This should be shown in schools as a warning to kids that if you use photoshop all the time then you'll end up not being able to draw, so you'll then have to desperately try to cover up that fact by doing silhouettes. It's also a good lesson in how to rip off the style of various other artists in order to compensate for a complete lack of imagination. Give it up now Eelus you faker.
Really bizarre that Eelus is still trying to keep up the pretence that he's an artist. I almost feel embarrassed for him. The guy is either deluded or a complete simpleton.
I like it. it's got skeletons, and someone being bummed by a demon. and it's a free poster, so what you whining about?
I just took a look at his site. If you go to the shop there's a bit that says "best sellers" or "most popular" or something. Now, I would be completely turned off from buying a piece of art if I knew every other fucker was buying it, but I guess that's not the case for everyone else. Everyone wants to have the same shit it seems. I find that weird.
But I think I'll add a "best seller" section to my website, print much bigger editions, and hike up the prices, and watch, from my yacht in the south of France, those suckers fall over themselves to all have the same shit. Yeah boys!!! Sell out or get the hell out of street art!
He's an untalented trucker cap wearing hipster mug who tries to sound American when he speaks or writes. Same as the VNA wankers. It must be some kind of contagious mental illness caused by hanging around Shoreditch too much.Stop pretending you're an artist Eelus you fake cunt, you're not fooling anybody.
He was shit too. Just goes to show how many mugs there are out there who will lap up any old wank because it's trendy (otherwise known as hyped to fuck for large cash reward).
What a pointless and sickening waste of trees to print this collection of childishly inane doodles. This 'artist' needs to realise the game's up as far as winging it with photoshop, and should consider an occupation more suited to his talents. Perhaps working in a supermarket or something.
I can't speak for Funky's motives, but as someone who comments here...I've never heard of Airside. This blog isn't about graphic design or illustration in general, but is about the genres known as street art and urban art, as defined by the forums, blogs, galleries and suchlike that deal with those genres. I'm sure that if Airside entered into that realm them Funky would post about them.
The way I see it is that this blog operates as an antidote to those street/urban art blogs, forums etc and all of the commercial PR bullshit they promote. It comments directly on what those other blogs are featuring...that's how the content is generated. Those places are heavily censored, so this is often the only place people can air an opposing view. A lot of it is juvenile I agree...but often funny at the same time.
As for your point about "uneducated comments like 'it's just photoshop'"...well, I'm sure most people here know how to operate photoshop, so if they can obviously see that something is just a photograph that's been ripped off of google images and put through a photoshop filter which takes 5 seconds...then I'm afraid that it often IS just photoshop. Most of us probably have manipulated pictures thousands of times like that as an experiment, but wouldn't have the sheer greed or arrogance to inflict such lazy dross on the general public in the form of limited edition prints.
Some of these so called 'artists' must really have no shame, so they deserve all the ridicule they get. Like the piece of utter wank above that's basically a bunch of telephone doodles. If they choose to insult our intelligence in this way then they need to accept the consequences.
we can complain about artists having no shame, but if there's people that like it and want to buy it that's hardly (for example) Eelus's fault!
I always try to make new stuff. new ideas. new techniques. but I hardly ever show this stuff as people just "don't get it" and therefore don't buy it. when you make your living drawing you have to, to a certain extent, draw what people like. if McDonalds quit selling hamburgers tomorrow and instead tried to sell people mashed carrot they'd go out of business. people spend their money on the things they like.
Some people (the folk that post on here) require a bit more from their art. and that's ok, there's plenty of artists who do more intelligent, interesting work. you won't find much of it in the street though, so if you're expecting genius from street artists your gonna be disapointed!
And the thing with "street art" is that most of these street artists almost never work in the street. There's a bunch of illustrators making work like Eelus, but his shit sells because he calls himself a street artist and street art is hype right now. We need some kind of definition of what a street artist is, so that we can refer to street art/artists only when it fills the definition. I don't call myself a street artist because I rarely work in the street. but some people see me as one, and that's good from a "business" perspective.
we should give Eelus credit for trying a different style (even if it's like other peoples work) and then choose whether we think he's a street artist or not. if we think "not" then we can just ignore his work. same with all the other "fakes".
while I type I see a list of people to the right. of 20 names I see 6 people I consider "street artists". why are we bothering to talk about the rest? I mean, who the fuck is Stanley Donwood? Steve More? Sunny Sutton?
I mean, if we're holding up all these non-street artists as reasons for street art being dead then it's no wonder we think it's all fucked. it's like blaming the guy who sells hot dogs at the football stadium for your team playing so badly!
hold on, if every time someone (like Blu) paints a piece that says something (ie, is political) and we say "bah, they're just using war/starving children/etc as a way to get self promotion, then we won't get any more art with content, just pretty pictures with nothing to say
what point is there in Blu trying to promote himself when he doesn't have a product to sell? I can understand what you mean with the Gambia project, but compairing 100 foot high murals every two weeks to a couple of stencils in Shoreditch is a bit fucked up! There's a big difference between Blu's street output and Eelus's! Just as there is a big difference in the content of their street output
we need definitions or we're just arguing nonsensically
"if McDonalds quit selling hamburgers tomorrow and instead tried to sell people mashed carrot they'd go out of business."
Maybe so, but it's the very fact that McDonalds are everywhere that means nothing else can compete. Where I live all you can get is fast food, there's literally no alternative, especially if you're vegetarian or don't want to use those kind of places on ethical grounds. Its a vicious circle of stagnation...people get given what they're thought to want, so they never get to experience anything different. It's the same with street/urban art...it's in a massive rut of mediocrity because most of the artists are trying to follow what they believe is a commercial formula.
