Mural or Billboard? The Dispute Over a Shepard Fairey in Brooklyn Heads Back to Court

VIA: Hyperallergic

A mural by Shepard Fairey, whose iconic “Hope” poster for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign ultimately earned him two years’ probation, is the subject of yet another lawsuit. More [HERE]

Spoiling Your Work With Brand Partnerships

Insa has done some great gif work in the past, turning murals into internet art that boggles the mind. Sadly he decided to ruin all of that by producing this ad for Kettle One vodka which will now be forever linked to his aesthetic in my mind. While this is obviously a personal opinion that many people wouldnt agree with, I find it hard to imagine why an artist who takes years to develop an aesthetic, an identity, brand, or style, would allow that said identity to be linked to a very specific commercial object.  I just cannot imagine that the compensation is worth the permanent association that your artwork becomes for so many people. Ahh fuck it lets hit the bar.

Ikea Street Art Campaign

Ikea's idea of "activating" a typically dull outdoor advertising campaign. 

TIME WARNER STENCILS THE BOWERY

Related to the last post, does it bother you that Time Warner cannot face penalty for this recent corporate graffiti campaign. If The DOB sign enforcement unit can figure out who was responsible for the execution, they might face a small fine. Does it bother you that the people who stenciled these were probably local artists who had worked on the street and were willing to face arrest for the 300 or so dollars a night? Does it also bother you that these individuals might face serious jail time if they were caught doing their own work? It does me.

VIA Animal NY

Time Warner stenciled their branding up the Ave from the New Museum on Bowery (and elsewhere) to promote some invite-only party they’re throwing tonight for a launch of their fancy, pricey “signature” package of cable services. Appropriately, the stencils are outside of Whole Foods, marketing directly to the sort of people who pay too much for cheese.

West 13th and Washington Now Under the Control of the Details Guild

Photo by Luna Park, original post at The Street Spot

We have posted many times about the West 13th and Washington negotiated public space location. Through the years it has gone from being a fantastic mural by Conor Harrington, to being covered by NPA, only to be uncovered by DickChicken and myself, to then being wantonly destroyed by commercial media, to its newest incarnation as the Details Guild operated "art" location it is now. The history of this location was told to me by Sol Joseph of Critical Massive in a conversation we had months ago, out of which I came with a deep respect for his particular business. From what I understand at this point, the landlord has approved the Details Guild to curate this location for an undetermined amount of time. They will provide artists (Blek Le Rat being the first) with month long runs at this location in exchange for bragging rights and a large advertisement for themselves, branding both the art and that corner forever. Sales of prints will be offered through their website, all proceeds of which will go to teen arts mentoring programs.

While I have been watching this location for some time now, obviously I am opinionated about its use. I have decried its use for advertising, and one would imagine it's transformation into a curated art location would gain my approval. Yes and no. First, the initial outlaw quality that this wall possessed was for me its best incarnation. Without true authorization this wall saw a constantly evolving array of artworks and public discourse. In fact, Conor Harrington's mural lasting so long at a location whose ownership was constantly under negotiation, exemplified some of the ideas I have about unauthorized use of public space and artist's ability to self police critically. Conor's mural lasted a long time without anyone destroying it and this is a testament to the level of respect and concern public citizens had for the piece. It is also proof that allowing the public to self curate their own walls may not result in the widespread destruction that many critics of this practice assume.

Although I am happy to see art finally triumphing at this location, as is often the case this tenuous situation is mitigated by a corporate identity. Details has branded this wall and by extension all artists who then use this space in an effort to either promote Details magazine, or sell prints for charity-depending on how you see it. (They did keep the corner part of this wall for themselves) What is lost in this situation is the public's role in actively engaging their own spaces. The Details Guild may edit content, choose safe artists, and generally make their own private call on what is appropriate at this location. They will use the streets of our city to benefit their company, re imagining themselves as an institution "dedicated to the support, development, and promotion of the creative arts, and their connection with the greater community." What we loose as a public is an opportunity to have a wall for ourselves. A place in which we can mark the city and by extension become closer to it, physically and emotionally invested in the space that we occupy. While I am all for public arts projects, murals and other forms of authorized public works, this situation leaves much to be desired.

