JR Artist, Inside Out Project: Reclaiming Education

Reclaiming Education

An Inside Out Project Group Action

For our class final, Prof. Bullock orchestrated a collaboration between JR Artist's Inside Out Project! Not only did we learn the history of graffiti and street art from books but we actually got first hand experience of what it feels like to post art on the street. Granted the work was legal but that didn't happen till the last few days of the class. For awhile there, we thought the project might have been done the old fashion way, by sneak attack.. but ultimately the great wall became available at Space 4 Art in San Diego! This class was absolutely one of the best classes I've taken at UCSD, both in terms of content and in the way it was taught!

Info about the project:

3 August 2013, Noon
Space 4 Art, 325 15th St., San Diego, California 92101

Inspired by Street Art and itʼs capacity to make a difference, UC San Diego’s first ever Graffiti & Street Art class, taught by Lara Bullock, has decided to get together to speak out about something we care about. Inspired by JRʼs Inside Out Project and its capacity to effect real change, we decided to participate in an Inside Out Project Group Action entitled Reclaiming Education. As college students, we recognize our privileged position, as most people in the US and the world cannot afford a post-secondary education. We would like to acknowledge this inequity and also point to some other issues that stand in
the way of making this education available to all.

Reclaiming Education is meant to draw attention to the deficiencies of a UC education and what we feel are misplaced priorities in the allocation of resources by the Californian government. Especially apparent is the prioritization of the over-crowded prison system and the military over the educational system. As students, we feel the effects of the accumulation of debt for a degree that is becoming increasingly irrelevant in today’s economy, as it guarantees nothing. Yet, at the same time we realize our privilege in being able to take out the loans to get this education, as there are many others for whom this is merely a pipedream. Together our faces represent a rupture, the reality of the spectacle of education.

View pictures: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_UceI8DodsAVm05MTd3ck1rdUU&usp=sharing

http://www.sdspace4art.org/category/upcoming-events/

ABOUT THE INSIDE OUT PROJECT

Inside Out is a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone is challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world. These digitally uploaded images are made into posters and sent back to the project’s co-creators, for them to exhibit in their own communities.

Posters can be placed anywhere from a solitary image in an office window, to a wall of an abandoned building, or in a full stadium. These exhibitions will be documented, archived and be made available online at http://insideoutproject.net

The INSIDE OUT project is a creation of the artist JR, recipient of the 2011 TED Prize.

ABOUT THE TED PRIZE
The TED Prize is awarded annually to an exceptional individual who receives $1,000,000 and the TED community’s resources and expertise to spark global change. The award offers support to build a project’s core infrastructure quickly – so that others can add their own collaborative action.

The first TED Prize was awarded in 2005, born out of the TED Conference and a vision by the worldʼs leading entrepreneurs, innovators, and entertainers to change the world – one Wish at a time. What began as an unparalleled experiment to leverage the resources of the TED Community to spur global change has evolved into one of the most prestigious prizes. A TED Prize winner is a rare and powerful combination of someone who knows how to capture the imaginations and make a measurable impact, a visionary and a pragmatist, a dreamer and a doer. From Bono’s the ONE Campaign (ʼ05 recipient) to Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (ʼ10 recipient) and JRʼs Inside Out Project (ʼ11 recipient), the TED Prize has helped to combat poverty, take on religious intolerance, improve global health, tackle childhood obesity, advance education, and inspire art around the world.

For more information on the TED Prize, visit www.ted.com/prize

Image courtesy of Lara Bullock, UC San Diego Visual Arts PhD Art History Candidate.

Intro

Welcome,

One of our class assignments for the course is to create a blog on which to document our individual discoveries of graffiti and street art found in San Diego.

Disclaimer: If you are new to graffiti and street art, my hope is that you find these posts informative. If you're a seasoned writer or street artist, please keep in mind that this was an introductory course and that aside from this course I have no other knowledge of graffiti.

Although this blog is part of a class assignment, I feel so passionate about these arts now and plan to continue exploring San Diego and posting my findings. Please feel free to contact me. I am open all to all feedback, from corrections, to criticism, its all about learning.

Please note: all the pictures in featured in this blog were shot by me with exception of one image that has been cited in the caption. The caption give as much information as know about each image, the location where I found it the month and year shot and the author of the street provided that I was able to discern the name of the author.

Works Cited: through out this blog I frequently cite Waclawek. Here's the info for that:
Graffiti and Street Art by Anna Waclawek
Publisher: Thames & Hudson (November 7, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0500204071
Link: http://www.amazon.com/Graffiti-Street-Art-World/dp/0500204071

Thanks,
C.G.