Or then again, maybe most of them are just shit at art.
And yeah, there's nothing wrong with telephone doodles...but when a so called 'artist' is presenting said doodles to the public as something worthy of our attention, I can understand how a lot of people will be scathing/mocking of this when they probably produce several better pieces themselves every day during the course of a 15 min phone chat.
It seems that all that separates some of these 'artists' from the rest of the population is the profound delusion that their inane amateurish doodles are somehow more relevant or worthy of acclaim than everyone else's.
that's a dumb statement. I don't eat at McDonalds either. people are perfectly capable of COOKING their own food, so to blame McDonalds like their force-feeding humanity is forgetting that BEFORE fast food and tv dinners people cooked for themselves! They sat in a room with other people and shared the task, shared the results, shared ideas, thoughts, gossip, etc. and now we have fast food made without love and the comments section of blogs. Hoo-flippin-ray for progress!my point was that people go in McDonalds because they want a McDonalds burger, not mashed carrot, a kebab, tikka masala, etc. just like people come to me because they want a cute, yet slightly anarchic, cartoon character. It's no good, therefore, me giving them a semi-abstract piece made with typography. That's not what they want.I don't force them to buy cartoons, and the semi-abstract shit is there if they want to dig a little deeper. What they end up with is what they want. People end up with more and more McDonalds because they want it. If they don't want it they can go home and cook for themselves! If more people did, there would be less McD's and more space for someone to open a veggie restaurant!They say people get what they deserve, and if you're dumb enough to believe that people aren't capable of choosing something other than what the high street sells them then you deserve the shitty street art you so clearly hate!
And if people really ARE incapable of choosing something other than what they're told by advertising is what they want, then street art as it is today is at the perfect level for the regular joe.
I did consider adding the caveat "if they want to eat out" to my original post, but thought that would be self-evident. Everybody knows that people can cook at home, but sometimes they don't have the time, haven't got any food in and it's late or are too tired etc. But even in the supermarkets the healthy food is expensive and the junk food is always buy one get one free.
In the street, people can't choose because they don't get presented with a choice. If they keep getting fed shit then that's eventually what they will come to believe is normal food/art.
You only have to look at the most successful urban/street artists to see that a lot of the general public have mindlessly swallowed the PR hype because they don't know any different..
Hi Dave, Sorry if my point you picked up was diluted and not given a full explanation! Like you say if someone, in this case Blu, paints a piece that "says something" we claim it's self-promotion. Well as I understand it, artists have been interpreting themselves and their beliefs since they first got ink on their fingers and drew a stickman, the very nature of an artist is to shout 'look at me'!Yes Dave we should have art with content of course; Although Blu's content does not challenge its viewer, it's very literal and immediate imagery, so he just manages to patronize his audience. So I don't care if it's a 100 foot high mural done every week (that's just someone shouting even louder). For me, the artist's worth is more to do with their intellectual output... If you're just talking about street art output, size and where they put them, then Blu bets Eelus hands down. But the qty and size of work is quite a shallow way to judge art... Artist/Photographer such as Robert Capa, changed the way people think and infused the public in such a way that it changed the course of history, and all with 6 x 8 photos. You ask why does he try and promote himself when he doesn't have a product for sale! Well you should know this best of all being an artist - he promotes his so called intellectual property... Which ensures his galleries and collectors provide enough funds to fly him around the world making contrived work to attract the local media and other press attention whilst validating his worth to the next collector in line; or promoting the galleries with his non-profit art projects being a nice little tax write-off... He just doesn't have to peddle his wares in such a public fashion as others have to, when selling and promoting a print. He has galleries like The Tate and Laz and other backers to promote and safeguard and to help ensure we are sold all their other products... Trust me it's a self serving circle!! Or maybe we don't really want to know this as it goes against what we knock other artists for; lets just pretend he funds it all with his paper-round... Now I'm not saying Eelus' work is good or better then Blu... I'm just not sure if it has any more social worth or if Blu's work is really more challenging, I just think people sometimes like to 'follow' artists to make themselves feel like they belong to a select group. It's a need to belong while maintaing superiority with their supposed knowledge of the art world...Anyhow I start to digress - You're other posts about the categories of art raise some good points, maybe we should discuss more at a later date...Anon I'll get back to you on your photoshop point later.
