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Street Artist Proposes on Subway Signage
1. From page 1, "The Point is to Produce Ourselves, Rather Than Things That Enslave Us": "In New York City, during the summer of 2006, a group of co-conspirators and provocateurs began a program that confronted a cultural realm which revealed a content of commodity recuperation behind the facade of pseudo opposition. By challenging what the experts term 'street art', our actions have, in turn, uncovered an alliance between the coercive force of the state and the "creative class" of the artist. We began these series of actions as a critique of rationality. The present and banal methods of confronting the prevailing social order through street art have become rotten and rigidified into methods of commodification. We identified certain works that we felt emphasized the basis of our criticism and subsequently destroyed them with splashes of paint. Alongside the remnants we left wheat pasted texts that offered no more than a vulgar and audacious insult that was never meant to be anything close to a thorough critique. To further exemplify the disrespect we felt for the work and its creator, we arrogantly mixed the wheat paste with shards of glass... we disturbed their cozy little scene (they) denounced us for our "negativity" and "elitism"... it matters little if our opponents mock us or insult us... the essential thing is that they talk of us and preoccupy themselves with us... To be honest, our work was never forseen to receive as much recognition as it did... we can assure everyone that not only are we in larger numbers than you think, but we are comprised of both men and women."
They go on to say that they're not interest in dialog with street artists, that they didn't do the recent Astor Place splashing, and that in the future, they will adopt "entirely new targets and tactics." They conclude the introductory essay with "We do not want a world where the guarantee of not dying of hunger is paid for by the certainty of dying of boredom."
2. Excerpts from "Interview With Myself: On the Subject of Street Art and Its Destruction"
"Q: why did you choose art as the field to attack?" Answer: a long story about going to museums with his mom and not liking the art on the walls there-- a feeling that continues to this day. "The (many) art openings I've attented feel like a mix between a cattle auction and a middle school dance." But he did like the Surrealists. Then he got interested in street art, through the local anarchist scene, but felt "there seemed to be no acknowledgment whatsoever that street art is a bourgeois-sponsored rebellion." He also resented that some artists were making "fantastically lucrative" livings off their art. He also disliked the alliance of the streetart and hipster gallery/sneaker/clothing-brand scene, and the co-opting of streetart by advertising. Overall: "it allows over-educated middle class kids to feel a sense of purpose and danger without exposing themselves to any real risk or unpleasant work." By targeting streetart, the Splasher wanted to "take the wind out of some peoples' sails"-- especially rich streetartists, and brands like Vans which sponsor them. He closes the interview with a promise: "don't worry, you'll be hearing from us again."
3. An exegesis on their signage: "When a Wise Man Points at the Moon, The Fool Looks at The Finger."
The Splasher resents that people didn't understand the signs and thought he (we'll just keep using the singular) has bad grammar. And they don't like that the signs have been described as "manifestos", "communiques", or "critiques." Then there's a few paragraphs of bullshit about the use of language in politics. And he explains his impenetrable prose thusly: "Our language is difficult only to the extent that our situation is. The path to simplicity is the most complex of all." Nope, we don't understand neither.
Pages 6 and 7 contain full scale annotated versions of their screeds-- the following comes from the copious footnotes. Mostly he just insults streetartists: "we are really giving you much more historical credit than you deserve... you truly pioneer nothing but your own decay... your work is cheap feed for grotesque swine." They claim that "we actually did put glass in the wheat pastes which were unreasonably removed with relative speed without any evidence of bloodies hands." He also hates all the bloggers out there who misinterpreted the message: "every DIY journalist (a horrific crossbreed indeed)..." The rest mainly insults the reader. Reading this made us think of Faile's critique-- that the Splashing was cool, but all this intellectual bullshit would have been better left unsaid.
4. Pages 8 and 9 contain a long essay entitled "Gentrification: Let's Give the Artist a Hand." It accuses the artist-class of being a tool of property establishment-- a tool used to redevelop a neighborhood before it's given part and parcel to the rich, at the expense of the poor residents who lived there in the first place: "An art school degree is a choice; eviction usually isn't." Streetartists, according to the Splasher, play a signaling role in gentrification: "by creating a public display of their work on the walls of impoverished areas... (they) advertise to real estate agents that an area is ripe for the picking." They cite other examples in the East Village in the 1980s and LES in the 1990s, and say that Banksy's mural in Williamsburg "might have shifted the (neighborhood's) gentrification into overdrive... We certainly relished destroying it."
5. Excerpts from "A Case Study on the Recuperative Abilities of Capital Through Street Art"
This one is totally impenetrable-- something about aesthetics and the means of production. Try this on for size: "with the process of production dialectically connected to social relations, culture, as an aggregate of tradition, values, institutions, rituals, customs, and typical activities conceived of as separate from the realm of economic subservience..." Maybe they threw in one nonsense essay just to see if you were paying attention. The rest of the essay appears to be about Swoon-- the Splasher examines some apparent contradictions in her work-- for instance, the apparent conflict of putting up portraits of the poor and impoverished, while participating in the capitalistic art scene. He also criticizes her for glamorizing and exploiting poverty-- "nowhere (in her work ) to be found is the necessary disgust, nausea, and repulsion that occurs when one is forced to view the ramifications of the impoverishment of city life. Instead we are rescued by the aesthetically pleasing portrayals of the poor... (she) has succeeded in making even abject poverty... into an object of enjoyment." He also accuses Swoon of using these depictions of the poor to advance her own career. That seems rather off-base-- if there's any artist who seems to have a genuine concern for the interests of the oppressed, it seems like it's her. Anyway, they seem to be accusing Swoon of being an agent of the oppressive social regime.
