Browsing articles from "July, 2008"
Jul
31
31
Fare Welly
Wellington resident Mephisto Jones is moving on, support him in his journeys by heading along to Manky Chops on Cuba St this Fri night. Streetarse wish the man all the best. Ka pai to all your work.
Check out his episode from The Gravy here.
Jul
30
30
On matters of appropriation/IP infringment/protecting your work.
On a rainy evening a few weeks ago I met up with some friends (all artists + a midwife) to go check out an exhibition. Something we would have done countless times before, only this exhibition was different.
Some time last year one of my friends got word photo’s of his work were being printed on canvas and sold through a gallery (his work being a stenciled image painted outdoors). He looked into it and found out the work had been sold, possibly more than once and the particular photograph was a very closely cropped image showing no contextual information other than it being on a concrete textured wall.
The fact this image was being sold raises a few issues ethical, moral and legal.
The ethical being within art practice; to what level is appropriation acceptable, especially when financially benefiting from it. The moral issue being whether the artist themselves can reconcile within themselves financially benefiting from the duplication of someone else’s work. The legal being the sale of photographs that feature an artwork entrenched as intellectual property through it’s appearance on exhibited canvas works and editions of screen printed t-shirts for many months proceeding the creation of the photographic duplicates.
This was raised with the gallery who sympathised with these concerns and said they would pass them on to the artist involved.
In an off chance, myself and another friend met the artist when she stopped us as we were painting a wall one day. She was quick to enthuse the respect and love she had for publicly displayed art, namely street art. She was enthusiastic if a little naïve to the practice, but thought it a great thing that it was happening. We realised through this discussion she was the photographer involved with the reproduction of our friends work at which point we let the conversation end and got back to work.
In the meantime my directly affected friend made contact with the photographer to express his concerns about his work being sold as it was by her. As he was using this image to promote t-shirts and still sell editions of this very image himself (which sell for less than the photographic reproductions!).
What started as an amicable discussion turned sour when he broached his desire for her to stop selling the print and pay him a commission from prior sales, things escalated and ended up without any closure on the matter. After a few more attempts at resolving it my friend employed the help of a solicitor who has a background in I.P. and felt there was a case to answer here.
So, left in the hands of legal representatives it has some ability to set a precedent if a ruling is ever made on it. There may or may not be such a ruling. With the legal correspondence continuing we became aware of another exhibition planned by the photographer.
Another of our friends having already exhibited with this particular gallery expressed our concern to the gallery that the upcoming show may contain images that in addition to being contentious artistically, were the focus of an ongoing legal discussion. We had also heard that beyond the original disputed image there were potentially others of all of our work. To the galleries credit we negotiated an opportunity to check the intended images for exhibition, the gallery being keen to avoid becoming part of any legal discussion. Within the thumbnails were images from four of us directly and 3 or so more of other people we know. Again the images were closely cropped with no contextual information surrounding them, just the artwork (in all cases stencils painted outside).
We advised the gallery of the problematic images, and were assured they would not feature in the show. An outcome we were all grateful for despite the lack of resolution regarding the ongoing practice of exhibiting and selling, without credit or recognition of the original artist, work that is little more than a duplicate of another artists work.
And so it was when we went along to the eventual opening that to our relief the image were not displayed. Yet there on the front desk was a folder featuring all the images, along with all the legal correspondence and letters to the galleries concerned. So much for the gallery not wanting to get involved in a legal dispute.
My friend attempted another conversation with the photographer that got nowhere, gallery owners husband got feisty, and all in all it was a rather disappointing yet interesting old time.
I think direct representation of your concerns in a controlled manner (which it was) has potential for really getting your point across. The point in this instance that we collectively as artists, will not let someone profit from our work unless done in a collaborative manner. We will assert ownership of our work and protect it from exploitation, something I’d expect of any artist. The fact that it is not clear cut in legal terms, nor perhaps in artistic terms should not prevent artists from protecting the sovereignty of their work, especially when reproductions are in direct competition with the original artefact.
As far as I’m aware closure is still some way off and in the meantime we’ll just keep an ear to the ground.
Jul
23
23
Aussie taggers and positive opinions
Check out this video from Today Tonight an Aussie current affairs show. Starts off with some crazy kids in Perth jumping out of a moving bus after etching the windows, then opinions from a right wing zealot lumping Melbourne’s muraled alleyways in with shitty vandalism. And finally a few positive bits from HAHA and Ben Frost.
[youtube 1ruUugzKkNc]
HAHA and Vexta are going to be here in September with Logan Hicks to show with Sideroom.com keep your eyes open for this one.
Jul
21
21
Planet of the Tapes
Quick hit by Component and Peepshow on Mt Eden Rd on Sunday. It’s been a while.
Jul
21
21
CUT IT OUT
Another one bit different but cool not sure where this from but thanks to scum for the pic
Jul
21
21
New stuff from wellytown !
Ok heaps in the inbox this morn so here go’s
first of the bat -drypnz with cool post faces ..
older one from drypnz
EEKS- He drew this directly onto the wall with a posca. He was arrested about 10 mins after he finished it and the police had watched him do the whole thing.
RUST FKB- This piece is behind the Arts Centre. welly
SURPLUS BARGAINS
NEONATE (brown monster decal) and CITY from AK
IKON – RTR nice new one RTR crew keeping it rolling fo sure !
Jul
15
15
TMD TAKE IT OUT
Congratulations are in order once again for New Zealand graffiti crew TMD (The Most Dedicated), who triumphed at the World’s Largest Graffiti competition at Splash Festival in Germany on the weekend. Artists Askew, Pest5, Deus, Addict, Gary Grouch and Sirum (AUS) were defending their title as world champs which they won in 2006.
Crews are judged on their concept wall (60%) and a crew representative is sent to compete in each sketch (15%), throw-up (15%) and tagging (10%) battle. Twelve crews were whittled down to seven for the final. This year’s phrase for the concept wall was “Make It Funky” and crews painted using the same colour palette over an eight hour stretch. A new and improved judging system allowed 70% of the scoring to be based on crews judging each other, removing any favouritism calls from defeated teams.
TMD placed first in the concept wall and well-respected Grey Lynn artist Deus is now officially the best tagger in the world – his family are very proud. Copenhagen Connection (Denmark) placed second overall, with Gipsy Kings from Romania placing third overall.