Hi Dave, Sorry if my point you picked up was diluted and not given a full explanation! Like you say if someone, in this case Blu, paints a piece that "says something" we claim it's self-promotion. Well as I understand it, artists have been interpreting themselves and their beliefs since they first got ink on their fingers and drew a stickman, the very nature of an artist is to shout 'look at me'!Yes Dave we should have art with content of course; Although Blu's content does not challenge its viewer, it's very literal and immediate imagery, so he just manages to patronize his audience. So I don't care if it's a 100 foot high mural done every week (that's just someone shouting even louder). For me, the artist's worth is more to do with their intellectual output... If you're just talking about street art output, size and where they put them, then Blu bets Eelus hands down. But the qty and size of work is quite a shallow way to judge art... Artist/Photographer such as Robert Capa, changed the way people think and infused the public in such a way that it changed the course of history, and all with 6 x 8 photos. You ask why does he try and promote himself when he doesn't have a product for sale! Well you should know this best of all being an artist - he promotes his so called intellectual property... Which ensures his galleries and collectors provide enough funds to fly him around the world making contrived work to attract the local media and other press attention whilst validating his worth to the next collector in line; or promoting the galleries with his non-profit art projects being a nice little tax write-off... He just doesn't have to peddle his wares in such a public fashion as others have to, when selling and promoting a print. He has galleries like The Tate and Laz and other backers to promote and safeguard and to help ensure we are sold all their other products... Trust me it's a self serving circle!! Or maybe we don't really want to know this as it goes against what we knock other artists for; lets just pretend he funds it all with his paper-round... Now I'm not saying Eelus' work is good or better then Blu... I'm just not sure if it has any more social worth or if Blu's work is really more challenging, I just think people sometimes like to 'follow' artists to make themselves feel like they belong to a select group. It's a need to belong while maintaing superiority with their supposed knowledge of the art world...Anyhow I start to digress - You're other posts about the categories of art raise some good points, maybe we should discuss more at a later date...Anon I'll get back to you on your photoshop point later.
The no-talent arrogant prick Eelus on twitter... "Tired of hearing 'I could have done that' from people who didn't and never will."
Nah mate, we wouldn't embarrass ourselves by doing the kind of shit that you produce. That's why we dont.
We make far better stuff instead, which means we don't feel the need to constantly inflict the kind of turd that you produce on the general public, and we don't need to shout about what we do either. So you've made yourself look like an absolute cunt once again. Just fuck off with your kiddie level photoshop idiocy, you delusional mug.
Ha, here's another one off his twatter:"If you're having fun, learning and creating work for yourself, that you want to see, their sticks and stones will be forever useless."Shouldn't that be: "If you're regressing and creating artwork for a magazine release their sticks and stones are quite effective as I've felt the need to make two entries in the space of a day defending myself on twitter".Awww poor boy. Even the usual handful of mugs who clammer for his product aren't even buying into this one. Time to release another ropey stencil of a kid having a shower in some paint splashes just like Grafter does when he needs some new custom built tracksuit bottoms to cover his shame.
you'd be amazed at how cheap vegetables are on the market - you don't need to use a supermarket!
there is always a choice in the street, because there is always the choice NOT to buy the shit that is being sold. NOT doing something is ALWAYS an option.
nobody is forced to consume the pr-hype-driven art of Shep, Banksy, DFace etc. There are thousands of artists out there, people just need to MAKE AN EFFORT and look.
Frankly, if people are too lazy to look further than hype, further than McDonalds, further than Tescos, then they get what they deserve in life.
no, the thing that seperates them from everyone else is that they take a risk at doing something with those doodles. if nobody likes those doodles then the person who took the risk will fail.
Let me know when galleries are calling you up and asking to show your telephone doodles, then I'll respect what you have to say about artists.
You still don't get it Dave. even if galleries WERE calling me up about my doodles I wouldn't be making screenprints out of them them, because I respect the general public enough not to foist absolute shit on them. It's just a shame that most street/urban artists don't feel the same way.
Not everyone has a market near them, just like not everyone lives near Shoreditch. Most consume street art through sites like Vandalog. If people are only ever presented with one thing then it's not surprising that they either lap it up or lose interest altogether. It's not always about being lazy, it's about certain information being artificially prioritised at the expense of other things being suppressed. Your so-called 'choice' has an unpleasant right-wing odour about it.
anyone that puts gel in their hair, buys clothes rather than wearing a sack, plays a musical instrument, performs on stage or on tv, and other such every day things are saying "Look at me!" Blu paints things that he feels. And he doesn't write his name on those things, so he's hardly screaming "Look at me!" Making art isn't about saying "Look at me" it's about saying "LOOK AT THE ART" because art is there to show you things that didn't exist before the artist made them, to make you think about things maybe you haven't considered before or to make you consider things you have in a different way, from a different perspective. You've all got sucked so far into this pr-hype machine way of presenting art that you can no longer understand the many purposes of art. Even considering the majority of this graphic design/self-advertising BS as art shows that you don't even make a distinction between the two. This Eelus piece is ILLUSTRATION, not ART, so reacting to it as art is a waste of your time and energy. It's a greeting card design, a travel card case, A PRODUCT. Stop getting so offended by products! Does your kettle piss you off because it's not beautiful? Because it doesn't stop you in your tracks when you look at it? Because it doesn't make you think of love, pain, life??? Of course not, because it is a PRODUCT!
As for Blu - do you know him? I do. I know few artists who could care less about galleries and pr and all the other shit there is in this street art scene. Blu likes to paint big walls, and make animations. That's what he wants to do with his life right now. I'm pretty sure he doesn't beg blogs to show his work, so the fact that some people are sick of seeing it says nothing more than that they spend too much time on the internet! I know that Blu charges the same price to paint a wall as you would have to pay a regular workman to paint the wall. The only "bonus" he gets is that he gets flown out to these walls - but since when has spending your life in airports and on planes been any fun!?!? it's fucking boring and unhealthy and I'm sure most of us would rather not ever have to sit in an airport! And as for selling work, Blu has probably less work on sale than any other street artist we've heard of. I know a collector who was desperate to buy something from him, and it took him a long time to finally persuade him to sell him a few pages from his sketch book. Blu could be a super rich superstar by now, with lots of assistants painting his pieces, but I doubt he earns much more than the average worker, and I know he still paints all that shit by himself. I don't know how much time you've spent putting paint on walls with rollers on long sticks, but it ain't much fun, just hard work.
we don't need to shout about it or we're too scared of what people might say about it to risk showing it?
when you don't even post under your name it shows you as a coward who should spend some time growing balls, rather than reading the twatter accounts of artists you hate
you only have this one chance at life and it seems youre wasting it
"when you don't even post under your name it shows you as a coward" Bit rich coming from someone called 'anon' don't you think? Fuck off wilf you sheep shagger.
