Kate (Mastodon)In our town there’s a big wall. Recently a silver penis showed up there, at startling scale. Someone stood there and sprayed it into life, with anatomical detail.
Two weeks later and it’s been covered with a dense drizzle of more silver lines. Not roller painted, so not the council. A concerned citizen went to the hardware store and bought a matching can and scribbled it out, standing in the same spot.
What’s that word for making art by erasing art?
#smallstories
Read Robert Rauschenberg, Erased de Kooning Drawing, 1953 (SFMOMA)
I love the idea here of making art by removing things. It’s somewhat akin to removing stone in a block of marble to create a sculpture, but at the same time this is also different. I’m also reminded of the idea of a photo negative or the concept of publishing negative results in science to give us a fuller picture of an area. Translating this idea from art into broader life could be quite interesting.
Hat tip: graffiti story, body art
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