More Subway Ad Street Art

Toronto street artist, Posterchild, sent us the above photo of a piece he recently installed with the help of Jason Eppink (he of the Pixelator). He'll be installing three more ("tonight or soon!"), which will say "Fast," "Sell" and "Out". (The pictured one may look like it says "Bold" but it actually says "Hold.") No word on whether or not they'll be in the vicinity of the 14th and 8th station.

If you aren't familiar with the Pixelator, it's "an unauthorized on-going video art performance collaboration with the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority, Clear Channel Communications, and its selected artists." In other words, it turns the ads, which cost an estimated $274,000 for six ten-second spots every minute on each of the city’s 80 digital displays, into art. Slightly more advanced than the subway ad mash-ups.

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on June 12, 2008 2:02 PM

Comments [rss]

JenChungsBaby

Thanks rarelement.

sonyactivision

For what it's worth, Art or no Art, this stuff sucks.

Spirit of 76

[4] In other words, he's not collaborating with the MTA as he claims, but rather misappropriating that which he did not pay for. Or would you also consider your basic spray-can graffiti vandal "collaborating" with the owner of the property he defaces?

rarelement

It's still there, just covered by years of neglect and "unauthorized" art. It's a Keith Haring piece that appears animated as the train passed, like a linear zoetrope.

JenChungsBaby

You call this subway art, just because it's on some train entrance? Back in the 80's on the D train in Brooklyn there was a spot in the tunnel where there was an actual moving cartoon. It was a series of a few hundred animated backlighted frames showing a rocket taking off or something like that and when you went by in a moving train it looked like an animated movie. That was the coolest subway art ever. Is that still around? I haven't been on the D train in that part of town in years.

Mike Pants

This is the same ridiculously selfish behavior that send Napster spiraling into oblivion, this idiotic Gen-X/Y mentality that says, "I don't believe I should have to pay for this product/service, so I'm going to steal it and then have the gall to act righteous about it."

Just because you want something but can't pay for it does not give you the right to vandalize the property of those who DID pay for it, no matter what you think of the economic forces behind the transaction. Goddamn hippies.

mocanlagunas

"six ten-second spots every minute"?!? hmmm...

Kevin Bracken

Any word on the name of the Toronto street artist? ;)

I love it.

hungryghoast

Outter, click through to Jason Eppink's page for an explanation. Or, if you're too lazy, I will explain... It's "in collaboration" only because the MTA makes the signs and provides the space and the companies provide the light/images. Eppink is acting anonymously and actually without sanction from these groups. His point is that this is that though the MTA put's up these spaces claiming they can be for artists, the price of actually gaining access to it is so high that only advertisers can foot the bill.

In the artist's own words: "anonymous collaboration, the resulting video is almost entirely unplanned and unanticipated, with the original artists helping to create new works of art without any knowledge of their participation."

The artist explains it in a much more fun manner if you, as i suggested, click through. Welcome to the Internet.