You can't diss without dissent

There was something strangely perfect happening on Saturday when Jordan Seiler of thePublic Ad Campaign organized an event to buff out over 120 illegal NPA operated advertisements in Manhattan and several in Brooklyn. He then extended the project even further by inviting a slew of street artists to keep it under wraps for a week before hitting the freshly buffed walls.

I hit the streets with the minister of Propaganda/Sleepy Time snuggle buddy Clairvoyance. Nick Riggle was rolling deep along with Cahbasm and NohJColey. For the most part everything was smooth sailing until we got rolled on by undercover chinatown cops during our last poster. It was one of those moments when you are all done but something compels you to add one more doodad. Well next time that happens, don't do the doodad because it's just trouble. As far as I'm concerned, it's a don'tdad!

In our scenario, I was using a bike as a stepping stool in order to wheat paste the last ray over the top of the billboards frame when they rolled on us with shiny badges and polished sunglasses. Our punishment: to rip it off piece by piece, which took just as long, if not longer than putting it up in the first place. This salvaged billboard now had small fragments of paper scattered across it like a detonation of color had just gone off. In a way the cop-curated piece had a cool look. It was minimalist, subtractive, and bona fide avante garde ish. I couldn't help but appreciate the hurried element of struggle to it. Along with the fact that I didnt' get a ticket.

pics by order of appearance 1 & 2 Will Sherman of AnimalNY, 3 & 4 by N. Riggle, 5 by overunder, and 6 by cahil muraghu

In Situ Art // Ernest Pignon-Ernest

Looking back through my del.icio.us page I was amazed at what I found and subsequently forgot. I'm resurfacing it now because it's just too good to pass up on. Ernest Pignon-Ernest is not only incredibly good at what he does, he is by far one of the pioneers in the field of street art. Beginning sometime around 1966, his highly detailed wheatpastes could be found throughout the streets of Paris. I hadn't thought about it before but France has a rather deep roster of historical street artist. Moving down the line from my new found friend Ernest came Blek le Rat sometime around 1981 (maybe earlier). Blek's work sparked the Parisian street art scene initiating the Figuration Libre movement. These were basically a group of stencil artists. Of the street artist emerging at the time were Jef Aerosal, Mis Tic, Speedy Graphito, Nemo, and Mesnager. Now some share the same vision and tradition of early stencil artist like the prolific and globe-trotting C215. At the same time, a whole new breed of French street artists are experimenting with materials like Space Invader's use of tiles, JR's use of large scale photocopies, and Zevs use of well, anything. While vising Paris this past October I got a chance to see work by some of the old school dudes like Nemo and Mesnager but I was also impressed by some new faces like Bonom, FKDL, Monsieur Chat, and the graff-master Horfe. So here's to over 40 years of street art in France!

Bon Appétit!
--------------------Update------------------------
Found these images from Ernest Pignon Ernest street works in 1971. They were the oldest pieces I could find although it is said he stencilled a silhouette of a nuclear bomb victim in the south of France in 1966 (Plateau d'Albion, Vaucluse.) If you can find that image please send me a link. Thanks :)

Words of Wisdom from Jia

This is Jia, my new favorite person to see at school. She has some pretty amazing things to say. Especially after a little whiskey or red wine.

"I always need white people next to me so i can do crazy shit."
-Jia

(5 min. later)

"But the secret of cheerleading is you just get really stoned and jump around."

-Jia