street art Archives | Page 2 of 5

Homelessness advocacy graffiti in Toronto

May 10, 2009 / Klint Finley

homeless advocacy graffiti in toronto

The project is called the Unaddressed and it focuses on the under-housed, giving voice to their personal opinions. Over the course of 3 months I met with 18 individuals who are currently or have recently been homeless. Through meeting, talking about their lives and discussing issues that were important to them, they developed their announcements and created a cardboard sign to reveal them. By photographing homeless and formerly homeless individuals holding cardboard signs that announce their concerns, the hope is challenge preconceived notions of homelessness and make the passers-by realize how serious the situation is and that everybody deserves the same basic necessities of life and to be treated the same way. Basically do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Wooster Collective: Catchin’ Up With Dan Bergeron

Adding art to illegal billboards

May 4, 2009 / Klint Finley

street advertising take over

Jordan Seiler’s incrediblely ambitious “New York Street Advertising Takeover” became a reality yesterday, when over 120 illegal billboards throughout the city were white washed by dozens of volunteers.

NYSAT was organized as a reaction to the hundreds of billboards that are not registered with the city, and therefore are illegal. While illegal, these violations are not being prosecuted by the City of New York, allowing the billboard companies to garner huge profits by cluttering our outdoor space with intrusive and ugly ads.

After the illegal spots were white washed, late in the day yesterday over eighty artists transformed these spaces into personal pieces of art.

Here’s some of the initial photos that are coming in.

Wooster Collective: “New York Street Advertising Takeover” Brings Art to Over 120 Illegal Billboards in NYC

Warning: you may be a terrorist

April 6, 2009 / Klint Finley

you may be a terrorist

(via Grinding)

Graffiti low priority in San Francisco, some graffiti legal in Brazil

April 2, 2009 / Klint Finley

Brazil has legalized certain types of graffiti (plus it’s even being taught in schools):

Last week a law was passed in Brazil legalizing graffiti. But this doesn’t mean exactly what you may think. In Brazil, “graffiti” (grafite in Portuguese) refers not so much to the entire hip hop tradition of writing, but more specifically to colorful pieces, characters, abstractions, and other painted street art. In everyday speech, it’s often contrasted against pichação, which is Brazil’s home-grown style of tagging, so named because its first practicioners used tar (piche) stolen from construction sites. The semantic distinction echoes a sentiment I often hear here in the US: “I like the artistic stuff, but not, you know, those ugly scribbles.”

This distinction is part of what’s being put into law. What’s interesting about this law is that it appears to recognize the artistic and cultural value of the graffiti itself, not just the monetary value of the property it’s painted on. How will this play out in practice, I wonder?

Full Story: Public Ad Campaign

Meanwhile, San Francisco has made it a low priority.

(Both links via Tomorrow Museum)