1. Sore Tag

Sore, San Diego CA, July 2013

SORE's tag was the first graffiti work that I found for this assignment. Several things peaked my attention about this tag. What first caught my attention is that SORE's tag includes a character. That set this tag apart from the hundreds of other tags that I came across. Tags are the foundation of graffiti; a way for writers to establish themselves in "the game". The main characteristics of tags are the writer's pseudo name, the meaning of the word, the meaning of the spelling, and the style of characters. Tags generally don't include characters. Hence this needs to be considered in this analysis. Why would this tag include character? According to Waclawek characters didn't appear until the development of throwies and pieces (Waclawek pages16-18). The function of the tag is to get the writers name up as much as possible, they are executed quickly and generally placed in high visibility. This tag however is not in most visible of places and its location reveals a little more about the character in this tag.

Sore, San Diego CA, July 2013

Why is it located where it's located? While driving north bound on the 5 freeway just passing the 8 freeway, I saw a few tags on the side of a warehouse. I exited and drove toward direction of the graffiti, but before finding those tags, I ran into SORE's tag. Its located right by the Wild Life Preserve (view on map), a location not visible from the freeway. It is located near the trolley but not visible from trolley which makes less valuable of spot. However, SORE also tagged on a wall directly across from this one, but on that instance he/she only wrote his/her name (photo below). Both are illegal spots for sure and placing them near the trolley indicates that its for the purpose of exposure. Having multiple tags like this in the same location make paints the picture that SORE was "bombing" this place, "trying to get up as much as possible" which would seem to indicate that SORE is more concerned with "getting up" than he is with style development (Waclawek page 14). However, I can't say that with certainty since I haven't seen all of his of his/her work.

Sore, Sour, San Diego CA, July 2013

What can we tell about the tag by its letters? Waclawek's book doesn't go far into describing the evolution of different types of letters as from discussing the beginning of Wild Style. What we learned is that signature graffiti (individuals writing the names or pseudonyms) developed into tagging from which evolved the concept of stylizing tag. According to Waclawek "Stylistic and formal innovation - restructuring the traditional appearance of letters, and in a way, rewriting the alphabet - is a writer's primary goal" (Waclawek page 13). Clearly this wasn't the case for all writers.. some where more concerned about being seen and getting up rather innovating new styles. Speaking of which, SORE's tag doesn't seem to have any particular innovation of his letters. I've seen tags which are so stylized that they are practically illegible. This is not meant as a negative criticism of SORE's tag. It simply appears that in this particular instance this writer's primary concern is getting up, not necessarily innovation. With that said, I have to say that his spray technique seems really solid. There are no drips and the exclamation point has a cool looking flare to it. Coincidently, a week later, I was driving on Friars road heading to mall and by pure chance came across another SORE tag, this time on green utility box (view pic below). This confirms to me that these tags are about visibility.

Sore, Friars Rd. San Diego CA, July 2013

What meanings can we derive from the pseudo name and its spelling? Lets start with the definition: Adjective:(of a part of one's body) Painful or aching. Noun: A raw or painful place on the body. Adverb: Extremely; severely: "they were sore afraid".  Its seems strait forward enough and the spelling of the word is correct. The writer could be making a statement about the way graffiti is perceived by mainstream society: that society sees it as a sore and he's taken the word and repurposed it to empower rather accept this criticism. It could also be a reflection on his ability to get up, as is the meaning of the word as an adverb. Doing some research on the web, I found a substantial amount of photographs that have SORE's tag. I am assuming that they are same writer, but I'm not 100% sure. Some of them are definitely his.

To conclude, the character on SORE's piece seems like a half step toward a throwie. Its not a throwie in that its monochromatic, the letters are small and not hollowed out.  However SORE is adding some style depth to the tag with his character. The character is executing nicely, in one pass. Upon further research on the web, I found SORE to be quite the prolific writer in terms of number of tags and throw ups that can be found online. I did not discover any pieces but definitely same incredibly strong throw ups.

The following links are to images of SORE's work that I found on the we:

1. SDGRAFF FLICKR: view on sdgraff flickr 
2. PUREGRAFFITI: view on puregraffiti
3. FLICKRHIVEMIND: view on flickrhivemind
4. YOUTUBE (not sure if this is the same writer): view SORE on youtube

 

 

 

 

2. Wash. St. (throwies)

Bread, Brasr,and others, Washignton St. San Diego, CA. July 2013

 

The throwies that I came across on Washington street where intense with regard to visibility, size, and sheer boldness of the location! I was driving on Pacific Highway going south about to merge with the 5 south when this image stop me in my tracks! I actually pulled over on the side of the highway to photograph this because I wasn't sure I would even be able to access that area. I shot the following picture from the emergency lane on the side of the highway.