6. Almost done! Some excerpts from "Crime is the Highest Form of Sensuality or How Graffiti Never Was"
This is a "review" of the Brooklyn Museum graffiti show from last summer. In a head-note, the Splasher claims that the person who dropped the fliers at the Swoon panel in November was not "this Zac character that the media was so certain of." The Splasher did not like the show, calling it "regurgitated vandalism gone mad with territoriality." The rest is total Splasherese and impossible to understand. At the bottom of the page, however, there's a weird Ms. Pacman ad, where Ms. Pacman is criticizing female graffiti artists, saying "These women are becoming men. But in the end it will only mean a few more men. The difference between the sexes is not whether one does or doesn't have a penis. It is whether or not one is an integral part of the phallic masculine economy." Oh Ms. Pacman, you're always talking such crazy smack!
7. Excerpts from "The Corrupted Poets", another "review"-- this one of the recent Faile show that got disrupted by the Stinkers and their incendiary device.
In the essay, the Splasher seems fairly gleeful about disrupting the show-- "tonight's event is indeed, cause for celebration." That should put to rest any doubt about the connection between the Splasher and the Stinker-- and also end any speculation that the stinkbomb incident at the Obey show on Saturday was not connected to the current story. The Splasher repeatedly refers to Faile as "Failure"-- and at the top of the article, there's a recaptioned Faile piece, criticizing Faile's representation of women. The rest of the piece is just negative crit of Faile's art-- "the artist as a process of fetishization can be nothing other than the bedmate of the businessman."
8. On the penultimate page, there is a Faile piece captioned "capital sucks from the teat of idols", with the heads of Marc and Sara from WoosterCollective superimposed over each naked breast. At the bottom, the page reads: "Your compromises with capital are not some side deal you make to support your art; it is essential to it, capital is woven into your production. This makes you specialists, role players in the market of commodities, capable of producing only alienation and more commodities, shot through with technique and acres of pretense."
9. On the back cover, there is a picture of a boy with a paint spray gun connected to a backpack reservoir of paint-- not too dissimilar from the "SuperSoaker" theory we suggested a few months back. Also, an email address: ifwedidit@gmail.com.
Some final thoughts:
A) Why are anarchists always so verbose? These "criticisms" could have been boiled down to five bullet points-- or just left out entirely. This much verbal production suggests a certain insecurity-- a certain fear of being shut out and ignored. That feels a little sad.
B) Is this the end? Is there anything more to this story? Would it matter if we knew exactly who the Splasher was and where they lived? Does it matter if they splash more pieces? And barring a serious escalation in their game, is this an appropriate place to stop writing about them?
UPDATE: The Splasher is a villain in the latest video from The Burg.
UPDATE: someone sent in a link to the 2005 Clamour Magazine piece on Swoon mentioned in the New York Magazine article. It was written by one Zach Dempster. A little more googling led us to his MySpace page (he also has a Facebook account, which seems revanchist), and from there, to his Flickr account, which contains a Splasheresque quote:
Art is a prisoner of its phantasms and its function as magic; it hangs on bourgeois walls as a sign of power, it flickers along the peripeties of our history like a shadow-play--but is it artistic?... I have discovered nothing here, not even America. I choose to consider Art as a useless labour, apolitical and of little moral significance. -M Broodthaers
His Flickr account also contains a picture of a splashing, and a picture of a Splasherese manifesto. Here is what appears to be a self-portrait of Zach-- as well as a Myspace video featuring him.
The Flickr quote and photos, combined with the testimony of a few people who say that they have intimate knowledge of Zac's role in the project, leaves us little doubt about the Splasher's identity. Barring any new evidence, we're going to declare this mystery solved-- the Splasher is Zach Dempster (or a group of friends, led by or featuring Zach Dempster), with anarchistic and revolutionary leanings, a penchant for verbal loquacity, and an appetite for streetart destruction. Where should we point this Magical Mystery Van next?
UPDATE: One of our diligent readers has found a link between James Cooper, the kid arrested in the Shepard Fairey stinkbombing last week, and Zach-- they're friends on Myspace and have left comments on each other's pages. Here's James' Myspace profile. While not rock-solid evidence, it does suggest the Splasher is the work of a small group of friends, mainly living in Brooklyn.
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seriously, enough with the slasher posts. you're obviously just encouraging them by giving them so much coverage.
woops meant to say splasher. not slasher.
BREAKING NEWS!!!!!111!!!ONE!!!11!!1!!
Why are artists so obsessed with gentrification anyway?
please stop with this crap.really, i think you're the only "media" that cares about this- does it even occur to you that this person or people are playing you for publicity? duh.
A group of kids passed this paper out on Saturday at Shepard Fairey's opening at Jonathan LeVine Gallery.
I like the splasher coverage. Keep it up.
[6] you're on to something!! time for an update to the post!!!
borrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring. get a job, kids.
you guys pay too much attention to him/them/it.
if you guys ignore them. they'll go away.
I know what you're implying garbnzgh, and no, the kids were 100% NOT affiliated with Jonathan LeVine Gallery.
I like the splasher coverage too.
Or Shepard Fairey...
Let's give 'em some attention. At least there seems to be something behind it.
At our leisure, we'll update this post with some excerpts from the various texts inside the newspaper
Please, don't rush.........no....please...don't....rush....
I wonder why they didn't just email it to the Gothamist office. Who uses snail mail for important stuff anymore?
I don't know. Someone that spends this much time putting together a document will want people to see it, through Ghotamist or elsewhere. 'Don't like it don't read it' i say
Gravity's Rainbow meets Das Capital?
Please tell me that was tongue in cheek (it doesn't translate well over the internets).
And please stop treating this like a serious movement.
Without reading this tract I can already tell you what it says: "We have too much time on our hands."
