Street-inspired Art at the ICA Boston

STREET LEVEL: Mark Bradford, William Cordova & Robin Rhode. Now through 13 July 2008 at the ICA. Pictured: "Wholesellers, Retailers & Bullshitters" (detail), 2005. Ink, graphite, gold leaf on paper, William Cordova's painting of a graffitied delivery truck, an appropriation of urban imagery.

"Fly on the Wall" - graffiti film in IFFBoston

From the press release: "The Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University (CDIA) will be showcasing a selection of the year's best student films to emerge from its Digital Filmmaking Program in the Independent Film Festival of Boston on Saturday, April 26, 11:30 a.m. at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square, Somerville, MA."

""Fly on the Wall" chronicles the lives of underground graffiti artists."

And Now a Famous Graffiti Artist Buys Billboard Space

The world is about to end...

(or at least they're ruining it for the kids)

priggishness or preserving the revolution?

A fashion blogger laments the appropriation of graffiti styles into mainstream graphic design . . .

while two art critics in Washington D.C. argue about graffiti's place in the gallery.

The Graffiti Creator

Go to The Graffiti Creator to make your own 'graffiti styled' texts.

First, the Graffiti Research Lab, now this. It's artificial or 'virtual' graffiti. If there was a program out there that created Monet or Renoir-esque images out of bad drawings, I doubt it would change French Impressionism's position in the art world, but graffiti doesn't have that advantage.

Vista, CA has a $240k anti-graf budget.

It's springtime - the kids are out and so are the power washers...

graffiti in the gallery - complete with Magritte reference

This is not graffiti?

Perhaps not if it's in the gallery, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. According to Pixnit, "Defining graffiti solely by its illegality cripples its artistic value."

Maybe that's what graffiti needs - more appreciation as a fine art and to be in galleries. Who knows, maybe in a decade or so, white people will start to like it.

Graffiti Research Lab at MoMA

G.R.L. @ M.o.M.A. from fi5e on Vimeo.

Student Tags His Pants, Loses Miranda Rights

The Boston Globe article, When school needs counter student rights, tells the story of a student who was questioned by his principal with a police officer ("school resource officer") present to "monitor" the interview.

A bit off topic, but this is why it's important for students to take a civics class and get to know their constitutional rights. If they're being accused of a crime they could be arrested for, they must have every benefit of the legal system available to them, in this case, a lawyer. In public schools, students' constitutional rights are limited to protect the learning environment (think BONG HiTS 4 JESUS (Morse v. Frederick), Bethel School District v. Fraser, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier), but schools should never ever leverage this advantage to prosecute one of their students.

According to the principal, the police officer was there to provide the same protection as a lawyer - it doesn't seem to me that this principle knows how our legal system works.

Note to writers, graffiti artists, taggers and your colleagues: IF YOU TAG YOUR CLOTHES WITH THE SAME TAG THAT YOU'VE DEFACED PROPERTY WITH, YOU'RE GOING TO GET ARRESTED. The Globe doesn't note the outcome of the pants-tagging student's questioning, so my guess is that the tag on the student's pants was never written on someone else's property.

keeping the neighborhood watch busy

"Members of the Oakland Hills Community Neighborhood Watch say they're determined to wipe it out for good. They say everytime (sic) graffiti goes up they plan to take it down."
from: Community Takes Stand Against Graffiti, Memphis Eyewitness News

Sometimes fighting graffiti can be like shoveling water.

I would like to suggest a more pro-active approach:
- catch the graffiti artists and make them clean up graffiti
- hire graffiti artists to create a mural where ever the problem occurs most frequent
- license the graffiti artists and public spaces where they can write

Man auctions wall painted by Banksy.

Banksy, Portobello Road
Originally uploaded by cactusbones

According to the BBC, Luti Fagbenle auctioned the wall of his business located at Portobello Road in London. The wall fetched 208,100 GBP (about 407376.56 USD at the time the article was published) on ebay.

The price did not include the removal and transport of the wall.

I wonder if the wall that replaces the Banksy-painted one will be targeted again.

