Copyright

Shirey, Heather;

Published On

2023-06-01

Page Range

pp. 427–440

Language

  • English

Print Length

14 pages

Keywords

  • Street Art
  • Covid-19
  • The Velvet Bandit
  • SudaLove
  • Wheatpaste Art
  • Mural Art
  • Bay Area
  • Khartoum
  • Political Art
  • Social Commentary
  • Accessibility
  • Visual Language
  • Contextual Analysis
  • Artist Interviews
  • Playful Interventions
  • Seriousness
  • Political Engagement
  • Street Interventions

19. Art in the Streets

Playful Politics in the Work of The Velvet Bandit and SudaLove

  • Heather Shirey (author)
Chapter of: Play in a Covid Frame: Everyday Pandemic Creativity in a Time of Isolation (pp. 427–440)

Drawing on photographic documentation of street art, contextual analysis and artist interviews, this essay examines the work of two prolific street artists: The Velvet Bandit, a wheatpaste artist in the Bay Area (California, USA) and SudaLove, a muralist working in Khartoum (Sudan). Both The Velvet Bandit and SudaLove create artistic interventions in the street as a means of engaging with Covid-19 in a manner that is light and playful but also serious and political. As is typical of street art, their work is highly accessible, using simple visual language. At the same time, each piece requires deeper contextual knowledge to understand the underlying political and social significance.

Contributors

Heather Shirey

(author)
Professor of Art History at University of St. Thomas - Minnesota

Heather Shirey, PhD is a professor of art history at the University of St Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. Her teaching and research focus on race and identity, migrations and diasporas, and street art and its communities. Shirey is a co-director of the Urban Art Mapping research team, a multi-disciplinary group of faculty and students. The group created and manages multiple street art archives, including the Covid-19 Street Art Database (https://covid19streetart.omeka.net) and the George Floyd and Anti-Racist Street Art Database (https://georgefloydstreetart.omeka.net).