In New York, there are a lot of roll down security gates.

They have become kinda a thing. Taggers love them, and so, those that hate tagging hate them: it was recently announced that in an effort to beautify the city and curb graffiti, gates are going to be gradually banned from the streets of New York, with a total ban in 2026. In a story about the ban, The New York Times poetically described the impact of New Yorks gates : “New York City’s storefront gates, like its fire escapes and stoops, are there but not quite there: the unnoticed wallpaper of New York at night. They have been battered by vandals and defaced by graffiti taggers. They have secured diamonds, handmade tortellini and other valuable commodities. They have provided the clattering soundtrack of dawn and dusk, the steel canvas of struggling artists, the most compelling evidence that the city does, indeed, sleep.”

“the clattering soundtrack of dawn and dusk”: Can’t you just hear it? Picture the noise rising out as you walk along Brooklyn, the morning chill in the air, the early sun rising, and a warm cup of coffee and greasy egg sandwich thing in hand- from a bodega that just a few hours earlier rolled up their own shutter.

Romantic notions aside, not many will miss these big imposing gates- but writers will. An artist I greatly admire, ESPO, or, as he backronymed during the course of this project: Exterior Surface Painting Outreach, famously made use of these gates, going over all the tags and turning each gate into giant letters, forming his name.

But while taggers have been running around trying to get ups on these gates, another type of crew has been more quietly getting up like mad: gate companies.

I started to notice all these stickers after I AM pointed a few out to me. There were so many types, I began to keep my eyes on the gates, and eventually starting collecting them! Here’s a pic of my final collection. It actually could be alot bigger- I had to stop because I ran out of room! Click for a larger view!


If you look closely, you can see the one that I AM and I designed together. It took us awhile, but we had alot of fun (way too much, really!) looking at the styles and conventions of gate stickers and taking them to the absurd!

So todays update: An absurd gate we found in Brooklyn. An absurd gate sticker for an absurd gate!

This jumbled-up sticker will be my last post of 2009!

as ESPO said : “I’m so focused on next year, I got 20-10 vision.”

Happy new year, friends!

Tag Tuesday!

Hey, this video is inspiring. All the colours and energy. It’s seems to me almost like these kids have ran into the dirty, dangerous, traffic-laden underpass with bubblegum, and starting blowing bubbles, way too large, till they popped against the walls!

This is what tagging looks like to me. Candy and Danger and Fun.

You should watch it.

ALSO,

A little while ago I talked about the possibility that Ron English might be moving to Toronto to set up shop.

Turns out that was all a prank.

Hilarious?

“With the city of Toronto alarmed about the graffiti problem, it seemed timely to satirize the situation by claiming to establish a Graffiti Museum downtown to perpetuate this medium of free expression. The purpose was to promote the subsequent screenings of “Abel Raises Cain” and “Is There Sex After Death?” at the Bloor Cinema in December 2008.”

Man, how is this satire? At all? Even a little?

We live in a world where graffiti “museums” like the one suggested in the Ron English prank were being created during the height of the graffiti crackdown in NYC. This seeming contradiction isn’t satire and it’s nothing new. There is contradiction in the graffiti world. Lots of it. We live in a world where Banksys graffiti work is protected and maintained. So how is this “prank” anything but a totally believable claim, generated to create buzz for a movie screening, later exposed to be a lie?

Laaaammmmmmeeeee.

Wait, there is a prank in here…

I suppose the real prank is successfully getting Torontonians to actually believe that big names really want to move to their fair city. I’d like to see street artists I admire relocate here without it being a cruel joke.

Hey, I hear Banksy and Espo and Seen are moving here to set up a graffiti wonderland of awesomeamazingness.

Just saying.