BURNAWAY » Anti-"Art Ad" Paintover In the Krog Street Tunnel

Anti-"Art Ad" Paintover In the Krog Street Tunnel

Written By Ben Grad on December 10, 2008 in Blog Love, COLUMNS

The Byrdhouse Review and Drive A Faster Car point out some new Krog Street graffiti:

Image links to photographer Tiffany B. Brown's flickr.

The creater of the original piece, Mr. Totem, paints commissioned murals throughout the city. You can see his contact details on the lower right of the Bob Marley portrait.

I’m not sure what I think of the “Art Ad” paintover – I love the gold, the deliberate “drippy” imperfection… and Mr. Totem’s mural’s been there long enough, right?

Of course, in April 2007, this is what that spot looked like:

Image links to FraudWasteAbuse's 2007 photo tour of the Krog Street Tunnel.

I guess we’re heading in that direction again, right?

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Category: Blog Love, COLUMNS |

http://www.beepbeepgallery.com Jimmy James

Hilarious!
the spirit of noahone

sumthin’ tells me that even totem would not have a problem with finding his Marley image covered. pieces get covered all the time,it’s part of the course of it-as ben alluded to in saying it had been there long enough……there’s respect involved,even in the act of covering. in this case one second would have been enough lifetime to many graf artists. i wouldnt be surprised to hear totem had done the cover,only- the job was done kinda crude-like.
in this case, it is more of a defacing,since it doesn’t eradicate the image. it retains the existing piece & makes a point about it being not real,or however you want to put it.
the problem is, the way this cover-up was done is kinda weak. it has a good general idea,but the execution wasn’t very clever. maybe done deliberately kinda crappy?..but that’s a stretch. in reality-It was probably just someone’s funny idea to go and do- so they went and just did it up real quick.
i guess the question it brings to mind is what is real and what is another crap advert. heck,in this day of subversion subverting the subverter (detourning detourns in a never ending cycle that blurs the star bellies and non star bellies- before the sneeches even have a chance to define differences)-one could argue that what has been done to it IS the crap advert. (it awarded it a write-up on this ever so amazing blog,didnt it?)
without its defacing,it is def. nothing to certain blokes. even perhaps hypocritical or worse,not even relevant to an idea of graffiti,or as any other art.
marley’s image has long since been appropriated by mainstream culture,so woop teee do on doing that in the first place. defacing it gives it a prayer of being real,if it’s gonna exist.(or does it? because the intent behind defacing has been appropriated ,too! aaagh!)

i think the defacing point will perfectly reach the choir and totally miss the same deaf mentalities. (which, by the way, is most of you.)if you liked marley as he was …yr damned and if you like marley defaced ..yr still damned!
it almost seems as though the dollar sign has finally officially won! it’s revealed itself in the pattern that cant be broken
why the f*** would a graff dude be doin this crap in the first place??? im pretty sure theres an ethic amongst graff folks..and this obviously falls outside it from the getgo.cha-ching. society embraces it now..it pays.
the rest of the expectations of the community (as far as what art is and caring) follows essentially the same pattern. and really even the choir itself seems deaf..they make these gestures to who?themselves!
acts like this are intended to be reactionary, relevant to the times, and wanting to push,to jar peoples traditional understandings. to reach outside of themselves and schmack a perspective on those that need it. if any place has a chance to take chances ,freaking graffiti has the white card…so whats up with this weak crap? it shouldnt be fighting with itself as a display of a point….duh.
DOES this act say anything? is there any choice anymore?
maybe a piece designed with this in mind from the getgo..done all in one take, and done with a perfect ugliness, would do it.
Ben Grad

It’s funny, I think of the Mr. Totem piece as only moderately commercialized art – at least Mr. Totem’s just advertising his own work, unlike those notices at the top of the bridge which get changed every few weeks.
the spirit of noahone

It’s funny. I only moderately aborted a pregnancy the other day.
sheesh.
what more do you need ?
can i only sort of put my finger in your nose while we are at it?
c’mon..it would just be the fingertip.
maybe he should do an image of minnie pearl ,only have his name & number on her hat’s price tag. and have the price tag floating into the freground,taking up atleast 1/3 of the image area.(actually, for the south,thats not a bad idea.)
http://www.beepbeepgallery.com Jimmy James

I guarantee Totem has a HUGE problem with this and will cover it up whenever he sees fit. He’s not the type to take things lightly.

Anti-"Art Ad" Paintover In the Krog Street Tunnel

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