Williamsburg Graffiti War Escalates, Dada Invoked

1.

How about just throw the paint on the ADS, and leave the murals? These kids are good at talking shit on paper, but let somebody catch them scratching one of their pieces like that and they'll be outta commission. Don't let your manifesto write checks your ass can't cash, etc..... PS: "shards of glass" in the wheatpaste= blow me, liar.

2.

Yeah,,,and look where Banksy is now..

3.

That's actually a brilliant little manifesto. I concur!

4.

oh. theres waldo.

5.

Can't wait to hear about the slap fight that ensues...

6.

they write that tripe and then have the nerve to call street art bourgeois? nice try, asshats.

ps. jealous that swoon is in moma and you're not much?

7.

Wheatpaste mixed with glass? Is that true or is it just a joke? Would that even hurt anybody? Forgive my ignorance but honestly, I don't get it...

8.

great, rich white kids with art school degees now fighting for street cred

9.

they did the same thing on the LES, on rivington street.
here's my picture of it. www.brecords.blogspot.com

10.

I meant this link, sorry.

http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5360/599/1600/667471/rivington2.jpg

11.

Too bad art can't create itself. Then it wouldn't be so damn annoying.

12.

Art Writing: The excrement of a failed education system.

Seriously- read the poster. Its a mass of SAT vocab words strewn together in such a way as to have absolutely no meaning.

That takes skill and effort- the tiniest of mistakes, and your reader might actually find meaning in your words.

13.

Shep Fairy...WACKNESS

worse than art school graffiti he pimps out his stickers, posters and stencils for bored hipsters to do the work for him...

POSER GRAFF fer shure!!

14.

Maybe New York Magazine will do a cover story on them and tell us all they are genius and a bunch of dumb rich people will deconstruct the building and put them in their lofts for a million dollars. Everyone is dumb.

15.

growning up in brooklyn, graffitti was our right of passage, I wrote from age 13 to about eighteen, anyone getting up over the age of adolescence is truly pathetic, wannabe posers. go to kid robot, buy some dolls and keep collecting sneakers, everything we did when we were kids...yawn

16.

"Wheatpaste mixed with glass? Is that true or is it just a joke? Would that even hurt anybody? Forgive my ignorance but honestly, I don't get it..."

Yeah they're serious (guffaw) I saw em at Spring Street, they had chunks of broken 40's in them... so mo they couldn't hurt anyone.

I'm guessing its some angry old hippie who thinks this isnt as good as they did it back in the 60's...

17.

i personally admire the boldness of this performance art work.

let me suggest that next time the headline should read, "catchy and radical!"

however?

“Representation is the most elemental form of alienation. Art as representation is no exception. It is just another means by which our perceptions and desires are mediated. .. we are all capable of manifesting our desires directly, free of representation and commodification.”

huh?

are we to believe that this performance art work is a commodity any less than is a piece of paper?

have these people ever heard of theater?

an attack on a form replaced by another form IS the history of the avant garde not its alternative.

while i'd buy this work for it's boldness i hesitate because i feel their arguement is full of holes.

not a sell-out?

let's put it this way, i'm guessing that if someone asks these artists to do your performative dada-esque interventions for money they'll say no. if that is the case, great. but the fact that they are in a position to make the choice proves that they are already integrated in the same "mediated" market as are their enemies.

18.

this is not an isolated incident.

check out what i found:

flickr.com/photos/visualresistance/309309081/

flickr.com/photos/visualresistance/309309084/in/photostream/

flickr.com/photos/niznoz/303007011/

nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/12/80898.shtml

19.

Just another street artist

20.

counterrevlutionary
http://flickr.com/photos/visualresistance/367748848/in/photostream/

21.

Graffiti, lead by the icons we grew up with...Must die.
If it isn't too repetitive with the same person repeating the same letter piece or character over and over again, its lead by a group of small minded, young capitalists with no morals. Open your eyes and you'll see that graffiti has reached it's last breath...I know that, because not long ago, I saw an add for a watch with Obey on it...it comes with a sticker and a guitar pick.hahahahaha
It's the end for sure. Toys and mass produced things all made in china made by some one payed ~$2 a day. IT's over.
This protest of sorts...the one that is listed here is the most
inspiring thing I've seen since I entered the scene in 89.
Some one is doing what had to happen 10 years ago!!!
Screw your graffiti...there are other much. much more important things to take
care of in the United Snakes of America. Let's start with....the internal combustion engine and move quickly to curving the mass consumption of tv and shit you don't need, get that bucket of coffee out of your hand and let's end with that dumb ass president that leads you to your predestined and final step in the collapse of your empire. Graffiti pales in comparison to the mounting problems of country.
Small and fragile is graffiti...no guts or true message. Just middle aged guys and kids needing something to believe in....running around at night trying to feel something. So sad.

