Gendered tonalities: urban publicness through street art and murals by and for women in East Asian cities
Socially Engaged Public Art in East Asia: Space, Place, and Community in Action, 2022
This chapter examines the forms and potentialities of multilayered female agency and engagement w... more This chapter examines the forms and potentialities of multilayered female agency and engagement with the urban through street art and murals by JunkHouse (Seoul), Bao Ho (Hong Kong) and Sasu (Tokyo). While intricate questions on both feminisms and (self-)representations of women in visual have gained growing attention, a more nuanced understanding of their impact and roles in public art and the socio-cultural norms of public space are becoming ever more pertinent. Even though contemporary graffiti is mainly seen as the domain of masculinity, the diversified manifestations of street art and muralism are more accepting for female participation worldwide. Through gendered analysis that pays attention on how female agency and feminine aesthetics are interrelated for renegotiating the use of urban public spaces, publicness as an intricate processes in arts, and existing spatio-aesthetic dynamics, the chapter demonstrates how street art and murals have provided unseen possibilities for women to make their presence and visions known in and for cities. I posit that even if feminine signifiers or feminist aspirations might not be a dominating strategy in these translocal artistic practices amidst the contested urban environment, women protagonists, such as JunkHouse, Bao Ho and Sasu, are not only providing alternative readings on gendered publicness of spaces but also contributing towards new ways of understanding women’s right to the cities.
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Papers by Minna Valjakka
KEYWORDS: Arts, homelessness, female agency, urban resilience, Japan
open access, full text available online
1990s are reshaping cityscapes. The contributions of foreign artists and
practitioners are facilitating the rise of novel subjectivities, sites, and
interventions. Inspired by discussions on interrelations of art and street
art with site (Kwon 2000, 2004; Bengtsen 2013, 2014; Valjakka 2015) and translocality (Low 2016; Brickell and Datta 2011), I propose the framework of translocal site-responsiveness to deconstruct local/global dichotomies and to contribute to a more rounded understanding of artistic and creative practices. The analysis of selected examples reveals the interdependence between the varied forms of agency, manifestations, and site/place/space and contextualizes these negotiation processes in local and global discourses. I posit that urban creativity, whether created by foreigners, locals, or in collaboration, can provide a meaningful engagement with urban environments.
Hong Kong is transnational and transcultural by nature. The trends in visual and popular culture are constantly shaped by people and vogues flowing through the city. A key issue visible in all spheres of life is the balancing between two aims: How to be part of the international scene while also developing Hongkongnese self-identities (as citizens of Hong Kong) mirrored against the mainland Chinese as the “other.” Differentiation from mainland China co-exists with interdependence and co-operation in many fields of culture, too. While the impact of foreign trends and creators of urban art images has been significant in Hong Kong, one should not
lose sight of original production, either. A case in point is the “King of Kowloon” (Tsang Tsouchoi, 1921–2007), a prolific writer of calligraphic texts on any surface in urban public space since the 1960s. As will be discussed, King and his oeuvre is an illuminating case of transforming perceptions and the inconvenience of Western definitions. He also illustrates how the development of urban art images differs from that in mainland China: His production spans decades of Hong Kong history, from British governance until 1997 to the city’s articular status as a Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China. The socio-political and cultural context of Hong Kong has clearly had an impact on the emergence and development of the urban art images, including the variety in content and format as well as the varying levels of transculturality, concepts, acceptance, and employment for different purposes by institutions,
city authorities, and even the police. Nonetheless, the vicinity of mainland China, and of the city of Shenzhen as Hong Kong’s next-door neighbor, allows forms of collaboration with mainland Chinese creators in exhibitions and various events in particular, including the Meeting of Styles (MOS).
Since the mid-1990s, intricate and ever-changing negotiation processes are shaping the spaces for urban art images in Mainland China. The scenes and their developments vary from one city to another because of the impact of individual local and foreign creators of urban art images, government officials, agents of contemporary art including, among others, gallery owners, art critics, art professors, and many other related features, such as local and international events.
Rapid urban development has both created and destroyed sites for urban art images. Despite some accepted sites to paint, for many locals, creating any kind of urban art image is a shortterm pastime, usually a part of student life. Most of the early pioneers have become occupied with their daily jobs and time to continue engagement on the streets is very limited. Some creators, such as art students, may only take part once or twice in authorized events by officials promoting their own understanding of acceptable forms (see e.g. China.org.cn 2013).
Regardless of the ephemerality of the images, sites, and creators, the aim of this chapter is to introduce the main characteristics of the phenomenon through case studies focusing on the scenes in Beijing and in Shanghai, and to suggest a framework beneficial for further research.
When compared with the international trends that have impacted on the emergence and transformation of what is usually addressed as “graffiti” or “street art,” we are able to pinpoint significant differences in terms of intentions, perceptions, reception, employment, and the art market in both Beijing and Shanghai. The focus of this chapter lies in these two cities in which I have followed the developments since 2006 through fieldwork periods, news and social media,
interviews, personal communication, and observations in situ.
Shaped in the shadow of colonialism and post-colonialism, visual arts in Hong Kong have wrestled with issues of identity, locality, and international recognition. The lengthy process of the transfer of sovereignty, initiated in 1984 by the signing of the Joint Declaration, inspired contemporary artists in Hong Kong to assert their locality. In the 1990s in particular, since the trauma of the Tian’anmen Incident in 1989, ‘[a] psychic decolonization occurred which marked out a distance from both of these larger contexts [Western and Chinese art] without simply denying either’ (Clarke 2001: 8; also pp. 38‒69). The ideological struggles were visible in architecture and official public art too, which celebrated the reunion both during and after the Handover in 1997. It can also be argued that official public art in Hong Kong to a certain extent marks an ongoing cultural mainlandization of the urban space by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). But how do urban art images, such as street art and contemporary graffiti, survive the discourses of post-colonialism in its specific forms of de/recolonization and mainlandization, and debates of cultural heritage and indigenous identities? How do they engage with the complex situation?
I seek to explore these questions by modifying Henri Lefebvre’s (1991) definition of space as a continuous process in which the physical, mental, and social aspects of the space are intertwined. In this process of creating the space of urban art images, we need to consider the agency of the creators of urban art images as constructors of the space and its norms, the nationality/ethnicity of the creators, as well as the contextualized formal analysis of the images and the site-responsiveness. Based on intensive periods of fieldwork research in Hong Kong since 2012, extensive photographic documentation, and frequent meetings and in-depth interviews with more than sixty local and non-local creators of urban art images, my aim is to provide a different perspective to the usage and understanding of urban public space at the grassroots level. As I have come to understand, while following the creators throughout the alleys, streets, canals, rooftops, and abandoned buildings, the urban public space appears very different in the eyes of the creators of urban art images.
Keywords: urban art images, contemporary graffiti, street art, mainlandization, urban public space
KEYWORDS: Arts, homelessness, female agency, urban resilience, Japan
open access, full text available online
1990s are reshaping cityscapes. The contributions of foreign artists and
practitioners are facilitating the rise of novel subjectivities, sites, and
interventions. Inspired by discussions on interrelations of art and street
art with site (Kwon 2000, 2004; Bengtsen 2013, 2014; Valjakka 2015) and translocality (Low 2016; Brickell and Datta 2011), I propose the framework of translocal site-responsiveness to deconstruct local/global dichotomies and to contribute to a more rounded understanding of artistic and creative practices. The analysis of selected examples reveals the interdependence between the varied forms of agency, manifestations, and site/place/space and contextualizes these negotiation processes in local and global discourses. I posit that urban creativity, whether created by foreigners, locals, or in collaboration, can provide a meaningful engagement with urban environments.
Hong Kong is transnational and transcultural by nature. The trends in visual and popular culture are constantly shaped by people and vogues flowing through the city. A key issue visible in all spheres of life is the balancing between two aims: How to be part of the international scene while also developing Hongkongnese self-identities (as citizens of Hong Kong) mirrored against the mainland Chinese as the “other.” Differentiation from mainland China co-exists with interdependence and co-operation in many fields of culture, too. While the impact of foreign trends and creators of urban art images has been significant in Hong Kong, one should not
lose sight of original production, either. A case in point is the “King of Kowloon” (Tsang Tsouchoi, 1921–2007), a prolific writer of calligraphic texts on any surface in urban public space since the 1960s. As will be discussed, King and his oeuvre is an illuminating case of transforming perceptions and the inconvenience of Western definitions. He also illustrates how the development of urban art images differs from that in mainland China: His production spans decades of Hong Kong history, from British governance until 1997 to the city’s articular status as a Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China. The socio-political and cultural context of Hong Kong has clearly had an impact on the emergence and development of the urban art images, including the variety in content and format as well as the varying levels of transculturality, concepts, acceptance, and employment for different purposes by institutions,
city authorities, and even the police. Nonetheless, the vicinity of mainland China, and of the city of Shenzhen as Hong Kong’s next-door neighbor, allows forms of collaboration with mainland Chinese creators in exhibitions and various events in particular, including the Meeting of Styles (MOS).
Since the mid-1990s, intricate and ever-changing negotiation processes are shaping the spaces for urban art images in Mainland China. The scenes and their developments vary from one city to another because of the impact of individual local and foreign creators of urban art images, government officials, agents of contemporary art including, among others, gallery owners, art critics, art professors, and many other related features, such as local and international events.
Rapid urban development has both created and destroyed sites for urban art images. Despite some accepted sites to paint, for many locals, creating any kind of urban art image is a shortterm pastime, usually a part of student life. Most of the early pioneers have become occupied with their daily jobs and time to continue engagement on the streets is very limited. Some creators, such as art students, may only take part once or twice in authorized events by officials promoting their own understanding of acceptable forms (see e.g. China.org.cn 2013).
Regardless of the ephemerality of the images, sites, and creators, the aim of this chapter is to introduce the main characteristics of the phenomenon through case studies focusing on the scenes in Beijing and in Shanghai, and to suggest a framework beneficial for further research.
When compared with the international trends that have impacted on the emergence and transformation of what is usually addressed as “graffiti” or “street art,” we are able to pinpoint significant differences in terms of intentions, perceptions, reception, employment, and the art market in both Beijing and Shanghai. The focus of this chapter lies in these two cities in which I have followed the developments since 2006 through fieldwork periods, news and social media,
interviews, personal communication, and observations in situ.
Shaped in the shadow of colonialism and post-colonialism, visual arts in Hong Kong have wrestled with issues of identity, locality, and international recognition. The lengthy process of the transfer of sovereignty, initiated in 1984 by the signing of the Joint Declaration, inspired contemporary artists in Hong Kong to assert their locality. In the 1990s in particular, since the trauma of the Tian’anmen Incident in 1989, ‘[a] psychic decolonization occurred which marked out a distance from both of these larger contexts [Western and Chinese art] without simply denying either’ (Clarke 2001: 8; also pp. 38‒69). The ideological struggles were visible in architecture and official public art too, which celebrated the reunion both during and after the Handover in 1997. It can also be argued that official public art in Hong Kong to a certain extent marks an ongoing cultural mainlandization of the urban space by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). But how do urban art images, such as street art and contemporary graffiti, survive the discourses of post-colonialism in its specific forms of de/recolonization and mainlandization, and debates of cultural heritage and indigenous identities? How do they engage with the complex situation?
I seek to explore these questions by modifying Henri Lefebvre’s (1991) definition of space as a continuous process in which the physical, mental, and social aspects of the space are intertwined. In this process of creating the space of urban art images, we need to consider the agency of the creators of urban art images as constructors of the space and its norms, the nationality/ethnicity of the creators, as well as the contextualized formal analysis of the images and the site-responsiveness. Based on intensive periods of fieldwork research in Hong Kong since 2012, extensive photographic documentation, and frequent meetings and in-depth interviews with more than sixty local and non-local creators of urban art images, my aim is to provide a different perspective to the usage and understanding of urban public space at the grassroots level. As I have come to understand, while following the creators throughout the alleys, streets, canals, rooftops, and abandoned buildings, the urban public space appears very different in the eyes of the creators of urban art images.
Keywords: urban art images, contemporary graffiti, street art, mainlandization, urban public space