A Concept for a gallery show inspires one street artist to try an on-the-street experiment.
Billi Kid recently completed his version of a shoe-shine box to contribute to the unusual show that Bed-Stuy gallery Brooklynite opens next week, and he decided to take his box a step further.
The 100 artists, mostly street artists, have created their own version of a shoe-shine box, a metaphor for the entrepreneurial spirit. “Having been born in a third world country, Colombia, I have seen many a kid making a living shining shoes,” says Billi. “They hustle a modest living out of their shoeshine boxes. It is a testament to the human will to survive that these kids stretch their craft day and night to simply put food on their table. That is, if they even have a table.”
Billi Kid is a bit of an entrepreneur himself so he used his shine box on the street to sell some of his artwork. In New York City, as a result of street artists winning a fight with the Giuliani administration in the late 1990’s to sell their art on the streets, you are allowed set up a table and sell your own artwork without fear of reprisal.
“I took Brooklynite’s challenge to heart and set out to see if I could actually put food on the table working out of my “SHINEBOX,” says the artist. Taking into account overhead costs for creating his postcards, “I figured that I would need to sell at least 16 postcards per hour @ a $1.00 each to make $8.00 dollars in profit an hour.”
Traffic was pretty good on his spot near the park, and a number of people stopped to look at his signature political-personality postcards featuring the likes of George Bush, Sara Palin, and Michelle Obama. Within a couple of hours, 20 postcards of Billi Kid’s had sold, and the short-lived experiment ended up with Billi and his cameraman in a nearby pizza joint eating the profits. Luckily, there was money left for the subway home.
AND HE MADE A PROMOTIONAL VIDEO WITH THE EXPERIENCE
More on Billi’s experiment Here
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Our weekly conversation with the street, this week featuring Alec, C215, Cash4, DestroyRebuild, Egypt, Katsu, Kid Zoom, Kouka, KR, NohJColey, ROA, Samson, and WK Interact. ROA had a brief stopover ...
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening:1. Thomas Medicus / Human Animal Binary (2 Parts) 2. Tuco Wallach Pacifico / Lapinou Proje...
In the shifting culturescapes of urban contemporary art, STRAAT Museum's latest exhibition, "Moniker: An Origin Story," emerges as a poignant narrative that bridges the transient heritage of hobo mon...
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening:1. INDIGENO - Torino 2022 / Via Il Cerchio E Le Gocce2. Procez - Berlin Metro Graffiti via Spray ...
“Now don’t go jumping to conclusions”, your 5th grade English teacher Mrs. Muckaraka would tell you, and you thought she sounded like a prehistoric relic, a walking anachronism. Apply that proverb...