Lastly I would like to make a quick observation. It seems NPA, or Contest Promotions as they are now known is "advertising" this location at many of their illegal street level advertising billboards. While I am unsure if there is any connection here between Levis and the Details Guild, any connection will only make this location more suspect and support the thought that what was once a public venue for artistic expression is now a street art advertising spot slyly hidden beneath a public arts project.

DeSlavio Playground in Little Italy was buffed by the City after being cited as Graffiti

Animal New York reports that the PLAY mural at the DeSlavio Playground in Little Italy was buffed by the City after being cited as Graffiti. The resulting grey wall is an eyesore and the dilapidated mural reminding people what the park was there for is a great loss. Oddly the mural was neither graffiti or art but a company logo for a music centric promotions group PLAY. As much as I hate hearing this, the mural fits all of my standards for appropriate commercial use of public space and was a welcome addition to the small concrete respite. See the Animal article and read the comments for more.

Advertisers and street artists swap tactics in Berlin

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. With no insurance and a possibly infected molar I signed over my right to my bottom left wisdom tooth last friday. 5 minutes later I was shaking hands with the "dentist" and then walking along 2nd avenue in Brooklyn with a numb cheek. 3 hours after that I was self medicating and have been in a large amount of pain ever since. I apologize.

I was recently contacted by Candice Novak to respond to questions regarding the intersection of street art and advertising. I'm always happy to give my opinions on this subject.

Something is not right with this iPad poster in a Berlin subway. Above the words "Easter Celebration," a topless blonde dons a risque bunny suit, legs spread wide. Above the label "Garden Party," there's a photo of two beetles mating on a leaf, then a couple doing the same on a bluff above the words "Hiking Trip." [More Here]

Project Art Cart-Bringing Art to the City Without an Agenda?

A while back I developed a quaint relationship with a small NYC marketing firm based on our mutual hatred for NPA, now Contest Promotions. They had run into some legal trouble as it seemed their illegal wildposting business was conflicting with NPA's illegal wildposting business. Essentially NPA filed suit against them which they could not afford to fight and therefore were strong armed into loosing a few of their big clients. It's a rough business apparently.

Obviously I have been tentative to embrace this company as they work with commercial clients very often, the result of which is unwanted advertising on our city streets. That said these guys are also very local and trying hard to support local talents and arts programs in ways which respect the city streets and are not selfish uses of artistic talent to promote a larger agenda. (more on this in the next post)

After NPA's recent fall and the resulting white boards strewn around manhattan, Paper- Spaceship, took advantage of the liberated locations at least once. They explained to me that they were trying to promote local artists, although I took issue with the action because each poster had a small logo and website making the "artwork" an advertisement.

Just a few days ago I was sent word of a new project they are working on with Five Inch Monster called Project Art Cart. The idea is to use local artists to adorn the street vendor carts in NYC with local talent. Obviously I was concerned that this stunt might be another marketing tactic to promote a model which would eventually result in more unwanted commercial messages, but it appears to be on the up and up. I asked Paper-Spaceship to explain the business model hoping to figure out if there was some other motive besides a more aesthetic vending experience. This is what they told me.

Project Art Cart is a side project that myself and a local artist have organized to continue our efforts to promote the unrecognized emerging NYC art scene. We're interesting in improving the urban community by enhancing the aesthetic of city streets all while providing a unique platform for emerging artists to showcase their talents – we look at it as a win/win situation for artists and the everyday street walking New Yorker. Besides branding each cart with the Project Art Cart logo and slapping on a URL to direct anyone that is interested in contributing, the real sponsor here is the artist themselves.

Provided this project doesn't spin itself into some new venue for outdoor advertising and these carts remain adorned with artwork and not Calvin Klein ads, I think this is a good thing. It may not be the most interesting public art I can think of but it is nonetheless art on the streets with no visible strings attached. If you would like to participate, I would reach out to the the project managers and see if you can submit your designs for evaluation.

Ridiculous Ads Worm Their Way Ever Deeper Into Public Spaces

Many of the images in this article are familiar but it's nice to see them all in one place.

