Poker Face

I traded in my bomb of a car last week.  This has no relevance to street art at all but it does bear witness that I am able to pull a poker face.  I think this has relevance to street art.

I thought I was onto something when I first started formulating this post. I had 'nailed it', this barely tangible idea about the inability to place something in the street, or indeed even photograph something in the street, without knowledge of a vast and very instantaneous audience.  Like kids discovering their self-consciousness there is something deeply inhibiting, and therefore anti-creative, about that.  As soon as you want to please that mass, you are trying to please the institution and that is the very thing street art is positioned against.

Back to the poker face.  I did some reading and it turns out photography has always been there, being shaped by and shaping street art.  I think the resounding difference between the photography of street art of yesteryear and the snaps of today is the speed of delivery and the breadth of audience.

With this breadth and speed of delivery how do the greats still manage to stand out?  How do we universally hail to the legend of Ears, Reka, Vexta, Rone or Ghost Patrol?  How do we universally, applaud emerging greats such as Precious Little, Kaff-Eine, Ruskidd or Nufevah?

I now have a better idea about how these greats stand out in an environment where thousands compete for recognition.  Their talent is indisputable, but that is not unique as many non 'greats' have equal measures.  But they also have a poker face.  They have an indefinable ability to hold their own against a waive of media assaults.  To grasp twitter, tumblr, flickr, facebook and to shake them until the ripe fruit falls from the trees.  With a poker face, they get to do their work without bowing to the self consciousness of the social forum.  Without allowing it to influence their intent, and thereby, allowing them to have a greater impact on the street.

Some unrelated images from my jaunts this week...

Sexing the Paste

Black Mark's Women of Paste stirred Facebook debate about gender, identity and assumption.  I was willing my 'smart' phone to load the bloody notifications faster. For those who haven't followed the Fb thread, the comments on his post are equally compelling.  I can't fully articulate a position on the 'gendering' of street art because my position shifts daily and I would probably disagree with myself tomorrow.  I can't speak with authority about the history of women in street art either, but recommend Googling it and reading Street Girls: The rise of Female Street Art in Cat Fight Magazine.

In Fitzroy in my experience that admittedly commences in the 00's street artists have invariably bombed in waves.  Their methodology for the most part tends to be a combination of tagging, pasting, throw ups and pieces.  Capping and slicing is generally par for the course and as people know, right now, this a bit of a contentious issue. Gender calls are hard to make without making assumptions, and assumptions are impossible to uphold given that they rely on typecasting.

I am guilty of making assumptions about class, and maintain that those more financially endowed will have the capacity to produce pieces that those without will not.  However I don't believe money, gender or ethnography solely determine motivation, influence opportunity or affect the impression an artist makes. As Snyder observed when he visited us recently, Australia has developed its own culture outside of the American context, for example.

So getting back to Black Mark's question, why are women attracted to paste ups, I can't answer without getting an uncomfortable tightness in my throat, and without saying that (1) you cannot assume the gender of the artists to which he has referred, (2) you cannot assume that it is all that they do and (3) his selection is not a current depiction of who is doing what.

I mean no disrespect to Black Mark, for whom I have very high regard and with an uncomfortable eagerness I offer the following compilation of 'male identified' street artists who paste, un-gendered street artists who paste and chicks who do more than paste...

 Barek, above - whilst alas he resides so far away, his creatures have brightened Fitzroy when opportunity has arisen.  Below, whilst not currently proliferating, Flake with his offsider Durban Poison have pasted awesome large scale images

S-701-a and Ruskidd continue to do amazing things for us using amongst other mediums, the trusty paste up

Vandal Spruce once famously covered this building below in skulls.  He is joined by a few newer artists, such as Noican.  Gender not identified.

Above Precious Little, a Snyder

 Above, one of my all time favs Nufevah, below him Burg, gender not assumed

Below, a chick with an aerosol erection, and a hot tag

And below, perhaps the paste up artist of all street artists, Rone

(R)evolution

What a week in street.  I must start this post with a shout back at the good Snyder, who has seen us through rose colored frames at a time we have needed it the most.  An awesome post.  Everything on me is crossed for a solo show over here.  Okay enough pissing in that pocket.  

I give a nod to those who contacted me following my last post and reminded me of the importance of evolution.   I have paused on this idea all week and come to this conclusion: that response is part of the evolution.  Action:Reaction.  Think "Fuck off Toy", "Not Your Wall", "Art Fag", "You Sold Our Lifestyle Out" and "Only Tools don't leave Tags".

The pics I have chosen for this post are from the 'white wall' .  It began with an Urban Cake Lady.   Then followed I and the Others.   Next came Kaff-eine, Ishi One, Shida, Klara, Ruskidd, Precious, s701A, Frankie and Sikel Fried.  This was followed with a spectacular tag and 2 Baby Grrls.  More recently it has seen the arrival of Bubbles, Burg and Yoka Boka and at around the same time a heavy critique by capping.  It's like the wall expanded beyond its capacity and popped.  Evolution, (r)evolution.

  
   
       

                           

                                             

The Wall (s)

The Urban Cake Lady that for months was its only mark has all but disappeared.  Then along came Ruskidd, I and the Others, Kaff-eine, Klara, s-701A, Precious Little and Ishi-One.  SF and BabryGrrl are the latest.  I love this wall! p.s. is that a Jilt tag on the paste up on the window or a Jilt paste-up?