ABSTRACT
On 5 June 2020, amid nationwide uprisings demanding justice and police accountability for the killing of George Floyd, artists and volunteers in Washington, DC, painted a monumental Black Lives Matter mural directly onto the paved surface of Sixteenth Street, the main artery leading to the White House. The mural received global recognition, as images of it were spread quickly online through mainstream media and social media platforms. Inspired by the Washington, DC example, over 250 murals reading “Black Lives Matter” were painted on the street surfaces in cities around the world in the months and years that followed. Our research, based on longitudinal on-site documentation, spatial analysis, and interviews with artists, activists, organisers, and city officials, argues that Black Lives Matter street murals are interconnected and can be read collectively as a form of art activism. Each individual mural is unique, its meaning shaped by its specific location. At the same time, when seen together, the street murals create a network that brings together cities across the world through shared visual form, thus serving as a collective statement of solidarity and a resistance to structures of power.