In an email, the graffiti artist Pixnit wrote this is "Turning the "destruction" of private property into a "gift.""

a children's book about identity and street art

Lilman Makes a Name for Himself

Artist and writer Caleb Neelon's book about learning how to make a name for yourself looks at the development of a personal identity in children.

Pick it up as his site or Cantab Publishing.

"one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing"

According to Banksy...
From The Times (New Zealand)

pro-active punishment for graffiti artists

From "From university to a university of crime – smarter justice for the Deerbolt Two" “Graffiti-ing public property is wrong - but whats the point of a prison sentence? Around eight out of young people are reconvicted within two years of leaving prison, it’s an expensive way of making young people worse. Maybe they should meet up with members of the community who they are affecting and the people who have to clean up the graffiti and do compulsory work to pay back for what they have done”
Lucie Russell, SmartJustice Director

Seems to be a "no-brainer;" let the punishment fit the crime.

graffiti in the gallery - continued

It's Our Wall
Haaretz
By Tahel Frosh
10 March 2008
"Ame72 calls the heightened interest in recent years in this art form in Israel "the Banksy effect," in reference to the British underground artist whose works sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have purchased work by Banksy, who painted on the West Bank separation fence a few months ago."
"Dr. Yochai Rosen of the Art History department of Haifa University agrees that graffiti art is a new phenomenon in Israel and that it was imported only in recent years. He believes that "because graffiti originated in marginal groups, it is sterile and lacks content when it becomes established.""

SPOTHUNTERS @ THE NEW ART CENTER
Big RED and Shiny
by MICAH J. MALONE
March 5, 2006
"Graffiti art has been infiltrating its way into the “official” art world for more than two decades now. With artists like Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, to name only two of the most well known, paving the way for more contemporaries like Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen, the art of graffiti now seems to reside quite comfortably in the gallery world. Perhaps one of the most pressing questions about this phenomena, at least for this writer, is once graffiti leaves the street, is it really graffiti anymore?"

graffiti views split by age, not just legal/illegal

In a 13 March 2008 editorial, the The Eagle Tribune of North Andover explained the adult view of graffiti. The piece begins, "Graffiti isn't "art." It's vandalism and a criminal act. Sensible, mature adults recognize the difference." And goes on to say, "Graffiti vandals may fancy themselves artists, but they are nothing more than selfish brats."

Though I understand their point, I don't think they're going to convince anyone with this crotchety rhetoric. The implicit "fuck you" in all graffiti must really piss off "adults" - this editorial is an example of the level of public discussion surrounding the graffiti problem.

The editorial: Our View: Grown-ups don't consider graffiti 'art'

The National Portrait Gallery has 'Recognized' graffiti

Now through October 26, 2008, hip-hop art at the National Portrait Gallery.

RECOGNIZE! Hip-hop and Contemporary Portraiture

The New Museum's been tagged.

Now they've got some street cred. Gawker, who posted this on their blog, seems to think that a building's being tagged is an 'official welcome' to the neighborhood. Though their comments were very likely intended to be facetious, the city has begun its subsumption of the building, which opened just 4 months ago.

Watch out, New Museum! Next comes drug dealers, gangs, prostitution and riff raff of all imaginable sorts.

"Fuck you" implicit in all graffiti?

At least the type that of graffiti that this sign has so far prevented. (from BoingBoing)

Tourist Tags Glacier in New Zealand

Jan Philip Scharbert, a German tourist visiting New Zealand's Franz Josef Glacier left his mark on the glacier and a neighboring rock face. He was caught on film by English tourists and arrested later the same day.

Scharbert escaped a charge of "wilful damage" after his one-and-a-half-day clean-up job was considered adequate by New Zealand's Department of Conservation.

1.5 days to clean up: I wonder how long he spent on the work. (The work's execution was evident of inexperience or having been done very quickly. It's also worth noting that bare rock is a poor canvas for any paint job.)

Reportedly, Scharbert was chided by visitors to the glacier as he cleaned up after himself.