After we finished up with the daytime install of the Pattison Pillars, some of the volunteers remained behind to begin the prep for the nighttime mission- Illegal Billboards! (We had cool names; the daytime mission was called Ground Team, and the nighttime mission was called Sky Team.)

Above are most of the billboards that the team I was with hit (We did an additional three other billboards). I was rolling with Jordan, Sean, a film crew, (now into their third year of preparing a full-length documentary on public art and advertising- I’m sure I’ll keep you up to date with that…) and Liliana Velásquez, who did an amazing performance as the “Goddess of Transformation” on a large billboard that we whitewashed for her. Her performance was, hands down, the best performance art that I have ever been witness to. It was the moment, the night, the unique, unreproducible specialness of it all, but it was also such a great use of the billboard as a structure. Most ad takeovers only treat the advertising structure as the advertisers do- a place to mount 2D work. Here the whole thing was used and transformed as a stage- the wasteful billboard spotlight became a theater footlight, the platform for installing work became a thin stage, and the billboard, once whitewashed, became the backdrop where anything could happen. Once the billboard was transformed into a stage, you could really see, as if seeing a billboard for the first time, how goddamn huge they are. I mean, it’s an Ad. And it’s big enough to easily stage a performance on. And they are everywhere. That’s kinda crazy, right? It reminded me of the person who sewed a wearable car suit and walked around in it through crowded public places to remind people of just how big and selfish a cars space needs are- especially in a city- whether parked or driving… anyone recall the name of that artist?

Anyway, here’s a video that captures a little of the magic:

…and you can see some of the Billboards done by the other team here!

Hello Friends!

It’s been some time. I can now finally tell you why I’ve been elusive of late. I’ve been away because I’ve been very busy helping to plan and execute TOSAT!

If you’re in Toronto, you may have already heard about it, but if you have not, let me give you the low-down:

After coming up to New York by myself to participate in the first NYSAT, and then with a solid crew of Torontonians for the second NYSAT, Jordan, the creator and driving force behind the SAT project became convinced that Toronto would be an ideal city to bring it to next. I believe it was Sean Martindale who first made the suggestion that TOSAT should happen, shortly after the completion of NYSAT 2!
Since that time, we have been talking, planning and recruiting other help (Martin Reis & Vanessa of DUSPA have both been invaluable!) which culminated last weekend when it all went down! Successfully!

I’d like to thank all the volunteers that installed artwork during the day on the Pattison Pillars (including my own work above, which I did NOT install myself!) and everyone that helped with the Billboards at night, which I will talk more about tomorrow!

Thank you so much everyone!

More Soon!

Here’s a couple gates and sticks in my beloved Toronto!

POSTERCHILD-I AM International Gates & Fencing.

Speaking of Toronto, If you are in it tonight, you should come out to this!

My buddies Sean and Eric are a part of it!

You could also come out to this!

Last Sunday, the 25th, the volunteers of NYSAT 2 hit the streets and did their level best to whitewash illegal advertisements and install artwork in NYC. For my part, I joined with my team- “Team Awesome” or “Team Tonic” (TONYC) – made up of the fabulous TEETH, the intrepid Sean Martindale and Eric Cheung, and the extraordinary I AM.

We strategized. We schemed. We divided up and recombined, Voltron-Style, to conquer.

Below is a video of all the work that our team put up on illegal NPA outdoor advertising billboards. (Except for Eric’s, which I didn’t get any shots of, but you can check out here.)

NPA was out in force this time. Details are still coming in, but it would seem that there were several heated confrontations with NPA’s thuggish employees, and about 7 arrests of participants. Watch Public Ad Campaign for more details. In our case, we were able to avoid any problems again (Team Awesome!) even though NPA was quite active in our area; our works were covered quickly and several of our works ended up on top of freshly pasted ads because NPA got to the whitewashed billboards before we could. In fact, the billboards were sometimes still slick with paste- paste that we were able to take advantage of and put to good use.

Thanks again to Jordan Seiler for organizing this import event. Best of luck to those dealing with arrests- know that you’ve got our suppot. NPA, I think that you’re going to have to deal with this, this time. Your chickens are coming home to roost.

I had more help from the P3 dudes on this one, and TEETH joined us too!

Two people held either end of the stencil up, while 2 people sprayed. The plan was to do the whole wall this way, moving along nice and quickly as a team!

But I was trying to get rid of some old crappy paint. The cans stalled, the shitty-thick paint built up too fast, the stencil buckled, and we only got so far…

Still… looks nice in the sun!

The pattern is taken from an etched window. You can find this window in historic, picturesque Kingston- Limestone City, our nations first capitol!

Last thing I’ll post from that night,

A simple folding technique, inspired by the P3 dudes!

Mad Indeed!

We also threw up a whole bunch of googly-eyes that I’ve had lying around…

Googly-eyes and glowsticks, how can you not have a good night with that combo?

Not sure what to write here…

Seems that I dump most of my lil’ thoughts and cool links into twitter these days.

Today I’ll try and get my twitter feed to display on Blade Diary!

We came across these torn posters! The way they were torn, their colours, it was all perfect!

OK!

I’m taking a bit of time off work, and so updates around here ought to be more regular! More regular and more awesome.

I recently went on a walk with the excellent poster pocket planter dudes. I brought some glowsticks and we used them to highlight things that were missing around the city. It worked out pretty well, if I do say so myself!

We have more collabos planned. Stay tuned!