Express Yourself

Remember that photo challenge from way back featuring the head of Karl Marx? It represented the tip of the iceberg in terms of the hottest street art trend in Paris: stenciled texts and images on the pavement and on walls.

Often it's about spreading ambiguous slogans, like these two found on the Rue du Faubourg du Temple just after the May 1st festivities. If you have any idea what they mean, let me know.


There's no ambiguity in the following stencil portraits. On the left, a psychadelically framed Salvador Dali is captioned as saying, "The word 'graffiti' must remain a shitty word, an insult to the spiritually constipated." In the center - well, did they really need to identify Beethoven? I mean, come on! And on the right, Konny Steding is a street artist who seems to specialize in stencil.


Finally, stencil art can get political, re-purposeful, and philosophical. Gaza was a hot topic long before Israeli commandos zip-lined onto Turkish boats in June. This color wheel covers a sewer grate, and the tag on the right reads, "Sometimes I tell myself that in creating man, God overestimated his abilities, just a little."


This is all well and good, but I'm still convinced that the best street art is that which aspires to sincere expression, rather than "art." We stumbled across this exemplar in our very own courtyard.

Street stencil artists, rejoice. The future is in good hands.