Compiled by Gary Shove
Words by Patrick Potter
Distributed by Ginko Press
Hardback 192 pages, 232 x 222mm
ISBN-10: 0955912156
ISBN-13: 978-0955912153
Project Summary
We wanted to maintain the established formula with the third title in the Untitled. Street Art series. If it ain't broke don't fix it. At the same time we wanted it to be a bigger and better book. I wrote a blend of longer feature articles and shorter pieces with a common theme of conflict. The anarchic comedy was still there although there were some passionate and sincere texts in the mix too this time. I even went into some art theory, which was a risk considering the target audience. We got away with it somehow. I think it goes to show that its all about how you write, not what you are writing about.
Clipping
Why is violence the flavour and theme of a book ostensibly about street art you ask? Well, it is because it is an art form born in response to restrictions. These restrictions are imposed for the reasons above, and the irony is that they are imposed through the threat of violence.
Why does street art have an identity of its own, rather than simply being an extension of public art? Precisely because it is illegal, and illegality itself is defined by violence.
If an act is against the law the state is permitted to use violence to prevent you from achieving that act. Violence is in the brutal jagged glass cemented to the top of the wall. It’s in the truncheon. It’s in the barbed wire crowning the fence. It’s in the fall from the fifty foot factory window ledge. The violence is part of the art work itself, it is essential to the process.
Violence is a key to understanding all manner of things about street art and graffiti that we may have previously overlooked. It is a rich seam of thought experiments to mine. It is a fertile crescent, lusciously abundant in new ways to see.
Violence permeates all human activity, including, and especially art.
To take full advantage of this terrible cipher, we must broaden our scope to include violence in all its forms, not just physical acts. Look at the feud between Banksy and King Robbo. Look at the Fame festival, born as a creative response to violent oppression.
If we ever learn to understand it fully then maybe we’ll be able to ride out the gathering catastrophes that threaten the species.
Praise for Untitled. III This is Street Art
Review by CFYE...
It’s also part of the questions that Untitled III raises. How will this go down in history? Assuming all of this goes down in history at all. And this is where the untitled series truly shines and sets itself apart from all the other street art books: The text, written by Patrick Potter is clever, funny, provocative and raises questions that no one has a satisfying answer to. It’s impossible to talk art without sounding pretentious, let alone analyzing the state it is in. Still he manages to get away with it, even better, he makes me feel smart because it’s written with so much charisma that I can’t help agreeing with everything.
Now I’m lucky enough to have part I and II here as well, and I read through both again to find if there is something that sets ‘This is Street Art’ apart from its predecessors, except the obvious of course. I’m happy to inform you that there isn’t. They found the perfect formula to document and question what is happening, and to provoke the mind. It’s not the time to change that formula yet.
