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Posts Tagged ‘Authorities’

Appeals to Authorities: 16 Shots of a Year-Long Graffiti Sequence

11 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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What started with a single stenciled word (“RED”) became a year-long interactive art experiment, as graffiti artist Mobstr tested the patience, limits, diligence and ingenuity of officials tasked with cleaning up his work. This was not his first work aimed at the establishment, but it may be his most epic visual dialogue with authorities to date.

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“I cycled past this wall on the way to work for years. I noticed that graffiti painted within the red area was buffed with red paint. However, graffiti outside of the red area would be removed via pressure washing.”

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“This prompted the start of an experiment. Unlike other works, I was very uncertain as to what results it would yield. Below is what transpired over the course of a year.”

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Over the year, as the sequence shows, the artist continually tried to think outside the (red) box, and challenge his adversaries in fresh ways. In a way, the end result was predictable but could also be interpreted as a subtle nod to the original message.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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Paint Me White Again: Tunnel Type Graffiti Taunts Authorities

28 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

paint me white again

Well known for stenciling big block-lettered phrases on walls around his native Newscastle, this piece is unusually blunt (as well as hilarious), amounting to a multi-part conversation between the artist and the city.

street art blank wall

street art painted over

Even better than the original ‘COME ON AND PAINT ME WHITE AGAIN’ dare is the later response after the municipality indeed whitewashed the first work: ‘BOOORING’, using his same signature typography in black paint.

joke around the corner

mobster street art checklist

mobstr newcastle reblog this

While not all of his work is quite so meta-minded as this series, this sequence remains a great illustration of how graffiti is generally temporary as well as contextual, and can have elements of humor and self-reflection beyond simple tagging. Some of his works are best seen in video form rather than via photographs, hence a few fun short films below.

A self-described minimalist, Mobstr explains the origins of his nom de plume, which are none too surprising: “It is a play on the term mobster which is someone who deals in organised crime. Most of my work is illegal however a lot of organisation goes into it. So as a joke I use the idea of it being organised (art) crime.” Also, he had a lobster named mobster.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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