Sunday, December 23, 2012
Friday, December 14, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Monday, December 10, 2012
Washington Ave & South 10th St
South Philly / Italian Market
Part of this blog project is to think about the various types of ephemera that inhabit city streets, their intended purpose and what they actually do once posted.
A major category of ephemera is the "missing" sign - here, a labor union makes stickers invoking missing union leader Jimmy Hoffa, or an image of the artist Basquiat (last post), who is a major inspiration for many street artists.
I've been seeing Missing Pets posters around South Philly - there is one for a horse, a pig, and a spider. They're obviously (?) fake, but are so intentional about using this trope of the public missing poster..
One could also think about the posters that populated streets of lower Manhattan after 9-11, with images and descriptions of people who went missing after the terrorist attack. Since many of these people were presumed dead, the purpose of missing posters was complicated, and symbolic - a means of taking up space, memorializing while unable or unwilling to admit the unthinkable reality of their vanishing.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Friday, November 30, 2012
Spring 2012
Baltimore Ave, Clark Park
West Philly
The text at the bottom of this poster reads, "Trans = transgender / transsexual. Trans people are people who identify with a different gender than they were assigned at birth. They are our sisters, brothers, fathers, mothers, friends & neighbors. Love your neighbors."
Thursday, November 29, 2012
(south) Philly / Queen Village
I am such a fan of this piece. It's on a quiet alley of a street, well-suited to its subject. Their embrace is so tender and telling - the john's identity is protected while the sex worker's is fully public; she towers over him in a way that renders her powerful (and possibly, transgendered?)
South Philly / Italian Market
I assume this mysterious poster has something to do with the Eagles' loss to the Panthers Monday night ... I wish I knew more, because it's really amazing - visual economy befitting a Russian Constructivist poster* and obsessive stapling that palpably signifies rage like multiple stab wounds.
*I'm thinking about El Lisstizky's Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge (1919).
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