Today is the first of four hair follow-ups. The hair begged to be played with- it was braided, like the pasteups were big dolls- but it was also pulled on, like the pasteups encountered their bratty little sisters. Or maybe they were subjected to the flirting techniques of the playground.
Regardless of the reasons, this poor beauty had most of her hair pulled out, and for some reason, put into a box at her feet.
Whatever, she still looks good!
Before the hair-pulling.
ALSO,
Last Monday I was quoted in the London newspaper, The Guardian. (Link goes to online version, quoted below)
Who invoked the ghost of Gustav Mahler?

Katrina Onstad

Monday November 19, 2007

The Guardian

If you live in the east end of downtown Toronto, Gustav Mahler has been hard to avoid lately. His name is scrawled in black or red spray paint across the kind of neighbourhoods where cafes selling spelt muffins are edging out the drug dealers. Mahler has appeared on walls and alleys, at a community centre, across a piece of public art and over a bridge.
“I see it everywhere,” says Joanna, a 21-year-old standing in the cold rain near the intersection of Queen East and Parliament. Behind her, a boarded-up corner store features a 6ft tall GUSTAV MAHLER. “What does it mean?” He was a 19th-century composer. “Oh. How embarrassing.”
Toronto is a notoriously clean city (many Mahlers have been wiped away), but has a lively graffiti scene. Two years ago, the name Val Kilmer started popping up everywhere, followed by Kilmer’s head. Kilmer told a local paper: “I’m bewildered.” The “tags” were eventually revealed as a prank by students at the Ontario College of Art and Design. “That was west side. Those kids couldn’t find their way over here to do Mahler,” scoffs Dennis O’Connor, a large, mustachioed man who runs an art gallery. Like many bloggers, O’Connor jokes that the Toronto Symphony Orchestra may be guerrilla-marketing their upcoming Mahler programme (the TSO denies this).
Oddly, only a few months ago, Toronto graffiti watchers were obsessing online over a ubiquitous stencil of Mahler’s face. The artist goes by the handle Poster Child, and he denies accusations that he’s the Mahler-scrawler, though he understands the composer’s appeal. In an email, he wrote: “It’s an erudite gang sign. If you’re culturally informed enough, you see it, get it, and maybe laugh that someone from your highbrow group is also a dirty tagger.”
In his gallery, O’Connor is hanging photographs for a show. “I love the graffiti. I love being reminded of Death in Venice,” he says. Soon, Mahler comes piping through the sound system. O’Connor sighs. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

If you’re interested, here is some more of the email interview. Only a small slice made the final cut:
Did you see it?

Only online. Not on the street. That doesn’t surprise me though. The
fact is, there were only a handful of these tags, and only in one area
of a big city, and that makes it hard to notice. The larger audience
for this sort of nerd graffiti is online. You might even say it is the
intended audience. The same is true of my work. The majority of people
who will see it, see it online, even though the primary audience may
be intended to be the audience on the street. To put it in London
terms, A Banksy may get seen by thousands on the street, but it’s seen
by billions on the web.
This new phenomenon has created an interesting issue within graffiti
culture. Before, a graffiti artist became famous by saturation and
dedication- they had to put up hundreds, thousands of tags. Now
someone can put up 6 or 7 “Gustav Mahler” tags, and presto, create an
internet impact, make the city blogs, and hell, even make the London
Guardian, in far away England!
This is upsetting, as you can imagine, to the old guard. But the
potential for instant fame is also attractive to other like-minded
people on the internet! So now we have people graffiting the real
world to get up online!
What did you think?

I thought it was interesting, but I did have my reservations.
According to the online comments,
(http://torontoist.com/2007/10/who_is_the_myst.php#comments)
among the targeted surfaces were a community mural and a public
sculpture project. This is definitely poor form, and it is upsetting
for me personally because whoever’s doing it is being a poor diplomat
for graffiti. We are vandals, but within the culture is an unwritten
respect for certain surfaces.
This lack of respect (and handstyle) are reasons why I suspect that
this was someone coming from an internet background rather than a
graffiti background.
Is it stealing your thunder?

Not at all. I have no thunder to steal!
Do you have any theories about what it means?

I think it just means what it means. It’s an inside joke. A erudite
gang sign, if you will. If you’re culturally informed enough, you see
it, get it, and maybe laugh that someone from your high brow group is
also a dirty tagger, repping the dead composers, yo. Mourn ya till I
join ya.
Why were you putting up Mahler images earlier in the year?

Same sort of reasons, I guess.
What’s compelling about him?

I don’t really know. I’m surprised that two people would work with him
in the same city.
Is this new Mahler graffitti adding anything to the cityscape, or is
it just mess?

Both. It adds something, and it is a mess.
How is Toronto in terms of graffitti and street art? Is it a creative
city, a boring city — thoughts on the state of the art?

Pretty good! Not bad! We have a nicely entrenched graffiti culture,
and on the street art side, we have some exciting artists like Specter
(http://www.specterart.com/) and Faux Reel (http://www.fauxreel.ca/)
working in the city. We also have the draconian rules
http://www.bladediary.com/?p=212
But we don’t have ASBO’s or CCTV cameras everywhere!
Bansky, if you’re reading this, Come on over for a visit, the waters fine!
How long have you been putting your work out there in the city?

Since I moved here about 2 years ago.