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art
S.C Mero's Street Art Will Make You Look Twice

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![](https://assets-global.website-files.com/62ee0bbe0c783a903ecc0ddb/6472ae647110264cbe27c98b_image-asset.jpeg) Since its inception in the 1960s, street art has always been a populist form of protest and political or social commentary. Shifts have a occurred from text-based graffiti to visually conceptual works that force people to take a second look and ask themselves: what can be considered art? L.A.-based street artist S.C. Mero is adding her own style to this long history by using (often found) objects to create ironic pieces in Skid Row. She turns old items, like pennies and Barbies, into art by affixing them to abandoned public spaces. The pennies have drawn particular attention, as their transformation into art upholds the idea that anything can become art—especially items people deem worthless. She collects the coins from the street; no one else, it seems, bothers to pick them up. She turned an unused signpost into a stripper pole for Barbies, affixed with a mini disco ball at the top and all. To another, she attached a severed head to the top with signs that read, “Hipsters Beware of the Skid-Row Dragon” and “Keep West of Main St.” ![](https://assets-global.website-files.com/62ee0bbe0c783a903ecc0ddb/6472ae647110264cbe27c987_image-asset.jpeg) S.C. Mero is not the first artist to create such statements in the Skid Row area. In 2014, a famous mural went up that reclaimed the Skid Row area, which city planners had tried to rebrand as the Historic Core, Central City East, or Industrail District, removing municipal signs from the area. The mural resembled a street sign and read “Skid Row City Limit” with a street map next to it that outlined Skid Row. ![](https://assets-global.website-files.com/62ee0bbe0c783a903ecc0ddb/6472ae647110264cbe27c98f_image-asset.jpeg) Using Skid Row as the canvas to create subversive street art has certainly been a theme for some street artists, as the location adds important context to the art in question. You can check out more of S.C. Mero’s art on her Instagram [h](https://www.instagram.com/s.c.mero/?hl=enhttps://www.instagram.com/s.c.mero/?hl=en)[ere](https://www.instagram.com/s.c.mero/?hl=enhttps://www.instagram.com/s.c.mero/?hl=en). * * * Written by: Brianna Di Monda