The Corral: News Roundup From The Editor(s)

Street Art Vandal on the Prowl... (Cue Ominous Synth Chords)

As early as the 1984 film Beat Street, artist-on-artist graffiti backlash has been a fairly regular topic of debate. In that film, a character named Spit would step out of the shadows and quickly scrawl his name in cursive letters over the painstakingly rendered murals of Ramo. Ominous synth chords played in the background as Spit emerged, ball bearings rattling inside his can. It seems that even graffiti, itself a reactionary and still-illegal symbol of social rebellion, has never been safe from the neurotic tendencies of backlash. Or perhaps young reactionary art forms, among which graffiti is (or, more precisely, was) a prime example, are more prone to quick, counter-reactionary backlash than other well-established genres. It's not often that you'll see patrons of the Metropolitan Opera dousing Pavarotti with tomato sauce. So, it might come as no surprise that those same ominous synth chords that accompanied Spit in Beat Street can be heard ringing all throughout Brooklyn and the Lower East Side, where a new defacer, known simply as The Splasher, has struck several revered works of street art. The backlash might stem from what some street art aficionados see as the commodification of their art.

Long-running shows at the MoMA and the Brooklyn Museum, as well as the recent and hugely popular 11 Spring Street show, have ushered in an era of unprecedented notoriety for street artists – and perhaps have also opened the floodgates for a new wave of backlash. --MIK AWAKE

NYT: Defacer With Mystery Agenda Is Attacking Street Art

Comments

[Picasso]

A defacer of property gets defaced. Isn't that sweet!!! Perhaps he can find a good lawyer.