Street art assemblages

ABSTRACT This discussion paper explores street art from the point of view of assemblages: What different elements and artefacts converge to give meaning and politics to art works? How do we understand the interactions of artworks, streets, viewers, politics, and discourse that render a work of art a happening rather than an object? Processes of artification depend on material, contextual and symbolic relations that bring together style, place, artists, viewers, city tours and city ordinances into a semiotic assemblage of art in the street. To arrive at a critical understanding of street art, we need to avoid assumptions about transgression, complicity, gentrification, or commodification, and focus instead on assemblages of art, viewers, and economic, political, and urban interests in specific locations. The question is how different elements – ownership and rights to space, capitalist expansion and appropriation, rebellion, and transgression – become entangled in semiotic assemblages that enable us to see the interactions of street art dynamics.