For this week's arts explorer, we were supposed to make guerilla art, also known as "street art". I found this task a little bit daunting at first because I am such a fan of this type of art and the artists that have influenced this type of art movement, such as Banksy. I watched a documentary about guerilla artists and street artists entitled Exit Through the Gift Shop. This documentary was very well made, and was truly inspiring. Banksy is a popular graffiti artists/ guerilla artists who spray paints political statements around the world, notably, in the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank. He only agreed to participate in the documentary if his face was blacked out. There's a lot of footage of him creating his art, and he gives an interview to the filmmaker about his ultimate goal of engaging people to think about the world through his artwork.
This is what I believed guerilla artwork to be. A profound political statement with the use of spray paint, which I didn't feel creative or aware enough to do. I further researched the purpose of making guerilla art, and read that there is no one purpose of making guerilla art, popular reasons include making a statement, sharing ideas, to send good karma, or just plain fun. This made me a bit less nervous, and so I thought about the different things I could use, and the purpose of my guerilla art. Since I have never spray painted in my life, graffiti art was out of the question. I then decided to use an object and writing to convey my message. I decided that I wanted to send good karma to people, and to make them laugh after a long day at work. This is what I came up with:
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| Free Hugs from Spider Man! I remember that my brother won a spider man stuffed toy last year in Canada's Wonderland, and it would always be the topic of conversations whenever my friends would visit my house. They would carry it and hug it because it was so cuddly, yet very bizarre. It also frightened some friends when they would come over at night, and it would be in the corner of the dining room starting at them. I decided to use spider man to capture people's attention, and to offer them a friendly hug when they would pass by the park in front of my apartment building. I thought it would be a great way to cheer them up after a long day of work, and to put a smile on their faces. I also thought it would be fun to see their reactions, and to see if anyone would actually want to hug him. I was also inspired by the free hugs campaign on youtube, and I thought it sent such a beautiful message. In today's fast paced society, people rarely stop and notice something, or do something other than their daily routines. The free hugs campaign sent a simple message, which was to make other feel better, and was a random act of kindness. Although Spider Man can't hug back, I think hugging THE Spider Man would be just as rewarding (haha). I ventured out into the park on a sunny Wednesday afternoon just as people were coming home from work. I brought Spidey with me, and just to feel less insecure, I brought my sister Danni as my assistant. This is how we placed him on the park bench:  Pretty snazzy huh? It looked like he was just hanging out, trying to catch some rays. I loved how unassuming he looked! The gentleman on the right looked at us like we had issues, but laughed when he saw the sign on Spider Man. I wasn't able to capture it though because my sister and I were both laughing. We 'hid' behind a tree and tried to look as unassuming as possible by snapping pictures of each other, and of the park. We waited for about 20 minutes, which was no problem because it was a beautiful sunny day. There were about 3 different paths in the park, and people rarely took the path that Spider Man was sitting in. Then suddenly:  My sister called my attention to a businessman walking down our path! I quickly took a shot of him, good thing he didn't notice us. I was so excited, and I held my breath for bit hoping he'd come up to Spidey. Then the most amazing thing happened. These pictures are pretty self explanatory:    He noticed it! This gentleman was talking on his phone, and I could hear him laughing! He stopped in front of Spider Man for a while, snapped a picture, then sat down beside him and took a picture of himself! It happened so fast, and I was so excited to be there to capture someone's reaction! It was all too perfect, and it felt so rewarding to brighten someone's day with a simple act. This guerilla art activity was so much fun to do, and so rewarding at the end. It made me feel proud and excited that someone actually noticed him. This giant stuffed toy is so much more than a conversation piece, or a frightening image in the corner of the dining room. Now, it is so much more than that, it brightened someone's day, even for just a moment, which is what I intended for Spider Man to do! The art word for this blog is complementary and asymmetrical. Asymmetrical is defined by Schirrmacher and Fox (2009) as a balance that is unusual and intriguing, a dark colour may balance lighter ones. Moreover, complementary colours are opposite each other in the colour wheel, and provide a dramatic visual contrast (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009). Since Spider Man is black and white, I wanted the FREE HUGS sign to stand out more, so I decided to use contrasting bright colours like highlighter yellow, outlined with red. This allowed for people to read the sign from far away. This activity can be translated into a Kindergarten classroom. Children can draw, paint, collage, mould, or construct an idea, a thought, a statement, or just something fun to place outside for people to see. My rigid misconception about guerilla art as something that had to be spray painted, and had to have a controversial political statement is totally defunct by reading more about the purpose of it, and the materials that can be used. Children can share their art outdoors to strangers, and this may brighten someone's day, and can be a very rewarding experience to them when it is noticed! References Schirrmacher, R, & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar. http://guerilla-art.wikidot.com/what-is-guerilla-art |
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