Bread, Brasr,and others, Washignton St.
San Diego, CA. July 2013

What is obviously striking about this image is the giant sized tag that just about covers the entire wall! Wow, talk about going big and about taking risk! I'm not sure how this tag was done or exactly what it says. To me it appears to say BREAD CHAX or BREAD CHA*. Of course doing a search of words graffiti and bread brings up information on the infamous father of tagging, CornBread (Waclawek page 12). I also found more graffiti by a writer named BREAD. Most of his work seems to be big and brazen. I can't find any pieces by that writer. There is a Mr.Bread who has some killer pieces on the web but I doubt that its the same cat who create all these throwies. Mr.Bread style is way to advanced to create throwies like these. Given that the meaning of writer's pseudonym is of utmost importance, I wonder if BREAD is an intentional reference to CornBread, thereby also disclosing this writers main objective, and/or giving props to the history of graffiti.

Washington St. Tags San Diego CA

Once I arrived at the location, which is a few buildings north of the Washington St. trolley station, the most prominent thing about became the sheer number of throwies and tags on the wall. The spot is definitely a valuable spot to hit in that it gets a ton of exposure, both from the trolley and from Pacific Coast Highway. Also the fact that its so close to the trolley station means that its probably policed more often than locations such as the Jungle under the trolley bridge near Friars Rd. Being that its a more risky spot to bomb means that it provides more status to the writers. The only thing that seems to contradict that, is that the wall underneath all the throwies seems to have layers upon layers of graffiti. This would indicate that the spot doesn't get painted over by city too often.

Bread, Brasr,and others, Washignton St.
San Diego, CA. July 2013

With so many tags and throwies to write about it was hard to limit my discussion to just one. I started writing about the BREAD tag but I also want to mention the BRASR and BINK throwies. Also since my first entry was about tags, it seems like a good idea to follow up with an entry on throwies, especially since in the history of graffiti throwies came after tags.

 Doing a search on the internet I found a flickr group (click to view) that posts San Diego graffiti pictures. They happened to have a picture of the same location with the names of each of throwies. Its funny how easy it is to distinguish what a tag or throwie says once somebody points it out. If it wasn't for that picture, I might not have been able to identify the BRASR throwie. The primary reason that I want to talk about this throwie is that I've seen BRASR's icon (the brass knuckles) in other areas of San Diego. Its clear from how much he gets up to the "soft" style of his work that his goal is also exposure. It looks like somebody dissed his work with a "go-over" that reads "Get Sum Style". Click on the following picture and look at the bottom of the knuckles.

 

Brasr,Washignton St. San Diego, CA. July 2013

I think its important to understand that not all writers are about style. Nonetheless, the message isn't a bad suggestion. Even if a writer is about being prolific, it never hurts to increase on style.  Here is a picture of his brass knuckles icon at a spot I found in Little Italy.  

Brasr, Little Itally, San Diego CA July 2013
 

Lastly, I wanted to discuss BINK's throwie because I found one his/her pieces at this spot that I am calling the Jungle under the Trolley at Friars (for lack of better term). It makes a good transition to my third entry on Pieces. BINK's throwies has a traditional look. I found the picture below in the flickr group that I posted above. In my picture's BINK's throwies had been covered over. The letters in this particular throwies are in bubble or "softie" style like those of from the early days of graffiti developed by Phase2 from New York (Waclawek page 19). They are somewhat fat and rounded but the font looks slightly Broadway style like as developed by TopCat126 from the early days in NY. BINK's style looks somewhat retro, aside from the lettering, the colors also add to this. Its more evident in his Pieces though. Click here to go to my third entry on pieces.

 

Fig 1. Photo Credits: El Toro @ San Diego Graffiti Flickr Group

 

Link to Fig 1 Photo Source:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/modofodo/8496784652/in/pool-355220@N21

 

 

 

 

3. Beetlejuice (piece)

Following the historical evolution of graffiti from tags, to thowies, to pieces, my third and fourth entries are focused on pieces. I will discuss two pieces that I found here in San Diego in order to juxtapose the analysis. 

