I have a very exciting announcement to make- something I’ve been getting ready to tell you for quite some time: I’m developing a New Show in Toronto!!! This will be my second solo show, and something a bit different. The show is titled, An Appeal to Consequences. and is explained in the blurb below:

Do you hate Graffiti? Have you ever thought “How would you like it if I did this to you?” Visit An Appeal to Consequences at 52 McCaul starting November 2nd and you’ll get your chance. See 20 fresh portraits of Toronto’s top graffitos- 20 painstakingly crafted effigies ready for your cathartic vandalism. 20 claims to fame that need defending and invite defacing. 20 opportunities to make your voice heard and your emotions felt. All the drama and vitality of the street in a gallery setting. Don’t miss it!

An Appeal to Consequences begins November 2nd, 2010 at 52 McCaul, with a closing ceremony on the 20th.

************************************

Hello, my name is Posterchild.

I occupy an interesting position. Although my work receives mainstream attention, many from the mainstream strongly dislike me because I am seen to be a promoter of Graffiti, which they are passionately against. The irony is that many Graffiti Writers dislike me just as strongly. To them, I am an ignorant outsider, taking from the culture without understanding it and representative of every art student in the city that has ever gone over graffiti, which they are passionately against.

I have often been frustrated by my position between the two worlds, stuck between two extremes- I’m an “Unwanted Ambassador”- aggressively thrust into that role by those that hate graffiti, and resented for that role by traditional graffitios who never asked for me to be their representative.

However, In this show, I am trying to embrace my position as the Unwanted Ambassador, facilitating communications and reparations between the mainstream and the street. Perhaps even encouraging some measure of understanding between the two groups.

Maybe just some cathartic revenge or humbling comeuppance.

I like graffiti. I began to dabble in it around 2001, but I wasn’t very good at it and I didn’t feel like I fit into the culture. So I changed my name and approach, becoming Posterchild in 2003, and since 2006 I have run bladediary.com, where I feature my work on a daily basis. Since 2008 I have curated Vandalist, a weekly column featuring street art and graffiti from around Toronto published by Torontoist. My posts to these websites have often been featured on sites like Gothamist, Animal, Boing Boing, and Wooster Collective. As an anonymous artist who works in largely under the cover of night, It’s in the comments to these articles that I get most of my feedback. Of course, a lot of it is negative:

“I still don’t get how someone can modify/alter/deface another person’s property and be called an “artist”. First off, it’s an insult to true artist’s and it’s glorifying an illegal activity. Why the need to practice their “art” on something not owned by them? If that defines a graffiti “artist”, then they are truly petty criminals. How can anyone celebrate the destruction of someone else’s property? This building owner did not commission this work on his or her wall, they didn’t ask for this to be painted. IT’S ILLEGAL, whether you think the art or the message has meaning, it is still ILLEGAL. Mr. Vandalist, if I spray paint a large penis on the hood of your car tonight, in order to express my feelings of the car as an extension of one’s manhood, will you put that picture up on your site?”
– DINGER: Torontoist, Vandalist: Nice Female Dog, Jan 22, 2010

The other way I get feedback is directly on the street, and of course, a lot of that is negative as well:

“Posterchild is a Fag”
-BOOKS: Toronto, Chinatown: Alleyway Door, April 2008

I encounter the same comments and arguments over and over again. Familiar online comments include: Graffiti isn’t art. Graffiti is illegal, and therefore bad. Showcasing any Graffiti online is a promotion of all graffiti and will encourage more of it- and perhaps the most common: “How would you like it if I did this to you?”

On the street, the most common reaction is removal or defacement of my work and the most common comment is “Fag.” (This peculiar homophobia common in graffiti is one of the reasons I felt like I didn’t belong in the culture.)

While these comments are stale reoccurrences for me, I always try and respond to each new one sincerely. (If only in my own mind- I avoid having beef on the street and arguments on the internet) I genuinely think that it’s my responsibility as someone who has chosen to work in the public realm to earnestly consider all of the complaints and concerns of that public.

I’ve tried to tackle before them in many different ways, and An Appeal to Consequences is my latest attempt to deal with that most prevalent complaint: “How would you like it if I did this to you?” I would like to allow all the people I’ve offended, whether by my own work, or by my promotion of the work of others to have that heavily requested chance to return the favour.

