from the archives, me just rambling after a night of pasting but i think it's going somewhere interesting...in response to the oft-criticized ‘commercial’ aspect of street art and the ‘dishonesty’ of street art in a gallery setting, i think a more provocative response would be to translate works of street art in to object-forms that can then be sold or displayed in galleries for purchase. this would keep the essential ‘honesty’ demanded by critics, while at the same time suggesting how urban elements translate themselves into consumable, personal products.
confused? i think the two examples above seem to be where i’m going with this:
1. the first is the unfortunate first attempt at the orphans taking over an entire building. basically having run out of money, the project never was fully ‘complete’ and the owners got terribly annoyed/angry and asked it be taken down immediately. in doing this, the translation of an architectural shell or cladding element into cubes of ‘reconstituted’ artwork became a provocative installation on the street. turning architecture/urban elements into a potential consumable ‘thing’ seems appropriate in our contemporary understanding and interaction with space[see ‘ghosts’]. although i’m purely confident the next ‘hit’ will work, this one was a bit delirously difficult.
2. the second example is a result of wrapping natural elements[in this case, leaves] around a bollard in shoreditch. the story here was that a PC stopped me halfway through the work and ask i remove the project(although his partner said the colors were quite pretty...). in removing the work i was a bit surprised how well the leaves held the form of the bollard. i can see the potential of a ‘bollard’ bowl of leaves that translates the shape/space of urban elements into an object/sculpture to be displayed/moved elsewhere.
the final statement, then, is how do street artists/urban interventionists establish financial backing w/out resorting to working at starbucks, receiving corporate sponsorship, etc...--i think this is a possible avenue that keeps the integrity of the work and adds successive layers of translating the art from spatial intervention to consumer object/product. if you’re interested in displaying or purchasing, give me a shout...
-september ‘08
eric for AT.AW.
