29 Apr 2012

The veiw from here


One minute stormy, the next minute fine in old Brunswick town ( thanks to Miss Foo for the blue sky pic.)


Gleaners Inc. first grafitti. 
After posting the first pic on instagram Geekamour suggested I add my own little message. As I mentioned on Face book, I can understand why urban graf peeps find guerilla knitting annoying. But it's not flippin permanent and it's a god sight more attractive than texta scribbles.
Thoughts?

5 comments:

  1. Love it. Can't understand the objection. Grafitti knitting is lovely, harmless, sweet, gorgeous and makes all our lives better in my opinion. I did a project on it a few years ago in a small town. Its great! more of it I reckon.

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  2. Knit graffiti is beautiful - texta scribble is most definitely not!

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  3. Hi Gleaners Inc. et. al!

    I kind of understand why there is a reaction against guerilla knitting. In brief: Public art is essentially a reclamation of public space. That means you need to think carefully about who you’re reclaiming it for and from, and why. It may be fine around your own home (but be careful of decorating trees as it harms wildlife), but in public it is a definite political statement. A quote:

    "Interventions into public space that have a cute, indie aesthetic (like yarn-bombing, seed-bombing, paste-ups, and to a lesser extent stencil graffiti) are primarily carried out by white middle-class art student types. They are tolerated, seen as tourist attractions, and often sponsored by government art bodies. They’re also sure signs of gentrification.

    Compare the reaction to tagging and traditional graf. They’re also forms of public art, but are criminalised, heavily policed, and widely perceived to bring down the tone and property values of an area. I’d say this is because they are reclamations of public space primarily by people of colour and working class people."

    Guerilla knitting may be aesthetically pleasing to those participating, but it serves literally no purpose and pretty much marks any area as the property of twee white hipster-kids. This may be why this particular sharpie-wielder has protested?

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    Replies
    1. The irony is most of the tags and sharpie comments on our building are by middle class white kids trying to be edgy.
      No political messages or urban commentary....just bored teens who fancy themselves as gangstas!

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    2. I might add I'm all for keeping the rents down and putting the breaks on gentrification in Brunswick. Luckily the regular shootings and crime are helping this cause! The tagging and illegal graf is small fishies compared to our mafia goings on !

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