Sleek

Sleek #13 Winter 2006 Street|Elite

Artistic and creative impulses once trickled slowly down from high culture to influence popular culture. This high to low dynamic has dramatically changed. Impulses now come from the street as much, if not more so, than from an artistic and fashion elite. Even the very terms »high« and »popular« culture seem outdated and irrelevant. What is above and below, in front and behind, pop or fine is all part of Street l Elite, the theme we will be exploring in this, our biggest and most ambitious issue to date – thanks in part to a special section on art and the ultimate street machine – the car. Along our journey through this brave new topsy-turvy world, we’ve interviewed an art curator who shares his educated insights on the globalization and democratization of the art and art markets. We’ve talked to one of the founders of the Fluxus movement, which tried and ultimately failed in creating anti-elitist art. We’ll be looking at how street art is making its way into the spaces once reserved for the elite. We’ll see how artists have appropriated ghetto bling using diamonds and gold, caviar and crystals – is this just a cynical attempt to make art into a luxury product? – and how other artists recycle the lowliest of trash. We’ll look to fashion, photography, art and shoes in the streets of Paris, Belgium, Berlin, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Virtual Reality and Wuppertal. And again and again we’ll see Diana touch her very elite feet to the street.