Is there really no thread for Exit Through The Gift Shop?

[navkat]

I've liked the work of Banksy for a long time...even before I really knew, who he was. I'd seen pictures of street installations, posted to the webbernet by intrigued citizens, lucky enough to have a camera before it was removed from view. I didn't really know banksy until the post-Katrina/Grey Ghost installation in my beloved New Orleans.

Hurricane Katrina (29 Aug 2005) devastated New Orleans on levels deeper than just a bunch of physical destruction--it vandalized the bohemian heart of the city. The free-form, chaotic circus of artists, musicians, performers and characters who fit into the "none of these" category (like Mr Okra in the Marigny--these people, these quirky things make up a whole--a novel, if you will--and the pages that depicted the most colorful segments of of the New Orleans storybook were torn from their binding and scattered across the country. Some of the most lovely pages were lost forever and there will always be holes...puzzle-pieces missing from the picture. Parish and local government were "every man for himself" and the pitch-black nights were terrifying--even more so than the harsh reveal of the broad-daylight discoveries of decaying bodies (this went on for months) and the Hi-def scrutiny of National Guardsmen tromping through the Faubourgs. Just to give you an idea: New Orleans East didn't get power back for four years. It was the Wild, wild west...and that about scratches the surface of what people meant when they said the situation was one devoid of hope.

In the midst of this--this looted and denuded rubble where once stood a pillar of coloring-book paper-mâché adorned by a concoction of Spanish/French costume jewelry-- in the midst of the downed cell towers, the missing loved ones, the disappearances of people, property...infrastructure, arose the artists. Like a horde of watercolor zombies, stickers, stencils, paints and chalk in hand, they set about to color in the holes...to replace missing pieces with a patchwork of sometimes angry, sometimes uplifting, always OMGASMic images and messages.

They appeared en masse almost overnight: an army of Little Big World-esque "sackboys," they stickered, tagged and painted the ugly bits with messages like "Don't lose hope!" and cartoons lampooning the politicians who were poorly handling the post-Katrina rehabilitation. Even Rodrigue got in the action.

Nola Rising was created and New Orleans did what New Orleans does: she picked herself up, brushed the blood and broken glass off herself, gathered them up and made a lovely tiara out of the mess. This is why I love that city; if you leave her alone long enough, she'll paint the room with glitter and peanut butter.

Enter Fred Radtke.

Known as the "Gray Ghost," Mr. Radtke is a retired Marine-cum-renegade "crime-fighter" with definite opinions about what the police should be doing for the city, how its citizens should be behaving and what does and does not constitute art. Basically, Radtke is a citizen of New Orleans who still doesn't "get" what the city is about.

Armed with a bucket of gray paint, Radtke took to painting gray squares over the city's "graffiti." That is to say: Radtke painted over anything he did not like. Stickers, tags, paintings, messages of frustration and cries for help. Fueled by objections from the more "art oriented" young citizenry, Radtke created his own little non-profit getup: Operation Clean Sweep, and petitioned for public funding based on his insistence that his operation was doing what NOLA lacked the resources to accomplish. Art went up, Radtke painted it over it. More art went up on the gray squares as if to flip Radtke the bird. Even on private property, Radtke would paint over commissioned pieces (including the very famous "Bywater Monster,") without the owner's permission. Once Radtke had been given the nod by the Parish, he behaved as though he was above the law. He got himself a van and began appearing guerrilla-style in broad daylight, carrying a bat or a firearm for "self defense." Against the objections of shop owners (who would run outside, believing it to be a mistake), he'd pull out his bat or gun and continue his "work," then jump in his van and jet.

This went on for three years.

On the third anniversary of Katrina, Banksy showed up to duel with "the Ghost" and to gift the ailing city with something beautiful. The results are stunning. First, with quirky plays on the devastation left by the storm: A boy's umbrella flying away on the side of the sea-wall, National Guardsman looting a building, climbing out of a window carrying a television, a refrigerator flying away on a kite-string (cars and refrigerators were found in trees and odd places for months after), Banksy's work was whimsical and uplifting. Radtke, of course, started immediately.