For all we know, this could be the latest issue of n + 1.
It definitely seems like someone has taken a few too many Art History classes mixed with a distinct Marxist slant.
As for Agent00Soul-artists are always concerned with gentrification because they are generally considered to be the first wave of gentrification. They move into a poor neighborhood because they are often poor and then get mad when they see faces that look like their own moving into "their" neighborhood after them. It's juvenile but their furor is often justified because they will be displaced just like all the other residents.
Maybe it's just me but seeing how rapid the displacement is, why aren't we all concerned about gentrification. Especially considering that in NYC, most of the middle and working class people I know are being displaced for disgustingly boring high-rises that often times do not add enough units to actually meet the needs of the people living and wanting to live in that neighborhood.
Jake posts stories on the Splasher because he's a devoted fan of "street art," better known to most of us as graffiti. Any attack by the Splasher is an attack on Jake himself and the Splasher is enemy number one as far as Jake is concerned. You might as well ask him to stop all the graffiti posts.
i was into the splasher when i thought it was some snotty kids fucking with "street artists".. now this? ugghhhh
Why do people think everyone wants to read their crappy manifesto?
Personally, I enjoy the coverage. Graffiti being vandalized. Who doesn't love irony?
I'm also very curious to read the Splasher's Manifesto now, too. I hadn't expected it to contain much more than "Those who cannot create, splash." Because let's face it--that's his/her/their only real m.o.
why are jake's graf/street art posts always fifteen times the length of other gothamist posts?? please move the jump up, jake.
Wait, I'm confused, is this from the "splasher" or the "stinker"
Splasher may be over the top, but you have to admit, he has a point about artists and gentrification. They're the storm troops of redevelopment whether they want to admit it or not. Greenwich Village, SoHo, LES, Williamsburg, Bed-Stuy and Bushwick...the list goes on and on.
Wow, shout out to American Studies! If only mom were proud of my degree!
Ooh, the Spasher Manifesto!
ooh yay they have a tl;dr manifesto. What they clearly want is attention. And here you guys are publishing the whole thing. Hmmmm.
WHO FUCKING CARES?
I for one find this totally hilarious. Fake artists conspiring with fake journalists to create a fake controversy.
The only thing the splasher has accomplished with all of this is to promote those artists they despise through supplying them with close to constant media coverage the past 6th months, so as a fan of street art I just want to thank them for introducing these artists to so many people. Cheers guys.
"... Fake artists conspiring with fake journalists to create a fake controversy ..."
Bravo.
my god. what a bunch of nonsensical asshats these guys are.
when their moronic psuedo-anarchist quasi-boho asses have kids that resent them for sucking at life so much, they're going to wonder why they wasted so much time with this shit.
oh man. Sounds like one of those poorly-written anarchist manifestos.
These guys have nothing against The Contours of Dallas and LAR of Los Angeles, which are true rebels of Street Art. These "Splasher" kids are way over theier heads with this "manifesto." Get around kids...
The Splasher is Awesome!!! Those fucking dickhead street artists are always wining that the splasher defaces their art but don't rationalize that they themselves had to paint over someone else's art or property. look at the street art. It's painted over someone else's street art. Same shit splasher does but the splasher isn't egotistical about it. You go Splasher!!!! Keep Splashin!
[11] i was kidding, trying to point out that up until the manifesto was delivered, there wasn't much actual fact in these threads on the splasher.. lots of irresponsible promotion of rumors.
is it any surprise the splasher group sent the manifesto to gothamist? gothamist is the splasher's greatest promoter and enabler.
"is this an appropriate place to stop writing about them?" YES. please stop.
So what's the deal? It's Dobkin's roommate? College friend? Brother-in-law? It's *OBVIOUS* that all this coverage is pushing some agenda.
"STOP TRYING TO MAKE 'FETCH' HAPPEN."
A little vomit just came up in my mouth.
if you cared enough to get so worked up over their "bullshit" as translated.. then you clearly care to continue writing about them.
"And barring a serious escalation in their game, is this an appropriate place to stop writing about them?" it's like you're trying to encourage them to step it up to another level ("a serious escalation in their game") or you'll stop posting about them a billion times a day. is that your intention?
i read this site a lot, and rarely comment this much on one thread, but this whole splasher obsession and promotion just reflects badly on gothamist.
THE SPLASHER IS NOW JUST ANOTHER STREET ART COLLECTIVE WITH A LIMITED EDITION BOOK THAT I HAVE TO GET MY HANDS ON!
My profile of the Douchebag(s):
-Aged 22-26
-Unmarried, but probably cohabitating if anyone will date them
-Got first tattoo on St. Marks Place
-Wears those ridiculous "ironic" black glasses
-Carries around a copy of Catcher in the Rye to freak people out
-Spends free time sitting at Tompkins Square Park, feeling superior
Das Kapital.
from the proof in the gallery to the galley proof, it's o so hard to fathom two-and-half syll...able words! O damn u splasher cult, you're so verbose.
"This much verbal production suggests a certain insecurity-- a certain fear of being shut out and ignored. That feels a little sad." ..sniffle.
[45] you're such a profiler. to the teehee
#45, you're so unhip you can't even get the hipster stereotype right! Tompkins Square Park? try somewhere in brooklyn (bushwick?).
I too, like the splasher coverage ... it is a pretty intruiginging phenomenon. Keep it up.
That looks to be a pretty interesting piece of ephemera.
Marx's Capital is actually a very good read and probably the best-researched book of political economy/philosophy ever. These guys, on the other hand, are boobs.
#48 - Exactly. Hence the TSP reference, because they would prefer Bushwick and therefore feel superior to everyone in the East Village.
