Politically,
pochoirs are descendants of the cultural manifestoes and situationist
proclamations
that marked the student and working class rebellions of the 1960s.
Aesthetically,
they are linked
more to a French painterly tradition than to the illustrationist roots
of the American
graffiti that exploded
on the world's walls in the 1970s. The figurative images of the
pochoiristes to some
extent represent
a reaction to graffiti writing.
The
conciseness of a stencil image
and its capacity for rapid reproduction engenders a sense of freedom.
But like generations of muralists and poster artists, the pochoiristes'
work is not just about self-expression.
Idiosyncratic, whimsically provocative, fond of double entendre and
wordplay (those who sign their work use
allusive pseudonyms), these artists seek interaction with passers-by
through their images. They also interact
with each other, sometimes working jointly on a wall, sometimes
stealing up in the night to add an image that
extends the context of another's work.
