The Splasher: Destroying Street Art

Marc over at the Wooster Collective has an excellent post up discussing the work of the Splasher, a defacing jerk who has been wandering around New York City, splattering street art with paint.

For us, the situation is pretty simple - it sucks that someone is defacing artwork that people in the city love and connect with. What many people have learned is that while much of this art is done illegally, it beautifies ugly spaces. It counteracts the negative effects of the proliferation of advertising, and adds a lot of joy to the residents of the neighborhoods where street art flourishes. (Not the Upper East Side) We don't buy into the pseudo intellectual argument that the activist is claiming to make, because, for us, destroying art is purely a selfish act that has only to do with the person destroying it, not the object of the anger. While claiming to be intellectual, the more you think about what he's doing the more you realize that it's completely irrational. And as my mother used to tell me - "It's not possible to be rational with an irrational person"

He laments the fact that so many journalists and bloggers are picking up on the story, giving the Splasher the attention he deserves. I agree with that to a certain extent, but I think it's important to highlight posts like Marc's because too few people look at street artists as just vandalizing criminals (and, let's be honest... many times, they are). But Marc hits the nail right on the head when he emphasizes how important street art is in beautifying urban decay for the people who live around it. The Splasher isn't just robbing street artists of their time and work: he's robbing joy from the people living in many of the urban slums where street art thrives.

There's Not Much We Have To Say [Wooster Collective]