You're so full of shit Dave. You sound like you want to ban people from having an opinion. Get off your high horse you arrogant cunt. People don't need to be an artist who shows in galleries to know that the weak and tired cartoon shit that you churn out is a cliche-ridden infantile heap of steaming anal drivel.
You're on the same level as Grafter and most of the other no-talent chancers who get featured on here. The only difference is that you also think you're some kind of intellectual genius, when in actual fact you're a massive fucking knob-end with pretensions far above your status.
Who says we only get one life? Some people might believe in reincarnation, so stop imposing your monolithic belief systems on us you turgid cunt. Anyway, if someone wants to waste their life then that's their own business. Save your preaching for your Sunday school class where you force your penis into choirboys mouths.
and you sir are a fool, starting your post saying people are entitled to their opinions, then not letting me have mine! DUH!!! what kind of tool can't even write a blog comment without contradicting themselves? Are you Lord Vandalog in disguise?
Never said you can't have your opinion did I?. Just that you're talking shit by saying that somebody has to have gallery interest to be worthy of your attention. THAT'S the kind of thing I'd expect from Vandalog. You fucking snob.
you haven't upset me at all my friend. I make it a point to not get upset by the comments of anyone, since I take responsibility for my feelings as they are generated by me, and can't see the point in laying the blame on others for the shit my brain generates! I do, however, reserve the right to reply to the unintelligent comments on here (not yours) in ways designed to make the comment-makers look as foolish as they are. These comments are never made with anger. I'm no longer the angry young man I once was!
You have quite clearly studied art history. I think it's worth you considering that Blu isn't making work for you, someone who has a rich knowledge of art, of image, of the way artists attempt to communicate. I would hazard a guess that Blu's work is aimed at the average Joe, the guy who's too busy working a job and trying to keep his family fed to be taking much interest in what's going on in the world, let alone to spend time thinking about world politics, war, corruption, and the other themes Blu talks about.
Not everybody has an education past GCSE level, and many people are too distracted by work, tv, sex, sport, movie stars, etc to take much interest in the world outside of what is immediately important to them.
I think one of the strongest things street art has done, as opposed to the regular art world, is to try to communicate with people that don't have good educations, don't go to art galleries or museums, don't read books, etc. Art has become so intellectual and conceptual that it turns people off, it's seems too stupid(? not the right word but...) for them to even want to engage with (eg, a room with the light going on and off - there's no way someone like my father can see or except that as art. he see's no skill, talent, physical work in it, and those are things he appreciates and finds beauty in)
For me street art came as a reaction against this intellectualism which was closing art to people. Art should be for EVERYBODY, not just the educated or wealthy. Contemplating art helps to make peoples minds work, and the brain needs to work out as much as the muscles. I think the world would be a much better place if people thought more, spent more time to consider what they are doing, consuming, creating etc. And surely it is the job of everyone to make this world a better place, at least to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is! I like to make work that is incredibly simple, partly so it can be appreciated by all ages and levels of education, but also as I've found that the simpler it gets the more open to interpretation it is, and the more the work becomes alive for other people (since they project their own ideas etc on to it and thus engage their minds)
as far as Blu's work goes, I'm not particularly stimulated by it these days. I prefered the early stuff which didn't have such obvious messages. My defence of him is purely because he's the last person in the world that I would say makes work to get people to look at him.
I think that street art can't be considered Outsider art anymore, especially since so much of it exists inside now (literally and figuratively) and I don't think it's ever tried to be a pure form of self-expression - it's an art form by people that are growing up in a media saturated time, and I think 2011 is such a different place to even 1991 in terms of media, technology, communication etc that we can't dis people making art now for not making it the way it was made 50, 100, 500 years ago. These are strange, fast new times, and art historians need to think about what the world is like now when considering the art of now.
It's easier to look at history than it is to understand right now!
And right now I got to go buy milk and eggs before the stores close. Thanks for the discussion.
This should be shown in schools as a warning to kids that if you use photoshop all the time then you'll end up not being able to draw, so you'll then have to desperately try to cover up that fact by doing silhouettes. It's also a good lesson in how to rip off the style of various other artists in order to compensate for a complete lack of imagination. Give it up now Eelus you faker.
ReplyDeleteReally bizarre that Eelus is still trying to keep up the pretence that he's an artist. I almost feel embarrassed for him. The guy is either deluded or a complete simpleton.
ReplyDeleteOh my. By the looks of this Eelus has a long career ahead of him creating gift wrapping for goth gift shops.
ReplyDeleteThis could also be used as a handy wallchart to identify visual cliches.
ReplyDeleteDreadful!
ReplyDeleteI like it. it's got skeletons, and someone being bummed by a demon. and it's a free poster, so what you whining about?
ReplyDeleteI just took a look at his site. If you go to the shop there's a bit that says "best sellers" or "most popular" or something. Now, I would be completely turned off from buying a piece of art if I knew every other fucker was buying it, but I guess that's not the case for everyone else. Everyone wants to have the same shit it seems. I find that weird.
