December 03, 2003
I Don't Get It
I remember watching a film on artist/sculptor/theater director Frank Garvey, and his robotic wheelchair-bound puppet called Goboy. Goboy would cajole people by saying "Gimme 50 cent. Gimme 50 cent. The Lord says to gimme 50 cent." Garvey gave a funny and enlightening talk afterward, and one of the things he said that the robot acts as a kind of litmus test on class. Certain classes of people, let's say bourgeois people, react uncomfortably to Goboy.
I'm kind of that way about graffiti. Nothing brought out the bourgeois person in me like what I saw today. Last week as I took a picture of the old Kroger building it looked like this.
When I took a picture today it looked like this. 
Personally, I feel the graffitists have trashed an admirable ruin. I think "Sag(y?)ek" and "Yette" have a lot to answer for. Graffiti is very powerful and sometimes aesthetically pleasing, but today my sentiments went from "I can see why they would do that" to "why would they do something so foul?".
The best graffiti is in protest of oppression. I've seen graffiti on the Berlin wall. These people probably risked their lives to write what they did and it had a purpose. It was a ray of hope for the oppressed. This stuff (on the Kroger building) is just advertising - self promotion. It's made by small people with nothing else to do.
Posted by: Michael at September 1, 2004 01:05 PMMark,
Wrote you a note and lost it.
Enjoyed it. Think its a neat idea.
Jean & Rob are here now.
Talk to you later.
Mom
The first photo of the Kroger building was lovely. Sagy pushed it beyond beauty, but I doubt graffiti artists have a code that defines "Too Far". I enjoy your efforts to capture bits of ruinedness that are lacking in the city I live in. Pittsburgh is a city of dreams to me. I can still smell the sulfur of steel,the texture of soured sour cream in my nose, as we crossed the Turtle Creek Bridge. Keep up the good work.
Posted by: The New View Review at December 5, 2003 04:53 PM