Photo du jour: Talk to the hand

6 comments

1. I like stencil :), but I hate those ugly graffiti tags that are everywhere ugh… I would remove all of them by myself if I could.

2. That hand is a classic icon of my skateboading youth –
   http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=santa+cruz+screaming+hand

   Well done.

3. What an awesome stencil.

   I am from London so luckily was surrounded by amazing little stencils for my teenage years. I live in Montreal now and it come pretty close for great stencils.

4. Yes, it’s classic, it’s awesome, it’s cool.

   It is also, however, someone else’s fucking property.

   And if you find the above sentence hostile or aggressive, imagine you’re some middle aged or elderly property owner, and you wake up one morning to find some kid has sprayed this on your store, your business, your home, your front door.

   And now YOU have to pay to clean it up. Or you’ll just get more tags. Actually, you’ll probably get them anyway.

   Awesome.

5. Thanks Shawn. I’m usually afraid of making comments like yours because I get very aggressive responses from the blind (and by blind I mean blind in any possible non-literal sense) defenders of “urban art” (i.e. any destruction of private property, including painting, scratching, kicking or defecating on a property that is not yours, for free).

   Since criticizing private property destruction didn’t get me anywhere, but just prompted the usual “get the hell out” responses (not in this blog, here I’m just ignored, which is much better), I decided to simply judge vandalism the same way I judge art, by its looks. For example, if someone pees on a wall, I will most likely not find it nice, unless he makes some really nice shapes with his urine, and he drinks enough water so it doesn’t smell too bad.

   At least this way I might be heard, and more people will consider doing the same thing so we can get rid at least of the ugly “urban art,” which is 99% of it. Sadly most defenders of “urban art” think even the most unsightly tag is “beautiful.” If you don’t believe me just do a search on “graffiti tags montreal” on flickr and notice all the “good shot! well done!” type of comments.

   I am beginning to think that the battle against urban destruction, at least in this city, is completely lost, as the defenders are closed to any kind of debate, and the non-defenders just don’t care how the city looks, or how much damage is made to the owners of vandalized property, who worked they asses off to obtain what they have, by some kids who think “getting some fame” requires no talent whatsoever.

6. My view is somewhat similar to the one expressed in this article:

   http://www.westislandchronicle.com/article-214729-Dont-confuse-tagging-with-urban-art.html

   It would be really nice if I could get some feedback from people with other points of view.