VIA Infrastructurist

A phenomenon that has been dubbed “Ad Creep” continues apace with our public structures as more and more are being rented out for branding and messaging. In India, for instance, a support column of a highway overpass has just been turned into a bone to hawk some pharma product called Sandoz, which turns your skeleton into concrete or something. [More Here]

Street Art and Graffiti as Public Dialogue

We have long advocated that street art and Graffiti are a particularly potent force for public dialogue about issues facing our urban spaces. A recent post on Arrested Motion on the interaction between Pixadores and commercial street artists in Sao Paolo helps prove the point. According to the post, some Paolistas are angry that the city is funding beautification projects while the cities poor are overlooked. Taking this issue to the streets they defaced a city funded mural project with the following sentence. “R$ 200,000 in makeup, and the city is in calamity.” In doing so they have created an important dialogue about who the city looks after in a very visible way. Sadly their commentary was removed immediately as it was clearly not to the cities liking. I do hate to see such beautiful work buffed like this but I am happy to see that conversations through public works continue to push important social issues.

VIA Arrested Motion

Proving that tensions between graffiti artists and street artists are not just a phenomena of the western world (see banksy vs. robbo),Pixacao artists in Sao Paulo have defaced a mural by Os Gemeos, NUNCA, NINA, Finok, and Zefix. They are probably angry that the mayor of Sao Paulo, after creating the project “Clean City” in 2006 (which erased much of the illegal graffiti) is using public funds for commissioning legal writers and famous street artists. This all at a time when the government is perceived by them as doing nothing to help the poor communities that were flooded after 30 days of non-stop rain, yet the mural was all cleaned in the same night, by a huge team of City Hall by using sponges and hydraulic cranes. [More Here]

The Ritual Project Vs A Love Letter For You

I was recently made aware of a very interesting art/advertising collaboration called The Ritual Project. In it, Stella Artois contracted Sky High Media, or Colossal Media, to paint each frame of a billboard sized time lapse, depicting "the perfect pour". Colossal media is co-founded by Adrian Moeller, who also co-founded Mass Appeal magazine in 1996, and is also the company responsible for the Banksy murals in Soho that appeared late in 2008. The project is as much about the team of mural painters as it is the advertisement, highlighting the skill involved in this dying artform. Watching the herculean task of painting each frame of the time lapse only to see it buffed before the next frame is painted, really gives you an incredible sense of the work and dedication it takes to create such large scale works. In fact the "performance" aspect of this project was well understood by Stella Artois, as evidenced by this tag line from the website.

"Whether pouring the perfect Stella Artois, or recreating it as a massive piece of art, the magic lies in watching it come to life."

I couldn't agree more. If there is magic associated with this project, it surely isn't in the final product. As a resident walking by this project as it took place over the many days required to complete the time lapse, I would have been excited. I would have been less interested in the image being created of a Stella Artois glass, but while the painters were racing against time, I could have enjoyed watching them play with the side of a building in such a creative way. After all, unless you knew about the project before hand, watching painters paint, then buff, then paint a nearly identical image over and over again would have been odd and amusing to say the least. In this way the project would have kept my attention and provided me with an interesting interaction in public space, something we continue to think has a positive affect on our public environment.

photo courtesy of Steve Powers

Another recent project you might know about is Steve Powers' A Love Letter For You in Philadelphia. This immense mural undertaking, created over 30 murals along the Market-Frankford elevated line in Philly. The project depicts a series of "love letters" or pronouncements of love with heartfelt sentiments like, "If you were here, I'd be home" and "Your everafter is all I'm after." Although I was not in Philadelphia for the production of these murals, I can imagine the performance aspect of the project was in some way similar to The Ritual Project. As a resident one would watch these murals going up one after the other, unaware of the intention behind them as they seem almost out of place in their sincerity and eloquence. As with the Ritual Project, one could enjoy the mystery of it all while watching the streets you live on change before your eyes.

photo courtesy of Steve Powers

Both projects to me provide a wonderful moment for public curiosity that enlivens public space creating a sense of interest in the public environment where there might not have been any before. What is interesting to me, and illuminates some of the differences between using the public space for advertising VS artistic production, is what is left behind. In the case of The Ritual Project, we are left with an advertisement, an expected call for our attentions, and an expected outcome in an environment often used as a venue to sell goods and services, and a disposable image. In the Love Letter project we are left with something much less fleeting. The murals are unexpected moments of kindness and their permanence allows us to enjoy this feeling on a daily basis as they become landmarks which define the neighborhoods in which they exist.