Finally, Banksy began openly mocking the "ghost." Depicted in his later works as a faceless house-painter with a roller, Banksy found large swaths of Radtke's "leavings" and marked them up with scenes of Jazz Funerals and even the "gray ghost" himself, painting gray squares over flowers:


This went on for a few months and then just like that, Banksy disappeared. But taggers all over New Orleans were validated and inspired anew. The war continued, just as it always has and just as it always will: through the nameless, anonymous body of the Collective Chaotic.

Whew! This started as an invitation to a discussion about Banksy and street art, and ended as a sonata about why I love him so much.

Maybe it'll touch someone, maybe not. Grateful for the outlet, though.

[Luna]

Thanks, I didn't know about this.  Awesome.

[Cramulus]

Great post, Navkat. I'm a huge advocate of guerrilla street art, especially that which is uplifting.

And I just wrote an article about my own battle with the ghost.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

"Tagging" isn't art.

We have a similar problem here, where trustafarian assholes from the U of A "tag" over murals.  Why a squiggly line is considered "art" is beyond me, especially when real art is defaced by it.

[navkat]

Great post, Navkat. I'm a huge advocate of guerrilla street art, especially that which is uplifting.

#3 on that link is just

[Suu]

Street art is how Shepard Fairey got his start.

People in the US know him for this:



People in Providence know him for this:



And now, this:

[Cramulus]

[Adios]

# Clean up costs
Although the cost of graffiti vandalism in the U.S. has yet to be definitively documented, for many communities, private property owners, and public agencies the cost is rising each year.
# Figures from a variety of cities across the U.S. suggest that graffiti cleanup alone costs taxpayers about $1-3 per person each year. For smaller communities the amount dedicated to graffiti cleanup annually may be less than $1 per person.
# A 2006 survey of the 88 cities, Caltrans and Metro in Los Angeles County on graffiti removal found the cost was about $28 million. With a population of close to 10 million, the per capita cost is about $2.80.5 With a population of just under one million, the City of San Jose, CA spent approximately $2 million in 2006 fighting graffiti.6
#

    * For communities with smaller populations, per capita costs are typically under $1.00. Pittsburgh, PA (population just over 300,000) spends around $350,000 annually for graffiti clean up.7 Omaha, NE spends about $100,000 a year on graffiti removal (population just over 400,000).8 In 2006, the Tennessee Department of Transportation spent more than $240,000 on removing graffiti along its roads and bridges.9
    * Denver, CO and Milwaukee, WI, with similar populations-just over 550,000-each spend about $1 million annually.10 This is a per capita cost of about $1.80. In Houston, TX (population just over 2 million), the city earmarked $2.2 million for cleanup of existing graffiti in 2006.11
    * Chicago, IL budgeted $6.5 million in 2006 for graffiti removal and Graffiti Blasters, the city's removal program (population a little over 2.8 million).12 This is a per capita cost of around $2.30. Las Vegas, NV with a population of about 1.7 million spends more than $3 million each year cleaning up graffiti.
http://www.graffitihurts.org/getfacts/cost.jsp

[Suu]

I'd like to think that street art and graffiti are different, but I know not everyone sees it that way.

[navkat]

I personally resent the idea that all the space around me can be sold by "private property owners" as advert space until I'm forced to absorb the message.

Art or no art aside (and I tend to agree with suu on this), there's a certain sort of satisfaction I get from the knowledge that there will always be someone with a spray can and a pop-art-esque stencil of a shoe to throw into the cogs.

[Adios]

I personally resent the idea that all the space around me can be sold by "private property owners" as advert space until I'm forced to absorb the message.

Art or no art aside (and I tend to agree with suu on this), there's a certain sort of satisfaction I get from the knowledge that there will always be someone with a spray can and a pop-art-esque stencil of a shoe to throw into the cogs.

Under the city's Graffiti Nuisance Ordinance, if private businesses or homes get tagged and owners don't act promptly, SPU sends a letter asking them to remove it within 10 days. Ignore the notice, and property owners could face fines of $100 per day with a maximum of $5,000.