Not taking either side, but:
Anyone who disagrees that commercialism (and really, any monetization) of "street art" is hypocritical and self-defeating, is probably not in the position to have any opinion on this matter.
[P.S. Forgot to add that I was also poster #45]
52, let me get this right: anyone with a different opinion than yours is not in the position to have an opinion? Good point. That said, I agree.
yo..im from california.,.how did i even find out about the splasher....or end up here in the gothamist?.this shit is cool..people tell me im unhip and fat...i always had dreams of visiting NYC..for me...its just like reading a dope bedtime story..(does the splasher have a myspace?).
You be remiss in seeking an American Studies PhD--I'd say, if anything, you would learn more from a Critical Theory PhD or someone well versed in the work of the Letterist International, Situationist International, and other movements. Read Lipstick Traces or The Revolution of Everyday Life, and you will realize that there is absolutely nothing shocking or new about this. The only shocking thing is that such techniques still seem to work so well.
Oh, and "Marxist" and "Anarchist" are not interchangeable.
On a scale of 1 to cares, I don't.
Too much information.
[16] said:
'Without reading this tract I can already tell you what it says: "We have too much time on our hands."'
I say it says:
"Or too much coke/meth in our noses."
I am all for your coverage of The Creepy Splashers. To me Gothamist is all about what's happening at street level in NYC. I always prefer to have more information on a subject than less. Regardless of how one feels about a subject, arguing that it shouldn't appear here is basically being the HTML version of The Creepy Splasher. Not interested in the subject? Skip the link.
As for all the gentrification talk folks, just let it be. NYC is already completely gentrified for better or for worse, there isn't an inexpensive inch left. It happened, it's old news, so stop complaining or move to Philly.
This is nothing new. street art, tagging, graffiti, whatever you want to call it is another art form (blues, jazz, rock n roll) created by impoverished minorities that has been co-opted by white middle class america and turned into a GAP ad. Just like gentrification, it is what it is and has been happening in all societies since the Beginning... i think we call it Economics. Graffiti was commercial-ized as early as 1973 i believe with artists like Futura 2000 painting on canvas for gallery exhibitions follwed by graffiti artists being paid to go to rich folks mansions and paint a wall or two (story from an old grafitti artist that i used to know)... all of this attention is nothing new. and to post 56: it is Not shocking "that such techniques still seem to work so well" after all we are all simply animals.
this reminds me i should think about buying that OBEY t-shirt i have my eye on. thanks!
Yeah, enough with the splasher posts. I think you're kinda encouraging vandalism.
I appreciate the coverage of the Splasher as well, and hope it continues. I think it's an interesting phenomenon, and in spight of their over-enchantment with jargon, and their faulty logic, the Splasher does raise some important issues. For instance, their take on the relationship between street art and capitalism is over simplified, but i think the relationship itself is worth discussing.
Although i don't like to see good pieces of street art covered over, i do admire the Splasher (as i admire street artists) for actually doing something.
Such ignorance of history here! No-one has yet mentioned the direct historical parallel with the Protestant Iconoclasts, or any of the other inonoclastic movements in history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclasm
This really has much less to do with Marxism than it does with Puritanism. Every culture has people who just can't stand to see people making art or enjoying themselves. Iconoclasm always fundamentally stems from the ignorant man's irrational hatred of the beautiful.
"Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."
--H. L. Mencken
I.e., more Gravity's Rainbow than Das Kapital.
It's all coming together....
Maybe the Splasher is Thomas-frickin'-Pynchon, people.
[65] The acts of the Splasher are iconoclastic, though there is no "direct historical parallel with the Protestant Iconoclasts." To boot, iconoclasm does not "always fundamentally [stem] from the ignorant man's irrational hatred of the beautiful." In fact, it rarely does.
Iconoclasm, historically speaking, stems first from religious edicts forbidding idolatry. Following the Protestant Reformation there was an increasing number of iconoclastic movements that were politically motivated, in which people smashed certain images as symbols of overthrown powers. Today most iconoclastic acts stem from the belief that images may affect the morality, behavior, or beliefs of their viewers.
Off the subject, but i can't let Wikipedia pass for truth.
Why do people think everyone wants to read their crappy manifesto?
I want this on a T-shirt.
UpperEastSighed is correct. The Splasher(s) are practicing a neo-Situationist critique of the commodification of art. Good for them. Are they original? No. They've not only copied Situationist gestures of intellectual / artistic vandalism, but have also lifted some of their exact phraseology in the tract which reads like it was written by someone trying to recreate a Situationist situation right now. But, as Debord once said, plagiarism is necessary... history requires it. Cynical responses to their acts prove some of the points they are trying to make. My criticism is that they play it very safe by limiting their critiques to the very safe, trivial, and mostly insignificant world of NYC "street" art. But hey, at least it's a start. Besides Vaneigem's Revolution of Everyday Life, and Lipstick Traces by Greil Marcus, check out The Situationist International Anthology by Ken Knabb - to the extent that they impact you, you'll be a better person for it afterwards... you might even aspire to Splasherdom.
For the maybe two other people out there reading this who actually like graf instead of bitching about how it's vandalism: How the fuck has this kid avoided getting his ass kicked for this long? Seriously? The streets are slackin.
it's only a matter of time before they splash a pair of Dunks that sell for $900 on ebay. and the circle of life continues
"We do not want a world where the guarantee of not dying of hunger is paid for by the certainty of dying of boredom."
Obviously they've never gone hungry.
Our culture is over-entertained as it is, a little boredom is good for the mind.
