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ABOVE : PAT - Plymouth Artists Together at Leadworks in Plymouth

For as long as people have been building walls, other people have been using them to communicate. Satire, Irony, Advertisements, Social and political slogans, declarations of love, can all be found on walls in Ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka.

Here in Plymouth a group of artists who have come together and created outside galleries, street art and location art across the city since 2020, hosted an exhibition at Leadworks in Stonehouse.

ABOVE : A local external Urban Gallery in Honicknowle Plymouth (left) and an original piece of large scale street art (right) from westcountry artist SpraySaint

There are a lot of preconceptions that often accompany street art and the people that make it, but scratch below the surface here at this exhibition, and this community of street and graffiti painters reveal themselves to be as diverse and eclectic as any other group of artists.

ABOVE : Plymouth artist K9 (Kev Davison) former music promoter and backdrop painter

Mention the world Graffiti and the first thing to come to mind for many will be the vibrant tags on the subway walls and underground trains of New York in the late 1970's and early 80's. In a open battle against the gentrification of urban spaces, whilst extreme polar opposites of wealth and poverty jostled for space among one of the most multicultural and socially diverse spaces on earth, the artists often inspired by a musical phenomenon that not only took it's inspiration from the street but repositioned it as a venue, reinvented the gallery and moved outside.

ABOVE : Plymouth based Contemporary Abstract artist Martin Bush who created three works for the Union Street lockdown gallery had the wonderfully expressive painting above and some other great work in the show. His love of music is very apparent and is one of the common themes here among PAT artists exhibiting here and around the city.

That the post modern sampling and re-purposing of pop art and logos provided the backdrop for dance battles in which break dancers, DJ's and MC's brought the noise should have been no surprise for the cities authorities, but they were wrong footed and it was not until the mid 1980's that they started to build fences and takes other steps to protect their property. By this time the art-form had begun appearing on walls across Europe in Paris, Amsterdam and London, and modern street art as we know it would flourish and brighten up urban spaces across the world.

ABOVE :Jon Lilly Graffiti/Community artist. Jon's work will be familar to many Plymouth residents where he works as a Graffiti/Community artist having painting large scale murals on the walls of Street Factory ( the local nationally reknowned street dance group and the Stonehouse-Past-Present-Future Cliik commision along the walthrough next to Pilgrim primary school

The work here in Leadworks clearly demonstrates how street art has been embraced by an incredibly contrasting and disparate group of artists. Attracting work made by artists from all age groups and cultural backgrounds, working across a range of mediums and disciplines, and at different levels, none of them seem hampered by the usual expectations and boundaries imposed in many other 'art' settings.

ABOVE : Classic Old Skool Graffiti tag by MASE in Honicknowle Plymouth

Street art has always had this uncomfortable tension built in by the idea of creating what was originally often illegal work on other people's property, created anonymously whilst trying to get your 'name ' out there. This is why tags became so important. Especially when Graffiti was wrongly attributed as a cause of crime. The thinking being that street art, rather than being a form of self expression, was a sign of visible neglect, and therefore violence and street crime were more likely to occur in these tagged areas were people thought they could get away with it, because the tags presence indicated that nobody cared. The uncomfortable reality in many areas of New York though, was that the authorities were worried that free street art, made not for profit, was actually signposting their own negligence.

ABOVE : Koeone 'Brighter Days'. This self taught artist from North Devon known for their monochrome portraits of women with pink and turquoise logos in their hair, demonstrating how tags, the recontextulisation of logos and the importance of the human element has informed street art

There is a reason that artists like Banksy and Blek le Rat resonate with the general public. Now even more so, in a world where we are bombarded with the commercial sloganeering of companies that are often driving others into poverty and mental health crises, people feel oppressed and shouted at by the advertising and architectural callousness of many big cities. Many feel like pawns in a war where people have become little more than commodities, to be traded by companies, and those with more power and agency have often not factored this human need to be acknowledged and feel cared about, into the urban landscape.

ABOVE : Plymouth/Madrid artist Ana Barandiaran who like a few of the artists here also works as a tatoo artists with her work on display at leadworks and on the boards at Honicknowle (the Octopus and eye)

Since ancient times, toilet, temple, church, Parthenon and Civic walls, have often become a battle ground where the internal struggle between people's own struggles and the will of the land have played out. Scratching away the dull pacifying surface, and revealing this need to be heard in words and images,the expressions that unfurled were often much more vibrant, original, and culturally resonant than what they 'defaced'. When a place does not reflect accurately the people who live there and the pride they feel, the mirror is not restored when their expressions are simply hidden, censored and obscured.

ABOVE : Work being created during the paint jam outside Plymouth City Centre in 2021

I am not going to go into a sociological discussion about a cities citizens using their own municipal buildings as vessels of free expression here, but it is important to note that PAT have managed to create all their public art, from large scale old skool style tags on construction site hoardings, to murals on residents walls, and groups of paintings hung across outside spaces in the city, with the full legal permission and blessing of the local authority. It is a credit to all involved that the city has been allowed to be reimagined by it's resident and visiting artists in such a way.