Sunday, February 25, 2007

sliver of a face


Last week for graffiti Sunday, I showed you lots of faces. This week, I bring you just... a sliver. For some reason I was really drawn to this face. I found it in an empty lot near the Schiffbau building in the Zuri West district.
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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

A VERY POWERFUL FACE, I LOVE IT!

Z said...

You have a nice collection! I recently noticed a widget that displays swiss graffiti from a website called razhia. It might be interesting to find out about the people behind works such as this and the mermaid, and what other examples they've left around town. :-)

p.s. I just realized that I decided on a sunset post for today -- maybe I was subliminally influenced by your Grossmünster post from yesterday...

Deb said...

I can understand why you're drawn to this....it's magical, haunting, powerful, intriguing....very complex!

Dsole said...

wow, great expression!!

Ming the Merciless said...

Ainz, you have very talented graffiti artists in Zurich. If these kids (?) would just apply their talent to real art, they would be admired and loved.

AinZ said...

hi everyone, & thanks for stopping by.

Z--thanks for the tip on the website. I'll check it out (when I'm not at work...) I went to Rote Fabrik yesterday and took a bunch of graffiti pics there. I already knew there was a ton of stuff there and had been meaning to go for a while. However it was cloudy, and I'll probably go back on a sunnier day and hopefully some of the pics will turn out better.

Ming--hmmm...not sure if I want to get into a discussion on whether or not graffiti is 'real' art or not. I agree that in some cases there is a fine line between just plain vandalism (as in the case of some taggers, or the WEF graffiti in one of my first posts), and 'art'. However, many graffiti artists start out as taggers, and use their tagging to try out new techniques or whatever, and then evolve into artists from there. Personally, I like graffiti--as long as it's creative, thoughtful, interesting, or thought provoking. or if it just makes me laugh (of course, that is all totally subjective). I also like finding interesting things in unexpected places--like the underside of a bridge, or the back of a sign, or a hidden alley. In many cases, much of the street art you see around wouldn't have the same impact if it were hanging in a gallery somewhere--and that's sort of the point...plus, I also like the way some graffiti artists build off of the work of others--they come and add their own touch to something that was put up by someone else. Street art is temporary and it evolves, it influences and is influenced by its environment, and that's part of the appeal to me. You learn to look at your city in a different way once you start paying attention to the graffiti that most other people ignore (or even despise).

I think you'll find that some established graffiti artists are already loved & admired for their work on the streets as it is--i.e. Banksy in London, or Space Invaders in Paris... I'm sure there are plenty of respected & admired graffiti artists in NY as well.

Z said...

It's the "is it vandalism" question that has kept me from posting the graffiti photos I have of a SBB train. I decided I didn't want to support the "perps" by highlighting their work. I wouldn't categorize the ones such as this one and the mermaid as vandalism. 'Nuff said. Oh, and thanks for the link to my blog!