HUF AND ERIC HAZE TEAM UP FOR COLLABORATIVE NYC MURAL

There is no line between commerce and art these days because they have the same goal. Ideas and integrity are a thing of the past as we all desperately try to make it in a world that is increasingly competitive and precarious.

VIA: Juxtapoz

To coincide with HUF’s most recent NYC-inspired Spring 2019 collection, the apparel and footwear brand has teamed up with renowned graffiti-artist Eric Haze on a mural installation in the city. More [HERE]

The Clandestine Cultural Knowledge of Ancient Graffiti

It is interesting to think of a time when urban scrawl was less an offense and more a part of the everyday. It reminds us that the invention of outdoor advertising as it pertains to public infrastructure has drastically altered our cities by creating a vast network of privatized sacred space untouchable to the normal citizen. This sacred space makes anything outside its boundaries profane, an unintelligent interruption to the ordered logic of a public environment where messages have their rightful real estate and anything else is an intrusion.

It makes me think that while there may not be a direct connection, the distance between the urban neglect and lack of investment in our cities and the invention of the JCDecaeux model of privately financed public infrastructure paid for by advertising isn't far. Neoliberal policies that favor privatization have always taken advantage of our sites of degeneration to maximize profits. Take gentrification as a prime example. Neighborhoods that are neglected over many years have depressed values and thus maximal profit potential for investors who guise thier wealth extraction as regeneration.

The same goes for the outdoor advertising world. lack of investment in the public environment in general, and more specifically bus shelter infrastructure created an opportunity for wealth extraction. We will "regenerate" this space and in the process create an unprecedented opportunity for profit. Some 50 years after the JCD models invention, talk of undoing the relationship between public infrastructure and advertising is almost unheard of an a long stretch for even the most liberal of voices.

VIA: Hyperallergic

Saqqara is an ancient Egyptian site that was used for burials over thousands of years. Of these, the most famous is the Step Pyramid of Djoser (a king of Egypt’s Third Dynasty) built roughly 4,700 years ago. Visit there today and one of the things you might see, in a building near the Step Pyramid, is a room with glass that protects an inscription. Not any ordinary inscription, this is actually tourist graffiti. Why protect graffiti? As it happens, this example of graffiti was left by a tourist at the site over 3,000 years ago. More [HERE]

A Photographic Tour of London’s Art-Filled Streets

My good friend Luna Park has a new book out called (Un)sanctioned: The Art on New York Streets and it is a fantastic look at the vibrant city I love. Her recent trip to London shows she treats every city with the same deference and I was happy to have been up in London while she was around. 

VIA: Hyperallergic

Last July, I spent two weeks in London documenting its street art and graffiti scene, my first return visit since 2009. I’d been warned by a number of people that I wouldn’t recognize the city. Yet the plethora of construction cranes and hoardings on the one hand, and shiny, new, glass towers on the other, were views I found very familiar. Much like New York, my home of the past 19 years, London is being aggressively redeveloped. The plummeting availability of affordable housing and systemic loss of studio space were frequent topics of conversation, anxieties only compounded by the uncertainty left in the wake of the Brexit vote. More [Here]

Mobstr Knows What Is And What Isn't Acceptable

Simple, effective and always on point. As funny as this piece is for a chuckle and a nod, this is pretty serious on a fundamental level. When we privilege one type of communication over another we are making a collective decision about our priorities and ultimately our desires for our future selves. As of right now, we got it all fucked up and Mobstr knows it.

Riding the trains with veteran graff writer Nic 707

VIA: Vandalog

Back in 1976, Nic 707 founded the Bronx-based crew OTB, and, along with his crew, regularly hit the trains. These days Nic 707 is back on the trains. But his interventions, this time around, are eliciting mostly curiosity and expressions of gratitude form subway riders. I accompanied him last night on his Instafame Phantom Art Project. Here’s a bit of what I witnessed: More [HERE]

The Age of Drone Vandalism Begins With an Epic NYC Tag

While I wouldn't say this is a particularly well achieved culture jam, or ad takeover, Katsu has proven that even those sky high billboards, so entirely off limits, are vulnerable. Excited to see what he is up to next. 

