Urban Blooz and the Colonization of Public Spaces

Contemporary art has become so institutional, and absolutely boring and irrelevant. The most exciting stuff I've seen lately all come from "street artists." I love this project by the artist that goes by the name Urban Blooz. "It is a reaction to the colonization of public spaces by advertisement. The content of the billboards is getting erased and replaced by a poster showing the frame of the environment, that is covered by the billboard itself." Simple, yet poignant. I hark back to my time in Cuba. Public wall mural paintings state/reflect the social ideals of the society and community. They made you think. Connected back to the country's history. There weren't constructed billboards, thus the landscape was unobstructed. After spending a month there, making my way back to the states felt oppressive. The weight of all the noise in advertisements, of ads appearing in every direction you turn, a glance here, in your peripheral, pounding as video and audio in elevators, of all the junk screaming, "Consume! And thus be happy!" You don't realize how much signage for shit we have in every far-reaching corner of American Capitalism and Imperialism, until you're able to experience a society that doesn't sell and privatize every imaginable piece of space, real or abstract. And how we become numb to its presence. I remember when H&M sales ads showed up on subway turnstiles! It pissed me the fuck off, but was also impressed with the idea of its placement. Some of the most brilliant minds and artists I've ever met, work in advertising. They come up with this stuff, placement and content, sometimes ingenious (although often squashed with the dumbing down and industry shift into client/accounts/marketing-based creativity...an oxymoron...net result is garbage). But what if we were to replace the needs of industry with something that reflected a different value system. Does advertising have to sell the idea that a product fills a void? Can it just provide engaging public art or does it have to literally sell something.

For more, check out "The Art of Rebellion 2: World of Urban Art Activism" published by Publikat, a great anthology of "street art." Also look out for the new Banksy film "Exit Through the Gift Shop." It made it's debut at Sundance this year and should hit the theaters in May. Really phenomenal film. And Banksy's work, just incredible.