The rambling self-important nonsense of a bunch of art school idiots. Please don't give this any more press. (Full disclosure: I went to art school too.)
i just wanted to comment and say that i really enjoy the splasher posts.
art in the city by way of graffiti is important, and the destruction of that for whatever strange reasons is both sad and fascinating (the latter due to the motivation). keep up the great coverage!
keep on splashin splasha!!!!
woooo!!!!! woooo!!!!!!!!!!
stupid who cares that it's written all fancy it's funny that way, they're funny.
woohoo!!!!!!
splashy splash on!
SPLASHERS ARE THE NEW JACKSON POLLACK!
If these people really were poverty-stricken and hungry, they'd be too busy trying to get some damn food to make up all this crap.
Instead, they're declaring themselves judge and jury on the meaning of art and capitalism? Spare me. Grow up and get a job.
Gothamist, you've given them their stage. Show's over now. Here's the hook. Close the curtain and start the next act already. Enough is enough.
37 & 74 said it best!
splasher > street artists
i want 2 buy a supersoaker & join the splashtastic four!!
can you just post the essays? rather than you're explanations of them. i'd like to see what they actually say rather than taking your word they are impenetrable. some of what you termed "splasherese" makes sense if you read it carefully.
I found a copy at Red Bamboo when I went to pick up my lunch special. If you want one, keep your eyes open.
you're dumb. can you even read? you clearly can't follow abstract thought. just do food reviews. how did you even get this job?
i kinda like these guys
remember the joker in the movie batman that came out in 89' or something.......when he's in the musuem splashin' all that bullshit art ..while some prince song is playin....
Is it possible to get readable version of this? I'd really like to read it and form my own opinion.
You can request copies from the author: zdempster@gmail.com
Today, Torontoist re-published a pro-(artistic)-graffiti manifesto from one of our city's up-and-coming artists that makes a nice compliment to this post. Check it out.
i wish the splasher had read dick hebdige's subculture: the meaning of style (1973)...in it, he analyzed Britain's mod and punk subcultures, and picked from the table of subcultural theory and semiotics to break it down, rather nicely, rather succintly...
among other things, hebdige discusses his theory of recuperation...by which underground, working-class subcultures become co-opted...
as was said earlier...this shit is not new.
neither is gentrification.
i just moved to new york from st. louis, where square footage and beer is dramatically cheaper...
and yes, st. louis is being gentrified as well.
so is EVERY OTHER CITY IN THE WORLD. get the fuck over it, and stop blaming people like banksy (who by the way, quite humorously acknowledges the relationship between street art and gentrification).
it is by now, rather obvious that the splasher has no real artistic talent...spent his college years debating the intricacies of foucault and derrida, while drinking sierra nevada's and kombucha and charging it (as well as rent) to mommy and daddy's credit card...
and to everyone who posts bitter diatribes that attack jake for writing too much or everyone else for discussing this - nobody makes you read this...if you don't like it, great...but really, who cares?
p.s. SWOON rocks. she is a highly articulate and fantastic artist. she actually creates...and isn't that what street art is meant to be about anyway?
Exegesis means critical explanation. Writing: 'part critical exegesis' is redundant
being from "across the pond" I find this highly amusing. I've become quite interested in this whole concept of vandalism over vandalism, and this manifesto stinks of Jack the Rippers letters to Inspector Abberline. I am quite intrigued to see how this goes, will there be a host of copycat splashings, just like faile and obey starting the whole new wave of street art. taking it to a new level. I heart NY, you quirky yanks!
Dear Splasher,
You are a scatterbrain and a horrible typesetter. Please stick to splashing.
I wish to inform all concerned that the respective members of "the Splasher" have just this past weekend signed a four year contract with Phaidon entailing the publication of two coffee table books; in the meantime I can assure you that all present members - who, in keeping with Marxist ideology, prefer to remain anonymous so as to evade "commodification" and blame - will be taking crash courses on Baudrillard, Foucault, Lukacs, and Bloch so as to better mime their syntax, if not gauge a better meaning of what any of them was actually saying. An annotated copy of "Kapital" will be sent to all, as will free bootlegs of the films "The Matrix" and "Big Momma's House," which several of the members have referred to as "totally awesome." In the meantime, they have expressed their desire that all journalists and bloggers refrain from further discussion of "If We Did It, This is How It Would've Happened" until the crash courses and assigned readings have been completed; similarly, they wish that those commenting on their works keep their critiques to a minimum, so as to prevent, in the words of one member, "any possible commodification, which is totally, like, the sin of the whole capitalist world and its commodified agenda."
90-
hilarious...thanks!
signed,
86
when i see that photo i am suddenly seized by the image of his girlfriend just staring at him blankly with those cross-eyes as he sententiously bloviates jargon for 45 minutes, then she tells him how smart he is and he leads her to his bedroom (or 'hobbit hole' as he calls it) and halfheartedly fucks her with his tiny tiny pencil dick, his eyes closed, not breaking a sweat even in this heat, but oh so happy with himself as he thinks about his next trite, derivative assault on the artworld. she looks up at him as he listlessly wiggles inside her, his peter pan hat barely moving, and she thinks about how lucky she is.
wtf is that thing on his head?
www.forgotten-ny.com
Maybe someone will come along and splash the elaborate dessert table visible on his flicker stream. From the looks of it, he should be making finger sandwiches, not art. He rants about the establishment and money, blah blah blah, yet easts dainty sandwiches off of a blanket of lace? Tres bizare!
#94:
And wears designer glasses!
I was hoping for a shocking plot twist like Jake Dobkin's split personality is the Splasher but no, nothing so entertaining.
splasher is genius, and he's a hero. all you self-righteous 'street artists' should have all your blood removed and used to paint over your 'work'.
What goes around...
Can she see in 4D? I bet she can see in 4D.
this skinny pissant whiteboy (living in williamsburg probably) is the van guard of this revolution? and you wonder why we don't care about art?
i hope he meets one of the real artists in a dark ally some time.