SPU sent 1,392 first-time warnings to property owners last year. About 75 percent complied, Jones said. After a second warning, nearly all got rid of the graffiti, she said.

Joe Grossruck was one of the few who protested.

He owns a building on Roosevelt Way Northeast, which he used to lease to Enterprise Rent-A-Car. But the business closed two years ago and the site has sat vacant since then because the "economy stinks," he said. In the meantime, it's been hit again and again.

Grossruck said he got sick of dealing with it and let the graffiti sit. He racked up $3,900 in city fines, but it didn't faze him.

"I didn't pay them a nickel," Grossruck said.

The city even agreed to reduce the penalty to $500, if he got rid of the graffiti. He did — but still refused to cough up the cash.

"Why should I be the one who pays?" he said. "Anybody who gets hits by these guys is a victim. In two years, [the graffiti] has never quit. I used to paint it up nice, and then they hit again. The poor old property owners don't get a break."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011702691_graffiti26m.html

[navkat]

Sounds like your every-day, run-of-the-mill stupidity and greed in government.

What if some punk paints shit on my house and I LIKE it? What then, huh? When do they start giving out tickets because they don't like my house color?

This example isn't a great one to prove your point. I know what you're trying to say: that it's costly to others and in some cases, creates victims. That's a good point. It's certainly something to consider before you start busting out the krylon.

The Seattle legislation is just stupidity that's dangerously close to tangling with the First.

[Adios]

Sounds like your every-day, run-of-the-mill stupidity and greed in government.

What if some punk paints shit on my house and I LIKE it? What then, huh? When do they start giving out tickets because they don't like my house color?

This example isn't a great one to prove your point. I know what you're trying to say: that it's costly to others and in some cases, creates victims. That's a good point. It's certainly something to consider before you start busting out the krylon.

The Seattle legislation is just stupidity that's dangerously close to tangling with the First.

No, it isn't even close to violating the 1st. It is causing others to be forced to pay for it's removal from private and public property. Taggers still have the right to say what they want, but they do not have a right to cause costs to taxpayers or private property owners.

Your freedom of expression does not include spray painting my house, and I have a Mossberg 500 12 gauge to prove it.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Sounds like your every-day, run-of-the-mill stupidity and greed in government.

What if some punk paints shit on my house and I LIKE it? What then, huh? When do they start giving out tickets because they don't like my house color?

This example isn't a great one to prove your point. I know what you're trying to say: that it's costly to others and in some cases, creates victims. That's a good point. It's certainly something to consider before you start busting out the krylon.

The Seattle legislation is just stupidity that's dangerously close to tangling with the First.

No, it isn't even close to violating the 1st. It is causing others to be forced to pay for it's removal from private and public property. Taggers still have the right to say what they want, but they do not have a right to cause costs to taxpayers or private property owners.

Your freedom of expression does not include spray painting my house, and I have a Mossberg 500 12 gauge to prove it.

Well if I spray paint art on my own house... or like the art someone sprayed on my building... then the city requiring you to clean it up could be seen as a first amendment issue.

Either way, I approve of graffiti, if it is appreciated as art or if it pisses people off.

[Adios]

Sounds like your every-day, run-of-the-mill stupidity and greed in government.

What if some punk paints shit on my house and I LIKE it? What then, huh? When do they start giving out tickets because they don't like my house color?

This example isn't a great one to prove your point. I know what you're trying to say: that it's costly to others and in some cases, creates victims. That's a good point. It's certainly something to consider before you start busting out the krylon.

The Seattle legislation is just stupidity that's dangerously close to tangling with the First.

No, it isn't even close to violating the 1st. It is causing others to be forced to pay for it's removal from private and public property. Taggers still have the right to say what they want, but they do not have a right to cause costs to taxpayers or private property owners.

Your freedom of expression does not include spray painting my house, and I have a Mossberg 500 12 gauge to prove it.

Well if I spray paint art on my own house... or like the art someone sprayed on my building... then the city requiring you to clean it up could be seen as a first amendment issue.

Either way, I approve of graffiti, if it is appreciated as art or if it pisses people off.

IF my aunt had balls she would be my uncle.