{"id":10369,"date":"2011-09-15T08:30:27","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T11:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingatlantic.ca\/?p=10369"},"modified":"2013-01-21T04:50:31","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T08:50:31","slug":"is-the-city-a-sketchbook-jj-steeves-tackles-our-ideas-about-graffiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/atlantic\/2011\/09\/15\/is-the-city-a-sketchbook-jj-steeves-tackles-our-ideas-about-graffiti\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the city a sketchbook? JJ Steeves tackles our ideas about graffiti"},"content":{"rendered":"
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HALIFAX – <\/strong>Councillor\u00a0Linda Mosher\u2019s recent comparison of street art to vandalism and graffiti has brought a variety of reactions. One of the most extreme counterarguments? That all street art is legitimate, and that the city itself is a sketchbook.<\/p>\n

We wanted to ask a street artist how they felt about the recent attack on graffiti art. \u00a0Jei Jei Steeves is both within and staunchly unique from the Halifax urban art milieu. She\u2019s a Halifax artist whose stickers of stray kittens have been popping around the city’s streets to say things like “Your lopsided breasts are really beautiful,” “I support the troops but I don’t support the war,” and “I don’t like the way you’re looking at my tits.”<\/p>\n

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Steeves, who started stickering as a response to her own social anxieties, has a lot invested in this debate. \u201cI don\u2019t say what I need to say to people when I need to say it,\u201d she has said. \u201cAnd I was in a few instances in the past couple years where I didn\u2019t stick up for a friend. I really felt like I should have should have stood up and said something in public.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo this was a step: start saying things. Then it became sort of a diary. And now it\u2019s a soapbox.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steeves doesn\u2019t use paint, and she doesn\u2019t tag, but she prefers to stand in solidarity with her fellow graffiti-ers, rather than disparage them. \u201cAll street art,\u201d says Steeves, \u201cis a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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KT: What was your reaction to Linda Mosher’s statement that the bubble letters being created at the hopscotch festival shouldn’t be permitted because it looked “too much like graffiti”?<\/strong><\/p>\n

JJ: Oh gosh. Well, with this topic I can either go on forever, or keep it ruthlessly short. I\u2019ll go with short: That seems awfully small-minded of her, doesn\u2019t it? I mean, \u201cgraffiti\u201d is a global phenomenon. Even the flippant \u201cArt World\u201d is dropping millions of dollars on canvasses with tags. It\u2019s hilarious and beautiful and brilliant. No one will ever be able to stop \u201cgraffiti\u201d now. These are our cities, and there are too many of us.<\/p>\n

KT: How did you feel about Mosher\u2019s comparison between street art and illegal drug use?<\/strong><\/p>\n

JJ: Really? These are kids, adolescents, young adults, creative veterans working out there to improve their hand-eye coordination, colour usage, and focus. Constantly working to gain new insight into visual art as a mode of expression. Constantly working to dialogue with one\u2019s community members, those who share the streets. The likelihood of said artist going to school, or having a full-time job, maybe a child or children is also pretty high. Not many folks, be they young or old, are capable of juggling drug abuse and that kind of artistic devotion. It just takes too much out of you. Therefore the comparison between street art and illegal drug use seems wildly simplistic, and disparagingly ignorant to me.<\/p>\n

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KT: Do you think tagging is a legitimate form of street art? why or why not?<\/strong><\/p>\n

JJ: Tagging is tricky. To be honest, I don\u2019t know much about it. I personally have no problem with it, but I probably shouldn\u2019t dialogue about it too much.<\/p>\n

KT: What about spray painting dicks?<\/strong><\/p>\n

JJ: Cock and balls! Yes! \u2026 I think it\u2019s absolutely hilarious. I point them out to my friends whenever I spy one. Maybe it\u2019s the slap-stick of street art. No one wants to legitimize cock and balls, but we all bust a gut when we see them. In such a hard world, can\u2019t we just have a few silly jokes hanging around? That is what they symbolize to me, anyway.<\/p>\n

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KT: What did you think about the current comparison of graffiti art to tagging and vandalism?<\/strong><\/p>\n

JJ: Oh gosh. People always get so up in arms regarding \u201cgraffiti\u201d vs \u201cstreet art\u201d vs \u201cwriting\u201d vs \u201ctagging\u201d. To be completely fair, and to provide full disclosure, I\u2019m not much a part of that scene. I make little drawings with speech bubbles speaking my (often angry) mind. And it\u2019s on sticker paper. Easily removable. I couldn\u2019t spray paint the broad side of a barn if my life depended on it. I\u2019ve done a few stencils, but that was a long, long, long time ago.<\/p>\n

From my perspective, no matter what it says, no matter how unkind, how distasteful, how immature or how poorly executed, all street art is a voice. Anything that is put intentionally on a city\u2019s walls by its occupants is a voice. That makes it valid, and in order to get the great artists, we need a lot of young, beginner artists. So you get some shitty art. Relax.<\/p>\n

People are trying to find ways to communicate. We cannot all paint on canvases and sell in galleries. We don\u2019t all desire government art grants. We don\u2019t all want to photograph weddings. We don’t all believe in artist statements. Everyone works on different surfaces for different reasons. Street art, for me, is about having a dialogue with the people who walk on the street. That\u2019s it. I can\u2019t say these things in public, so I say them with street art. Simple really. I can\u2019t speak for everyone else.<\/p>\n

I defend any form of urban art. Even the crummy stuff, because you need the bad in order to get the good. I think Mosher is wildly over-reacting, and should be directing her fervent energies toward a more critical HRM issue, for instance, the distressing state of sidewalks in the North End of Halifax, which in many places are so unkempt that they are impassable by those locals who use wheelchairs. That seems like a much more pressing issue to me, but then again, I\u2019m not an HRM councilor am I?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Katie Toth is a journalist and art lover with feet flakily planted in both Halifax and Toronto. (She has big legs.) You can follow her on twitter<\/a>, or catch her writing about sex, politics, and religion at nopomo.wordpress.com.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Photos from JJ Steeves<\/a>‘\u00a0blog Stray Kitties.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HALIFAX – Councillor\u00a0Linda Mosher\u2019s recent comparison of street art to vandalism and graffiti has brought a variety of reactions. One of the most extreme counterarguments? That all street art is legitimate, and that the city itself is a sketchbook. We wanted to ask a street artist how they felt about the recent attack on graffitiContinue reading “Is the city a sketchbook? JJ Steeves tackles our ideas about graffiti”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5860,5861,343,344],"tags":[421,338,351,369],"class_list":["post-10369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-culture","category-curiosities","category-politics","tag-arts-culture","tag-community-development","tag-halifax","tag-public-art"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIs the city a sketchbook? 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