photo courtesy of Steve Powers

And this might be on of the most important differences between advertising billboards and artistic mural productions, despite them both being painted by highly skilled artists. Endurance, permanence, and investment are all qualities of the Love Letter Project that the Ritual Project lacks. Both projects may have been interesting to watch but what Mr. Powers has created will last and continue to give to the city long after the actual production is over. Not only do these murals become ways in which the public can identify areas of the city, but they begin to define the city more broadly. No one would say, "Take a right at the Stella Artois advertisement", but they might say "Take a right at the, 'For you I got daycare money and carfare honey for now on.'" mural. This is in part because advertisement is fleeting and makes no real investment in the space it occupies, but also because the artwork does just that and therefore becomes a part of the space in which it exists and the lives of those who live there.

photo courtesy of Steve Powers

The difference between these two projects I feel exemplifies why advertisement, no matter how interesting, beautiful, or artistic, falls short of using our public space in a meaningful way which ultimately adds to the city fabric. Public space can be used or spent in the typical sense, or it can be altered in ways which increase its value for everyone that interacts with it.

Mini Cooper Ad Campaign Gets Trashy with Giant Cardboard Boxes

VIA Sub 5 Zero

Back in April, Heineken took a page out of Bud Light's funny-book and created some pretty comical ads showing a comparison between a woman's fantasy closet filled with couture apparel and a guy's penultimate setup filled with beer. Taking things one step further, as a follow-up, massive cardboard boxes with the words 'Walk-in Fridge' were strewn around Amsterdam just before garbage day. [MORE]

McDonald's "Free Coffee Ambient"

I'd like to thank Shai for making us aware of this insanity.

VIA Direct Daily

As part of a national campaign promoting McDonald's restaurants, a downtown Vancouver lamppost became part of an out-of-home optical illusion, appearing to pour coffee into a giant cup on the sidewalk. At the time, McDonald's was giving away free small cups of its brew for a two-week period, in an effort to attract new breakfast customers. They developed the concept for a lamppost near 6th Avenue and Cambie Street. The post was wrapped in brown vinyl to resemble poured coffee, while an oversized carafe was attached to the end.

Agency: Cossette west, Canada.

Incredible Billboards

This image is from a link sent to me by a friend and is part of a post on 50 extraordinary and attractive billboards. There is some incredible work and it goes to show how fun and interesting outdoor imagery can be. In fact these outdoor advertisements, especially those with site specificity are often wonderful engagements with the public environment that cause you to notice relationships between yourself and your surroundings. The problem is instead of that being the ultimate goal, the thoughts created by the imagery before you end up being punctuated by the company responsible for the ad. This use of public space and artistic talent to heighten your relationship with a corporate identity is both manipulative and an improper use of public space. The public is not a commercial playground, it is a forum for public debate and interactions. Despite being incredible, these advertisements are still an abuse of our shared public environment.

Conor Harrington Buffed

I just received an email from two readers, Luna Park and Allan Molho. Both directed me to the below image on amolho4's Flikr page. This illegal NPA City Outdoor advertisement must have been recently put in place as it is sitting directly on top of an incredible piece by Conor Harrington. (also pictured) I am so upset about this I am not exactly sure how to respond. Not only does NPA operate over 500 illegal street level billboards in the city but they are covering the little public art we have in this city with their filth. The audaciousness and irreverence of NPA has made me angry before. Something will be done.

Image Courtesy of Sabeth718 13th street and Washington (before)

Image Courtesy of Allan Molho 13th street and Washington (after)

The Profitable Nature of Wooster Collective?

This post is meant for anyone who has followed Wooster for any of the past 6 years, or anyone who has been lucky enough to enjoy the unwavering force that is Marc & Sara of the Wooster Collective. It is also response to an article on Indy Media entitled "Commercial strategies of the Wooster Collective; appropriating a subculture for 5 years strong." I cannot say I do not in many ways agree with them, I can say I know Marc and Sara and they are well intentioned visionaries.

