My fifteen year-old sister, Hayley, is on a mission to revamp her bedroom (also known a The Lair of the Beast, a murky domain into which our parents occasionally make tentative offerings of food). She told me that she’s going to get her artistic friend to ‘throw up a piece’ on the wall with spray paint, but I’m not convinced that the parentals would take to kindly to the use of aerosols in such a confined space. Aside from that, they’d probably be totally fine with it, to be honest. But if I told Hayley that, she probably wouldn’t be so keen on the idea anymore, and I’d kind of like to see it take off.
I’m thinking of suggesting that she look into getting a custom graffiti wall decal instead. Her mate, if she’s as into art as Hayley claims, should be capable of drawing up the graffiti design on paper or with software, or whatever the kids are using these days. This can then be uploaded to one of these online wallpaper design tools I’ve read about, digitally printed and sent out for Hayley to install at her leisure. The outcome? Hayley gets to personalise her space with one-of-a-kind wall art, and our parents don’t have to put up with paint and fumes all over the shop.
I doubt that this will fly with Hayley, though – she’ll say it lacks authenticity. I can see the argument. Then again, being an upper-middle class teenager from Kew doesn’t exactly qualify one to comment on the authenticity of references to street art in interior decor. If anything, the decal option is more authentic – she’s constantly online, ‘redecorating’ her social media profiles, which seems suitably paralleled by the notion of self-adhesive digital wallcoverings that can be made to order via the internet.
For the time being, all that sis is aware of is a need to establish ownership over her space, while powerfully differentiating it from other spaces in the family home. Unfortunately for her, with parents as open-minded as ours, she’s going to have kind of a hard time rebelling.