I spent much of yesterday irked by this gem of a video - http://vimeo.com/13501519 It sums up all that is toy with the world, so neatly, its unsettling. (You might need to know that "Billie Kid" has been blog-celebrated for ages for doing even worse work, but I think this video will suffice)
Something less tidy but also irksom is the Gambi "safari" http://wideopenwalls.wordpress.com/%20. Its an interesting trend that street artists are going further afield for adventure, interest, and authenticity. However this project has stand-out potential to be embarrassing. I'm uneasy over whites showing up in culture rich Africa to "make their mark" and "help these people". Sounds dangerously like colonialism, or the work of missionaries. Begs the question, why not focus on the indigenous arts? Chris Stain is the sort of politico stencil artist that puts militant effort into narrowly conceived, dogmatic sorts of propaganda arts. The projects first images, of crowds of smiling African kids with their thumbs up for approval, smells of all the above: unknowing African kids being used for endorsement. Its a cliche and boring, even if its real. I wish this sort of project could take a smarter open-ended form. Seems like the potential for this sort of exchange can be soured in Africans' minds and our audiences' minds, if done to death in clumsy ways.
Or why even care?
I was debating whether I should focus on the good, & ignore the rest. Paying really shitty art attention, seems to help it exist.
If the critical statements can be true enough though, perhaps there's interest for everyone, even the shitty artist. And more over the "discussion" has been augmented.
I can't believe you link "Shit We Are Digging" Wooster Collective.
I can
ReplyDeleteAgree that this project seems patronising and more about publicity for the artists involved than anything else. Not sure what Chris Stain has to do with it though...he's not involved is he?
ReplyDeletesorry for the double hitting of posts....
ReplyDeletehttp://streetartdead.blogspot.com/2010/10/anonymous-said.html#comments
how about this?
http://www.thegambiablog.co.uk/2010/09/wide-open-walls/
z list street artists, acting like geldof and being supremely patronising by going over to a village in africa who have no idea who the fuck Banksy is or what street art is (is this actually paradise?)...then painting their tired stencils and monsters on their huts...then after that, coming back home to their european lifestyles and referncing their time in crazy tweets and blogs...
wouldnt it be more help if they used their airfare to buy wells and goats or something sustainable...its not cheap to fly out and host 8 odd artists...or perhaps the artists putting out prints or selling works to pay for sustainable village goods?
also...it says it will promote tourism? how? i cant see people flying to gambia to see and eelus piece somehow...i mean the only fans of street art are 16 year old bloggers or graphic designers who are afraid to leave the LES/old street geographical triangles.
so bad even Eine (aka mr repeat my same letter styles as long i can) didnt go..
Ee-by-gorm-lus - "I stepped from the plane onto blistering hot Gambian soil yesterday afternoon and was met by Lawrence and his team and given VIP treatment from the word go. Waiting for my luggage to be brought TO ME in an air conditioned room with an ice cold glass of water was a nice change from fighting it out around the luggage carousel with the rest of the hot and tired travellers."
ReplyDelete"The rest of the hot and tired travellers", Otherwise known as 'Gambians'.
Still, nice to read on to find the artists had found the time to tear themselves away from the luxury resort they're decorating to patronise some locals by painting a map showing them where they live. Bless.
This is all very interesting..... maybe you should start a forum Dr Funky, out of death must come rebirth and all that! It could be along similair lines to Anonymous said... with readers suggesting various tangents to thread and going with the ones that seem to get decent debate going. I'd be hooked, theres just nowhere decent to go for enlightened debate, and theres clearly intelligent and insightful people reading.(I figured they must be somewhere)
ReplyDeleteJust googled Chris Stain, another mug ripping off anarchist punk collective CRASS for personal gain, not only has he copied their militaristic stencil font as has Banksy and every other tourist cunt who wants to appear militant and radical, but they;ve even used the name of one of their songs on 'Christ the Album' 'I know there is love' in the CRASS font and added illustrations....would have been fine if he'd have kept it anonymous.
ReplyDeleteProtest/socio-politik street art needs to return to CRASS 1970s-80s anonymous roots or shut the fucking fuck up. FREE 10 FOOT NOW- I MISS YOU BLUD
Crass didn't exactly keep it anonymous though did they. You mention them 3 times in capital letters when offering an example of a model to follow. Bit of a paradox there I think.
ReplyDeleteAlso Gee Vaucher is working with P.O.W now isn't she?
There was plenty of anonymous protest art before Crass existed. I lost all respect for them when they were about to be evicted from the large house in the countryside they were occupying, so they launched an appeal for several hundred grand in donations to help them buy it.
Never mind that I might not own my own home or have to work like a slave to afford a mortgage...they want me to give them my money for free to buy them a house while they sit on their arses smoking dope, writing books and selling high priced screenprints. Fuck that!
Fair point agreed.... I remember Love and anti Vietnam slogans and the Blair Peach stuff, etc but it was Crass that really got peoples consciences riled and most of that sort of independently executed socio politiking stuff was anonymous and genuine rather than for personal profit which is what I can't stand....but it was the Guy Debord/Paris 68 stuff that got them lot going in the first place. But you're right protest art is as old as authority itself it's only now that it's a capitalist commodity that has nothing to do with addressing the root source, injustice.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree with that. When Banksy started doing stencils in the late 90's the big underground thing at the time was the 'Reclaim the Streets' protest/party movement, so he just took the kind of subversive imagery and ethos they had and applied it in a commercial direction. Then loads of others smelt the cash and fame too and jumped on board. Sad reflection of the values of our society I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteThere is still pure stuff out there though, by people who are doing it for their beliefs rather than money. It's just that it hardly ever gets mentioned on the blogs and forums. I guess that's because the scum always floats to the top.
