Title: Evidence
Dates: March 17 - April 30, 2000
Location: Consolidated Works, Seattle, WA
Artists: featuring TWIST / Barry McGee (San Francisco), with Seattle-based artists AMAZE, ANGEL, APPLE, CAUSE-B, EGO, KHAZ, PARS, II SICK, SIRE-ONE
San Francisco graffiti writer and installation artist Barry McGee said in a recent interview that graffiti is “all about the evidence” – evidence that a single individual has been in a particular spot. Graffiti is a distinctively urban art form and the expression of individuality in the midst of an urban environment is poignant and incredibly powerful. The evidence that is also left is often that of criminal activity. This exhibition does not set out to glamorize illegal acts of graffiti, but rather to spark a dialogue about a distinctive cultural movement that has existed in full force for over twenty years.
Is graffiti art? In considering this question one has to acknowledge there are some that consider graffiti to be nothing more than vandalism, and those who participate to be social miscreants. Tagging is generally unapproachable to those who can’t read the code, and even when decipherable it represents the markings of an individual who sets themselves apart from society. Graffiti developed and persists as a creative form of expression in response to societies’ narrow conception of “artwork” as something presented in a studio, gallery, museum, or otherwise sanctioned setting. That is precisely why graffiti is as powerful an artistic statement as it is and continues to thrive. Therefore, it can not be disqualified from being assessed in artistic terms: strong linear qualities, compositional complexity, site-specific visual problem solving and remarkable technical precision.
Graffiti is temporal, as walls are claimed and reclaimed over time. The art lives for the moment, with no regard to its archival nature. It exists as a fleeting, ever-changing element of our urban landscape. Illegal graffiti is created under time pressure, forcing a quick artistic response to various exterior architectural spaces, resulting in highly spontaneous and gestural works. Writers commissioned to do murals, or those painting on sanctioned walls are involved in the more performative aspects of creating work in full view of the public eye.
During an interview with Barry McGee, Walker Art Center curator Eugenie Joo proposed that graffiti interrupts the urban landscape. This interruption is vital in an age when we are rarely taken off guard aesthetically. The pace of contemporary life, and societies increasing reliance on the Internet and mass media for aesthetic fulfillment, has dulled sensitivity to what is real. Cause-B, a participating artist in Evidence makes reference to spray can art as being a “true” art form, in that it hasn’t changed in its use of materials or its objective since the beginning of the movement. Unaffected by advancing technology, and untouched by commercial success, graffiti writers remain pure in their creative intent.
Evidence was initially inspired by the works of Barry McGee, or TWIST, who has devoted more than a decade of his life to graffiti writing and most recently large-scale installation work. The installation at Consolidated Works is an amalgamation of graffiti tags, expressive and delicate figurative elements, and biomorphic teardrop forms layered onto a background of flat crimson. Eliminating any attempt at preciousness, McGee “buffs”, or selectively paints over various elements of the composition, allowing the paint to spontaneously drip at random. The weight and burdens associated with contemporary existence is evident in the city worn faces of disenfranchised heads, floating on a composition sinking and slumping slowly toward the ground. McGee’s crossover work sits in contrast to the murals created by artists who work on the street exclusively. AMAZE from San Francisco joins graffiti writers from two Seattle crews, By Any Means and Mad Crew, and the independent writer PARS, in a two-week residency resulting in site specific murals covering every wall in the gallery.
This exhibition forces the issue of examining artists that are outside of social acceptance – exactly where they want to be. By transferring this art form into a gallery setting, it is the intent of Evidence to ask mainstream audiences to confront their preconceived notions of graffiti.
Is graffiti art? In considering this question one has to acknowledge there are some that consider graffiti to be nothing more than vandalism, and those who participate to be social miscreants. Tagging is generally unapproachable to those who can’t read the code, and even when decipherable it represents the markings of an individual who sets themselves apart from society. Graffiti developed and persists as a creative form of expression in response to societies’ narrow conception of “artwork” as something presented in a studio, gallery, museum, or otherwise sanctioned setting. That is precisely why graffiti is as powerful an artistic statement as it is and continues to thrive. Therefore, it can not be disqualified from being assessed in artistic terms: strong linear qualities, compositional complexity, site-specific visual problem solving and remarkable technical precision.
Graffiti is temporal, as walls are claimed and reclaimed over time. The art lives for the moment, with no regard to its archival nature. It exists as a fleeting, ever-changing element of our urban landscape. Illegal graffiti is created under time pressure, forcing a quick artistic response to various exterior architectural spaces, resulting in highly spontaneous and gestural works. Writers commissioned to do murals, or those painting on sanctioned walls are involved in the more performative aspects of creating work in full view of the public eye.
During an interview with Barry McGee, Walker Art Center curator Eugenie Joo proposed that graffiti interrupts the urban landscape. This interruption is vital in an age when we are rarely taken off guard aesthetically. The pace of contemporary life, and societies increasing reliance on the Internet and mass media for aesthetic fulfillment, has dulled sensitivity to what is real. Cause-B, a participating artist in Evidence makes reference to spray can art as being a “true” art form, in that it hasn’t changed in its use of materials or its objective since the beginning of the movement. Unaffected by advancing technology, and untouched by commercial success, graffiti writers remain pure in their creative intent.
Evidence was initially inspired by the works of Barry McGee, or TWIST, who has devoted more than a decade of his life to graffiti writing and most recently large-scale installation work. The installation at Consolidated Works is an amalgamation of graffiti tags, expressive and delicate figurative elements, and biomorphic teardrop forms layered onto a background of flat crimson. Eliminating any attempt at preciousness, McGee “buffs”, or selectively paints over various elements of the composition, allowing the paint to spontaneously drip at random. The weight and burdens associated with contemporary existence is evident in the city worn faces of disenfranchised heads, floating on a composition sinking and slumping slowly toward the ground. McGee’s crossover work sits in contrast to the murals created by artists who work on the street exclusively. AMAZE from San Francisco joins graffiti writers from two Seattle crews, By Any Means and Mad Crew, and the independent writer PARS, in a two-week residency resulting in site specific murals covering every wall in the gallery.
This exhibition forces the issue of examining artists that are outside of social acceptance – exactly where they want to be. By transferring this art form into a gallery setting, it is the intent of Evidence to ask mainstream audiences to confront their preconceived notions of graffiti.