But I think I'll add a "best seller" section to my website, print much bigger editions, and hike up the prices, and watch, from my yacht in the south of France, those suckers fall over themselves to all have the same shit. Yeah boys!!! Sell out or get the hell out of street art!
Mong level artistic skill.
ReplyDeleteWell, I for one will be stocking up heavily on these free posters.
ReplyDeleteWhat with the high price of heating nowadays its always a good idea to get as much fuel stored up for the open fire before the winter comes.
He's an untalented trucker cap wearing hipster mug who tries to sound American when he speaks or writes. Same as the VNA wankers. It must be some kind of contagious mental illness caused by hanging around Shoreditch too much.Stop pretending you're an artist Eelus you fake cunt, you're not fooling anybody.
ReplyDeleteCreepy that a 35 year old man draws like a primary school child. Urban art's paedo tendencies in evidence again?
ReplyDeleteTruly Grafter-like in it's absolute similarity to a giant rancid turd shamelessly deposited in public.
Cy Twombly drew like a two year old, and was incredibly successful
ReplyDeleteHe was shit too. Just goes to show how many mugs there are out there who will lap up any old wank because it's trendy (otherwise known as hyped to fuck for large cash reward).
ReplyDeletei quite like it, hardly groundbreaking but don't see what the big problem is, at least its not a stencil
ReplyDeleteWhat a pointless and sickening waste of trees to print this collection of childishly inane doodles. This 'artist' needs to realise the game's up as far as winging it with photoshop, and should consider an occupation more suited to his talents. Perhaps working in a supermarket or something.
ReplyDeleteI think Grafter-esque is the term.
ReplyDeleteEelus, if you're reading this...I heard McDonalds are hiring at their new flagship store in Stratford.
ReplyDeleteI can't speak for Funky's motives, but as someone who comments here...I've never heard of Airside. This blog isn't about graphic design or illustration in general, but is about the genres known as street art and urban art, as defined by the forums, blogs, galleries and suchlike that deal with those genres. I'm sure that if Airside entered into that realm them Funky would post about them.
ReplyDeleteThe way I see it is that this blog operates as an antidote to those street/urban art blogs, forums etc and all of the commercial PR bullshit they promote. It comments directly on what those other blogs are featuring...that's how the content is generated. Those places are heavily censored, so this is often the only place people can air an opposing view. A lot of it is juvenile I agree...but often funny at the same time.
As for your point about "uneducated comments like 'it's just photoshop'"...well, I'm sure most people here know how to operate photoshop, so if they can obviously see that something is just a photograph that's been ripped off of google images and put through a photoshop filter which takes 5 seconds...then I'm afraid that it often IS just photoshop. Most of us probably have manipulated pictures thousands of times like that as an experiment, but wouldn't have the sheer greed or arrogance to inflict such lazy dross on the general public in the form of limited edition prints.
Some of these so called 'artists' must really have no shame, so they deserve all the ridicule they get. Like the piece of utter wank above that's basically a bunch of telephone doodles. If they choose to insult our intelligence in this way then they need to accept the consequences.
nothing wrong with telephone doodles!
ReplyDeletewe can complain about artists having no shame, but if there's people that like it and want to buy it that's hardly (for example) Eelus's fault!
I always try to make new stuff. new ideas. new techniques. but I hardly ever show this stuff as people just "don't get it" and therefore don't buy it. when you make your living drawing you have to, to a certain extent, draw what people like. if McDonalds quit selling hamburgers tomorrow and instead tried to sell people mashed carrot they'd go out of business. people spend their money on the things they like.
Some people (the folk that post on here) require a bit more from their art. and that's ok, there's plenty of artists who do more intelligent, interesting work. you won't find much of it in the street though, so if you're expecting genius from street artists your gonna be disapointed!
And the thing with "street art" is that most of these street artists almost never work in the street. There's a bunch of illustrators making work like Eelus, but his shit sells because he calls himself a street artist and street art is hype right now. We need some kind of definition of what a street artist is, so that we can refer to street art/artists only when it fills the definition.
I don't call myself a street artist because I rarely work in the street. but some people see me as one, and that's good from a "business" perspective.
we should give Eelus credit for trying a different style (even if it's like other peoples work) and then choose whether we think he's a street artist or not. if we think "not" then we can just ignore his work. same with all the other "fakes".
while I type I see a list of people to the right. of 20 names I see 6 people I consider "street artists". why are we bothering to talk about the rest? I mean, who the fuck is Stanley Donwood? Steve More? Sunny Sutton?
I mean, if we're holding up all these non-street artists as reasons for street art being dead then it's no wonder we think it's all fucked. it's like blaming the guy who sells hot dogs at the football stadium for your team playing so badly!
hold on, if every time someone (like Blu) paints a piece that says something (ie, is political) and we say "bah, they're just using war/starving children/etc as a way to get self promotion, then we won't get any more art with content, just pretty pictures with nothing to say
ReplyDeletewhat point is there in Blu trying to promote himself when he doesn't have a product to sell? I can understand what you mean with the Gambia project, but compairing 100 foot high murals every two weeks to a couple of stencils in Shoreditch is a bit fucked up! There's a big difference between Blu's street output and Eelus's! Just as there is a big difference in the content of their street output
we need definitions or we're just arguing nonsensically
"if McDonalds quit selling hamburgers tomorrow and instead tried to sell people mashed carrot they'd go out of business."