"There is still pure stuff out there though, by people who are doing it for their beliefs rather than money. It's just that it hardly ever gets mentioned on the blogs and forums. I guess that's because the scum always floats to the top".
ReplyDeleteNo, it's because it's shit.
From eelus tweet...
ReplyDelete'was interviewed on a catamaran today for tv whilst mysteriousal stuffed my pockets with chicken skewers'
Discuss
D
"No, it's because it's shit."
ReplyDeleteThat's a cynical and easy, but very weak and lazy comeback. I doubt very much you're even familiar with the art I'm talking about, because you probably only know what you get spoon-fed through the internet.
Eine didn't make it for 'commercial reasons'
ReplyDeleteI heard Eine didn't go to Gambia as they wouldn't let him in the country as they feared his NHS specs might cause a bush fire by accident.
ReplyDeleteThat and he couldn't get away with stuffing Jax in his hand luggage or the cargo hold to save on air fare.
out of order only telling the gambia project he wasnt going on the day he was meant to turn up . not that im a big fan of the whole gambia project for reason dr funky has eloquently described in his post. but , eine could said earlier there were problems and given some one else a chance to go along !
ReplyDeleteThank fuck he didn't go, I reckon African people have suffered enough abuse at the hands of westerners already, without having giant letters painted all over their huts.
ReplyDeletegod yes can you imagine a row of huts with the alphabet on them? The great white man brings education and culture to the uncivilised savages once again.
ReplyDeleteWhich large words spring to mind about this project? I can think of two: COLONISE and PATRONISE.
What was the last piece he painted? CALCULATE?
ReplyDeleteWhat the fuck does THAT mean? CALCULATE HOW MUCH MORE PUBLICITY/CASH THIS DODGY CIRCUS TYPOGRAPHY IS MAKING ME???
The whole Gambia project stinks to high-heaven in so many different ways that I won't even go there.
No one has mentioned "Billie Kid". Is it because it is too shit to mention?
It's possibly the worst thing I have ever seen. What kind of twat goes out to put up just one poster, during the day, with a tiny paint brush? Obviously the kind of twat who thinks Madonna is a revolutionary figure, and walks passed "POST NO BILLS" signs to put his poster on a wall that is basically a legal spot. GAY!!!!!
Do you think he had to ask his boss at the graphic design company he works at for an extended lunch break so he could make this movie?
No need to say much about it really, the video shows in great detail what a supreme wanker he is. One thing about the image though, to me it looks suspiciously like the cover of this 'Revolutionary women' pamphlet that I bought for a quid in an anarchist bookshop about 5 years ago. http://sketchythoughts.blogspot.com/2006/03/revolutionary-women-stencils-for.html
ReplyDeleteSo all he's done is copy that image, but substitute the original face for that of Madonna. Bet he must think he's an ironic genius.
A few things about the video: they pass by an Adek fill-in and take a second lens-full to set the tone. The spot is "the candle factory" opposite the former Deitch Projects. Its a funny spot, the way its begs for Deitch's attention. I'm not sure if this approach works. Not sure if Jeffrey ever discovered someone this way. M.I.A. wears a Che hat. More on the rebel politics here http://www.spin.com/articles/watch-billi-kids-rebel-mia-street-art Then a look at a "Wooster St" sign, its so perfect.
ReplyDeleteOk, my mistake, so it's M.I.A not Madonna, I still think he ripped off that anarchist book cover though. The whole thing looks pretty inauthentic, but and the fact that a magazine commisioned him to do this shit makes it even more so. Just some more weak advertising masquerading as street art.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the last piece he painted? CALCULATE?
ReplyDeleteWhat the fuck does THAT mean? CALCULATE HOW MUCH MORE PUBLICITY/CASH THIS DODGY CIRCUS TYPOGRAPHY IS MAKING ME???
The whole Gambia project stinks to high-heaven in so many different ways that I won't even go there.
No one has mentioned "Billie Kid". Is it because it is too shit to mention?
It's possibly the worst thing I have ever seen. What kind of twat goes out to put up just one poster, during the day, with a tiny paint brush? Obviously the kind of twat who thinks Madonna is a revolutionary figure, and walks passed "POST NO BILLS" signs to put his poster on a wall that is basically a legal spot. GAY!!!!!
Do you think he had to ask his boss at the graphic design company he works at for an extended lunch break so he could make this movie?
A few things about the video: they pass by an Adek fill-in and take a second lens-full to set the tone. The spot is "the candle factory" opposite the former Deitch Projects. Its a funny spot, the way its begs for Deitch's attention. I'm not sure if this approach works. Not sure if Jeffrey ever discovered someone this way. M.I.A. wears a Che hat. More on the rebel politics here http://www.spin.com/articles/watch-billi-kids-rebel-mia-street-art Then a look at a "Wooster St" sign, its so perfect.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree with that. When Banksy started doing stencils in the late 90's the big underground thing at the time was the 'Reclaim the Streets' protest/party movement, so he just took the kind of subversive imagery and ethos they had and applied it in a commercial direction. Then loads of others smelt the cash and fame too and jumped on board. Sad reflection of the values of our society I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteThere is still pure stuff out there though, by people who are doing it for their beliefs rather than money. It's just that it hardly ever gets mentioned on the blogs and forums. I guess that's because the scum always floats to the top.