Moving beyond Banksy and Fairey: Interrogating the co-optation and commodification of modern graffiti and street art

Abstract

This editorial reviews the co-optation and commodification of modern graffiti and street art. In so doing, it analyses attempts by individuals and organizations to monetize the creation, production and dissemination of graffiti and street art. The commodification process often starts with attempts by graffiti and street artists to earn money through their work and then progresses to efforts primarily by cultural industries to integrate graffiti and street art into the products and services that they sell. This latter development can also include how selected property owners and real-estate developers invite artists to create works in or on their buildings or in particular neighbourhoods to make the areas more desirable. After the authors have established this context, they draw together the divergent themes from the four articles contained in this Special Issue.

Public Strategies for the Promotion of Urban Art: The Lisbon Metropolitan Area Case

“…The processes of aestheticization and artification of graffiti (Campos 2015) or the institutionalization of street art (Bengtsen 2014) have conferred legitimacy to the works produced in these subcultural fields. Beyond these dynamics, it is crucial to mention the processes of commodification and co-optation (Banet-Weiser 2011;Molnár 2018;Ross et al 2020). Ross et al (2020:6) defined commodification as "the way that graffiti and street art as both an object and a practice have been packaged as something to be sold."…”

“…The processes of aestheticization and artification of graffiti (Campos 2015) or the institutionalization of street art (Bengtsen 2014) have conferred legitimacy to the works produced in these subcultural fields. Beyond these dynamics, it is crucial to mention the processes of commodification and co-optation (Banet-Weiser 2011; Molnár 2018; Ross et al 2020). Ross et al (2020:6) defined commodification as “the way that graffiti and street art as both an object and a practice have been packaged as something to be sold.” Linked to this question is co-optation, understood by the same authors as “the use of the aesthetics associated with graffiti and street art in various aspects of public life.” These dynamics mean, on one hand, the increased likelihood that the works and efforts of these artists will be commercialized.…”

“…Beyond these dynamics, it is crucial to mention the processes of commodification and co-optation (Banet-Weiser 2011; Molnár 2018; Ross et al 2020). Ross et al (2020:6) defined commodification as “the way that graffiti and street art as both an object and a practice have been packaged as something to be sold.” Linked to this question is co-optation, understood by the same authors as “the use of the aesthetics associated with graffiti and street art in various aspects of public life.” These dynamics mean, on one hand, the increased likelihood that the works and efforts of these artists will be commercialized. But they also imply the aesthetic dilution of graffiti and street art as well as their diffusion into several different spheres of consumption and cultural industry, in the process assuming an increasingly normative character.…”

“…Banksy, JR, Shepard Fairey, Kobra, or Vhils have become not only symbols of a generation but also a signifier for a new type of city: global, competitive, entrepreneurial, glamorous, and creative. This is the corollary of a range of sociocultural processes linked to the commodification, co-optation, artification, and institutionalization of graffiti and street art that have been researched by several authors (Brighenti 2016; Campos 2015; Evans 2016; Kramer 2010; Pavoni 2019; Ross, Lennon, and Kramer 2020; Schacter 2014; Snyder 2009). These dynamics result in pushing these expressions into the cultural mainstream and, consequently, to a higher degree of social acceptance.…”

An emerging art world: The de-subculturalization and artification process of graffiti and pixação in São Paulo

“…It exists in a range of different contexts, pointing us to its somewhat polymorphic character. Urban art not only ranges across popular and media cultures (Banet-Weiser, 2011;Molnár, 2018;Ross et al, 2020), it also penetrates the more elitist field of the art market and the museum (Bengtsen, 2014;Campos and Sequeira, 2018;Wells, 2016).…”