Urban Greenery = Graffiti!
Comments (0) The GreenFly hangs out on many walls so we speak with authority when we say that graffiti is as green as it gets! Now we’re not talking about ego-driven, it’s-all-bout-me, BS no-talent tagging (see bottom of this post). No we’re talking CMYK-righteous, double-fisted, spray-can-wielding street art, like this image from United Graffiti Artists, vintage 1973:
United Graffiti Artists in 1973. From left, first row: COCO 144 and Hugo Martinez; second row: Rican 619, LEE 163, and Nova 1; third row: Rick 2, Ray-B 954, Cano 1, SJK 171, Snake 1, and Stay-High 149; fourth row (standing): Stitch I, Phase 2, Charmin 65, Bug 170. Photo at right, a LEE mural from 1982. (Photo: Courtesy of Martinez Gallery)
And who but some anal-retentive nutter is going to complain about this creative revitalization of decrepit space, derelict buildings, and crumbling subways: oh somebody for sure. But The GreenFly delights in such civil service masquerading as disobedience – the very fact that a drab and totally utilitarian space suddenly assaults your senses with colors and shapes rioting together forces our attention on our surroundings! drawn into those surroundings, give us something visually stimulating and also forces us to think!
Another GreenFly graffiti fave is Edina Tokodi whose work is essentially guerilla-gardening graffiti – an inspired mix! Her moss installations of animal figures and camouflage outgrowths are totally cool. Abigal Doan of “Inhabitat” writes: “The work of Tokodi is meant to be touched, felt, and in turn touch you in the playful ways that her animated installations call to mind a more familiar, environmentally friendly state in the barren patches of urban existence.” Just what the numbed urban soul needs: a green, fuzzy bunny to tickle on their way to the subterranean subway dankness.
The Fly’s current favorite environmental activist, okay, lawbreaker, though is Peter Gibson, a.k.a “Roadsworth”, who kicks it up a notch! A frustrated cyclist, Gibson began painting fake extra bicycle lanes onto Montreal roads back in 2001. He enjoyed this combo activism-street art so much that he decided to expand on his talent. We dig his whimsy and philosophy; to whit, the following quote, taken from Peter’s inspiring artist statement, is the best read we’ve had in a while. Go read the whole thing. It would take you more time to make a Hot Pocket and this won’t make you want to kill yourself later.
“For a long time I had been grumbling about the ill effects of a society dependant on oil and bent on over-consumption in general and our seeming unwillingness and/or inability to confront these issues despite our better intentions. The more the litany of complaints grew over an overstrained health-care system, obese children, bronchial disease, traffic congestion, pollution, global warming, war etc and the human misery these cause, the bigger and more fuel guzzling cars there were, the longer the lines of traffic grew and the hotter and smoggier the summer seemed to get. At best this apparent disconnect between our behavior and its consequences was symptomatic of a society grown complacent and unable to overcome its own inertia. ..
The ability that street art gave me to respond, to express these perceptions in some way not only gave me a sense of empowerment but also helped relieve a certain amount of frustration that I attribute as much to personal factors as I do to societal ones. But there were other aspects that motivated me. There was the creative, artistic pleasure I derived from it. A desire to inject a sense of playfulness into my own life and surroundings. ..
To express oneself outside of the ‘accepted’ context however is to risk a certain amount of criticism. After all, who am I to impose my opinions on others? I don‘t pretend to have answers for anything and the complexity of the world is beyond the scope of my understanding but I still believe that I have the right to ask ‘Who are you to push hamburgers on me?’ or ‘Who are you to pollute my air?’ or ‘Who are you to tell me to go to war?’ Despite my cynicism, I feel … that an industrial-age mentality is no longer adequate to the challenges that humanity is faced with. Though maybe not purely altruistic, there is an awareness that the interest of others could also be in ones own interest. Big words for a vandal.”
Note To Roadsworth: Hey impose your opinion all you want if you do it with art that presents a new perspective all by itself!
Then there’s Kurt Wenner and Julian Beever, two extremely popular street artists who, like Peter, also manage to surprise mass of amounts of people with their public displays of perspective.
Wenner is famous for inventing three dimensional street art, the transformation of average sidewalks into huge realistic 3-D scenes through the use of pastels. One of his most famous chalk drawings is Gears of War. Here’s Wenner’s “opinion”:
“Street painting festivals seem to fill a great need for the artists and the public. The artists are able to set aside their fears and self-doubt and share the process of creating a work with the public. The public is delighted to see the process and have it accessible.”
Wenner’s amazing work inspired many other street artists, including Julian Beever, a.k.a “The Pavement Picasso.” This video of how he created his famous Crevasse painting underscores one of The GreenFly’s pet peeves: that things aren’t always what they look like!
So in this spirit of turning visual assumptions on their ass, The GreenFly presents, last but not least, the greenest of the green graffiti art: Reverse Graffiti. Started by Paul Curtis, a.k.a “Moose”, reverse graffiti is created by cleaning select areas of dirt and general gross-ness off of a surface to form the art piece. Moose teamed up with GreenWorks in 2008 to create a documentary where he scraped and scrubbed his way to a new and improved mural of San Fransisco on the walls of San Fransisco’s Broadway Tunnel.
And what kind of role models would be if we didn’t encourage you to go out and paint your own town green?
Streetart is a collaborative weblog for photos of DIY posters, guerilla stickers, home-made stencils and more. The GreenFly wants you to let your subversive, green flag fly with this great tool and then send it our way at info@greenflyshop.com.
Themocracy