Thursday, January 12, 2012

Not Everybody Loved Snyder's Response - What Are the New Rules of the Streets?





Last month, Anthony Lister came to Los Angeles to paint a commission wall on Melrose for Plant of the Apes. While in LA, Lister also painted some unsanctioned walls, including a piece further down Melrose where he went placed one of his faces over the bottom half of Snyder's Rocket Boy. (You can see the original Lister piece HERE)

It kind of seemed like a compliment at first to M&F to have a big name artist incorporate a piece into his, but the community did not feel this way and spoke out strongly against what they felt was disrespect being shown towards one of LA's own favorite street artists.

Snyder said that he was a fan of Lister's, but he also wasn't thrilled with the interaction, and in a clever piece that did not necessarily cap Lister's piece as much as it threw bananas at it, Snyder came back to the spot and painted a monkey throwing a banana that is going 'splat!' on the face of Lister's character. LA's street art community rallied behind Snyder, and the feature was the most popular feature of that week.

Snyder's use of the monkey was also a clear commentary of the corporate Planet of the Apes mural for Fox that Lister had been hired to paint. (You can see Snyder's response HERE)

Well, not everyone in LA enjoyed Snyder's response. A few weeks after Snyder's monkey went up, the monkey got painted over with pink paint. It was the same time that Dame painted some new graffiti down below along with another piece from unknown artist (with sick style). There was pink in the pieces and Dame had been involved with taking Lister around on a previous visit to Los Angeles, so it most likely seems that the cap back was a retaliation by Dame on behalf of Lister.

On a related note, the previous mural that was here went up after M&F broke a story about rave dance posters going up over graffiti at this spot. After a lot of backlash, the owner of the poster company apologized, said it would never happen again, and bought paint for artists to come back and paint it. Some artists did paint a new mural for Iggy Azalea--at the time M&F thought those were the artist's names, but it turns out it was a commissioned wall that was an advertisement for a musical artist named Iggy Azalea. (You can see the Iggy Azalea piece HERE).

There is a line of gold paint through the new Dame piece, but the gold paint was over a lot of stuff in the area so it seems that it was just some asshole with a spray can and not directed at anyone in particular.

Before people get all heated, the bigger questions are that these situations seem to raise some really interesting questions about the developing relationship between active street artists, and commission walls, not necessarily by corporations, but by true street and graffiti artists paid by corporations to use their art to promote something.

What are the new rules of the streets?




11 comments:

  1. Dame is painting comissioned wall for $$ but he caps Snyder who does this shit for free?? Fuck you Dame you're a punk....MSK= Mad $ellout Kings!! all about the money and doing Lister's dirty work for him? LAME!!

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  2. Respect murals. Respect RIP's. Stay away from gang tags. Don't battle with bombing crews. Respect the OG's. Unsure? Ask. Fucked up? Make it right. Don't get up if you are unwilling to have it taken down. Treat pieces as people and use some common sense. Respect goes a long way...but at the end of the day, go with your gut and claim your space, for whatever time or place it is. Create fearlessly.

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  3. DAME is LAME if he cap'd

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  4. that stupid purple face in the middle throws off everything.

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  5. Say that directly to DAME and I will have respect for you otherwise shut the fuck up.
    No Rules! Rules are made by the system and the man.

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  6. Just catching up to this 'drama'. I loved the gorilla throwing the banana! Well conceived, used the building's angles well, ran the eyes to other materials. The self aggrandizing I can do without in general, but if you have an interesting way to do it, and capture the imaginations of more than just the 'in' crowd, who cares if your work covers another? the CANVAS is the STREET, which means everyone has access. If some people have problems with that, drop the paint, invest in commercial real estate so you have walls of your own.

    Read a user on another post, and couldn't agree more : If you are invested in drama, then you're probably not all that good an artist. Stop whining, pick a spot and make something happen.

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  7. Dame is LAME! Mad $ell out King!
    I got respect for people who do graffiti for love of it. People who get paid to do it don't get the same respect as kids who rack all their shit and risk their ass to get up. But DAME? People buy his paint? Only does legal wall that he gets paid for?? Then Does Lister's dirty work?? Wow... PURE $ell Out

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  8. Pretty much everyone but the first MSK pieces jumped the shark at this spot. The rest looked like shitty side busting. Buff it clean and do it right if you have a permission, or respectfully work around without dominating the previous work.

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  9. yo kids... MSK will smash you all. Probably not the best idea running your mouth. Especially when you are probably some new jack kid who lives with your mom and steals her money for glue.

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  10. This Melrose & Fairfax Blog is the cutest street art blog around... Makes me think of pink panties...

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  11. I have multiple pictures of Dame painting his piece that day. And yeah, there might be pink in it, but it was pink spray paint and who ever painted over the ape used house paint and a long roller. You can even see the big pink spill on the sidewalk. Dame and Trav we're just chilling, both with headphones on, just enjoying a nice day, painting. It's quite obvious they we're not involved with painting over the ape. Truth has been spoken, let's end the bullshit. Because obviously it is, not one person commenting on this post has a clue about MSK, Dame, or what really happened.

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