The first piece in question is one that I found under a trolley bridge just south of Friars Rd. The piece is large "E-to-E" (End to End) on a bridge pillar created by Bink & Sinz. It features a classic style cartoon character of Beetlejuice.

Beetlejuice by Bink and Sinz, under trolley bridge just south of Friars Rd. San Diego CA



Photo 1 of location.

This piece as whole has a very classic feel. You could put a picture of it in a 80's graffiti book and it would fit right in. The style includes elements that are rendered in a very classic style, in particular the font type, blend, shine, and characters. Its as if the writers are older, maybe from a previous generation. The odd thing is that the location seems like a fairly ephemeral place where pieces are gone-over frequently. I highly doubt that the piece has been there long which leaves me wondering if the piece is either created by an old-school writer or possibly by a "toy". Ouch, I really don't feel comfortable saying that since I don't even tag. Another possible scenario is that its super fancy throw-up but I doubt that because of the location doesn't get much exposure. 



Photo 2 of location  w/ Bink Throw-up.

Speaking of location, it is definitely way out of public site. This spot is under a trolley bridge just south of Friars Rd. Click here to view it on my map. The pillars of this trolley bridge are perfect walls for graffiti. Consequently, there is a massive amount of graffiti there. Also worth noting, there very little evidence of graffiti being covered up by the city. Its all just layers upon layers of graffiti. Clearly San Diego doesn't care about graffiti that's not visible to the general public. Although this spot ranks low in terms of public exposure, it is great place for writers to practice. Also, there seems to be a lot of tagging, some gang stuff, and lots of go-overs. Speaking of which, there probably isn't much respect given to masterpieces at this spot. It seems more conducive to toys going to gain some practice.

Regarding the actual piece itself, when I say a classic style cartoon character, I am referring to way the cartoon character is rendered, not the character himself. According to Waclawek, the first characters that appeared at the dawn of Writing were either well known cartoons such as Donald duck, Popeye, etc, or they were custom character representations of the writers themselves. Either way, the style of the characters was cartoonish like traditional Disney cartoons look. Back then there weren't realistic or abstracted characters. The Beetlejuice is a trickster ghost character from Tim Burton's 1988 film Beetlejuice. Before I factor the character into the analysis, I want to discuss the style of the piece. We have two writers to consider. First looking at Bink's letters and style, we can see that the letters aren't "Wild Style" or "Softie" or "Block" styles either. To me these letters look like a derivative of the Broadway style in that TopCat126 was credited with originating. They are tall and slender. Sinz letters are closer to a Softie style with all the curves and bubbling but they are also cursive which is bit different from traditional Softie style. By today's standard of pieces, this piece doesn't just doesn't match up in terms of style and complexity. However, again we have to consider that not all writers are trying to "innovate" their own style or trying to make that their primary thing. Many writers are still interested in bombing a city, getting up, getting their name out there.. I think that we need to consider that with this example. Also it could be that Bink and Sinz purposely trying to make it look retro. View close up pictures below.

The last thing to discuss about this piece is content. Why the trickster Beetlejuice? Well frankly I don't think there any particular deep meaning to it other than the writers think its cool. The odd thing is that it works with my analysis in that this style of graffiti is like a ghost from that past. Also the surrounding area has evidence of drug and alcohol use. Seeing such an image in such a place is unfortunately not a surprise.

Lastly, I did find quite a few examples of Binks & Sinz work online. Both of them are a part of the 4U2C crew. Here's links to the works by them that I found on the web:

1. Bink on Flickr: View
2. Bink & Sinz on PureGraffiti.com: View
3. Lots of examples on Flickrmindhive.net: View
4. Bink on Streetpins.com: View

Bink of 4U2C, San Diego photographed July 2013

Sinz of 4U2C, San Diego photographed July 2013

 

4. Redwood (pieces)

A few days after going to Junlge Bridge Spot, I decided to investigate a place where I thought my chance of finding "street art" would improve. The South Park community of San Diego is known as the hip place for public arts. Its full of coffee shops, boutique art galleries, boutique apparel stores, and some of the hippest dives in San Diego. While driving on 30th I came across the Redwood Laundromat. Wow, was I elated to find that this place is full of pieces!!! The entire building is wrapped in T-to-B and E-to-E in pieces! Even the perimeter walls are covered in some amazing graffiti! Its an entirely different experience than the Jungle Bridge Spot I found, a complete contrast. The main difference is that this place is clearly "legal"; the owners of the building definitely gave permission to for the graffiti to occur. That being the case, the place clearly attracted the attention from some bad ass writers. What blows my mind is why there isn't a single article or media report from an official news channel praising how great this phenomena is! So lets get this strait, the news is constantly reporting about how graffiti is destroys communities and attracts crime, but when graffiti is beautifies a community the way these piece do, they completely ignore it? Go figure. These pieces must have done recently because Google Street View shows how the laundromat the way it looked without the graffiti. Here's a screenshot of it:

