The site of a future Sobey’s and oh so much more, a gang of twenty or so rabblerousers erected 16 insta-murals along the site scaffolding on Jasper Ave between 104 and 105th Street this Sunday morning. Some traces of your regular graffiti regulars already exist and it's guaranteed new graffiti will soon be added.
The project’s future remains undetermined as it’s difficult to say whether a) the developers/construction crew will handle it or b) the law enforcements will think art needs reinforcing, but Jasper Avenue currently makes it clear why and how DIY mentality still reigns in this town.
Photo credit: Amy Fung, 2007
8 comments:
I walked by this morning and I saw 2 very stern, important looking men in officail hardhats looking at the install shaking thier heads with clipboard in hand.
Meanwhile streams of people were walking by on thier way to work slowing down and smiling!
It is perfect. I frickn love the elvis install.
Ted
yeah, I took several people to see it already and everytime, people were walking by and smiling to themselves as they look up and pass. really elevates what street art is about, since I know I'm tired of seeing those steve-dave masks and "Listen" birds every where.
but hey, elvis is already missing his Gene doll.
the interesting ideas of public space::
and these conventional relationships and identities which surround us all - namely advertising -
well, i recognize the larger picture; i am not naive to its complexity. however, i can politically disregard it.
and i can deny it.
http://vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=6386
The right to art is determined in spaces like this, in contesting the possibility of a 'domain' relative to spheres of interest, public/private, personal/shared, etc. How do you amplify that contest to make it more urgent? The 'glory hole' image reminded me of the fact that the 60's conceptual artist Gordon Matta Clarke used to blast holes in abandoned buildings that were used by gay men for cruising, he turned his spaces into 'glory holes' in a logic that contested domains. It seems to me this is a contest really to be getting on with until it reaches some critical mass. Otherwise its not really worth getting started on...
some of us were just speaking about how doing it again, and quickly, and larger, and with a whole new set of people/artists would be interesting.
the point made there -if there is a point to be made ... and if i am on the right side of your interest of this effort(??).
yes, i agree with you.
Oops, I just posted on the wrong (but related) article... I'll repeat it here...
First off thought, I think this was a great idea and a way to protest the crackdown by the city and narrow view of the medium.
Do people on this forum think all graffiti should be allowed, or is there a difference between "good" graffiti (art) and "bad" graffiti (kids justlashing out with profanity and trying to be cool")?
I think there is a difference, and maybe if we acknowledged this, it might be possible to have a dialogue with the people who want to crack down on all graffiti.
I would love to see even MORE art and stencils go up all around town to help combat the bad attitudes to graffiti art!
Also, how about trying to reach out to the kids and show them that there is good graffiti, not just bad, say by having exhibits or programs about cutting edge graffiti art in the schools, and encouraging kids to do graffiti art themselves. Maybe this way they could be a "peer" influence agains that "bad" kind, because cracking down on the "bad" kind would hurt their own expression of art.
well, the edm arts council has just closed its competition for a public art director. . . now's a good time as any to discuss public art and what it does to the city and for the city. I would count graffiti as public art, probably some of the best kind, but then that depends on whether it had been commisioned or not, and then whether commisioned graffiti is still graffiti in essence . . . I don't know very much about the politics here.
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