An Appeal to Consequences will feature the portraits/representations of 20 Torontonian artists, including myself. These 20 names on this list were not easy to choose, and I agonized over many of the names that are and are not on it. I tried to pick names that have been important to Toronto, have had a special impact on Toronto, or names that I’ve seen again and again over my years here. In particular, I’ve tried to pick currently active Bombers- having work up on the streets of Toronto being the most important criteria to making the list. The artists on this list are varied, in fact, they may not like me, or each other. As an outsider, I was able to create a list based as much as I could on merit, without falling to the cronyism that graffiti is prone to. You might think key people, even legends, have been left out; I agree. You might not approve of everyone on it, sure, but you won’t be able to deny that there are some true kings here:

TEASE
TRIK
GRAMS
OCHRE
MANR
OREK
CAUSR
UTAH
SPUD
SCAR
BOOKS
GLOBE/LOOTS
EYES
FAUX REEL
ALPHA
SPECTER
ANSR
RASPER
CHUCK
POST

These individuals have all made an impression on our city. You may recognize some of these names from your rooftops, your garage doors, your walls, or perhaps from a notorious guerrilla advertising campaign. If they allow it, I am going to paint these individuals portraits, and yes, that does glorify them in some ways, and yes, perhaps that can be seen as a promotion of all graffiti- but if that upsets you, I’m giving you the chance to respond.

Will anyone actually come and buff these Artists portraits like they do their work on the street, or will they lose their nerve? Will the white gallery walls stay their hand? Will they show respect, like the Artists do, to those who have passed away? Will the irony of becoming vandals themselves be enough to stop them from defacing the portraits? Will they target all the portraits or only mine? Will graffiti writers even allow me to represent them? How will they react to being “buffed” in a gallery setting? Will they come back and reclaim their spot? Will beef from the street come into the gallery, resulting in artists going over each other?

There are a lot of unknowns, and this show is as much a social experiment as it is aesthetic exhibition. Unlike many gallery exhibitions of street art and graffiti that only transport a de-fanged aesthetic indoors, An Appeal to Consequences will attempt to bring all the conflict, excitement, danger and drama that makes street work so alive and vital into the gallery setting.

An Appeal to Consequences will take place at 52 McCaul opening November 2nd, 2010, with a closing ceremony on the 20th.

A NOTE TO ARTISTS ON THE LIST:
Please Contact Me! posterchilds.blade.diary@gmail.com

A NOTE ABOUT THE ARTISTS ON THE LIST:
I have already been in contact with several of the artists on the list, and a few have declined to be a part of the show, either because they don’t want their faces or identities offered up for defacement, or because they are “sick of you art students going over doorways of history with that artsy bullshit” or because they don’t want to be a part of the show for other personal reasons, which is totally fair. I’ve only included their names here for posterity, so the initial list is complete.

A NOTE ON THE ARTWORKS:
Many of these Artists, like myself, will want to maintain their anonymity, so theirs will be less literal “Portraits”. Others are more open about their identities, and I hope they will trust me to render their faces, unconcealed, as is the case in the work above: Specter. He is a good buddy and a great artist. As a co-founder of the notorious KOPS crew (KPS) and one of the most innovative artists to ever work in Toronto, his place on the list was never in question. The portrait features two of his best works, in my opinion.

A NOTE ON THE TITLE:
An Appeal to Consequences

Argumentum ad Consequentiam

Arguing that a proposition is true or false because it has good or bad consequences- but we cannot determine the “truth-value” of a idea from its consequences alone.

“In an argumentum ad consequentiam the premises deal only with the consequences that are likely to ensue from accepting the conclusion, and not with its truth. Logically speaking, it is entirely irrelevant that certain undesirable consequences might derive from the rejection of a thesis, or certain benefits accrue from its acceptance.” (Rescher, 1964, p. 82.)

If P, then C.
C is undesirable.
Therefore, P is false.

IE: If Climate Change is real, then our whole way of life must change
That is very undesirable,
So Climate Change is false.

OR

If you think Graffiti is OK, Then I’ll scratch curses into your car, tag all over your house, or piss on your couch.
You wouldn’t like that,
So Graffiti is not OK.

The difference? An appeal to consequences is a logical fallacy, but a valid construction in ethical arguments.

A NOTE ON INCLUSION OF MY SELF-PORTRAIT IN SHOW:
These Artists will hopefully be allowing me to create an image of them that will be open to destruction- how can I ask them to do that and not step up to it myself? Additionally, what if people are mostly upset at me for staging the show, or for my own work? I need to offer myself as a target as well. Fair is Fair. Of course, I can’t deny that I’ll be proud to be counted among Torontos Top Twenty, even if it is just me doing the counting.

A NOTE ON THE DEFACEMENT OF ARTWORKS:
Please deface only the artworks, not the gallery- who has been generous enough to host this risky show. Some materials will be provided, but you are welcome to bring your own marking tools, so long as they are not toxic or hazardous to the health of the other people in the gallery.

Of course, you are welcome to come and simply view the artworks! Even if the works somehow manage to make it through the complete run of the show untouched, I think that will still be a very interesting outcome of this experiment. And of course, the show will still serve as a fantastic primer to Graffiti culture in general, and as a survey of Graffiti in Toronto today.

A little something on the waterfront.

Hey, all of the talks from AAAA are now up! You can check them all out here! (If you are so inclined)

Here are some direct links to save you time: Jason! Jordan! Specter!