Redwood Laundromat, Screen Grab from Google Street View

What a difference! What would otherwise be a totally drab building with no other purpose than some utilitarian function, has now become a place to go view street art, and interact with the community. There's no question about it, this graffiti and street at this location has activated would otherwise be a liminal space. I said graffiti and street art because some of the pieces at this place are definitely blurring the lines of these two practices which have so much in common but equally as much differences and tension. For the sake of simplicity, I will be discussing only one of the pieces at this location. I can't say for sure who did the entire piece, I know that part of it was done by Pursue but I can't say for sure if it was just him or if someone else from MSK or HM was working with him. The piece in question is this one:

Fig 1. - MSK, HM, Pursue, Redwood Laundromat in South Park, San Diego CA, July 2013

This piece, and there is no question that this work is a masterpiece was created by an MSK and/or HM crew member. I couldn't find the signature and I cant read the writers name. What I do know is that the piece to the left of this is a piece by Dave Pursue:

Fig 2. Pursue, MSK, Redwood Laundromat in South Park, San Diego CA, July 2013

My best guess is that this is all one giant piece by Pursue. His signature Bunny Rabbit character is in the left part but there is no actual signature which is why I think that the image above this one (Fig 1.) might be Pursue's signature! The only other alternative is that HM is somehow somebody's tag but I really doubt that. From the research on the web that I found, HM is a crew. So where to we begin with this piece? There is so much to see and so much to say that a 500 word analysis will not cover such a piece. I'm going to narrow down my analysis to a few points only. I've already mentioned above that the piece is located on a legal wall. That make a huge statement about the piece itself. Many old school writers and also some contemporary writers and street artist believe that graffiti and/or street art just aren't the same on legal walls. Having experiences this piece in person, I now know where I stand on the issue. I am definitely for this type of work and I don't believe that a legal wall takes the "street" element away from the work. If  it was a canvas or gallery wall then I might agree but this piece is from the street, by a legitimate and well respected writer, and well frankly its a bad ass piece that beautifies the building, activates what would have been dead space, and most definitely helps represent writing and street art as a legit community activity.

Another important question that comes to mind is whether this piece fits into the graffiti genre or the street art genre? Clearly it has elements of both practices! On the one hand there is extraordinary writing example that his some text that I would call more than just Wild Style, I would say its innovative, something new! That signature has broken with the traditional or classic writing elements that we saw in Binks & Sinz work. This letters even go beyond the more contemporary work I've seen, including some of the pieces on the Laundromat. Even so, one need only glance for a moment to see that its graffiti. I mean despite being superbly abstracted, it still has enough information about the letters to see that there is a name there. Upon closer inspection you see a few of traditional elements such as arrows, bubbles, scattered about. However the letters are incredibly abstracted. The 3D on the piece is phenomenal, giving the letters the appears of coming to and from the foreground and background.

Fig 3. Pursue, MSK, Redwood Laundromat in South Park, San Diego CA, July 2013

However, what is most amazing about this writing to me is how the writing/letters become snow covered mountains and how that was done in order to blend in the with wolf.  You could be looking at the letters one moment, then off into some majestic mountains the next! Its this effect, this blurring of lines between traditional writing and "street art". This piece literally blurs that line and it does so in more than one way. Another way that it blurs the lines are in in he characters and scenes of the piece as a whole. Not only do you have the writing which transforms to mountains but you have semi realistic coyote next to an expressionistic woman figure next to a traditional graffiti cartoon style character (Bunny Kitty!). All this elements mixed in together into one piece work to bring graffiti and street art together. The writing is so abstracted that to read it, you'd have to be seasoned writer.. but by turning into mountains, it allows the average person to appreciate it as part of the scene portrayed.

The discussing the content of this piece, the symbols, the meaning, would take at least another 500 words.. that's 1000 over the limit at this point. I'm stopping here for the time being.


