Friday September 5th, 2003
Greetings From the Wooster Collective!
As we head into the weekend, we wanted to extend this invitation for all of you in the New York area to attend the opening party on Saturday night for "A Celebration Of Street Art: The Photography of Marc Schiller" The evening should be off the hook. Sixteen large format prints, Goodie Bags with T-shirts from Design Is Kinky, Free Beer from Sam Adams, and more. If you can make it, drop us a line to RSVP at woostercollective@hotmail.com
Wooster Collective Presents...
A Celebration of Street Art: The Photographs of Marc Schiller
Opening Reception
Saturday September 6, 2003
7 - 10 pm
rsvp: woostercollective@hotmail.com
halcyon
227 Smith Street (btwn Butler/Douglass - F/G to Bergen Street)
Brooklyn NY 11231
For Additional Information: Trudy Chan, 212-354-2430: trudy@electricartists.com
Wooster Collective: www.woostercollective.com
PRESS RELEASE:
Marc Schiller, CEO of New York-based ElectricArtists* and co-founder of the Wooster Collective, has been photographing and creating street art in Lower Manhattan for the last three years. In 2002, he and his fiancé Sara Beard founded the Wooster Collective, a group of like-minded artists and archivists living in downtown Manhattan who create and document the burgeoning street art movement around the world. The Wooster Collective maintains the website www.woostercollective.com that showcases new artworks and new artists including daily updates and photos from around the world and interviews with the artists who make up the thriving international community of street artists. Marc Schiller's photographs of street art have been featured in such magazines and journals as The Face, URB Magazine, Vapors Magazine, The Village Voice, RES Magazine, and beautiful/decay.
"A Celebration of Street Art: The Photographs of Marc Schiller" is the prolific Soho-based photographer and street art documentarian's first one-man show. Says Schiller, "There's a life and energy to street art that I am attempting to capture in these photographs...documenting the diversity of street art has allowed me to become more aware of my surroundings." The artist explains, "Street art is by its very nature, ephemeral...The work begins to emerge as a true collaboration between the artist and the city itself. It is what happens during this lifespan that interests me as a photographer.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Trudy Chan, trudy@electricartists.com
MADE POSSIBLE BY: VAPORS MAGAZINE / SAM ADAMS / 55dsl / DESIGN IS KINKY / ELECTRIC ARTISTS
ARTISTS STATEMENT:
Street art is by its very nature, ephemeral. The art is not meant to be permanent. The work may survive the elements for three hours, three days, or three years. Once placed on the street, the artist gives up all control.
It is what happens during this lifespan that interests me as a photographer. The elements of the city - the sun, rain, snow, and wind - begin to alter and transform the art. Over time, new textures emerge. As colors begin to fade, new colors and markings begin to appear. The artwork takes on a new life. The work begins to emerge as a true collaboration between the artist and the city itself.
Ironically, it's the attempt to remove the piece of art from its surroundings - often a lamppost, a wall, or a storefront door - that creates the most interesting new forms and textures. Over time layers begin to develop, as new flyers and stickers start to accumulate, one on top of the other. As the art becomes torn, fragments and pieces are left behind such that it begins to tell a new story. Separate pieces become merged and fused together. For example, advertisements become stripped of their marketing messages, and are left with sometimes beautiful and compelling imagery. The distinction between art that is intentional, and art that is created by weather, begins to blur. If the Medium is the Message (Marshall McLuhan), then we are truly witnessing an ever changing artistic dialogue.
There's a life and energy to street art that I am attempting to capture in these photographs. For me, documenting the diversity of street art has allowed me to become more aware of my surroundings. The city has emerged as one large, vibrant, and ever changing outdoor gallery.
Marc Schiller,New York City, August 2003