Street Signals -News Off the Wires from Brooklyn Street Art

Madonna’s Latest Released this Week with new cover artwork by Street Artist Mr. Brainwash (MBW)

Cover art by MBW for a re-packaged collection of songs.

Calling it a collection of music that “changed the world”, McDonna uses the the energy and irony of real world street art splatter to re-face past hits. The 3rd greatest hits collection appropriates street artist MBW’s recent campaign of Andy Warhol “Marilyn”-inspired large pasteups which appeared on New York streets this spring and summer.

A 19 year old image of the performer during the height of her popularity is photoshopped inside the 1967 image of pop artist Andy Warhol’s silkscreened series of Marilyn Monroe.  Warhol had appropriated a publicity photo of Monroe for the 1953 movie “Niagara”, revolutionizing the art world by employing a mass-production technique that simultaneously cheapened the image and canonized it.

MBW pieces this spring in New York featured Madonna and Angelina Jolie-like faces inside a Marilyn Monroe hairdo (photo Jaime Rojo)

In his own satiric twist on the modern icons of celebrity culture, the French street artist had similarly placed competitors for the Marilyn throne such as Britney Spears and Angelina Jolie alongside others clearly not in the running such as Larry King and Leonard Nimoy.  The large scale of the pieces drove home the comedic effect and simultaneously elevated and parodied the meek contributions of pop fame.

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Quick Reader Technology: Deal directly from the gallery on the Streets with your iPhone

Will this knock out the bricks and mortar gallery middleman?

In a development in Street Art that may have ramifications previously unthinkable, some online re-sellers of street art are testing QR two-dimensional codes that can be read by your cell phonte as a way of connecting with your favorite street artist’s work. A two-dimensional bar code (like the one above) is intended to contain information which can be scanned quickly and easily by electronic devices.

Street Art Dealer is one of the first online re-sellers (but not the last) to use QR technology.

Of course this will not stop taggers from going over the little QR code carefully placed on or near your piece, and it may make it easier to track you down by law enforcement if your work is illegal, so no one expects a fool-proof employment of this technology.  But imagine going on a gallery-of-the streets tour with your headphones on, listening to an online tour that is triggered by scanning the QR code.  Or imagine doing some holiday shopping and never walking into a store.

Using just your phone you could get an artist bio, price list, a GPS map to see more examples at a gallery, order a piece directly… (image Steven P. Harrington)

In London, street artists C6 and Steal From Work have already begun testing the idea. This innovative use of QR code technology was be showcased during an exhibition on the streets of Bristol in July.  Read more HERE.

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