 

5. Panda/Choas (stencils)

All of my entries thus far have been connected chronographically in some way or another. I kinda like that and as it turns out I have I have another perfect segue from my previous entry about the Redwood Laundromat Pieces, into this entry on stencils. At the Redwoods Laundromat, amidst all the T-to-B and E-to-E pieces, and amazing throwies.. on the far east end of the wall, there was a single stencil. This bit of the wall had no other graffiti. My best guess is that it was too short of all, and with all the other great real estate from the legal spot, who would want to take left-over space anyways? How about machine gun wielding Panda?

Bad Panda Records, Redwood Laundromat at South Park, San Diego CA, July 2013

 

Chaos, Ocean Beach Side in  San Diego CA, July 2013

Stencils came after tags, throwies, and pieces. Use of stencils really started with the Post Graffiti movement (Waclalala). Stenciling does not concern itself with writing style as writers do. Stencils also don't concern themselves to much with aesthetics as some street artists do. They are similar to tags in that they facilitate quick application. Also, they produce the virtually the same image every time. Although tags do use a physical  matrix/master copy such as stencils to reproduce instances, they work in a similar way more often than not. Stencil therefore live in a sort of twilight existence between graffiti and street art. During my expeditions to search for graff and street art, I only came across 4 stencils. I found the Panda at Redwoods, then I found the two Chaos stencils in Ocean Beach, and lastly I found the SUBversive near the coffee cart at UCSD. View pictures below for each.

Choas, Ocean Beach sidewalk at  San Diego CA, July 2013

The stencil that I want to discuss those most is the panda stencil. This stencil really spoke to me. When I think of Panda bears, I always think of them as being in a zoo. I guess its because I've never seen one in the wild in person or on tv. I'm not a fan of zoos. I know that they are treating the animals okay and that it some cases they even protect endangered species.. but every time I go to the zoo, I always feel bad for the animals.  To me the look unhappy. That's probably why the image of a Panda with machine guns in the air was gave me a good laugh. I imagined the Panda breaking out of zoo. The stencil reminded me of the feeling I have about the zoos, something that I hadn't thought of in at least a decade. When I saw the stencil sitting there on the corner of the wall in place that had been overlooked by all the big pieces at that spot, it felt just as powerful, sort of a like an outsider or an underdog. I had no idea who made the stencil as it has no verbiage.  I did some basic research on the web using the terms panda stencil. Eventually I found a site that claimed that this panda stencil was created by Banksy. At first I was really excited but then I got to thinking that it could just be a copy cat artist. That's the thing about stencils, unlike writing, they can easily be reproduces. However, does this even matter. I mean lets say that the stencil was created by Banksy and that some kid in San Diego created a duplicate. Does it matter that it wasn't Banksky who actually put in place. Maybe Banksy collectors would say that it absolutely does. Another argument is that since Banksy didn't put it there then the message isn't as powerful because Banksky work is usually site specific. Okay well, there is a zoo in San Diego.. and well would it make more sense if it was placed there? Probably. It worked for me, even though it was out of context at that location. According to Waclawek more often than not, stencils are use to communicate political messages. I would definitely say that the machine gun wheeling Panda did just that for me. The funny thing is that I kept doing more research on it and eventually I found it out that its not a Banksy stencil at all. This stencil was created by Julien Fanton D'Andon for a record company called.. Bad Panda Records. So the designer of the image might not have had a political intention at all. He might have just been training to create an image that would match the labels name. Ultimately this turns out to be a case of a guerilla marketing techniques for a small record company. They placed their logo under the guise of street art to draw attention. Its a clever ploy and it reminds us that sometimes the tables are turned. Sometimes, business use guise of street art to further their own agenda.  

The Chaos stencils that I found in Ocean Beach have a totally different message. First and fore most, we have to deal with the text, the message it conveys. Chaos. Its simple and strait forward. Were it not for the text, I might not have been able to figure out the person in the last image is G.G. Allin. The infamous punk icon. He stands for anarchy and the world chaos fits well with him.

6. Lorax (wheatpaste)

Lorax, Little Italy San Diego CA, July 2013

 

It wasn't until my third expedition that I found a wheatpaste street art example. My third expedition was to little itally. I knew that over the last decade that community has been renovated and has created an art scene. As San Diego native, I remember when that area was bit run down. It was during the real estate boom of the early 2000's that the space was reformulated as the space it is today. Its an upper class art scene. That's why I went there, hopefully that I could find an example of street art that I could clearly distinguish from graffiti. So when I saw the Lorax, I was elated!    

