At the end of last year, Italian street artist Blu had a mural censored by the very person who had comissioned it; Jeffrey Deitch, director at MOCA. There was a significant amount of back and forth about whether or not it was censorship or a curatorial move in the global art scene press. Now we find ourselves requiring better understanding of just what it means when we say "street art," exhibition," "curatorial decision," "censorship."
This week on the Afrological Investigation News Feed we have few streams going: one on drum and dance sites; one on dance and competition; one on reality TV and LAUSD green space; and yet another on public art performance and exhibition. These all interconnect, usually somewhere downtown on Hope or Flower, but also through a number of the aforementioned terms. We shall see.
Take a listen to my unedited discussion with the Phantom. He and other street artists--all of whom, interestingly enough, were not slated to be in the Street Art MOCA show--launched protests of support for Blu's work that are ongoing. He contacted me just as I was reading the press release outlining Shepard Fairey's resolution with AP Newswire over the Obama HOPE photo appropriation. The Phantom has a lot to say about that, too. Stay tuned for more of these talks. We are just getting started.
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Listen on posterous
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