Street Craft: Yarnbombing, Guerrilla Gardening, Light Tagging, Lace Graffiti and More

Positioning itself in relation to graffiti and street art, this collection highlights 28 artists working in “street craft,” uncommissioned works that are installed in urban environments and typically make use of three-dimensional techniques such as crochet, gardening, and sculpture. Individual artists and collectives are presented to the reader through a brief introduction by the editor, a longer artist statement, and documentation of the work, all organized by artist. U.K. artist Paul Harfleet plants pansies at sites where homophobic harassment and abuse occurred, while Spanish sculptor Isaac Cordal places tiny cement businessmen throughout cities. The selected artists come almost entirely from the U.S. and Western Europe, and a good number build off movements such as yarnbombing, the 21st-century practice of covering public objects with crocheted or knitted fabric. Despite the claim that these artists, in relation to graffiti, offer “the next chapter in this story: the growth of street art into a multidisciplinary pick-and-mix of arts and crafts,” the actual evolution of street art is far more multivalent and multinational than this book implies. These artists do represent a worthy phenomenon, and Kuittinen smartly gives most of the collection’s space over to images and artist statements, providing a number of insights into their practices. The book is a serviceable guide for those interested in the intersection of craft and street installation. (Mar.)