Does the fact you do not have express permission to post your thoughts on a public wall make the act any less expressive?
In Paris, whether Graffiti is art or vandalism is no longer a debate. The question now is it how to make it profitable. At least, when the Cartier Centre and Petit Palais dedicate large, well publicised shows to the art form, that’s the message that the world’s art capital is sending.
Old masters of Graffiti come to Paris to retire. SEEN, who was bombing NY subway cars in the 70s, and has one of the world’s best known tags, now lives here, enjoying the relative anonymity. I met him at a show he was part of at the Gallery Lamoure last month. With his wavy silver mop, he looks like an older version of Xavier Bardem in last year’s Woody Allen – except he’s covered in evil tattoos, including skeleton fingers and a dotted ‘cut here’ line around his neck.
SEEN was an early influence on the Australian artist Reko Rennie, who returned home to Melbourne last week after a three month art residency in the Marais.
Art is about expressing an idea. For Reko, his work could be seen as a modern take on the Aboriginal identity, a reinterpretation of the art painted on Australian rocks 40,000 years ago. Aboriginal art is well known in and rather popular in France, but is limited to the classic dot paintings.
Reko’s trademark is stencils of Australian flora and fauna. On his last night in Paris, I joined Reko as he put up some pieces in the marais area. Reko specialises in paste-ups, which are pre-made stencils sprayed onto poster paper, which he then adheres to public walls using wallpaper paste. The advantage for graffiti artists is that the penalties are less severe than for straight up paint on wall.
Thus, in the space of 20 minutes, I watched him paste up a giant 3-metre echidna, and a booming 2-metre pink kangaroo. One week later they are still there, and passers-by give them equally looks of ambivalence, bewilderment, and appreciation.
Earlier in the week, he painted a blue-breasted wren on the wall at the famous Belleville Zoo graffiti area. He had found a clear space, and painted it on a catching green and pink wavy background, the overall work measuring about 3×3 metres.
One man's wall art is another man's blank canvas there for the taking.
I went to find it four days later, but found only that someone else had painted their own design over it – some sort of alien creature. I’m sure it bore special significance to the artist.
In any case, there’s a lot to be said for the instant gratification of expressing your thoughts on paper, then sticking it, up large, in a public space for all to see. This morning when I became infuriated at my local bank, I knew there was only one recourse.
I had tried to withdraw money at the branch, only to find it was “closed unexpectedly.” Infuriated -and broke- I knew what to do. I stormed over to the newsagent across the road, and together we drafted a note.
Thank's for the advance warning. You're completely unorganised, as per usual.
Reko’s modern take attracted interest from some gallery figures, and he will return here in March 2010 for an ‘official’ show. Meanwhile, you can check out the alien artist at the Belleville Zoo graffiti zone in Paris – but be quick!
