Author Archives: Wendy Li
Ya Snooze Ya Lose
Over the weekend, New York was given a wake up call. British artist Banksy set up a pop up art stall in Central Park. His booth advertised 100% authentic original art by Banksy and like the “snobby” New Yorkers we are, most of us ignored it, passing it off another knock off. Because of the environment it was staged in — a random sidewalk, it was easy to overlook because it most likely reminded most New Yorkers of the pop up stalls that littered the streets of lower Manhattan, Canal street and Soho where vendors sold a lot of fake products.
This reminded me of the time when Joshua Bell played the violin in a crowded metro station in DC. He did this as a social experiment to see how people would perceive talent and beauty given the environment it is placed in. The aim of this experiment was: “in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?”
So, in the case of Banksy selling his art on the street, do we only recognize his art as great when it’s in a clean white gallery and ignore it if it’s just sitting there on the street?
Staring at Stairs
The first thing I noticed when I walked down the stairs of the Rox Gallery was the piece shown above. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the background of it was a mirror and it reflected the stairs behind me. What caught my attention was not just the piece itself, but also the actual placement of it. In the picture, it shows a bunch of women standing on reflective,mirror panels that create a sort of floating-in-air sensation. It shows the women heading towards a general direction — up. Now this is where the reflection really played a big part in making me notice this piece at all. It made it look like the women were trying to ascend up towards the light at the head of the stairs. This made me wonder if the picture was placed in front of the stairs on purpose or perhaps it was a creative coincidence.
Supreme x Jean-Michel Basquiat
Early last week, Supreme, a clothing brand that caters to the “young counter culture”, released its latest collection in collaboration with the Basquiat Estate. This collection of shirts and sweaters highlight Jean-Michel Basquiat’s artwork and legacy. Like every other collaboration that Supreme has done with various street artists, I thought this collaboration was very fitting for both Supreme and Basquiat’s artwork. Both of these names became first known on the street. It was the street culture that gave them credibility and fame. Then as the hype built around their creations, did they get recognized in the elite art world.
It is collaborations like this, that Supreme is able to spread word to its cult-like following about artists that defined certain periods. I think that it’s pretty cool that through clothing we can learn a lot about art.
