| Many a passing pedestrian -- whether it be a sales clerk heading off to night school or a woman taking her dog out for a stroll -- sees street art and street artists with growing regularity. With that in mind, street art differs dramatically from all of the other "things" that dominate public spaces. But, there is one thing that street art is not: It is not hawking the latest product or service. At its foundation, many people view street art as being a resistance against the idea that only paid for advertisements from big business can grab onto our visual commons. That monopoly has been broken by such things as living statues. Most of these people -- these living statues -- include images like a silver painted monk. Some of these people go to elaborate links for their costumes. These people posing as living statues stand perfectly still until someone throws change into a hat in from of them. This act provokes some sort of entertaining movement. The term living statue generally is applied to a type of mime artist who poses like a statue for hours on end. This art actually does require a great deal of stamina and patience. Living statue performers have posed as mannequins in store window. A number of hidden camera shows have used living statue performers that suddenly jump to life to startle people. There actually is an annual competition for living statue performers in this day and age. The competition is held in the city of Arnhem in the Netherlands. The U.S. city of Laguna Beach in California is the home of the annual Pageant of the Masters show which is created by local volunteers as part of that city's Festival of the Arts. This show presents living statues that come together to form famous works of art. The show itself is set to classical music and about two minutes is allocated to each of the works of art. Amanda Palmer, who is a member of the band The Dresden Dolls, herself performs as a living statue. Because of this, fans of the band now perform as living statues at concert venues before the band takes to the stage. Epcot Center, located in Orlando, Florida, hosts interactive examples of living statues provided by Unity Productions since 1995. There is another form of living art known as living paintings in which mime artists pose as famous characters from masterpiece paintings like the Mona Lisa. They hold their poses for hours. |
[ This holiday season in Florence, Italy, you can see more artists impersonating characters from paintings and statues - street artists dressed and posing as Mona Lisa, and "living statues" of monks. ]
