Hasta La Ideas

As a counterpoint to the coffee table books of gallery-friendly graffiti art, a new collection records the more familiar (and less refined) writing styles as seen on the streets of Detroit…

While the artistry may be suspect, the figures badly drawn and the lettering unremarkable, the scrawls featured in photographer Scott Hocking’s Bad Graffiti perhaps say something more direct about the state of the places they appear in than some clever stencilling ever could.

And in this sense, both the settings and the graffiti make for a fairly bleak book. Abandoned house follows abandoned house; flooded warehouses and urban wasteland all provide a canvas for the frustrations (or in-jokes) of those armed with a spray can or marker pen.

Only a few of examples are genuinely funny – “Get Well Larry – Fuck Them Cats” – being one of them. And the jazzy directive of “freeballs in your mouth” is offset just a little by being rendered in the most refined hand-lettering in the book.

Tags by “Dirty Ed” and “Freaky Al” are little more than visual stamps by people who happen to be in a particular place at a particular time. Often the most interesting graffiti here is a simple one-word exclamation (“Vanity!”, for example), presumably replicating the tagger’s state of mind; and their take on the state of the world.

But aside from recording the rawness of the cityscape, what is a book about terrible graffiti trying to say? That in print an audience might find something more interesting in all this, something amusing even – unlike, quite possibly, the residents of the neighbourhoods who have to pass this stuff everyday?

Perhaps that’s a little alarmist but having looked through the book several times, I’m not sure the photographs really just represent the work of “the little guy,” as Hocking writes in his prologue. His take toes the ‘so bad it’s good’ line – hence ‘Bad’ Graffiti – but even if he is a native of the city he’s photographing, that stance still seems like it comes from a detached, outsider’s point of view. (Hasn’t Detroit generated enough ‘ruin porn‘ by now?)

Amid the grimness, however, there are glimpses of dark comedy. Take the appalling flourishes in “7 Mile Breadwinners” – the ‘B’ an unsuccessful attempt at something a little flashier. Or the cobra that adorns the book’s cover. When a gang paints “an adorable cartoonish snake” on a building, as Hocking writes, any attempt at ‘badness’ comes across as, well, just plain bad.

Bad Graffiti is published by Black Dog; £9.95. blackdogonline.com. All images courtesy the artist.

CR in Print
The January issue of Creative Review is all about the Money – well, almost. What do you earn? Is everyone else getting more? Do you charge enough for your work? How much would it cost to set up on your own? Is there a better way of getting paid? These and many more questions are addressed in January’s CR.

But if money’s not your thing, there’s plenty more in the issue: interviews with photographer Alexander James, designer Mirko Borsche and Professor Neville Brody. Plus, Rick Poynor on Anarchy magazine, the influence of the atomic age on comic books, Paul Belford’s art direction column, Daniel Benneworth-Gray’s This Designer’s Life column and Gordon Comstock on the collected memos, letters and assorted writings of legendary adman David Ogilvy.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here

Fashion designer Christian Lacroix made a name for himself with his fearless, multicultural mixing of bold prints, riotous colors, and luxe textiles. His eye for striking combinations is evident in the pages of a distinctively bound black book that he filled with collages (see below video) for Moleskine’s Detour Project, a group show of notable notebooks curated by Raffaella Guidobono.

Having traveled the globe–from New York and London to Shanghai and Tokyo (next stop: Sao Paulo)–the project’s latest detour is into meta-bookdom. Stocking stuffer alert: The Detour Book offers a glimpse into notebooks that have been decorated, hacked, and sketched by designers Yves Béhar and Paula Scher, artist Tom Sachs, writer Dave Eggers, photographer Mary Ellen Mark, and many other creative types. Texts by the likes of ubercurator Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Paris Review editor Lorin Stein help to contextualize the reproduced Moleskine pages that are divided into five sections: visionaries, semantics, virtuosos, romantics, and ironists. Vive la différence!
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“I’ve lived with life as an artist, with an artist. Tip [husband Carroll Dunham] and I were lucky to find each other, and this life that works for both of us. There’s a surprisingly large list of things that I haven’t had, in terms of museum shows and recognition, but I’m so interested in the present right now. I don’t want my new work to have anything to do with nostalgia. Artists are ridiculous. We’re totally scornful when people in other fields try to do art, but we think we can do anything–act, write, do extreme sports. Young artists have given me that license, because the old distinctions don’t exist for them.”

–Laurie Simmons in “A Doll’s House,” a piece by Calvin Tomkins that appears in this week’s issue of The New Yorker

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The late Cy Twombly‘s sensational “Peony” (pictured) and “Rose” paintings were a hit with fashion designers. Wearable homages to the artist’s distinctively dripping blossoms popped up in collections by the likes of Jason Wu and Rachel Roy shortly after the paintings were exhibited at Gagosian’s New York and London galleries. More recently, Twombly’s bold crayon and pigment flowers have trickled down to the younger set, thanks to J. Crew. The company’s Crewcuts kidswear label is offering this cotton sateen frock printed with painterly plum “poppies.” And while Twombly’s blooms have long since scattered to lucky collectors for price tags we’d peg in the low seven figures, J. Crew’s “On-the-Button” dress is currently on sale for $59.99–and is machine washable.

Don’t miss the opportunity to see Twombly’s last paintings, together with about 100 of his photographs, on view at Gagosian’s Madison Avenue gallery through December 22.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

First-time director Alison Klayman’s documentary about artist Ai Weiwei is one step closer to an Oscar nomination. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, which debuted this year at Sundance (where it was awarded a special jury prize) before moving on to festivals from Rio to Reykjavik and a summer U.S. theatrical release, has made the shortlist of 15 films eligible for the Oscar for best documentary. Announced last week by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the list also includes Detropia, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s musing on the Motor City; Rory Kennedy‘s extraordinary chronicle of the life of her mother, Ethel; and Chasing Ice, the story of photographer James Balog’s quest to gather undeniable evidence of climate change. The final list of five films will be announced along with the rest of the Oscar nominations on January 10.

Klayman was granted unprecedented access to Ai Weiwei, as well as his family and others close to him. During the eventful three years of filming, the Chinese government shut down his blog, beat him up, bulldozed his newly built studio, and held him in secret detention. “I want to give people a chance to spend time with Weiwei, listen to his voice and his opinions, see his flaws, and experience the conditions of his life,” says Klayman in her director’s statement. “The idea is to allow audiences to evaluate Weiwei’s choices and, I hope, to be inspired by his courage and humanity.” Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is playing this evening at the Museum of Modern Art. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Klayman. Not in New York? The film is available on DVD and iTunes.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.