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This Thursday powerHouse Arena in DUMBO will play host to an event that is bringing together some former graffiti artists with the NYPD officers who busted them back in the day. In one corner, Joseph Rivera, author of Vandal Squad: Inside the New York City Transit Police Department, 1984-2004, which documents his time with the NYPD Vandal Squad. In the other corner, street artists who have a bone to pick with the former cop for "using their names and art to put money in his bank account."
While NBC says the two parties will meet at the event for a "civil chat" about the whole thing, the Brooklyn Paper talked to retired graffiti artist Ket who told the paper, “This book doesn’t have any value—literary or documentary. It’s trash and it’s inaccurate.” Sounds like fightin' words to us! Ket also blogged about his appearance, saying "Basically I agreed to go on in order to discredit their book and to video record the conversation/panel and share it with everyone here. Those of you with warrants might want to skip this one."
Joining Ket and Rivera this Thursday will be squad officers Ken Chiulli and Steven Mona, as well as graffiti artists Cope2 (pictured), Ellis Gallagher, and street art blogger Stern Rockwell. Get a preview of what you're in for at the video on powerHouse's site.
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FIGHT! Maybe KET can show up late and tag Rivera's car on the way in.
And maybe Rivera can pump Ket full of lead. Sounds good to me.
Fuck the graffiti "artists." Anytime somebody (including the MTA) says "don't paint on my property" and you do, that makes you a common thug. I don't care how much talent you think you have.
This is extremely interesting. I'm supporting the graffiti artists. Fuck the police.
you do that. when these "artists" tag up your property to claim their turf don't call the police...
Actually, the majority of legitamite artists do not wrecklessly tag private property, especially the old-school ones like Cope who is pictured above. Also, they would not target churches or schools. The wanton tagging you see on people's fences is mostly done by inexperienced young kids. You can tell by the lack of technique. Besides, you are probably apathetic to the fact that all these corporate advertising companies are really vandalizing our streets with mind-numbing ads. How can you call five-points a shithole? It's so vibrant, and full of creativity. You must be a miserable person.
Oh and by the way, I would love for a graffiti artist that I respect to come adorn my garage. It would be pretty awesome.
Problem is the average graffiti artist is just average.
Most of the tags were slop made by the untalented.
The problem, in my humble opinion, is the word "graffiti."
It's too broad. The result - nasty scribbling on people's houses and vans by losers gets lumped with real pieces like the one in the pic.
A lot of graf beautifies the city; a lot of it makes the city uglier. If there were only a way to go after the latter while leaving the former alone. Hmmmm.
How does that douchebag writing his name on the side of a subway car "beautify the city"?
Umm... by being beautiful to look at? If you don't understand art, say so and shut up. Philistine.
it sucks-pure and simple. A true artist would paint on a fucking canvas-not a train. Go to a museum to admire real art-not to a fucking train yard or that shithole known as Five Points
I couldn't disagree with you more. A true artist does NOT do art for money, galleries, etc... That is someone trying to make $$$ and living off their artwork. What is so "true" about that?
Why does real art have to be contained within a gallery or a museum? To me, that is some bottled up/packaged bullshit that they use to generate more money with. At least that "shithole" five points is free for everyone and no one there is selling their work for profit.
Now, I'm not saying that all tags are "art" either. Graffiti writers have their own motives, usually to get "fame" which could be considered selfish.
People complain about tax dollars being wasted cleaning up graffiti. I'm also curious how they give some of these estimates of thousands of dollars to clean up one tag that I could paint over or clean myself for no more than $20 and 30 minutes of my time.
In the end, its all opinion, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder..." Some people in this world actually prefer having some signs of life in the streets, some just consider it plain ugly and feels that it depreciates the value of their home...
The real showdown is REVS vs COST.
haha classic stuff there!
This book is a joke and even cops don't take this guy seriously:
http://theerant.yuku.com/topic/3505/t/Vandal-Squad-Cop-Cashes-in-Graffiti-Tales-with-New-Book.html?page=1