I have always looked down upon street artists that fail to see, and embrace, the political nature of their work. Often I am critical of those who have profited from the pursuit of commercially viable ways for their original ideas to exist. I gaze with simple eyes, desperate for the pursuit of truth and idealism. Along side this sits a quiet jealousy I rarely reveal. It is something I continually grapple with, and in the end something I continue to come back to in my analysis of street art works. I know artists must make a living off their work, but the sacrifice of ones ideas is not an acceptable way to strive for artistic greatness.

Street art, illegal public art, whatever you want to call it, holds an ideological promise far greater than other art practices for me. It has at the heart of its process a philosophy and determination greater than most studio arts. It is inherently a political act and is closer to protest than decoration as far as I'm concerned. If art is to fulfill its role as activism and provide anything worthwhile to society, it must challenge ideas and not merely postulate aesthetic values.

I began my street art career, naively, at the end of the year 2000. I was at best seeking stable footing for what I was doing as an artist at that time. I desperately attempted to make sense of the actions I was taking and the politics I was slowly trying to define. I found Wooster Collective early in my career, and their support as early as 2003 was invaluable. I have never seen eye to eye with Marc & Sara. The art movement they saw, and helped define, was never something I fully understood, yet it was always an inspiration.

Yes they have parlayed their incredible thirst for street art into a viable business that has supported them, as well as the artists who have been lucky enough to benefit from their foresight. Yes this may be sacrificial to a select few and their definition of public projects, as well as the purity they wish to attribute to the street art movement, but let us not forget, as I have not forgotten, that we are not all in this for the same reason.

My ideas could never have surfaced without graffiti, street art, the publicly absurd, and the random happenings so joyously created by all the artistic misfits in this world. Despite my ignorance of those before me, my access to what I consider incredibly deep felt street work, was largely made possible by the history Wooster created.

I despise Wooster for moving beyond the simple initial act of placing images amongst us, and yet I commend them for daring to present us with those initial images that allowed us all to look in the same direction. We don't need to revere Wooster as the definition of truth within the street art movement; in fact it would be a foolish move. But we need to respect Marc & Sara for audaciously building the archive of public communication that was the result of their simple interest in the writing that a rare few decided was worthy of the walls.

This is what I am reacting to....

VIA Indy Media

Commercial strategies of the Wooster Collective; appropriating a subculture for 5 years strong.

This article is in response to the show put on by the Wooster Collective this weekend at 11 Spring Street St.

The Shill of Marc Schiller or

A little background info on the Wooster Collective

Marc Schiller, Wooster Collective's co-founder, is the CEO for an advertising corporation. His company, ElectricArtists, works with other corporations including Warner Bros., Microsoft, and CNN.

http://www.electricartists.com/corporate/clients/

The following is a description copied and pasted directly from the ElectricArtists website:

Overview
ElectricArtists is an innovative marketing services company that
develops and implements unique "community based" marketing campaigns.
Led by a team of seasoned marketing executives, ElectricArtists
fosters and nurtures relationships with a client's most influential
audience by providing the tastemakers with brand information that
triggers consumers talking to each other and spreading the word. Since
1997 ElectricArtists has seen 100% growth in PROFITS EACH YEAR while
serving a diverse list of blue chip clients in the global media and
entertainment sectors including Ralston-Purina, Levis, Sony Pictures,
and BMG Entertainment. ElectricArtists success has been given
extensive media coverage with features in Forbes, Time, Billboard,
Variety, ABC's World News Tonight, and others. The company has
expanded FROM its New York base with offices in Japan and England,
thus enabling ElectricArtists to develop and deliver GLOBAL MARKETING
campaigns.

Strategic Philosophy

By targeting the "ideal customers" and providing exciting brand
messages, from behind-the-scenes news to downloadable samples,
ElectricArtists converts fans into loyalists and ultimately, into
advocates. Meanwhile, clients gain valuable market research insight
and honest consumer feedback. EA manages the trust and credibility of
your brand so that your message is heard and believed above the
clutter. Yet, the success of our strategies has everything to do with
you. ElectricArtists considers our efforts part of the bigger
marketing picture-if the other marketing pistons are firing, our
efforts will be considerably more effective.

