as opposed to your usual spray paint graffiti, garners a warm place in my heart. my early fascination with graffiti began back in atlanta when i used to lurk around truck yards and abandoned buildings taking pictures of the local talent: totem, hense and sever being my favorites:
hense/sever
totem/mr. fangs
so you can imagine my delighted surprise when i noticed this
in my hood last night :
it's the perfect way to reflect urban culture while making a nod to another genre of art, totems! think about it, totems are erected to ward off bad spirits, symbolically represent the status of a family, or to serve as a memorial to a loved one.
how meta! this telephone-totem pole could be a few of those things:
keep the rats at bay (notice the rat warning posted ever so close to the visage of the totem fella), a sign of gentrification for the neighborhood or simply an artistic whim.
other natural urban artists that i enjoy are:
chris uphues:
one of my all time favorites, swoon:
i suppose i say natural as opposed to straight up graffiti, because as i write this i realize this 'natural style' itself is becoming the norm for graff artists. not having access to spray paint, (especially here in chicago, buying spray paint means a trip to the burbs); or maybe being more sculpturally inclined as opposed to having a sprayin urge could be the reasoning.
another favorite is the work the barnstormer collective puts out:
2 comments:
The sad gray building sitting at the intersection of Grand, Milwaukee and Halsted is a great place to find “natural style” graffiti. In the summer it basically becomes an outdoor gallery.
can't WAIT for summer!!
Post a Comment