A few comments:
I am enjoying this from way out in Los Angeles.
Keep it up - people don't have to read the posts if they're not interested (just like I skip all the sports score posts...).
I studied Critical Theory and all that other jazz in art school (In fact, I was a student of Dick Hebdige - mentioned in post #86.). Clearly, the Splasher went to art school, owes a shitload of money to Sallie Mae and can't get a job or, worse yet, didn't go to art school but read all the theory in a vacuum. Either way he doesn't seem to be producing any of his own art.
Lastly, post #92 had me laughing very, very hard.
"The (many) art openings I've attented feel like a mix between a cattle auction and a middle school dance"... then he got interested in street art, through the local anarchist scene, but felt "there seemed to be no acknowledgment whatsoever that street art is a bourgeois-sponsored rebellion."
No, actually there is plenty of it, but you presume that no one beyond you have made this observation; there are plenty of example of doctors, scientists, academics, and humanitarians who've decided that a life of art will never replace pragmatism and have thus decided to pursue other means to better society. Unlike you, these are the people who've realized early that revolution will not be born out of art/graffiti; they also understand to never to listen to artists in these types of matters, so they ignore all this non-sense and simply concentrate on their own line of work.
But admittedly it's getting harder to let go of this topic, because of the gross misinterpretation and misrepresentation of the Left portrayed by you. So let's get one thing clear; you're no rebel. If I asked you what capital really is (and how it takes form today), your 'artistic' critical study won't scratch the surface of what classical Economists like Smith, Ricardo, Mill, and Marx have had to say, and neither will the street-art Obey guy, who himself sounds ridiculously self-righteous, living through a state of grandeur.
And in this continual state of grandeur, it is no wonder that statistics such as global unemployment (especially in the Third world) steadily increasing with the expansion of global finance markets are secondary (a new record of 186 million worldwide, per ILO 2006 data); in this continual state of grandeur, it is hardly a surprise that wage-erosion from the middle-class down goes mostly unnoticed, undebated. While pushing Leftist politics to dogmatic delirium, these so-called artists remain clueless to the relevant factors of advocacy that affect the working class, the nation, or for that matter, the world. Bill Maher once had a funny thing to say about all this: "they hate us because we don't even know why they hate us". I can only chuckle as I remember this dictum.
I say this again: you are no more of a revolutionary than the firms that come up with a variant of an old product and call the changes 'revolutionary'. You do not represent the Left, you certainly do not represent any form of Marxism, nor do you add any value in enriching the debate of political economy. Yet the sad part is that people will pay more attention to you, or this Farley-dude, all the while many brilliant minds out there with substance remain unheard, relegated mostly only to their respective occupations.
I find it interesting too. It is/was a mystery, and it is applicable to NYC.
That said, I find him utterly ridiculous.
he's not the only one. i'm more interesting than him.
#102, completely brilliant. you seem like a well-rounded, decent human being with some perspective. so rare to encounter such a person online!
DON'T CARE
74 of the 105 comments up until now were posted by "guest". Seems very "stuff the comments ballot" to me.
(Of course, here I go adding to the total tally of comments. Oh, the irony!)
#102 You're an idiot
#105 why don't you just suck #102's pencil dick
Splasher should be sent to federal pound in your ass prison, and get brutally anal raped.
#45 here. I was wrong... not black ironic glasses, but clear ironic glasses.
ok, 107... i'm a registered poster and have been since this new stupid comment regime came in.
this splasher story is bullshit. who gives a fuck? jake dobkin is a fucking idiot.
i went to cooper union with the crosseyed girl, maybe homeboy did as well.
lol wtf
i tried to digest all that bullshit but to no avial, I cant seem to make it past all his pretentious bullshit. Im a fan of "street art" and I think this dude is taking it too seriously or trying a little bit too hard to start a revolution... lame.
It kinda sucks when people start coming up with wierd conspiracies about wheat pastes? come on get a life...
this has been a first-rate internet clowning. good work.
excellent work revieling this idiot. glad anyone following the story of his annoying antics can "accidentaly" spill a beer on him next time he's out at the bar. seriously, if his reaction to street art is a paint splashing, why not voice your reaction with an additional "splashing", on his person directly?
turnaround is fair play, after all...
(seriously, splash the splasher!)
Oh, Dada, you will always be with us. I too remember being 21 and this being just the coolest shit in the world. In ten or twelve years you'll be a web developer somewhere and remembering how you used to really want to change the system and fight against the bullshit! My advice to you is shrug, go with the bullshit, and get paid. Buy compact flourescent light bulbs or something so you don't feel like a complete sellout, but sell out just a bit, the alternative is slow suicide and bitterness and death. The System ain't going anywhere and you're not special.
These people need to get lives and use their time for more constructive things. Volunteer. Help someone.
now the questions is, who's the hot cross-eyed girl? Nothing is better than hooking up with cross-eyed girls and "splashing" them!!!
i'm going to join his super splasher squadron so expect 2 c more splashy-splash goodness for months to come!
I believe I found a video of Zac Dempster dancing. He's the skinny guy in tight sweatpants (not the fat guy in spandex).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRmwSxTiKCA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eelasticnonoband%2Ecom%2Fnews%2Ehtml
This man is neither an artist nor a revolutionary. I sincerely hope he runs into a few of the artists who's work he's defaced in a dark alley. Then he will find out just how far his holier than thou attitude gets him.
I want to follow this story, but I'm an artist and I'm too busy making art.
how old was he when he was castrated with a hammer?
it takes so much to create and so little to tear down.
the splasher's 'campaign' is little more than sheer laziness.
