In what seems to be happening more and more, the street art stencils from Mr. Brainwash that went up last weekend got protected with plexiglass.
The two stencils feature a trophy from the Oscars, and a little boy with a camera.
We think it is a cool thing that more street art is being protected so that it can have a longer life be enjoyed by a wider audience.
Still, there is something weird about this new treatment of street art. We can't even put words to it. Its just a hunch, and it feels foreign.
Big thanks to Roky Manson for the scoop on the story and the pics. You can read more about Roky's experience seeing this go down and see more pics on his blog.
And, we tried a new kind of formatting when uploading these pics. We know that the files are huge (er, now they are small) and look crazy on the front page, but we think it looks funny and are going to let it ride. You can click them for a bigger image.
weird.
ReplyDeleteI'm an art conservator and I work a lot with posters and historic ephemera. I've been following this plexi development on your blog and this type of street art "protection" is truly odd to me. I wonder if any serious thought has been given to the long-term stability of this method. While it may protect the artwork from immediate taggers who want to put their scrawl across a popular artist's work, plexi may not be the best idea for reasons of both preservation and meaning.
ReplyDeletePhysically, I worry that this method may actually shorted the artworks' lifespans because the paper and wheat paste works may suffer badly from mold due of the lack of air exchange between the plexi and the wall.
From a more philosophical point of view, I agree there is something slightly off about the look of the plexi over the posters/paintings. This reminds me of seeing an exhibit of Twist's work ages ago in a gallery. Some of the pieces were giant chunks of wall that had been hacked off a building. Honestly, the works looked like they had been neutered. Kinda seems like that's not the way it's supposed to be...Just sayin'
Putting something behind a fence or in this case plexiglass creates the perception that what is been protected has a greater value than without the barrier.
ReplyDeleteIf it was a Banksy that could be cut down and sold on, then it would make sense. But doing this for a MBW ? Oh pleaze.
MBW probably sent his people round to advise the buildings owner of its "value" and the number of the local plexiglass company.
wait, are people plexi-covering paste-ups? i've only seen this treatment on stencils/paint.
ReplyDeleteThis is more of MBW's bullshit. No one in their right mind thinks of this shit as art. No one. He's responsible for this on some level, believe it.
ReplyDeleteplexi glass real art seen painted on buildings from local los angeles artist not some random ass wanna be street artist
ReplyDeleteMBW sucks! Bansky said so himself, tho not in those words.. but cmon the guys hires graphic designers to do his shit for him.. lame!
ReplyDelete