Little Italy San Diego CA, July 2013

The location as I mentioned is in the Little Italy community The building that its located on is one of the older buildings that has not been renovated yet. The building is clearly not inhabited, it and its parking lot are completed fenced off. There is graffiti all around the building, mostly tags, a couple of throwies, and 2 pieces, and this Lorax wheatpaste. According to Waclawek wheatpasting is a practice that really ushered in the Post Graffiti movement. Artist at that time were not so much concerned with their own skillz of rendering.. they were more concerned about the message.

Little Italy San Diego CA, July 2013

Wheatpasting was an easy and quick way to put out messages in the community without being concerned with all the traditions of graffiti. Graffiti was mostly an exclusive language that was meant to be shared and understood by writers not the public. These new types of street artist though were not as concerned with skillz and making a name for themselves as they were with activating political messages or subverting the constructs of the city. In other words, content trumped skill. That's not to say that any artist that used wheatpaste was not skillful. They were all skillful but since the age of digital reproduction had been established, the definition of skillful changed. Also many wheatpasted posters are still hand drawn. However the medium still lends itself more to digital means of appropriation, and that was just a sign of the times. With that in mind we have to consider this Lorax. When looking at this wheatpaste, what are we most struck by? Are we considering the skill of the artist to render the lorax? Probably not. I didn't. My first response is why a the Lorax? For those of you that I too young to know, the Lorax is a famous character from Dr. Suese books.

Little Italy San Diego CA, July 2013

He was this humble little creature that stood up to the capitalist machine that was consuming all the forest. I remember reading this story as a kid. It a had a huge impact on me. Dr. Suess did a great job of showing what our world would like without trees. And the Lorax was the hero that stood up to this "the machine". However this wheatpaste has not merely ripped of the character. Its not that the artist is purely stealing the image, what we have here is an appropriation. That is the artist is taking an existing image and changing it, modifying it to give a different message. Another example of this is Sheppard Fairy's Obey.. where he takes image of Andre the Giant and the Text from They Live and creates something new with it. So how has this artist modified the image of the Lorax? Well to start with the Lorax is holding a knife. That is a substantial modification as the original character would have never held a knife like that or posed the way he's been rendered. The Lorax looks threatening, his pose, the knife.. gives the impression that he's about to jump you. What does those mean? How does this change the character? Basically, it adds a level of menace to the character. Its like mashing the Lorax with a street thug. I think the artist was trying to convey the notion that the Lorax is a threat to the capitalist constructs. Maybe he's saying that he's got the same agenda as the Lorax but is willing to go to more violent measures to achieve it. Its like mixing environmental ideologies with an anarchistic methods.

Another very important part about this wheatpaste that should be considered is that somebody went over it. The "go-over" reads "Hipsters suck". Wow now that's a powerful statement there that juxtaposes and raises the contrast on the worlds of graffiti and street art. Clearly the person who wrote that is tagger. His message was delivered clearly and to the point... he sees the wheatpaste of the Lorax and thinks about the person who put it up as opposed to what its saying. He assumes that the person is a hipster? Why is that? What is the contention between these to street arts. I know that some graffiti writers don't like to be called artist but it still is a form of art. Why is there this divide? Historically, street artist tend to come from different class systems than writers. Its not a race thing at all but it could be a class thing.  

7. Ghosts / Surge (st. art)

Pac-Man Ghost, UCSD Mesa Housing, La Jolla CA, July 2013

Lastly, I wanted to include to other example that I found but that I won't have time to write about. I place both of them in the street art category, although both are done with spray cans. Again, there is no clear line of demarcation between graffiti and street art, instead its a continuum. There are certain clear undeniable differences but where they meet, where they interface is a spectrum of gradual shading. This two works serve as perfect examples.

Surge, downtown San Diego, CA July 2013

 

Surge, downtown San Diego, CA July 2013

Surge, downtown San Diego, CA July 2013

First is this piece by Surge. I found this downtown. Its location is super ephemeral. He spray painted this piece on temporary wood walkway of a building in construction. Once this building is finished, his work will be removed. The work portrays several characters walking around through the walkway. The characters each home some unique characteristic, some weird twist to them. For example the skater peace-sign hand rabbit character has a hand that is waiving the same peace sign. The boy with strait-edge shirt has a dog has missing leg. There's a cool cat guy walking around like he's number one. A girl with shirt that has a face that is looking a back at her, and spray can character with a spray can in his hand. I think this piece reflects a community. It reminds us that we're all different, that we each have our own story, our own defaults, our own graces.. but together we form a community. This piece also successfully turns a liminal space into something for with a message. The message is subjective but the importance is that people we see it, they will be drawn to the place, they will stop and look and hopefully discuss what their interpretation of each character is.