Hey, Splasher: What is on your head? Your girlfriend's shorts? A guy who wears those glasses & his girlfriends shorts on his head has the friggin' audacity to criticize artists? Lock his sick, lame & lazy ass up... quickly.
The Times says the Splasher is one James Cooper. Which is it? Cooper or Dempster?
whoa. he even wears stylish eyewear...
"Lord what work was here! What clattering of glasses! What beating down of walls! What tearing up of monuments! What pulling down of seats! What wresting out of irons and brass from the windows! What defacing of arms! What demolishing of curious stonework! What tooting and piping upon organ pipes! And what a hideous triumph in the market-place before all the country, when all the mangled organ pipes, vestments, both copes and surplices, together with the leaden cross which had newly been sawn down from the Green-yard pulpit and the service-books and singing books that could be carried to the fire in the public market-place were heaped together."
-- Bishop Joseph Hall of Norwich (1643)
"We brake down about a hundred superstitious pictures; and seven fryers hugging a nun; and the picture of God, and Christ; and divers others very superstitious. And 200 had been broke down afore I came. We took away 2 popish inscriptions with Ora pro nobis and we beat down a great stoneing cross on the top of the church."
-- William Dowsing (1644)
"Touching the books you mention, if what is written in them agrees with the Book of God, they are not required; if it disagrees, they are not desired. Destroy them therefore."
-- Amr ibn al 'Ass (642, order to burn the library of Alexandria)
i hope you get this one wrong and this guy sues jake dobkin for defamation.
looks like zac "the splasher" dempster and jimmy "harry potter/the stinker" cooper are bff:
http://myspace.com/rustygoldhouse
http;//myspace.com/andproximate
http://www.youtube.com/RustyGoldhouse
http://www.youtube.com/ZacharyDempster
I love The Splashers too!
HBO should do a new show, or better Hillary should make a new video. But mostly I love how it ties all the graffiti artists up in knots of contradiction, and I love graffiti art. But it really is a dandiest past time.
PS - get fucking threaded comments - this shit is so annoying - what's the problem? Gothamist on a budget?
PSS - the splashers is a person or group mainly living in Brooklyn?? WOW! great work Sherlock.
To be sure, the true irony here is not street art 'vandalizing' street art, but 'anti-capitalist,' 'anti-bourgeois,' 'anarchists' acting as a shill for the capitalist news racket. Thanks for giving us a story again, boys. In the end, it's one more Arts feature to run opposite our American Apparel ads this week. I'm glad their manifesto is up on the NY Times website in full, unadulterated, counter-cultural glee, beneath the banner 'We're in the business of growing small business.' We're in the business of blowing up your spot, forget it not.
Unfortunately, the piece hasn't yet hit the most e-mailed lists. 'Mommy is Still Dearest' is still #1, followed closely by 'Iced Coffee? No sweat' at #2 and 'Economic Scene: An iPod Has Global Value. Ask the (Many) Countries That Make It' at #3.
#132,
I don't think it is ironic at all; first, this is a relatively minor, NY-only story compared to national/international headlines. Second, we are talking about an artisan economy vs. industrial economy in your claim, which are vastly different; Artisans do not have deep divisions of labor and are thus basically rent-seekers (J. Schumpeter, in his theorization of 'creative destruction', decried we are all rent-seekers), which is different from the capitalist mode of production, which begins with the division of labor (i.e. the pin factory in Smith's Wealth of Nations) and leads to further specialization.
In that sense, it's not ironic at all, as artists do what they do best, seeking rents for their welfare, and that's also perhaps why some choose to ignore these so-called artists altogether.
And thanks for the wonderful comments #108 and #105, I'd post links about US job creation trends, but I don't think #108 would be in any way interested.
#102
splasher > you spoiled bourgeois fucktards
THis is coming all the way from Australia.( oh how the internet has revolutionised communication.)
The splasher seems like they really dont know what they want at all, Myspace fags blowing smoke up eachothers asses. Soon Myspace will have a Myspace:Revolutionaries brand to go along with their piss poor record label. Wanna start a revolution? Assasinate the president then strom the capital, dont destroy great art because you're not skilled enough to create it.
I can't wait to get a Splasher designed Le Sports Sac!
Seriously, sans the cheesy manifesto, its a pot calling the kettle black
The Splasher totally had to have gone to Eugene Lang
the best part of this whole thing is that it all started because swoon wasnt interested in the zac guy. he did it to get back at her for breaking his poor little heart. the manifesto bullshit is just to cover up the fact that hes a little bitch.
I wonder why the Splasher decided to send the manifesto to Gothamist instead of a real news organization.
petulant artists liberation front is more like it.
Either the manifesto is naively ironic or folks trying on their situationist hats for the first time. My bet is sarcasm mixed with a lot of the latter and a sprinkling of the former.
Nevertheless, all the mocking from critics is high comedy. And now it's in the NYTimes. Gotham cannot figure out whether or not to take IT seriously. I especially enjoy all the "it's the pot calling the kettle black" routines. It's sad-funny how when youthful social critics attempt to examine the state of their surroundings that their fellow citizens mock it as a silly waste of time--as immature. Who's pretentious here?
I find the manifesto full of wonderful self-betrayals. And what's a manifesto for, if not to betray one's self for an entire community?
One thing whoever-"they"-are has to say is correct: street art is absolutely a bourgeois-sponsored rebellion. As it, by simply being there, is nothing more than a part of the scenery--and thus silently conspires to re-establish the dominant memes and themes of the upwardly mobile middle class aesthetics that everyone of us have come to passively accept/except.
My opinion, of course, but what this "group" is doing is merely restating--through citation and paraphrase--what we have read in Debord, Vaneigem, Simmel, Marx, Baudrillard, and Adorno, among several others.
