All that was once directly lived now moves into representation

This evening was eventful. I met up with my friend on the train and we went to MOMA, then we went to White Walls, a gallery on Larkin between O'Farrell and Geary, a stones throw from the home bums and massage parlours of the tenderloin. The urban gallery was showing a collection of art by Blek Le Rat and Above, both street artists. Blek Le Rat is a predeccessor to Banksy and uses stencil graffitti to promote his message, which has a situationist slant.

"The spectacle says nothing more than 'what is good appears and what appears is good.'"

With price tags at a rock bottom price of $600, and ranging up to $45,000 (with the average costing $15,000) the once subversive movement of street art, stencils, and the social commentary that they implicitly carried has been caught back up in the order of things. This has been pointed out before by the "splasher," a new york city vandal who caused a ruckus by defacing the street art of Shepard Fairey, Banksy, Swoon and others, validly. [More on the splasher here.]

Blek La Rat posted one of his infamous stencils of a homeless man lying on the street on the outside of the building, inside on a piece of canvas the piece cost $39,000, his advertising of homelessness as an aesthetic makes it acceptable, and quite expensive! I could pay for my college loans with that profit margin, or 8 years of my current rent. I wonder if his model got a stipend!?

He should certainly be praised for having turned abject poverty into a gratuitous money making enterprise, a spectacular feat! The image on the outside of the gallery doesn't speak of irony- that the homeless could be sleeping across the street, or in front of the building, but rather is a marker of safety. This style of street graffiti, while originally being a detournment of public space, has now been recuperated and serves as a marker of gentrification - the dislocation of people in the interests of capital. It tells the population that the area is now aesthetic with the beauty of refined low brow art. The kids in tight pants can feel okay walking around late at night! Finally!

First came the street artists with their stencils, but I wasn't a street artist. Then came the galleries, but I wasn't a hipster. Then came the bourgeoisie but I wasn't bourgeoisie. Then came the increase in rent that I couldn't afford anymore!

More "Art"

I don't make copies of my stencils for myself anymore. I'm lazy. I've been giving them to the gym instead. Here are some hanging on the walls. This is an infamous picture of Mohammad Ali knocking out some sucka.
This is my first super large stencil and also one of my nicest. It really creates a good atmosphere in the gym. Its a six foot stencil, or more maybe. The guy in the picture is in the process of doing the wai khru, a ceremonial dance before each fight to honor one's instructors, parents, and other supportive people.

This is a stencil of one of the new trainers Coke. Coke was in the lumpinee top ten for some time and can be considered a pretty good fighter. This stencil is small about 10 inches by 20 inches but ended up being pretty intricate. If you close up on it you can see me practice some of my thai lettering. My name in Thai, the month, and the year appear in the bottom left corner.

Art schmart

I've been making stencils off and on for about four or five years now. I've been expanding the size of my pieces as well as attempting to incorporate more intricacy. My latest prints have been muay thai related. Here are a series of my prints and the stencils themselves.
This is of Lone Wolf and cub. In between chapters in the manga series are pictures of Cub. I enlarged and copied one of those pictures.

This is the cover of the meat is murder album without the album title. My original intention was to sell this stencil at the morrissey show I went to recently. Unfortunately my ability to upsell is quite dismal.
This is vulture picture I took from a sandman comic I believe. IT was one of the first large stencils I did. The actual print is about 4 feet by 5 feet. Initially I intended on doing this on the street thus I made it two stencils. The dividing line can be seen by the wings.
This is my durriti stencil. Behind that is a dynamite stencil.
This is a print of Emo. Emo was Darkwater's dog while we were in Vegas. I liked him a lot.
This was my second large stencil, or maybe fourth. I can't remember. It was made for a girl.
This is the anarchy magazine logo. Huzzah!
Look someone drinking. This came from a noir comic book.
This came from the same comic. Sort of looks like foucault.