Arts Council confuses / 'the Splasher' confuses too (Tuesday 10 July 2007)
Clients unnerved by Arts Council decisions
'Regularly Funded Organsations' (RFOs), a new categorisation of some of the clients of The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, are those in a favourable position regarding annual funding from the Council: they get to propose three-year plans, and they hear the outcome of their applications well in advance of other organisations. To a considerable extent, they are - or have been up until last week - the envy of those other organisations.
Last week RFOs were informed of their funding levels for 2008. Apparently, according to Deirdre Falvey in last Saturday's Irish Times, there has been an "across-the-board increase of 3.4 per cent," leaving some organisations "wondering why they bothered."
It sounds like a good idea, partially implemented and now gone strange: it is indeed a great notion to be allowed to propose three-year plans, and it is extremely useful to hear of funding decisions well in advance of the time period for which they are intended, but... The Arts Council is now engaged in a round of meeting with the RFO clients individually.
'Vandalising vandalism' - the Splasher still at large in New York
compiled by Rachel Simmons
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| A "splashed" work by the artist Swoon, one of the first victims of the Splasher; this photo was taken in November 2006, image held here. |
t's straight from the dark pages of graphic novels: a seedy underbelly to the commercial-friendly, New York City street-art world, now fully and violently exposing itself and all the flaws of street art. The culprit is masked in anomynity and by dark of night, and even has his own super-villain name. We're talking about 'the Splasher', the aptly named critic of New York street art whose costly vandalism has been on the lips of everyone in the know in New York for months. He began last fall, by leaving 'splashes' of brightly coloured housepaint in his ever-growing wake, on a quest to open the eyes of the public and the hipster followers of the street-art world to all the sell-outs and hypocrisy.
In their article on the Splasher, New York Magazine describes street art as "multi-media works of astonishing polish and complexity and beauty, often created by artists without a 'street' bone in their body...It's grafitti with an M.F.A." And the fact that many of these artists are now showing their work in galleries, selling their pieces for thousands of dollars, and doing design work for clothing and advertising companies has created a backlash, which was bubbling quietly just below the surface until the Splasher so publicly vomited his (or her) disgust onto beloved works of art.
There are those who commend the Splasher for calling out the street artists and their followers on their commercialism and "gentrification." But mostly, the response has been, that no matter how right he or she is in their critiques, the Splasher is still essentially destroying public, accessible works of art: the Splasher is making people mad. His (?) splashes are accompanied by wheatpasted Marxist manifestos, which include largely unreadable political mumbo-jumbo, such as this excerpt: "AVANT-GARDE: ADVANCE SCOUTS FOR CAPITAL...REVOLUTIONARY CREATIVITY DOES NOT SHOCK OR ENTERTAIN THE BOURGEOISIE, IT DESTROYS THEM. OUR STRUGGLE CANNOT BE HUNG ON WALLS. DESTROY THE MUSEUMS, IN THE STREETS AND EVERYWHERE." Each papered manifesto ends with a warning: "THE REMOVAL OF THIS DOCUMENT COULD RESULT IN INJURY, AS WE HAVE MIXED THE WHEATPASTE WITH TINY SHARDS OF GLASS." The Splasher's victims have included charitable artist Swoon, über-star Banksy, and most recently Shepard Fairy, whose gallery show was interrupted by two 'activists' attempting to set off stink-bombs. It is just speculation to say that the Splasher and stink-bombers are one and the same, but they seemed to have the same agenda.
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| The work of artist Shepard Fairly, "splashed" in January, image held here. |
Of the two would-be-bombers, one – a James Cooper – was caught, arrested and interrogated, and finally charged with arson. Shortly thereafter, a sixteen-page manifesto entitled If We Did It, This is How it Would've Happened, was released. Earlier in the Splasher's saga, publisher of Overspray magazine Tillet Wright had said, "He's probably going to be caught doing it...And at that point, all eyes are going to be on him to say something important. If he just spouts a bunch of Marxist [expletive] – well, he's gonna go down in history as a huge idiot." True to Wright's prediction, the manifesto seems to be dense, largely unreadable Marxist agenda leaving observers still somewhat clueless as to what is going on inside the Splasher's head, beyond the general idea already held; to view the full manifesto, the New York Times has it available here. Interestingly, though, the manifesto that was released identified the Splasher not as one person, but as several, both male and female.
So with complete agenda still unclear and identity still hazy, it remains to be seen whether or not the Splasher will continue to haunt New York's streets. Theories abound as to his (or their) motivation ("bitter, naive, shortsighted failure") and his identity (rejected ex-lover of artist Swoon?) and his future plans. New York Magazine pointed out several ironies to his campaign, including the fact that he is essentially "vandalizing vandalsim," "fighting paint with paint," and employing action painting, or, Abstract Expressionism, which is, as they said, "very artsy." To read more, see New York Magazine's full article or bloggers Gothamist and Streetsy, as well as various others, who have been documenting the Splasher's'career'. All in all, the Splasher has been successful in one thing: everyone is talking about him and his messages and there's no end of the gossip in sight.
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