Reverse Graffiti
by Adrian Hanft, (6 comments)
I heard a story on NPR today about Paul Curtis who goes by the name "Moose." He is a Brittish street artist who makes his graffiti (if you can call it that) by cleaning his images out of the dirt and grime of the walls, streets, tile, and anything dirty. You can see some of the stunning work he has done at symbolix.com
There are two really interesting angles to this story. First, he has gotten in trouble with the police for vandalizing property. The thing is, his graffiti usually only lasts a couple of days. The only marks he makes leave the surface cleaner than before he was there. Can you convict a person for cleaning a public place? Better yet, would you convict a child for writing their name in the steamed up windows on a public bus?
The second interesting angle is that Moose has been using his graffiti as advertisements for high profile companies like Big Brother and X-box. The Big Brother work is especially cool. It is just a huge logo of an eye looking out from walls, windows, pillars, and roads. It says Big Brother perfectly.
Moose's work is fascinating becuase it adds a new dimension to the art vs. vandalism issue that makes graffiti so controversial and intriguing. When you add corporate sposorship and subtract the damage to property, this takes graffiti to a new level. I love this concept, and I wish I would have thought of it first.
Comments (6)
Bennett said:
Fascinating work. It does raise some ethical questions. I like it as art rather than advertising. If your corporate logo looks like it has been painted in graffiti, that can’t help your image. I’m sure most people have no idea that what they are seeing as they drive past at 60mph. I looks like white paint if you don’t know what you are looking at. I think it makes a bigger statement as art. It is interesting that he “sold out” to advertisers, rather than waiting until someone stole his idea and then pitched it to a corporation. I don’t know wether to be impressed or disgusted. One other thought. If he is cleaning years of grime away, I don’t see how it would go away after several days. It seems like it would take months or even years to build up that kind of grime. Maybe after a week he should go back and clean the entire surface. Then he would be doing something very beneficial.
Posted on July 16, 2004
A. Eugene H. said:
Wonderful story and fascinaitng comments! I love the subtle links below what you wrote to various Graffiti Remover products. Very Good! Maybe in an intuitive way it will encouraging other artists to give it a try.
Posted on July 17, 2004
Adrian said:
We can thank google for the links to graffiti remover. The links are ads that are generated by google based on key words it finds on the page.
Posted on July 17, 2004
Adrian said:
I think as art is pretty good, but as advertising I thing it is extrememly good. Traditional advertising in magazines/television/radio is increasingly ineffective. That is especially true for the demographic that X-box or Big Brother is targeting. Generation X (and D and O or whatever they are calling us now-a-days) is immune to traditional marketing. Big corporations are realizing that if they are going to continue to be successful they are goint to have to find new ways to appeal to their customers. Having your logo printed in graffiti, I would argue, can help your image if it is done right. The graffiti ads that had web addresses in them I didn’t think were as effective, because it started to look like an ad. If it looks like an ad, it isn’t going to work.
Posted on July 17, 2004
Kyle said:
I heard this same report on NPR. I was impressed that Moose was able to do something significant with insignificant means. Washing my house exterior has never produced such artistic results. Although the link (http://www.symbollix.com/main.html) didn’t work for me, the NPR one did. What an inventive idea!
Posted on July 23, 2004
Adrian said:
Symbollix went offline today. I wonder what’s up. Maybe there was a crackdown on graffiti!
Posted on July 23, 2004