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December 6, 2005
J.P on the Sony PSP Graffiti Ads
Been following the the whole sony thing and Dixon's comment got my response reflex going,"KEEP YOUR DESPERATE CORPORATE LONG ARM OUT OF A MOVEMENT THAT IS THE ONLY THING THAT IS OURS!!!!!"
While I share those feelings, I am well aware that everything held sacred by one tribe or another is ingested, digested, and shit right back out the corporate machine down onto the flock. From their prospective why not, expose this aspect of culture, profit, and convert or kill that wing of the culture (more often than not counter culture). They don't try to beat you any more they invite one of the "leaders" in to join up. Everybody has to eat, but we don't need to eat on corporate jets @30,000 feet. We don't need to eat at the NIKE Campus. And we don't need to eat while peeping the new PSP prior to its release. But some folks do.
Duncan Phillips opened America's first Modern Art Museum in the Washington DC about 100 years ago. He said in 1931:
"The true Artist needs a friend and the true patron of the arts has nothing better to give the world then the helping hand he extends to any lonely, lofty life made perilous because a free spirit cannot or will not see eye to eye with crowd."
A quick run through art history from a content issue will tell you who the patrons of any given era were. Today's Patron for today's "Modern" artist is Big Business. Personally I think this is for 2 reasons, one of which is the trickle down result of maplethorpe and his whip, The Arts lost Government funding. Which goes to speak about the responsibility we have to shock but not make them flee forever. Secondly I think the Uber Rich who could be patrons individually are too caught up in what they know, which is what everyone knows of art the basic, safe, classic.
To me being an artist is not as simple as painting something, singing something etc. There is an element which i think the Duncan Phillips quote hits on, this element makes its way into the art that is recognized amongst the artists themselves, collectively as worthy. He could have said:
The true Artist needs a friend and the true patron of the arts has nothing better to give the world then the helping hand he extends to any Artist. but he did not. he used "lonely, lofty life made perilous because a free spirit cannot or will not see eye to eye with crowd."
(Being married to an artist I would imagine he knew a thing or two about the artists whims.)
That element is the same thing which draws your attention to the Fakeness of fake tits or teeth. Fake art has the element of non honesty no matter how well executed. The Eye can not be lied to. You guys ran a picture of a sticker saying " real eyes realize real lies" and basically that is it 100% sony was a lie and we recognized it. some of us profited off it. some of us exposed it, buffed it, etc.
Now street art is nothing new, we did not invent it with the web sites, we just exposed it's reach. It is silly to think that Dubai is not gonna have Graf or street art somewhere, there are people there after all and that is where art comes from.
There are many reasons why this art is hitting the streets with the magnitude with which it is now, but mostly I think what is hitting the streets is not art, it is arts response to a corp. politico environment that can not be left blank, because "free spirits can not or will not see eye to eye with the crowd"
You mentioned meeting an artist in B.A. that was 100% political, and the streets art should be nothing more as far as i am concerned. the true artist have said no to corp. patronage and the gallery scene that is not interested in truly new, unknown so you take your art to the people where they are. you break down the unknown barrier and many of you walk right in the galleries that turned you away previously. sell out? that is a person by person case by case type thing. one mans red is another woman's Pantone 187.
So SONY was just the First one to take it on at that scale, and why not? who else has the budget??? Well collectively we do. so that leads to...
I have been trying to get a project rolling for a while and this seems like maybe a good chance/place/time to bring it up, as I have been following your posts for a very long time now getting the 2 of involved has been in my head. The Project idea stems from the simple little bit of text i started playing with in my sketch book.
DO IT WrIghTE. the double meaning should be clear, spray/correctly. It was a response to an attack i took from an angry neighbor who had their car tagged, and who had seen me spray painting canvases in my parking cove. I live in Belgium and I don't speak either of the languages so this was odd situation and took some time to clear up after a local police and english speaking third party became involved.
Now there are loads of ideas on what is what red vs Pantone 187. not all grafers want art thrown in their face, bob ross probably did not want to hear people who were gonna tell him happy little trees are not art, but millions of the crowd paint happy little trees in thier kitchen, ART?
SO What is the Right way to Write? I thought the car tag was funny, (often think about tagging hummers and escalates with some relevant stencil to Excessive size,myself). My laughing was what escalated the situation. My mother in laws car was tagged recently too. Laughed but it just one kid with a red can spraying 5 cars as he runs by. pure vandalism, he cops the art urge plea? so what is right. and who decides? artist versus vandal versus corporate whore, skill wielding, mac drivers. This much I can say if my town were one of the real anti street art towns and talking about fining the companies who stickers were found etc. I would be cutting SONY stencils and waiting for night fall.... tryin to DoIT wRIGHTe
marc sara you rock! Thanks so much.
J.P
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