Street Art vs Arte de Rua

Everyone knows that the traffic here in the city of São Paulo is not the best, and while I spend an hour sitting on a crowded bus, a lot of things come to my mind, so, what I am about to say may seem very obvious to many, but is something that I've just recently realised.

If you look at the street art you find in London vs. what you'd find in São Paulo, there is a clear difference. São Paulo artists are generally more about graffiti, hand free draws with vibrant colours whilst the British focus a lot on stencil, little sculptures or ready made print screens that are pasted onto walls... The reason?? - Is not just the Banksy influence - is the security!! 

The English capital counts with thousands of cameras that are connected to a very effective police, so the artists have to be very quick if they don't want to get caught with the subsequent fine and possible arrest (this week the Space Invader has been reportedly arrested in NYC ). The solution? - pre-ready made creations that take less time to spray, paste or glue to the walls, and possibly with more expensive materials that can be afforded by art students and well-known/well-paid artists.

In Brazil the reality is different, there are barely no cameras, and it's definitely not the priority of the police to run to stop someone spraying at wall when there are many other more important crimes to resolve. Two Sundays ago, I found someone painting a beautiful well detailed graffiti here near to my house in a quite posh area of the city, at 4pm and nobody seemed to be bothered about it. At the end of the day they add a little fun to this enormous metropole :-)

And just another observation, whilst the street art in London doesn't have a very long-lasting life - unless is painted by Banksy and ridiculously protected by the council - the paintings in São Paulo last much longer because there are no resources to clean them... thanks God for that!

Graffiti in Liberdade, Sao Paulo

Stencil on the walls of London's Old Street/Bricklane area