Architecture on Film: Style Wars/ The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal

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New York's original generation of graffiti artists meets its (accidentally avant-garde) modern civic counterparts — or competitors — in this double bill exploring legal and illegal use of the city as an urban canvas. Style Wars USA 1984, Dir. Tony Silver, 69min Tony Silver's groundbreaking documentary Style Wars focuses on New York's early 1980s hip-hop scene and its original graffiti artists who go to astonishing lengths to go ‘All City,' transforming subway cars into mobile canvases. The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal USA 2001, Dir. Matt McCormick, 16min Meanwhile Matt McCormick's contemporary short The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal concentrates on the act of municipal over-painting and the subconscious Abstract Expressionist and Minimalist ‘masterpieces' that could be said to be created in the process.