grumpy girl!