ReplyDeleteMaybe so, but it's the very fact that McDonalds are everywhere that means nothing else can compete. Where I live all you can get is fast food, there's literally no alternative, especially if you're vegetarian or don't want to use those kind of places on ethical grounds. Its a vicious circle of stagnation...people get given what they're thought to want, so they never get to experience anything different. It's the same with street/urban art...it's in a massive rut of mediocrity because most of the artists are trying to follow what they believe is a commercial formula.
Or then again, maybe most of them are just shit at art.
And yeah, there's nothing wrong with telephone doodles...but when a so called 'artist' is presenting said doodles to the public as something worthy of our attention, I can understand how a lot of people will be scathing/mocking of this when they probably produce several better pieces themselves every day during the course of a 15 min phone chat.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that all that separates some of these 'artists' from the rest of the population is the profound delusion that their inane amateurish doodles are somehow more relevant or worthy of acclaim than everyone else's.
that's a dumb statement. I don't eat at McDonalds either. people are perfectly capable of COOKING their own food, so to blame McDonalds like their force-feeding humanity is forgetting that BEFORE fast food and tv dinners people cooked for themselves! They sat in a room with other people and shared the task, shared the results, shared ideas, thoughts, gossip, etc.
ReplyDeleteand now we have fast food made without love and the comments section of blogs. Hoo-flippin-ray for progress!my point was that people go in McDonalds because they want a McDonalds burger, not mashed carrot, a kebab, tikka masala, etc. just like people come to me because they want a cute, yet slightly anarchic, cartoon character. It's no good, therefore, me giving them a semi-abstract piece made with typography. That's not what they want.I don't force them to buy cartoons, and the semi-abstract shit is there if they want to dig a little deeper. What they end up with is what they want. People end up with more and more McDonalds because they want it. If they don't want it they can go home and cook for themselves! If more people did, there would be less McD's and more space for someone to open a veggie restaurant!They say people get what they deserve, and if you're dumb enough to believe that people aren't capable of choosing something other than what the high street sells them then you deserve the shitty street art you so clearly hate!
And if people really ARE incapable of choosing something other than what they're told by advertising is what they want, then street art as it is today is at the perfect level for the regular joe.
I did consider adding the caveat "if they want to eat out" to my original post, but thought that would be self-evident. Everybody knows that people can cook at home, but sometimes they don't have the time, haven't got any food in and it's late or are too tired etc. But even in the supermarkets the healthy food is expensive and the junk food is always buy one get one free.
ReplyDeleteIn the street, people can't choose because they don't get presented with a choice. If they keep getting fed shit then that's eventually what they will come to believe is normal food/art.
You only have to look at the most successful urban/street artists to see that a lot of the general public have mindlessly swallowed the PR hype because they don't know any different..
Hi Dave, Sorry if my point you picked up was diluted and not given a full explanation! Like you say if someone, in this case Blu, paints a piece that "says something" we claim it's self-promotion. Well as I understand it, artists have been interpreting themselves and their beliefs since they first got ink on their fingers and drew a stickman, the very nature of an artist is to shout 'look at me'!Yes Dave we should have art with content of course; Although Blu's content does not challenge its viewer, it's very literal and immediate imagery, so he just manages to patronize his audience. So I don't care if it's a 100 foot high mural done every week (that's just someone shouting even louder). For me, the artist's worth is more to do with their intellectual output... If you're just talking about street art output, size and where they put them, then Blu bets Eelus hands down. But the qty and size of work is quite a shallow way to judge art... Artist/Photographer such as Robert Capa, changed the way people think and infused the public in such a way that it changed the course of history, and all with 6 x 8 photos. You ask why does he try and promote himself when he doesn't have a product for sale! Well you should know this best of all being an artist - he promotes his so called intellectual property... Which ensures his galleries and collectors provide enough funds to fly him around the world making contrived work to attract the local media and other press attention whilst validating his worth to the next collector in line; or promoting the galleries with his non-profit art projects being a nice little tax write-off... He just doesn't have to peddle his wares in such a public fashion as others have to, when selling and promoting a print. He has galleries like The Tate and Laz and other backers to promote and safeguard and to help ensure we are sold all their other products... Trust me it's a self serving circle!! Or maybe we don't really want to know this as it goes against what we knock other artists for; lets just pretend he funds it all with his paper-round... Now I'm not saying Eelus' work is good or better then Blu... I'm just not sure if it has any more social worth or if Blu's work is really more challenging, I just think people sometimes like to 'follow' artists to make themselves feel like they belong to a select group. It's a need to belong while maintaing superiority with their supposed knowledge of the art world...Anyhow I start to digress - You're other posts about the categories of art raise some good points, maybe we should discuss more at a later date...Anon I'll get back to you on your photoshop point later.
