July 2, 2005
more stencil revolution
I recently came across a familiar image on the back of a stop sign in Georgetown.
What caught my attention was the head image, which belongs to a figure I've been seeing spraypainted/stenciled all over town. In fact, I took a picture of it and commented on it back in February, noting its clever reflexivity (it's a stencil of a person holding a spray paint can).
And now it this image, we have another twist. The head is not spray-painted, but rather printed on paper and then plastered to the sign. Even more striking is the fact that the image is artificially made to look pixelated. Thus in this one image (for me, anyway) is evoked its form as a spray-painted stencil/graffito, as a printed-out and plastered hand-bill, AND as a pixelated, digital image.
I'm very curious about this mixed-media campaign but am critical of it (as I have been before) by the fact that its message is mixed as well. A URL to an explanatory website, to accompany the image (in all its forms), would be helpful. I for one am very intrigued by what this artist (or artist collective) is up to. Perhaps I should try Googling.
And there's another form this image takes, one I've seen riding on a Metro train: somewhere between Takoma and Silver Spring metro stations there is this same figure, except he's wearing a bandolera (vest with bullets) and (I think) holdling a submachine gun. The figure has been revolutionized, which makes me wonder whether that's what the mixed-media campaign is leading up to: intriguing the passersby (as it has me), so that one follows the image through the streets (as I have done), and as the image becomes radicalized, so does the consumer of the media. (It also makes the statement that doing graffiti or street art is but the first step in becoming a radical agent for change).
I really need to make a special trip to find that radicalized graffiti-artist stencil. And who knows what other iterations I am yet to find.
Posted by jeb at July 2, 2005 6:27 PM | TrackBack