(www.electricartists.com/corporate/about/)

"Too much "space" in our urban cities is sold to advertisers and large
corporations. Street artists are trying to reclaim a bit of their
space, even if it means doing it without the approval of the people
who control that space."
Marc Schiller, co-founder of Wooster Collective

( http://training.sessions.edu/resources/interviews/interviews/marc_schiller.asp)


-------------------

I mean it is just kind of incredible that so many graffiti artists and street artists
have gathered together to get on board with this man. On the one hand it makes loads of commercial sense to align yrself with Wooster, but how can it be considered in the vain of graffiti, or street art or anything but a marketing strategy?

Unless we think of the street artist as a
self-interested paranoiac who wants to be seen (but not seen) plastering the streets
with their wares. Who naively enters the market disgruntled by the value of production only to turn around and produce themselves. A somnambulist is a person who is too
awake in the morning to put on a McDonald's hat, but too asleep by the afternoon to stop flipping
burgers.

Street and graffiti artists you are smart enough to feel disturbed
and want to change the commercialism of yr city, but you have
becomes beauticians in a competition with capital. If you do well you will be paid with the whip of laughter with murder on a garbage heap. Selling a look.

This is the recipe to extract profit.
Collectors, museums and street art vendors make money off playing the
art market with you. Of course a good collector will do their best to promote
their artist(s). Selling their look to prestigious corporations and collectors, exposing their work on a global level with a website will get the largest return value for the collector. A huge show.

If you bought into Marc Schiller's New York Times article, or the 7 step premiss, you have been sold more than just a paper.

The underground is important, you are important. This, look around, is the life blood of capital; where
the collector's money places bets; markers in a horse race, be new, and above the pace, you will pay off -- if not in the short term, in the longer term investment.

Magazines, books, T-shirts, stickers, curated gallery shows, over the Internet, in museums, or
through private purchase, the art needs to be bought and the artist sold. But everywhere it
is the same and the pockets bulge.

Download Article (PDF) Add to PDF Compilation Download PDF Compilation Email Article

According to the Toronto Star, When People See Dan Bergeron in the Street, They Seethe and Stomp Away in Disdain

This post comes from Rami Tabello of Toronto's illegalsigns.ca. The long story short is Fauxreel, or Dan Bergeron was active in Canada as a street artist and then produced an ad campaign for Vespa that was almost indistinguishable from his personal street work.

VIA-Illegalsigns.ca

Support comes from the public as well. On Queen Street West, a passing cyclist hears Mr. Tabello talking about billboards and stops to congratulate him on his efforts.

“Commercial activity or captivity?” by Susan Krashinsky, The Globe and Mail, June 2, 2008

We covered the Fauxreel sellout issue before, namely in Fauxreel Sold Out For Real where we noted that Dan Bergeron’s fellow street artists had a thing or two to say about his decision to become a blatant criminal shill for Vespa. The issue was also covered by Torontoist and by Anne Elizabeth Moore.

The Toronto Star has now written an interesting article about Bergeron. First, Bergeron uses the opportunity to piss on his critics:

Not long after being outed, one of Bergeron’s personal pieces, a woman in profile with a gravity-defying mohawk pasted up near Dufferin St., had scrawled on it the street-art equivalent of a scarlet letter: “SOLD OUT FOR REAL.”

Bergeron shrugs off the debate as juvenile. “Some people feel like they have to have a certain reaction if something is commercial – because they’re too cool,” he says.

Then this remarkable tidbit from the end of the story:

Bergeron squats low, pasting the boots of his subject to the wall on Dowling St., when a young woman crosses the street and beelines towards him. “I just wanted to come up to congratulate you,” she says. “I’ve seen this all over. It really makes a statement.”

Bergeron quietly thanks her and turns back to his paste, when a young man in a fedora and cargo shorts approaches. “Is that the same ad for the scooters?” he says, glaring. Bergeron just smiles. “Yeah, man. It is,” he says. The man stares, seething, and stomps away. Bergeron slathers the last of his paste on the image’s toes, and moves on to the next.