And here is my own talk- embedded:

Thanks To Matt for recording, and thanks to Jason for capturing and providing these files!

I would like to thank everyone who came out to AAAA last Friday! I’d also like to thank the three incredible artists who took the time and energy to share their work- true to character- without any financial compensation. Gifts from volunteers, all. I’d also like to thank Wonderland for being such great hosts- and finally, I’d also like to apologize for being so sick and spacey. I suddenly got a very high fever on Wednesday- and while the fever had broke by Friday- I was still rather exhausted, sweaty, and out of it on Friday evening. Grandpa Batman was feeling mighty ill, my friends.

I was dressed as granpa batman

It wasn’t just an act- I was a true old man: with achy joints, frequent naps, low appetite, and lots of complaints about the youth of today. Therefore, my preparations for the event were a rather hampered, slowed, stressed and last minute affair- so I apologize for any of the weird organizational stuff! For example, instead of welcoming you to the space, explaining the order of speakers, listing the locations, titles and artists responsible for the new murals and works in the space, the location of the bathrooms, or anything even slightly useful, I rambled about art for a bit. This is because I had literally JUST woken up from a nap, had a pounding headache, and additionally, never planned the introduction out in the slightest.

I also forgot to turn on the new post-pixelator I installed in the space! Oh well- you’ll get to see it when it hits the street, and it’ll be SPECTACULAR.

In the meantime, to correct at least one of my oversights, todays update is the mural I created for the event. This will mark the second time I’ve posted non-street art work to the site! (the first was here)

for those of you who couldn’t make the talks but wanted to hear them, not to fret: we recorded them, and I will upload the footage, separated by artist, as soon as possible.

My thanks again to Jason, Jordan & Gabriel!

New York: The Big City, The Big Apple, The City of the World, The City that Never Sleeps, The City of Dreams.

I’d like to suggest a another new nickname: “The City of Scaffolding”

The stuff is everywhere in New York. It’s almost a permanent feature. I like to imagine that there is a set amount of scaffolding alive in the city, and even when it is cut back after months of colonization, new stuff sprouts up somewhere else- and the balance is maintained.

I’ve been trying to think of good ways to take advantage of all this scaffolding, and here is one thing I came up with. I don’t know about you, but when scaffolding seems maybe out of reach, I try to jump up and touch it- just to see if I can… or to see if my friends walking with me can’t! I expand on that instinct here, with the HI-5!

Its use is being demonstrated by Mr. Jason Eppink- AND HEY, did you know that Jason, Jordan Seiler, Specter and myself will be giving a talk TONIGHT?

IT’s TRUE! You should check it out: all the deets are here.

Video:

I’m very excited to announce a very special and exciting event!

Art, Advertising, Activism & Alchemy:

The power of public art. The problem of ubiquitous, aggressive, and even illegal advertising. The renaissance of urban activism. The alchemical conversion of public spaces when these concerns meet. These four artists, with different but overlapping practices, represent the transformative intersection of art, advertising & activism. Speaking together for the first time ever:

Jordan Seiler, of the provocative Public Ad Campaign: replacer of advertising with beautiful art and organizer of the staggeringly ambitious New York Street Art Takeovers.

Gabriel “Specter” Reese: the pioneering Artist, emerging from a traditional graffiti background to become the creator of remarkably innovative street works that deal with socially marginalized people and places.

Jason Eppink: the Urban Alchemist transforming video ads into video art with a simple filter and trashed chairs into treasured seating by clever relocation.

Posterchild: the incredibly prolific creator of hundreds of conceptual and sensitive street works, including sculptural, kinetic, robotic and interactive installations, guerrilla gardens, stencils, and of course posters.

Come see these distinguished and award winning persons give individual talks about their practices, followed by a panel Q&A with all four artists. Also on display: 20 screens featuring past street works of all artists and the unveiling of new mural works by Posterchild and I Am. (http://iamis.me/) Drinks are available all evening.

Friday, November 20th, 2009
At Wonderland: 3801, 23rd Avenue in Astoria, Queens.
7pm: Doors open, 8pm: Artists talks, 9:30pm: Panel Q&A

Free to Enter

http://www.publicadcampaign.com

http://www.specterart.com

http://jasoneppink.com

http://www.bladediary.com

Last one!

Jesus is signing off with the ol’ Postronimos.

Watch the Video!

sigh… I already miss NY.

But it’s so expensive. Check out this ACCURATE vinyl stick I spotted down there.

Hey, you know who’s been really killing it on the streets of New York lately?

Our boy Specter has!

It’s a Mounted Monday!

Another attempt at branching out from locks.

It didn’t work super well. Brass just takes the engraving so much better than steel.

Hey, are you a Torontonian?

Then you may want to check out these two events:

The first is a show at the AGO: Remix: New Modernities in a Post-Indian World. Seems interesting?

Also, I got an email from Faux Reel. He and Specter will be at a book launch for their last show, A City Renewal Project.

Deets!: