15 November 2012

But is it art? New Abyss piece [With Poll]

| johnboy
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street art

Dante has sent in a new work by the increasingly controversial Abyss in the Woden Interchange.

While the comments will no doubt be dominated by the strongest opinion holders. But here’s a poll to get some numbers on the issue.

Street Art or Vandalism?

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Deref said :

Ostensibly the 80% who voted “street art” would be delighted to have Canberra’s “street artists” come and spray their “art” all over their houses.

as someone whose property and neighbourhood have recently been defiled by Mope, Wils and Confucius T., I’d love to have actual “street art” all over my back fence. Be fab.

the taggers though? no love at all.

(And T., or Confucius T., or however you style your self: we can work with your love is love series (even my 86 year old neighbour likes the love is love pieces). But the quotes? they’re awful. But if you must, *please*, please – get good quotes. The current stuff is just.. #*&%^ crud. really boy. you can do better. Please, please do better).

BimboGeek said :

I wouldn’t want that particular piece on my house

poetix said :

If I could choose the wall, and the artist…

But you can’t, can you? If you approve of some of this graffito because you like it, you validate the idea that it’s OK to spray whatever you like wherever you like; you can’t legitimately say “that picture is OK because I like it, but that tag isn’t because I don’t.” You can’t eat your cake and have it too.

Deref said :

Ostensibly the 80% who voted “street art” would be delighted to have Canberra’s “street artists” come and spray their “art” all over their houses.

That could solve the problem: it’d give the vandals street artists somewhere to ply their art other than public or unwilling private property and would give pleasure to the people who like it. No doubt it’d increase the value of their property, too!

If I could choose the wall, and the artist…Better than a lot of ‘match the sofa and the curtains’ art I have seen. You know, a frangipani in three parts, or a tasteful and realistic sea scene that reeks of hobbyist.

Just call me a *very* poor person’s Medici.

Deref said :

Ostensibly the 80% who voted “street art” would be delighted to have Canberra’s “street artists” come and spray their “art” all over their houses.

That could solve the problem: it’d give the vandals street artists somewhere to ply their art other than public or unwilling private property and would give pleasure to the people who like it. No doubt it’d increase the value of their property, too!

I wouldn’t want that particular piece on my house, no. It’s not really appropriate for a house, the same way that a lot of art on display in galleries isn’t appropriate for a house. Maybe it would be nice to have something in this style at work, but I work in a restaurant and nobody wants to see cockroaches at a restaurant! A cute cricket, perhaps…

Ostensibly the 80% who voted “street art” would be delighted to have Canberra’s “street artists” come and spray their “art” all over their houses.

That could solve the problem: it’d give the vandals street artists somewhere to ply their art other than public or unwilling private property and would give pleasure to the people who like it. No doubt it’d increase the value of their property, too!

Hideous eye-sore. If it had been done on a bit of canvas, or his own bedroom wall, then perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad, but as far as it goes – this is a public place. Maybe if he’d cleaned the wall of the previous graffiti, or painted it all-white before starting, but as it stands it looks terrible.

I’m sure if he had gone to the proper authorities and put forth a constructive suggestion, given them an example of what it would look like finished, and had told them he’d do it for free, they might have actually let him do it. There are a lot of places around that are designed (or just allowed as free-for-all) to budding street artists, allowing them to display their art in a public place. This is not one of them, and as a result, should be removed as soon as possible.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Dante said :

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Get rid of the tag and dumb ass eyeball and its a good piece that should be welcomed. But no, he has to act like a mong and put up tags.

…and again with the disgusting reference towards the disabled. Learn to contribute without making shameful comparisons.

If you see it as insulting or derogatory, then you are the problem, not I

The word “mong” is in the dictionary (in this case, wiktionary) and its use in this post was consistent with its meaning.

I kind of like it, the more common ‘tag’ graffitti became humdrum long ago.

puffin said :

I don’t believe the two options are mutually exclusive, I would vote for both.

I also agree with this.

Roundhead89 said :

The sooner they get rid of that sleazy, skid row area and expand Westfield Woden over it the better. It really is a blight on this city.

You want more shopping mall and less public space?

Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, if they get any bigger there won’t be anything but shopping malls in this town.

What is art? The eternal question.
I know I’ve mentioned it before, but.., in the final episode of ‘The Fast Lane’ (one of my favorite Aussie shows – not to be confused with US show of same title), John Clarke plays a guy who welds old car parts together into sculptures. When informed that his sculptures are attaining ridiculous prices in galleries and much more than galleries are paying him, John Clarke’s character replies “Yes, us artists are badly ripped off…..mind you it’s the best welding job I’ve ever had.”

The sooner they get rid of that sleazy, skid row area and expand Westfield Woden over it the better. It really is a blight on this city.

thy_dungeonman2:14 pm 15 Nov 12

In my opinion good art is about communication. Because tags (and small symbols) are illegible and undecipherable to most of us and have significance only to other taggers, they therefore provide no value while marking a wall or fence that the owner does not want marked. However pictorial graffiti (that is not completely vulgar) can be understood, enjoyed and appreciated by the wider community, therefore while it is still vandalism, it provides at least some value in return, depending on the quality and subject matter of the image.

Think it’s fantastic – an yes, any art at the woden interchange is a bonus in my books. Abyss does some cool stuff and certainly has a recognised style.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd1:18 pm 15 Nov 12

Dante said :

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Get rid of the tag and dumb ass eyeball and its a good piece that should be welcomed. But no, he has to act like a mong and put up tags.

…and again with the disgusting reference towards the disabled. Learn to contribute without making shameful comparisons.

If you see it as insulting or derogatory, then you are the problem, not I

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Get rid of the tag and dumb ass eyeball and its a good piece that should be welcomed. But no, he has to act like a mong and put up tags.

…and again with the disgusting reference towards the disabled. Learn to contribute without making shameful comparisons.

TheDancingDjinn11:18 am 15 Nov 12

Dante said :

TheDancingDjinn: They’re done by the same artist. That’s the main reason I submitted this to the site.

It combines the Seer image that so many people seem to like, along with the artist’s tags which people seem to dislike.

I’d like it way more if it were not on street signs or old ladies belongings. That being said I am all for allowing street artists to showcase work..Street Artists – please don’t showcase it on fences and small places.. it looks slightly untidy – and it makes your work suffer, it doesn’t look as nice if its quickly scribbled on a wall. Perhaps they could do what people used to do in Sydney.. they go in and ask the owner if they can use the wall for art purposes.. show them some earlier work – I love good graffiti art… maybe owners, you can allow them a place to showcase so it looks good. I would

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd11:17 am 15 Nov 12

Get rid of the tag and dumb ass eyeball and its a good piece that should be welcomed. But no, he has to act like a mong and put up tags.

It looks very much like a portrait of my mother-in-law…so not only vandalism but also plagiarism. Actually the art is not bad, but the size of the tag should be in the same proportion as artists have used in signing their works for hundreds of years and respect private property.

TheDancingDjinn: They’re done by the same artist. That’s the main reason I submitted this to the site.

It combines the Seer image that so many people seem to like, along with the artist’s tags which people seem to dislike.

This is a valuable addition to Canberra, and particularly to the Woden Interchange.

Though it’s hard to think of something that wouldn’t be an improvement to the Woden Interchange.

Ruined by the conical rice hat.

TheDancingDjinn10:20 am 15 Nov 12

Though I will say this creature with the blue and red and awesome horns is actually pretty cool – I could not do that.. that’s skill.

TheDancingDjinn10:18 am 15 Nov 12

Who ever keeps scrawling that stupid eye ball all over the place needs a kick in the nuts. I’ve seen an old lady’s colorbond fence defaced with it recently – i doubt she asked the “artist” for it, considering how much those things cost. Its all over street signs and its just getting scribbley and ugly… i do like street art when its decent – i do not like scribble.

NicholasBurns9:31 am 15 Nov 12

It’s a painting.

I don’t believe the two options are mutually exclusive, I would vote for both.

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