ReplyDeleteHi Dave, Sorry if my point you picked up was diluted and not given a full explanation! Like you say if someone, in this case Blu, paints a piece that "says something" we claim it's self-promotion. Well as I understand it, artists have been interpreting themselves and their beliefs since they first got ink on their fingers and drew a stickman, the very nature of an artist is to shout 'look at me'!Yes Dave we should have art with content of course; Although Blu's content does not challenge its viewer, it's very literal and immediate imagery, so he just manages to patronize his audience. So I don't care if it's a 100 foot high mural done every week (that's just someone shouting even louder). For me, the artist's worth is more to do with their intellectual output... If you're just talking about street art output, size and where they put them, then Blu bets Eelus hands down. But the qty and size of work is quite a shallow way to judge art... Artist/Photographer such as Robert Capa, changed the way people think and infused the public in such a way that it changed the course of history, and all with 6 x 8 photos. You ask why does he try and promote himself when he doesn't have a product for sale! Well you should know this best of all being an artist - he promotes his so called intellectual property... Which ensures his galleries and collectors provide enough funds to fly him around the world making contrived work to attract the local media and other press attention whilst validating his worth to the next collector in line; or promoting the galleries with his non-profit art projects being a nice little tax write-off... He just doesn't have to peddle his wares in such a public fashion as others have to, when selling and promoting a print. He has galleries like The Tate and Laz and other backers to promote and safeguard and to help ensure we are sold all their other products... Trust me it's a self serving circle!! Or maybe we don't really want to know this as it goes against what we knock other artists for; lets just pretend he funds it all with his paper-round... Now I'm not saying Eelus' work is good or better then Blu... I'm just not sure if it has any more social worth or if Blu's work is really more challenging, I just think people sometimes like to 'follow' artists to make themselves feel like they belong to a select group. It's a need to belong while maintaing superiority with their supposed knowledge of the art world...Anyhow I start to digress - You're other posts about the categories of art raise some good points, maybe we should discuss more at a later date...Anon I'll get back to you on your photoshop point later.
ReplyDeleteThe no-talent arrogant prick Eelus on twitter... "Tired of hearing 'I could have done that' from people who didn't and never will."
ReplyDeleteNah mate, we wouldn't embarrass ourselves by doing the kind of shit that you produce. That's why we dont.
We make far better stuff instead, which means we don't feel the need to constantly inflict the kind of turd that you produce on the general public, and we don't need to shout about what we do either. So you've made yourself look like an absolute cunt once again. Just fuck off with your kiddie level photoshop idiocy, you delusional mug.
LOL. so much bitterness.
ReplyDeleteand who is this 'we' you speak of?
Anybody from the age of 5 upwards who can use photoshop.
ReplyDeleteHa, here's another one off his twatter:"If you're having fun, learning and creating work for yourself, that you want to see, their sticks and stones will be forever useless."Shouldn't that be: "If you're regressing and creating artwork for a magazine release their sticks and stones are quite effective as I've felt the need to make two entries in the space of a day defending myself on twitter".Awww poor boy. Even the usual handful of mugs who clammer for his product aren't even buying into this one. Time to release another ropey stencil of a kid having a shower in some paint splashes just like Grafter does when he needs some new custom built tracksuit bottoms to cover his shame.
ReplyDeleteyou'd be amazed at how cheap vegetables are on the market - you don't need to use a supermarket!
ReplyDeletethere is always a choice in the street, because there is always the choice NOT to buy the shit that is being sold. NOT doing something is ALWAYS an option.
nobody is forced to consume the pr-hype-driven art of Shep, Banksy, DFace etc. There are thousands of artists out there, people just need to MAKE AN EFFORT and look.
Frankly, if people are too lazy to look further than hype, further than McDonalds, further than Tescos, then they get what they deserve in life.
no, the thing that seperates them from everyone else is that they take a risk at doing something with those doodles. if nobody likes those doodles then the person who took the risk will fail.
ReplyDeleteLet me know when galleries are calling you up and asking to show your telephone doodles, then I'll respect what you have to say about artists.
You still don't get it Dave. even if galleries WERE calling me up about my doodles I wouldn't be making screenprints out of them them, because I respect the general public enough not to foist absolute shit on them. It's just a shame that most street/urban artists don't feel the same way.
ReplyDeleteNot everyone has a market near them, just like not everyone lives near Shoreditch. Most consume street art through sites like Vandalog. If people are only ever presented with one thing then it's not surprising that they either lap it up or lose interest altogether. It's not always about being lazy, it's about certain information being artificially prioritised at the expense of other things being suppressed. Your so-called 'choice' has an unpleasant right-wing odour about it.
ReplyDeleteanyone that puts gel in their hair, buys clothes rather than wearing a sack, plays a musical instrument, performs on stage or on tv, and other such every day things are saying "Look at me!"
ReplyDeleteBlu paints things that he feels. And he doesn't write his name on those things, so he's hardly screaming "Look at me!"
Making art isn't about saying "Look at me" it's about saying "LOOK AT THE ART" because art is there to show you things that didn't exist before the artist made them, to make you think about things maybe you haven't considered before or to make you consider things you have in a different way, from a different perspective.
You've all got sucked so far into this pr-hype machine way of presenting art that you can no longer understand the many purposes of art.
Even considering the majority of this graphic design/self-advertising BS as art shows that you don't even make a distinction between the two.
This Eelus piece is ILLUSTRATION, not ART, so reacting to it as art is a waste of your time and energy. It's a greeting card design, a travel card case, A PRODUCT. Stop getting so offended by products! Does your kettle piss you off because it's not beautiful? Because it doesn't stop you in your tracks when you look at it? Because it doesn't make you think of love, pain, life??? Of course not, because it is a PRODUCT!
As for Blu - do you know him? I do. I know few artists who could care less about galleries and pr and all the other shit there is in this street art scene. Blu likes to paint big walls, and make animations. That's what he wants to do with his life right now. I'm pretty sure he doesn't beg blogs to show his work, so the fact that some people are sick of seeing it says nothing more than that they spend too much time on the internet!