 

 

Pac-Man Ghost, UCSD Mesa Housing, La Jolla CA, July 2013

Another great example of how street art are these ghosts and robots. The ghost have such an interesting expression. The look depressed and sad, like there's no room for them this world anymore. What is the significance of the reference to pac-man? We know that street art can change the narrative of the city. How is this piece doing that? To start with it imbues the story of pac-man into this city. What is the story of pac-man. Prima facie we have pac-man that is trying to consume as much as he can.. without letting the ghost kill him. If we think of this in terms of capitalism, pac-man represents the quintessential consumer that is trying to consume or gain as much as he can. From the perspective the ghost represent anti-capitalist anti-establishment movements or ideologies. So why are the ghost sad? Why are we feeling empathetic for them? I think the artist does a brilliant job of drawing attention to these ideologies and getting us to think about the narrative. What about the robots on the other side?

Pac-Man Ghost, UCSD Mesa Housing, La Jolla CA, July 2013

Those are separate piece and deserve their own analysis. However we can at least see that they are humanized. I can don't think the location is accidental. The location to me seems perfectly placed.. Its a dump yard. Its place were leftovers from our cities consumption a discarded. I think that its a sad place that reminds us of how wasteful we can be in this particular area. These ghost are sadden by that.. i don't know but that's my best guess. I should also mention that work activates a space that would otherwise be overlooked. In doing so we are being forced to give thought to the location and it successfully opens up a new narrative. We want to know why the ghost are sad and why there are where they are.

Robots, UCSD Mesa Housing, La Jolla CA, July 2013

Robots, UCSD Mesa Housing, La Jolla CA, July 2013

Robots, UCSD Mesa Housing, La Jolla CA, July 2013

Robots, UCSD Mesa Housing, La Jolla CA, July 2013

Map

I got to thinking that it would be cool to have a Google map with markers of all the graffiti/street-art that I discovered. I did a little research a found out that Google now has a great tool that lets you do create custom maps! For those of you dying to know, its called Google Maps Engine!

The following map lets you view the actual locations of each of the entries that I posted. The blogger page is too narrow to use the map comfortably, so I recommend using the following link to open the map in a new full size window:

Click to open in new window:
Click here to view my map in new full screen window.

Conclusion

Giant Bread Tag and lots of throwies on wall near Washington St., San Diego CA, July 2013

As I stood in front of this giant wall with Bread's huge tag and all the throwies below.. I was wondering how it was that this spot, which is just a few hundred feet from the Washington St. trolley station, was not being policed more often. I thought about its value for writers, how good of spot it must be since the trolley and train pass by it. I recalled the Wild Styles documentary and what Waclawek wrote about the importance of hitting the trains in New York. Hitting the trains meant that you tag your name went around the city and that many other writers would see it. Since cities such as San Diego intensely patrol the trolley & train yards, you never ever see any graffiti on them. I figured that this was why this wall had so much value, it was clearly visible from the train. If you can't get-up on the train then the next best thing is to put your name somewhere where the people riding the train or trolley can see it. That's exactly what I as thinking right about the same time that this trolley (see pic below) zoomed by, all covered in corporate advertising! I thought it was iron and hypocritical to see that this trolley cart has been tagged, just not by a street artist or writer.

Trolley Going by the Washington St. spot with all the Throwies, San Diego CA July 2013

Just a few minutes later, this train zoomed by! And this one clearly features an artistic design on it. If I hadn't seen upclose, if I wasn't familiar with San Diego's strict laws about graffiti, I would have thought that the train had been hit up. So apperantly, the train and trolley stations don't think that their carts look bad with art on them, if you're willing to pay the right price. This experience made me realize that the struggle between street artist and corporations is always going to be there.

Train Going by the Washington St. spot with all the Throwies, San Diego CA July 2013

 

The history of graffiti and street art is finally being institutionally assimilated. The irony of this is that the very notion of graffiti and street art being is assimilated by art history is a bit of an oxymoron. Clearly there is resistance on both sides of the of the fence. Street artist are just as hesitant about being assimilated as the institutions and academia are hesitant about excepting these practices as legitimate art.

Sorry my conclusion sucks. I know. The gist of it though.. is that loved this class, its opened up an entire new world for me, a beautiful world that I want to be part of! All these years, I had mixed feeling about it, but I never looked any further into all of these arts, not just graffiti but hip hop, break dancing, dj, etc. This class has given me an basic understanding of and appreciation for all of them.