Actually, some people feel like they have to have a certain reaction because it’s not just an unmitigated criminal sellout — it’s an unmitigated criminal sellout that threatens public support for street artists. Perhaps Dan Bergeron can explain to us how IllegalSigns.ca can campaign against illegal advertising and support street art, when the ads are camouflaged as street art. That’s why Dan Bergeron’s corruption is a collateral attack on IllegalSigns.ca, and that’s why people seethe when they see Dan Bergeron, and that’s why they stomp away: because Dan Bergeron was an irresponsible, selfish asshole whose criminality pit public space activists against street artists, and who then had the hauteur to call us “juvenile” and “too cool” for pointing that out. You may think it’s “juvenile,” but we’re not the one who is counting Vespa’s money in our basement while fending off random haters on the street.

---

My thoughts are as a street artist, reclaiming public space for public consumption, you can't also be taking public space for private commercial means. The two ideas mutually exclude each other in their efforts and therefor confuse the intent of the artist. To think that as an artist you can practice such different ideal, shows ignorance to what you are actually doing as a street artist and ultimately depoliticizes your work.

Can a Rebel Stay a Rebel Without the Claws?

The review below, of the recent Shepard Fairey exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, is pretty vicious. After praising Mr. Fairey's aesthetics, this quote "Despite its rousing first impact, the exhibition leaves you with a sense of dismay at the devolution of a certain avant-garde dream into a kind of visual easy listening for the college-educated masses." places Mr. Johnson's opinions more concretely. Arguing that the work has lost it's political punch, Johnson asks "Does anyone not realize that capitalism is contradictory? Is anyone’s world really rocked by something that can’t be immediately categorized? Every day we are swamped with images and ideas that pretend to confound conventional thinking. That’s popular culture."

In many ways I agree with Mr. Johnson in that I think people have absorbed a lot of the ideas behind the Initial Obey campaign. Alternative methods of relating to our environment and questioning our social and political agendas through serendipitous moments and ambiguous gestures are old hat. What we need from our street artists are active political gestures which shape thinking and disseminate ideas as opposed to create confusion in hopes of shaking things up. As amazingly beautiful as this billboard is, without being put up illegally it has no agenda other than beautification of our environment which just isn't progressive enough these days.

This says nothing about the recent collaboration being done with Saks. Oh Shep, I know this ones for charity too and I'm usually on your side, but this rubs me the wrong way.

By Ken Johnson from The New York Times

BOSTON — You will be seeing a lot more art by Shepard Fairey on the streets of New York this spring. But it won’t be in the form of the illegal guerrilla strikes he has been committing since his days as a student at the Rhode Island School of Design 20 years ago, nor anything like his famous Obama Hope poster. For starters, it is in the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue, for whom he has also designed swanky red, white and black Russian Constructivist-style limited-edition shopping bags.[Read More]

Who Watches The Watchmen? Hopefully the Anti-Vandal Squad

I won't go into a rant on this one. We have all seen similar amazingly insidious forms of outdoor advertising taking advantage of graffiti and street artists. These campaigns exploit these artists by having them create content for advertising in a medium they developed for self expression. What once challenged the use of public space has become a commodity held hostage to the desires of the advertising industry. And this does not even begin to talk about the fact that the Anti-Vandal Squad should be on this one like flies to shit, but obviously won't pay any mind. You think they have as extensive a file on the company that does this sort of illegal commercial graffiti as they have on PosterBoy? I doubt it.

Ji Lee, I'm Your Newest Fan

Ji Lee's work goes from creating advertising content for the likes of Cheerios and Tylenol, to deconstructing similar content with his Bubble Project. Until recently, I was only aware of the Bubble Project work and wasn't aware of the advertising he helped create. It seems more and more artists these days are traversing this slippery slope, creating incisive commentary on our consumer culture and lack of individual voice in the public, while creating ad content at the same time. I'm not so opposed to this, though fighting against advertising in the public becomes difficult when you produce public advertising as well. Luckily, the only example I've found by Mr. Lee of creating outdoor advertising content is this amazing 2008 campaign for The New Museum. This project would not have worked anywhere but outside. Not only does the New Museum Advertisement erase countless ads but it builds a visual understanding so that you see this actually happening. The new museum poster is at once the two images and yet you are reminded of what the top images has obliterated. It's a tiny stroke of genius and I wish more indicative of what the New Museum has to offer.