VIA: Wired

IN THE EARLY hours of Wednesday morning, the age of robotic graffiti was born. KATSU, a well-known graffiti artist and vandal, used a hacked Phantom drone to paint a giant red scribble across Kendall Jenner’s face on one of New York City’s largest and most viewed billboards. By all accounts, it is the first time that a drone has been deployed for a major act of public vandalism. More [HERE]

I Call It Progress

You might not think this is progress, but I do. Once the ads go away, what comes next is up to us.

A Conference Considers the Philosophy of Street Art

Hrag Vartanian just interviewed Nicholas Riggle about a conference at Pratt Institute finishing up this weekend with a keynote by Allison Young. I wont be able to make it, but I highly recommend making the effort to any readers who might be in New York. In the short interview, Riggle makes an amazing point that I think relates well to this blogs thesis, and my understanding of advertisings misalignment with our goals for cities and thier public spaces. 

"The street is a cultural space, one of the essential functions of which is to promote public interaction by facilitating self-expression. That’s a function that a space can have more or less, and it’s one that a space can lose." 

Thinking about what advertising does to our shared public environment in relation to this quote, it becomes pretty clear that a fully functioning public space cannot be one that includes commercial messaging. 

VIA: Hyperallergic

Today, a three-day conference titled Philosophy of Street Art: Art in and of the Street begins at Pratt Institute and New York University. Organized by Gregg Horowitz of Pratt, Nicholas Riggle of Lafayette College, and Christy Mag Uidhir of the University of Houston, the event will feature an artist panel (with Leon Reid IV, HOTTEA, ELBOW-TOE, and Tatyana Fazlalizadeh), two days of papers and discussions, and a keynote lecture by a leading authority on the topic, Alison Young of the University of Melbourne, who will speak about “Mainstreaming the Street: The Cultural Value of Illicit Street Art." Read the full interview [HERE]

Without Advertising, the Walls Are Ours Again.

I have always thought that advertising, with its interest in monopolizing public dialogue, and thus its tendency to monopolize public spaces, prevented our city from a proliferation of locally derived artworks. After Contest Promotions' (formerly NPA Outdoor) license to operate was revoked in NYC, hundreds of street level advertising signs were removed. The photo above is just one example of artwork filling the hole left after advertising disappears, and proof of what I think is advertisings role in the degradation of the shared common experience of our public spaces.

This is just one of many examples and I will try to remember to snap more photos on my travels about the city.

Ankles Phonebooth Takeover Video

Ankles just put a short video up on his site that features some phone booth advertising takeover work in Adelaide Australia. The video is interspersed with his other graffiti work almost as B-roll, and I like how it shows the crossover between types of public space work being practiced today. Enjoy more of Ankles work [HERE]

New Murals Advertise Products, Despite Passing of Ordinance

Dennis Hathaway just brought a KCET news story to my attention that shows advertising working its way into Los Angeles art murals only months after the mural ordinance went into effect. He writes, "I told a lot of people during the process of passing this new mural ordinance that marketers would try to find a way to use it for commercial purposes, and now I have the highly unsatisfying opportunity to say, "I told you so."

VIA: KCET

The difference between fine art and advertising is already being stepped on. Only a few months after the passing of an ordinance designed to get murals out under commercial signage, some new works are branding product. More [HERE]

Elle and Shark Toof in LA over NPA Billboards.

Elle and Shark Toof hit NPA out in LA with this lovely collaboration. Celebrity flowers indeed.

From Graffiti to Advertising: This 7 Train Ad Wrap Represents a Loss of Cultural Identity

Martha Cooper posted this image to her Instagram of a full outer car advertising wrap on the elevated 7 line. The fact that this train runs directly across from the infamous 5 Pointz is not lost on her as she was integral in capturing the birth of Graffiti many years ago, and likely shot similar images of the early greats decorating the outside of NY's subway transit system. The change in content makes me think of BC Biermann's academic paper entitled "The Battle of LA: Graffiti, the Self and the Reappropriation of Semiotic Space" The sad state of our corporatized cities and the loss of cultural identity that comes with it.

More Proof that the Public Can Handle Curation of its Public Environment

Never has filed in the blank where Contest Promotions has relinquished control. Its a stark contrast and a favorable one for the public if you ask me. 

Jersey Joe (AKA Rime) for Converse?

