What Preston needs is a ….

Guerrilla artist.

I have become very intrigued by the whole idea of the “guerrilla artist”, not only by the art itself, but by the persona and the mystery of such artists, as well as the motivation behind their need to create pieces of work, that can look astonishingly beautiful, but then can be lost, painted over or forgotten about.
Guerrilla art or street art, can come in many forms, be it objects left in places for people to find, sticker art , or full on art installations suddenly popping up from seemingly nowhere, but the kind of street art, I have become fascinated with is the age old graffiti type.


Not the run of the mill, some kids are bored let’s spray a wall type, but the intelligent, playful and trying to get a message across type.
I have discovered that it is not a new thing, street artists have been around since the 70s and 80s, probably the most notable is the so called Grandfather of stencil art – Blek le Rat, the French architect stencilled his famous life size portraits of people and little rats all across Paris in the early 80s.


Our very own Banksy has often mentioned Blek la Rat as an inspiration behind some of his famous street art. But it’s not all stencilling and spray cans. Another Parisian street artist who goes by the name Space Invader, creates intricate mosaics of 70s inspired computer game characters, he then displays or “invades” these tiles in cities across the world.


When I was in Paris a few months ago there was guerrilla art on almost every street corner, one of the most noticeable and memorable for me, was down a little back street next to my hotel. The area was just out of central Paris, and had a very diverse mix of residents from almost all communities imaginable, and it was also just a little bit dodgy.
But in the midst of all this, down a little side street, spray painted on the pavement about a meter apart were a series of red roses. Just, red roses. They were beautiful.


Now you may be wondering, why does Preston need a guerrilla artist.


Well, the answer is simple. It would bring character and culture to a place that, despite its title of “city” has not quite managed to become one yet, especially in the sense of having a diverse arts and culture scene. Don’t get me wrong, there are many things happening in Preston that are helping it become more cultural and more diverse.


Places like The New Continental put on touring theatres, comedy nights and also hold events. They Eat Culture are an inspired group of people who put on cultural events all over Lancashire. But Preston, I feel has no identity. It seems to want to become a city but is still trapped in a “Town” mentality.


So I say, let’s have some guerrilla artists, the city is full of art students and creative types.. Surely one of them can emerge from the dark at night, spray a stencil or create a mosaic and give the city a bit of much needed character, and me something nice to look at.


N.B. I do realise the actual act of graffiti is illegal and could result in an arrest…. But..