Graffiti, Art, or None of the Above
by Garrison Frost
Think of it as advertising with no product, iconography that isn’t sponsored by a large corporation, political movement, rock band or sports franchise.
Postering is the artist’s form of graffiti, and of protest. Enough trying to get into art galleries. Forget trying to get into print. Steal a cue from the advertisers of the world and take people’s attention wherever you can.
Typically, this means plastering as many posters as you can on abandoned buildings, construction walls, fences, electrical boxes and phone terminals. It’s illegal, but it’s also a staple of the underground art culture.
Most practitioners of postering take their cues from Los Angeles guerrilla artist Robbie Conal and San Diego’s Shepard Fairey. Conal’s art tends toward the political, while Fairey has famously co-opted images of Andre the Giant into bold “propaganda” graphics. |
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| Locally, stickers and posters often call attention to the latest punk bands, but a lot of guerrilla art is also to be found. The South Bay Posse, based in Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, has been working for about a year, putting up stark black and white images such as those of John F. Kennedy, which their creator calls “Victim.” The artist, who prefers to remain anonymous, estimates that he and his friends have put up at least 1,000 posters around the South Bay.
Most of the work has been his own, but a lot of it has been that of Fairey and others in San Francisco and Seattle by way of exchange. Guerrilla artists trade work to people in other cities to get better coverage.
According to Conal, the purpose of postering is “mass distribution of our message,” to “tickle the general public into thinking along with us about issues we think are important to the health of American democracy, the Constitution, our First Amendment rights, and the future of Rock’n’Roll.”
Fairey’s purpose is less clear, although he revels in the power of the medium to disseminate even the most obtuse message. “I’m just trying to get your attention,” he told Juxtapoz Magazine in 1998.
The artist from the South Bay Posse said that it’s all about getting out the propaganda, which to him means “trying to fuck with people.” He admits that he likes the question his work puts on people’s faces, and the underground notoriety the posters create.
HOW THEY DO IT:
Tools: Large bucket, All In One wheat paste (Home Depot), wide brush.
Method: Brush the wall with paste, apply poster, brush over poster with paste, smoothing out all the bubbles.
Posters: Can be created on letter-size paper and then blown up on a photocopy machine to larger size. Black and white is the standard. Silk screening and regular printing is much more expensive.
Rules: Obey the police at all times. Don’t put your posters on store windows, government property, mail boxes or church property. Don’t cover up other posters. Give posters to people who ask for them. Don’t do anything that will piss people off.
For much more on postering, check out obeygiant.com, robbieconal.com or angelfire.com/ca4/southbayposse/.) |