I know that Blu charges the same price to paint a wall as you would have to pay a regular workman to paint the wall. The only "bonus" he gets is that he gets flown out to these walls - but since when has spending your life in airports and on planes been any fun!?!? it's fucking boring and unhealthy and I'm sure most of us would rather not ever have to sit in an airport! And as for selling work, Blu has probably less work on sale than any other street artist we've heard of. I know a collector who was desperate to buy something from him, and it took him a long time to finally persuade him to sell him a few pages from his sketch book.
Blu could be a super rich superstar by now, with lots of assistants painting his pieces, but I doubt he earns much more than the average worker, and I know he still paints all that shit by himself. I don't know how much time you've spent putting paint on walls with rollers on long sticks, but it ain't much fun, just hard work.
we don't need to shout about it
ReplyDeleteor
we're too scared of what people might say about it to risk showing it?
when you don't even post under your name it shows you as a coward who should spend some time growing balls, rather than reading the twatter accounts of artists you hate
you only have this one chance at life and it seems youre wasting it
"when you don't even post under your name it shows you as a coward"
ReplyDeleteBit rich coming from someone called 'anon' don't you think? Fuck off wilf you sheep shagger.
You're so full of shit Dave. You sound like you want to ban people from having an opinion. Get off your high horse you arrogant cunt. People don't need to be an artist who shows in galleries to know that the weak and tired cartoon shit that you churn out is a cliche-ridden infantile heap of steaming anal drivel.
ReplyDeleteYou're on the same level as Grafter and most of the other no-talent chancers who get featured on here. The only difference is that you also think you're some kind of intellectual genius, when in actual fact you're a massive fucking knob-end with pretensions far above your status.
Who says we only get one life? Some people might believe in reincarnation, so stop imposing your monolithic belief systems on us you turgid cunt. Anyway, if someone wants to waste their life then that's their own business. Save your preaching for your Sunday school class where you force your penis into choirboys mouths.
ReplyDeleteAttention! Everybody keep your hard hats on at all times. Dave's dropping names like a feral youth drops breeze blocks from a motorway bridge.
ReplyDeleteand you sir are a fool, starting your post saying people are entitled to their opinions, then not letting me have mine! DUH!!! what kind of tool can't even write a blog comment without contradicting themselves? Are you Lord Vandalog in disguise?
ReplyDeletehow is it "name dropping" to stand up for one of your friends? especially when that friend is the subject of the conversation???
ReplyDeletetry and keep up with what's happening if you want to start trying to attack people, there's a good chap
Because you were trying to pull rank and shut down the topic by mentioning that you know someone. Now toddle off you self-righteous bore.
ReplyDeleteNever said you can't have your opinion did I?. Just that you're talking shit by saying that somebody has to have gallery interest to be worthy of your attention. THAT'S the kind of thing I'd expect from Vandalog. You fucking snob.
ReplyDeleteyou haven't upset me at all my friend. I make it a point to not get upset by the comments of anyone, since I take responsibility for my feelings as they are generated by me, and can't see the point in laying the blame on others for the shit my brain generates! I do, however, reserve the right to reply to the unintelligent comments on here (not yours) in ways designed to make the comment-makers look as foolish as they are. These comments are never made with anger. I'm no longer the angry young man I once was!
ReplyDeleteYou have quite clearly studied art history. I think it's worth you considering that Blu isn't making work for you, someone who has a rich knowledge of art, of image, of the way artists attempt to communicate. I would hazard a guess that Blu's work is aimed at the average Joe, the guy who's too busy working a job and trying to keep his family fed to be taking much interest in what's going on in the world, let alone to spend time thinking about world politics, war, corruption, and the other themes Blu talks about.
Not everybody has an education past GCSE level, and many people are too distracted by work, tv, sex, sport, movie stars, etc to take much interest in the world outside of what is immediately important to them.
I think one of the strongest things street art has done, as opposed to the regular art world, is to try to communicate with people that don't have good educations, don't go to art galleries or museums, don't read books, etc. Art has become so intellectual and conceptual that it turns people off, it's seems too stupid(? not the right word but...) for them to even want to engage with (eg, a room with the light going on and off - there's no way someone like my father can see or except that as art. he see's no skill, talent, physical work in it, and those are things he appreciates and finds beauty in)
For me street art came as a reaction against this intellectualism which was closing art to people. Art should be for EVERYBODY, not just the educated or wealthy. Contemplating art helps to make peoples minds work, and the brain needs to work out as much as the muscles. I think the world would be a much better place if people thought more, spent more time to consider what they are doing, consuming, creating etc. And surely it is the job of everyone to make this world a better place, at least to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is!
I like to make work that is incredibly simple, partly so it can be appreciated by all ages and levels of education, but also as I've found that the simpler it gets the more open to interpretation it is, and the more the work becomes alive for other people (since they project their own ideas etc on to it and thus engage their minds)
as far as Blu's work goes, I'm not particularly stimulated by it these days. I prefered the early stuff which didn't have such obvious messages. My defence of him is purely because he's the last person in the world that I would say makes work to get people to look at him.
I think that street art can't be considered Outsider art anymore, especially since so much of it exists inside now (literally and figuratively) and I don't think it's ever tried to be a pure form of self-expression - it's an art form by people that are growing up in a media saturated time, and I think 2011 is such a different place to even 1991 in terms of media, technology, communication etc that we can't dis people making art now for not making it the way it was made 50, 100, 500 years ago. These are strange, fast new times, and art historians need to think about what the world is like now when considering the art of now.
It's easier to look at history than it is to understand right now!
And right now I got to go buy milk and eggs before the stores close. Thanks for the discussion.