New York’s South Bronx has one thing it can be proud of.
Or, as others might say, something it really has to answer for.
For it was there, in the 1970’s, that the four forms of musical and artistic expression collectively known as Hip Hop arose.
You've heard the music. It's commonly referred to as rap.
And you've probably seen the dance form, called breaking.
DJing, mercifully, is the easiest to avoid.
But graffiti is not - and it has changed the landscape of many of the great cities of the world.
Except Singapore where they fling you in jail for it and throw away the key.
No such luck in São Paulo, where the municipal government has practically given up on preventing it.
Artistic parallels are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and the energy that existed in the South Bronx of the 1970’s.
Brazilian social scientists have an explanation for it: Poverty and uneven distribution of income have fed folkloric vandalism and stimulated the creation of graffiti as an urban sport for the disenfranchised.
But now, all of a sudden, we’re being praised as the new shrine of graffiti and a center of inspiration for graffiti artists worldwide.
Jeez!
Enter The Twins. (Os Gêmeos)
No, not the baseball team from Minnesota.
The Twins I’m referring to are Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo, identical twin brothers from São Paulo.
They’ve been painting graffiti since 1987, when they were 13.
And, these days, they are doing it on walls and buildings all over the world.
Their work is in Miami, in Manhattan, in Brooklyn, in San Francisco, in the Netherlands, in Paris, in Rome – all sorts of places.
And they get paid for it.
Even by the municipal government of São Paulo, who invited them to decorate the trains of the subway system. (Can you see New York doing that?)
Their subjects range from family portraits, to Brazilian folklore.
And are often commentaries on political or social aspects of the society.
To those of you out there who’ve had your children busted for tagging with spray paint: Rejoice!
You can now hope they’ll make a name for themselves as artists.
You can now hope they’ll make a name for themselves as artists.
Leighton – Monday
