When Western audiences discuss mural street art, the conversation often begins with New York in the 1970s and figures such as Jean-Michel Basquiat or, in later decades, Banksy. More historically informed accounts may also reference the European stencil tradition of Blek le Rat. However, this perspective overlooks a far older and far more global origin story in which wall painting served as a primary form of communication, ritual, and cultural memory.
Continue reading “Non-Western Roots of Mural Street Art: Walls Have Always Spoken”