Hello. We're artists working through collaborative social practice and creative research to understand the ways in which locality is shaped and enacted in the city.
Ok, it’s an advertisement for a paint company, and it strikes me as being a pretty bad idea (in a long-term perspective, I kind of cringe when I see brick buildings painted here in Windsor). Inevitably, a bit history is being completely lost by painting over these walls.
However, the video is stunning and if for a moment we can forget the parts of it that make this a possibly poor long-term choice, it does get my imagination going thinking about how we could repaint blocks of concrete in this city.
On Monday, Norman Eberstein patrolled the alley, The Department of Unusual Certainties decorated their office and did some brainstorming, Thea Jones and Stephen Surlin moved in.
Official Day 1 of SRSI kicked off, lots of new folks starting their projects, vinyl is up, rooms are painted (and almost done), floors are clean, the storefronts are open!!! Come see us.
Over the weekend, I tested out different kinds of paint to use on this shower curtain-type material for an upcoming large banner project.
First, I tried some heavy acrylic paint and spread it evenly three times in different thicknesses. The line with the most paint peeled easier, however, the line with the lightest coat did not peel or chip.
As I waited for those to dry, I also tried cheaper, more liquid-based paint from the dollar store. At first it seemed promising, but as soon as it dried, the paint began chipping away.
The poor excuse for creativity on the left was done with cheap paint. Some of the paint is already chipping and it wasn’t even completely dry at that point. The letters on the right were done to confirm my first tests with the heavy acrylic. The paint seemed to hold better because the material had a bumpy texture to it.
I definitely think the acrylic paint could be a solid choice if it’s applied lightly. Paint would work well for this project because it can quickly cover a large area, especially for the expected size of the banner.
In a little less than two hours, we led a workshop and explosion of creativity with some amazingly great 13-year-olds. We made banners, two really great banners that will be hung up in the community gallery at the WAHC for a month (soon)!
Late last week, over 120 illegal billboards were taken over by Jordan Seiler’s incrediblely ambitious “New York Street Advertising Takeover.”
Organized as a reaction to the hundreds of billboards that are not registered with the city, and therefore are illegal (and yet not prosecuted by New York city), the NYSAT whitewashed and then over 80 artists went and repainted the spaces. Above is just one of the many treatments artists gave the former advertising space.
Conversation about looking into getting a small portion of the huge number of billboards going up in Windsor for artists was brought up at last night’s Artcite. Oh, the things we could do with billboard space.