I have to agree that the most entertaining aspect of this spectacle is that it appears to be the result of a rather petty personal grudge. Oh well, where would Surrealism and Absurdism have been without all the drama?
Proof that artists wear many masks...drama queen situationist anyone? Like a bad O'Neill character from some strange interpretation of the great god brown.
at first i thought vandalizing vandalism was kind of clever and funny. don't get me wrong, i love street art, but it is ON the street/public space etc. but when he/she/they starting putting up the manifesto, all their credibility was lost in my eyes and he/she/they just turned into just another preachy dork.
I think these kids are brilliant. At least they have something to say, and as I recall art used to be a catalyst to a form of expression, storytelling and a message of sorts. All of these are things the new contemporary art world has easily and willingly tossed aside as usual. It's about time someone has picked up and carried further the realness and reality of what Marcel Duschamp & company had started a long time ago. I say they deserve all the attention if not more, since they are doing the most original creative act that New York has seen in years. As far as I am concerned it's truly been a long time since New York had something of it's own. Unfortunately the last original thing NY had was probably in 1986 with Run DMC and the beastie boys. Ever since then all NY has done is take things from other places and then claim it as it's own.
Maybe soon enough this is what it is going to take to get decent shows again, where the artist will actually get involved again and show up at their showings and once again socialize and maybe have something intelligent to say about their motives instead of hiding behind shadows in the back of an alley or hiding behind a nickname like "BeakFlame" and crap like that. What the hell is wrong with saying " Hi, my name is "Jacob", thanks for coming and supporting my and the other artists work we really appreciate it ". I mean, there has got to be something wrong when artists have lost the pride in their own work that they have to use a different name to sign it.
I don't know, maybe I am just a lost idiot! Maybe I should look into it and get in with the new hip world. I guess I am a little confused as to why I get and understand the "splashers" motives and creation more than most of the new pieces that are being processed and sold lately. The thing that bothers me the most is there is some great art in the "street art" label with some great messages that are important enough so that the rest of the world should really "SEE" them. But unfortunately it seems that the artists are more concerned with the lifestyle instead of the art itself.
Best,
Jacob.....oh wait!...AKA "Frog-Scar"
ascetically, the splashed graffiti is so much more beautiful than the originals which are too straight forward & mostly boring. the mystery behind the splashes leaves a lot to the imagination and i think it was tastefully done.
the rest is a lot of debate about nothing...
Whether or not Christian missionaries wanted to pave the way for European colonialism in Asia, they did. And since street artists are being used to pave the way for gentrification, they not only have a right to speak up against it, they have a responsibility to.
i live in toledo ohio where this kid is from. i can confirm that his motivation is purely falling in love with swoon and her not giving him the time of day. bitter heart break is often the best motivation for good art. but in this case it just motivated him into a pissing contest of sorts.
I like the splasher coverage too. Maybe i didn't read it so closely so maybe i missed something, but why do you say this guy is an anarchist?
the writing is bullshit. thanks for sharing it.
the splashed street art is more beautiful than the original? hahahah... good one.
thanks for the article!
i would like to have a copy of the Splasher(s) manifesto... can i get one?
thanks
best regards,
mischa canibal
http://www.perros-callejeros.info/
rich kids tossing paint around! True situationist/marxist/anarchists...
I think the splasher is just a poser. He must have recently watched the 80s movie Beat Street and was influenced by Spit(the vandal who tagged over Bombs).
Loser. Could someone just put up graffiti hotline posters to get this crap off the walls. Some people have nothing better to do then play with themselves.
I know I'm a little late with this but there are a few things that i just can't keep to myself. I found it interesting that 'neo-situationist' seems to continuing a long tradition of color-blind politics that plagued its avant-garde predecessors. What gets me is that when i pass a defaced picture of Angela Davis i don't think of the decolonization of everyday life or about destruction of society of spectacle; i see some bullshit fucking asshole splashing paint on an image of a radical third-world cultural politics.
Seriously though, I've been trying for years to situate myself in these new left movements but i find them overwhelming blind of the ways race, gender, and sexuality function as class formations and operate with capitalism's construction of the spectacle. And i thank them for talking about gentrification i found that piece to be interesting but i was put off by use of the word 'native'. I mean are we that uncomfortable to take about how these ghettos are racial formations in which redlining and other government sponsored programs maintained a jim crow with style. or how these same programs targeted women of color, several who had to live in these ghettos because they were denied credit if they were not married and denied jobs if they were not sterilized. so yea go splash Angela Davis' face!
It's funny to that we now recognize this avant-garde movement when people of color have been deploying their own situationist cultural politics (and surrealism--aime caesar, richard wright, audre lorde) way before banksy. It funny, because even the situationist of yesteryear realized this. In his piece on the 1965 Watts rebellion Debord commented that the black community "are in their own country and they are alienated. So are the rest of the population, but the blacks are aware of it. In this sense they are not the most backward sector of American society, but the most advanced.” I am excited by the emergence of these splashers but saddened that they have yet to realize how some of us live out avant-garde in our everyday lives.
thank you for letting me vent.
peace and love
n.c.
The author of this article couldn't have sounded more american-junior-high-apathetic if he tried.
I was waiting for him to announce that his brain hurt while reading the splasher's texts.
>>>>The path to simplicity is the most complex of all." Nope, we don't understand neither.
Its writer like this that contribute to the ridiculous level of social consciousness you guys are dealing with over there...
I think it's really sad that a few complicated words can turn people off so easily.
The splasher, on the other hand, appears to be an eager user of well established theoretical dogma, but at least I commend him for trying to put forward a strong and valid critique while being an over-informationalized american at the same time.
- sad white shit