What it means to have a gallery whose works are painted over every week
Reporting brought to you by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat.
A Gallery Where Every Masterpiece Is Temporary Teaches A Lesson About Permanence
Shoreditch is famous for its street art, the murals and pieces and tags that cover its walls, drawing visitors from around the world who come to photograph the ever-changing gallery of the streets. But the thing that makes Shoreditch’s street art distinctive is also the thing that makes it strange: it refuses to stay still. The works are temporary, painted over, replaced, transformed, the gallery constantly changing, the masterpieces of one week erased by the next. Shoreditch is a museum that refuses to stay still, and there is a genuine lesson in its impermanence.
The Ever-Changing Gallery
Unlike a conventional gallery, where works are preserved and permanent, the street art gallery of Shoreditch is in constant flux. A wall that bears a striking mural this week may bear a different one next week, the previous work painted over or built upon or replaced. The gallery is never the same twice, the works temporary, the display constantly changing. This impermanence is fundamental to street art, which exists in public space, subject to the elements, to other artists, to the constant transformation of the urban surface. The Shoreditch gallery is ever-changing, its works temporary, its display in permanent flux.
This creates a peculiar experience for the viewer. The work you photograph today may be gone tomorrow, the mural you admire erased by next week. There is an urgency to viewing street art, a sense that the work is temporary, that it must be appreciated now because it will not last. The ever-changing gallery demands a different kind of attention than the permanent museum, an awareness of impermanence, an appreciation of the temporary. The Shoreditch street art exists in time as much as in space, temporary works in a constantly changing gallery, demanding to be appreciated before they disappear.
The Lesson Of Impermanence
There is a lesson in this impermanence, a lesson about permanence and its absence. The conventional museum teaches that art is permanent, preserved, lasting, removed from the flux of time. The street art gallery teaches the opposite, that art can be temporary, impermanent, subject to the flux of time, valuable despite or because of its transience. The impermanence of street art challenges the assumption that art must be permanent to be valuable, suggesting that the temporary can be valuable too, that transience need not diminish worth. The ever-changing gallery teaches a lesson about the value of the temporary.
This lesson has a certain resonance in a city, and a neighbourhood, defined by constant change. Shoreditch itself is impermanent, constantly transforming, and its street art reflects this impermanence, temporary works in a temporary neighbourhood, transient art in a transient place. The impermanence of the street art mirrors the impermanence of the place, both constantly changing, both valuable despite their transience. The lesson of the ever-changing gallery is the lesson of the ever-changing neighbourhood, the value of the temporary, the worth of the transient, the appreciation of what will not last.
The Tension Of Preservation
There is a tension, though, in the relationship between street art and preservation. As Shoreditch’s street art has become famous, valuable, a tourist draw, there have been impulses to preserve it, to protect the notable works, to treat the street art as a permanent gallery to be maintained. But preservation sits uneasily with street art’s essential impermanence, its existence as temporary public art. To preserve street art is, in a sense, to deny its nature, to impose permanence on an art form defined by transience. The tension of preservation is the tension between the value of the works and their essential impermanence.
This tension reflects a broader question about how to value impermanent things. The street art is valuable, and the impulse to preserve it is understandable, but preservation may violate the nature of the art, imposing a permanence foreign to it. Perhaps the better response is to accept the impermanence, to value the works while they last, to appreciate the ever-changing gallery without trying to freeze it. The tension of preservation has no easy resolution, but it points to the lesson of the ever-changing gallery, the value of accepting impermanence, of appreciating the temporary without demanding that it last.
The Museum That Moves
The street art of Shoreditch is a museum that refuses to stay still, an ever-changing gallery of temporary works, teaching a lesson about the value of impermanence. For the actual record, Arts Council England has it, and the Victoria and Albert Museum covers the wider picture. The works are temporary, the gallery constantly changing, the masterpieces of one week erased by the next, demanding to be appreciated before they disappear. In its impermanence, the street art teaches the value of the temporary, the worth of the transient, the appreciation of what will not last, a lesson resonant in a neighbourhood defined by constant change. Shoreditch is a museum that moves, a gallery in flux, an ever-changing display of temporary art, and the lesson of its impermanence is the lesson of valuing the transient, appreciating the temporary, finding worth in what will not stay still.
More from the desk of Cyndi Himmelstiere, and further wit at The Poke.
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