Grade 11

Thar Lun Naing

24 July 2015

Street art: Freedom of expression or vandalism

Written by Thar Lun Naing, Grade 11

Grade 11

Thar Lun Naing

24 July 2015

Street art: Freedom of expression or vandalism

Everyone has expressions and they evince in different forms, at different places and for different
reasons. So, how do you express your feelings, emotions and ideas? Some express through books, songs and
poems while other use street arts. However, there is controversy in using street arts as freedom of selfexpression. So, we must question whether street arts are vandalism or not.
The street artists and supporters claim that their pieces of arts intend to make aware of certain issues,
as followed by changing our perspectives on things. For example, the Banksys paintings about wars got
public attentions on effects of modern wars, and people reflected in a way that they felt the aim of these
paints has changed their views to different angles. After seeing his arts, they became aware of what is
happening in other places which are often neglected or forgotten. Moreover, it can lead to a better change for
those warring zone if those arts strongly arouse public and governments to make actions. The fall of Berlin
wall is a good example to prove that arts have made a change in history.
Another aim of expressing arts in public is to show that they welcome over someone action or an
event. For instance, a young graffitist from Yangon made welcoming graffiti on a public wall for the US
President Obama visit to Myanmar. His graffiti was popular and supported by public because of his skill to
decorate an ugly damaged wall into a satisfactory art form.
On the other hand, the oppositions see street arts as things which cause damages to public as well as
private properties. Most of the artists use public walls to create arts which are not legally allowed to use for
ones own sake. These walls are meant to be public features and clean from any forms of editions. For
example, graffiti and paints on the historical heritage are prohibited as these sites and structures belong to
public, but there are still those vandalisms over ancient pagodas in Bagan. In addition, no one will like those
creations of graffiti on their home wall without their permission.
Furthermore, some of the unprofessional artists take advantage of arts freedom to mean offense to a
particular group or person by their arts skills. They are racist and even spreading hatred to the viewers. Some
are political propagandas and personal attacks. I have seen those kinds of arts in several times in Mandalay
streets. I strongly dislike these paints and they only bring negative consequences. That is more than
vandalism. Moreover, these actions showed us that in these area, laws are not regulated which indirectly
mean it is not a safe place.
To add more, a significant numbers of arts are inappropriate for young children and early teenagers
who are just starting to learn new things. They might be brainwashed from those paints as they are weak in
deciding what is right and wrong. Thus, the habit of vandalism might develop as they grow up instead of
knowing the truth arts and values.
To overcome those problems, I suggest that governments should create legal walls or spaces for those
kinds of arts and artists to survive and develop. If that is not practical, then the artists should create their own
art galleries and installations by the fund of arts lovers.
According to the above points, the vandalism outweighs benefits of street arts. So, I firmly believe
that the street arts are more of vandalism and criminal acts if they are done in illegal areas.
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Grade 11

Thar Lun Naing

24 July 2015