DOI Heft:
Nr. 1
DOI Artikel:Rattray, Michael: Something about a face: itinerant post-spectacle practices and the work of Graham Landin
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31178#0083
The Role of Graffiti
What this essay cannot do is present an ency-
clopédie documentation of how to dehne what is
being labeled as Street art. Any définition limits the
breadth and width of pubiicly activated work, legal
or illegal, because it essentially attempts to contain
what cannot, and more importantly, should not be
containedY Many artists active today are entirely
anonymous. Some hâve moved beyond the culture
of naming, preferring to allow their creativity to be
activated in public engagements that visualize the
BIOS or back-end of our cities. Landin's work can
be included in this idea through the way in which the
faces humanize our architectural zones and activate
the participatory nature of these post-spectacle
spaces, innately bound to Fredric Jameson's under-
standing of the aesthetically consumed commodityY
By being aware and manipulating those mechanisms
that allow for the sustained functionality of the mar-
ket economy of capitalisme private property, public
spheres, and consumptive processes, artists are giving
rise to a plethora of artistic médiums and choices
that explode classification Systems and penetrate the
soft image of the spectacle, ergo the connotation of
a post-spectacle practice activated within a pluralized
urban public sphere(s).
In many studies and dissertations addressing
the issue of Street art, the New York City graffiti
movement of the 1970s and early 1980s acts as a
lynchpin to the development of current understand-
ings and théories pertaining to radical post-spectacle
practice." Developing out of urban spaces of decay
and economic turmoil, early New York City graffiti
culture was the resuit of long standing socio-eco-
nomic inequalities apparent within the greater public
realm of the late 1960s and early 1970sY Differing
^ "GTy DřArk Awg yy AvAAk % vAFy Y F%%gy, nwv/wY
iZ&rFAFFrYJ- TT FAr^Ty AjýyMFaT FAr FTizF
ďF /T FF/?ř, FTř Fsv 1IA F^A
AT— Twqy * ďA^FFA Yp^kFFry, crFAí%r, cr
^i?FF<?^r ^7 pAmFř k/f ^ ^?%iF %AF Fi Fk^F
r^F^w FoAyy Fi ^iFZřFFiFyďFFc/? — FAF ro/^/^o7FY Foo, Fi
AiFZřFFMY' — JAMESON, F.: Globalization and
Political Stratégy. In: AAy Tyk Rf^Fř^, 4, July — August 2000,
pp. 49-68, particularly, p. 53.
LEWISOHN 2008 (see in note 29); GAVÍN 2007 (see in
4. GrTMw E<2%7F%.' U^FFFkk. 200Y PToFc.* Cc^A^ty Y C. T^^kF^.
mapping mechanisms and thoroughfares initially
guided the way in which art was disseminated in the
streets of the urban public sphere(s), leading to dif-
fering qualitative and individual understandings of
whether the art was in factYY. Early works mapped
the city through walls and subway train Systems,
where the grids of public transit became the exhibi-
tion forum for a multitude of artists, participating
note 29); WACLAWEK 2009 (see in note 25); GARCIA, B.
P.: hFn?<?F NlA % Æ7&77V Y P^Az<Y^7A.
[M.A. Thesis.J Los Angeles : University of Southern Califor-
nia, 2006; SCHACTER, R.: An Ethnography of Iconoclash:
An Investigation into the Production, Consumption and
Destruction of Street-art in London. In: Y -MATA
13, 2008, No. 35, pp. 35-61.
^ JENKINS,S.: In a War Zone Wide-Awake: Jon Naar in New
York, c. 1973. In: TA TFrFT Y GrY^F- New York 2007, pp.
11-14.
77
What this essay cannot do is present an ency-
clopédie documentation of how to dehne what is
being labeled as Street art. Any définition limits the
breadth and width of pubiicly activated work, legal
or illegal, because it essentially attempts to contain
what cannot, and more importantly, should not be
containedY Many artists active today are entirely
anonymous. Some hâve moved beyond the culture
of naming, preferring to allow their creativity to be
activated in public engagements that visualize the
BIOS or back-end of our cities. Landin's work can
be included in this idea through the way in which the
faces humanize our architectural zones and activate
the participatory nature of these post-spectacle
spaces, innately bound to Fredric Jameson's under-
standing of the aesthetically consumed commodityY
By being aware and manipulating those mechanisms
that allow for the sustained functionality of the mar-
ket economy of capitalisme private property, public
spheres, and consumptive processes, artists are giving
rise to a plethora of artistic médiums and choices
that explode classification Systems and penetrate the
soft image of the spectacle, ergo the connotation of
a post-spectacle practice activated within a pluralized
urban public sphere(s).
In many studies and dissertations addressing
the issue of Street art, the New York City graffiti
movement of the 1970s and early 1980s acts as a
lynchpin to the development of current understand-
ings and théories pertaining to radical post-spectacle
practice." Developing out of urban spaces of decay
and economic turmoil, early New York City graffiti
culture was the resuit of long standing socio-eco-
nomic inequalities apparent within the greater public
realm of the late 1960s and early 1970sY Differing
^ "GTy DřArk Awg yy AvAAk % vAFy Y F%%gy, nwv/wY
iZ&rFAFFrYJ- TT FAr^Ty AjýyMFaT FAr FTizF
ďF /T FF/?ř, FTř Fsv 1IA F^A
AT— Twqy * ďA^FFA Yp^kFFry, crFAí%r, cr
^i?FF<?^r ^7 pAmFř k/f ^ ^?%iF %AF Fi Fk^F
r^F^w FoAyy Fi ^iFZřFFiFyďFFc/? — FAF ro/^/^o7FY Foo, Fi
AiFZřFFMY' — JAMESON, F.: Globalization and
Political Stratégy. In: AAy Tyk Rf^Fř^, 4, July — August 2000,
pp. 49-68, particularly, p. 53.
LEWISOHN 2008 (see in note 29); GAVÍN 2007 (see in
4. GrTMw E<2%7F%.' U^FFFkk. 200Y PToFc.* Cc^A^ty Y C. T^^kF^.
mapping mechanisms and thoroughfares initially
guided the way in which art was disseminated in the
streets of the urban public sphere(s), leading to dif-
fering qualitative and individual understandings of
whether the art was in factYY. Early works mapped
the city through walls and subway train Systems,
where the grids of public transit became the exhibi-
tion forum for a multitude of artists, participating
note 29); WACLAWEK 2009 (see in note 25); GARCIA, B.
P.: hFn?<?F NlA % Æ7&77V Y P^Az<Y^7A.
[M.A. Thesis.J Los Angeles : University of Southern Califor-
nia, 2006; SCHACTER, R.: An Ethnography of Iconoclash:
An Investigation into the Production, Consumption and
Destruction of Street-art in London. In: Y -MATA
13, 2008, No. 35, pp. 35-61.
^ JENKINS,S.: In a War Zone Wide-Awake: Jon Naar in New
York, c. 1973. In: TA TFrFT Y GrY^F- New York 2007, pp.
11-14.
77