Jersey Joe (AKA Rime) finished a mural yesterday on Grand and Union in Brooklyn. I happened to be walking by while he was painting and asked him a few questions about the mural, including how he came upon painting this location as it is the third mural to go up on this corner over the last few months. Rime explained that it was actually Converse that had obtained permission for the mural to be painted. 

Normally I am opposed to commercial companies contracting artists to paint "art" murals as the murals usually end up being glorified advertisements in the end. This morning on my way to the studio I walked by the finished mural and was happily surprised to see that despite Converse contracting Rime to paint this mural, there was almost no branding whatsoever. In fact the only branding I could see was the small Converse star painted on the shoes of one of Rimes characters, a detail i might have missed if I wasnt aggressively looking for branding in the first place.

This mural raises some interesting questions about commercial collaborations between artists in public space. Can a company sponsor artistic endeavors and refrain from burdening the viewer with the type of one way message associated with brand recognition. If so, can those collaborations also prove fruitful for a company as word of mouth and social networks make potential customers aware that they were in fact responsible for the mural or artwork that we are seeing in public space, engendering a stronger brand loyalty through the recognition of their altruism. If so, what might public space look like if advertising in its traditional form was banned but the un-branded sponsoring of art was an acceptable way for companies to engage the public in public space? 

Billboard Takeover San Francisco

VIA Endless Canvas

Graved Drawings on L Train Platform Advertising

Saw this image on the platform of the L train in Brooklyn. Nice to see someone taking the time to edit ad content in such a brazen way.

ART IS NOT A CRIME…END THE MURAL MORATORIUM

Saber, renowned Los Angeles graffiti artist, has taken to the skies in an attempt to remind the city of Los Angeles that the mural moratorium is ruining Los Angeles' reputation as a mural city ripe with the life and culture of its residents. He posted this explanation of his actions on his blog and I thought it interesting to note that part of the reason the moratorium is being so strictly enforced against public art mural production is that the outdoor advertising industry found itself under fire not too long ago. Without permits for many outdoor commercial signs it seemed that part of the industries method of combatting that enforcement was to drag public art into the discussion. Instead of engaging the conversation of what is and isn't protected under free speech, the city of LA bowed to the industries demands in cowardly subservience to those that sponsor campaigns and fight tooth and nail for the right to take advantage of an unsuspecting public.

Mustache Man Arrested - Interview on Subway Art Blog

Mustache Man has been arrested for "defacing" subway advertisements reports NBC New York. Having been charged with felony criminal mischief and possession of graffiti materials, he faces some serious consequences for his light hearted approach to ad readjustment. In fact is seems the NYPD has spent over two months cataloging and doing some serious detective work to apprehend Joseph Waldo. I am sorry but NYC subway ads are synonymous with public back talk and the usual urban scrawl. To isolate an individual like this seems over the top, and a clear waste of city resources. The priorities in this city are completely backwards as the NYC DOB sign enforcement unit can't seem to get rid of an illegal outdoor advertiser after two years of legal battles, and yet a 26 year old kid writing the word "mustache" on ads is apprehended and most likely prosecuted within weeks.

VIA Subway Art Blog

"At it’s simplest level, it’s a quick joke meant to give commuters something to smile about while they’re waiting for the subway, coming off from a long day at work, or getting stabbed on the D train. And that’s certainly how it started. But for me it’s evolved into part of this broader movement of subverting advertisements. Especially in New York, where we’re bombarded with ads everywhere we go, it feels more and more like we’re part of a one-sided conversation. We’re getting these ridiculous images and dumb catchphrases shoved down our throats (“Good Afternoont!”), why shouldn’t we be able to talk back? So many ads are so laughably stupid that a cartoonish moustache just seems to fit. On another level, it’s a return to hand-written form in a technology driven age where we type so much that some of us have actually forgotten how to write cursive."

Full Interview Here

Mediacy Ads Are Popping Up Around Town

Lately I have been seeing Mediacy Gatescapes cropping up around town. When the company first started, Michael Gitter partially justified the advertising intrusion by insisting that it would get rid of graffiti and make the spaces more visually pleasing. Obviously this was not true as evidenced by this advertisement on a gate which could not physically hold graffiti. With the city requiring all rolldown gates to be converted to this "see thru" version in the next few years, Mediacy rolldown gates will themselves become the new graffiti that adorns this ubiquitous New York street feature. And yes, many will be lit with two household bulbs to make them even more "attractive". Thanks Michael.