22.

make love not art?

23.

This too shall pass. They will get bored and move on. What's the big deal? The whole block is probably recovered by now. A healthy buff keeps people from getting lazy. Who wants to look at peices they did 5 years ago anyway?

24.

the nature of joyful destruction is the essence of graffiti... i find that the obsession with intellectual excrement is what is basically stated here... the fact is that this 'war' is due to an intellectual superiority complex... and its not going to go anywhere... mind you these dadaists need to realize that what they are doing has been done in europe by someone else (eg splashing paint on posh jewelry stores)

mejuan you are misunderstanding what graffiti is... and your attributing some type of label to it... there are really no boundaries outside of what your conceptual interpretation of it is.

for example, as the dadist goes on about this piece of paper that is coveted... what the street artist does is completely shit on that material validity by putting his work up in the street... i have no doubt that people are benefiting monetarily from these actions...and why not? because again it breaks one of your intellectual boundaries.

notice the hypocracy of the statement... you are asking for the joyful destruction of graffiti, yet requesting that your joyful manifesto is not destroyed as it is covered in glass.

keep going on and on about it... intellectual superiority regarding art is about as productive as putting big chunks of glass in wheatpaste... it doesnt do anything...

as someone else put it, "hey write that tripe and then have the nerve to call street art bourgeois? nice try, asshats.
ps. jealous that swoon is in moma and you're not much?" ... yep

as far as the graffiti/street art supporters who are getting bent out of shape over this... who gives a fuck... honestly the nature of our work is destructive, and if there is anything we should take from it, that is the 'joyful destruction' that the dadists are talking about.... as soon as we put our works on the street it is subject to decay and destruction... and that is the beauty of it... where we win is that we do not hold our work of any value... if we did we would be doing it on a canvas and hoarding it or sell it..

graffiti is not dead... thats like saying the gallery is dead... the street is the gallery... the graffiti is the art itself... there are no boundaries... and as far as joyful destruction, i highly doubt the dadaists would be spouting this 'joyful destruction' nonsense if it came down to the people entering their galleries and euthanizing their "higher" valued works...you should be careful, for the most part you are dealing with criminals.

abdn

25.

Street art and graffiti pros add lovleyness to my city. I do not find what he/she (the plasher) does enlightening because he is too coked up on his own theory to use simple language. I do not find what he/she does lovely. I find it rather like the kid who cut school cause he was too smart, and thus ended up being the only one without a diploma.

26.

My only added comment is to note:

"*We* have mixed wheatpaste with glass"

We?

Is this a whole troup of activists, or is this the royal we and one lonely person?

27.

it's brilliant, yes.
but is it deserving, no.
at least i don't think so.

i can see, in a way, where they're coming from.
however i don't completely agree with what what
they're saying- then again i did have to read it
twice to fully understand it. i don't know why
people think using a ten letter word as opposed
to a five letter word is going to make the thing
they're trying to convey any more important.
going back to the splasher, after a while this
little propagandhi will probably die down. i
think that the graffiti culture on the internet
is giving him too much recognition, too much
publicity. all of us, the people who write the
articles, the people who take the photos, and the
people who comment on the articles are helping
this kid promote his shit. the point of his
little broken glass encased wheatpastes was to
inform people of his veiws. now i havent seen one
of these posters in real life and i live in new
york. if this was never posted i would have never
read it- maybe if we ignore him, he'll go away.
or am i just being idealistic?

i think the real question is,
will a bunch of words on a piece of paper ever
even come close to changing anything?

28.

raffiti, lead by the icons we grew up with...Must die.
If it isn't too repetitive with the same person repeating the same letter piece or character over and over again, its lead by a group of small minded, young capitalists with no morals. Open your eyes and you'll see that graffiti has reached it's last breath...I know that, because not long ago, I saw an add for a watch with Obey on it...it comes with a sticker and a guitar pick.hahahahaha
It's the end for sure. Toys and mass produced things all made in china made by some one payed ~$2 a day. IT's over.
This protest of sorts...the one that is listed here is the most
inspiring thing I've seen since I entered the scene in 89.
Some one is doing what had to happen 10 years ago!!!
Screw your graffiti...there are other much. much more important things to take
care of in the United Snakes of America. Let's start with....the internal combustion engine and move quickly to curving the mass consumption of tv and shit you don't need, get that bucket of coffee out of your hand and let's end with that dumb ass president that leads you to your predestined and final step in the collapse of your empire. Graffiti pales in comparison to the mounting problems of country.
Small and fragile is graffiti...no guts or true message. Just middle aged guys and kids needing something to believe in....running around at night trying to feel something. So sad.
By mejuan at January 24, 2007 1:37 PM

OOF! BUT U GOTTA LUV KEGR!
EVERYDAY I FEEL LIKE STEALING!

29.

(r)evolution...