Mandy Martin, Puritjarra 2, 2005. For further information on MANDY MARTIN, refer here: http://www.mandy-martin.com/
If there are diverse kinds of knowledge and ways of knowing place, then we need to learn to value the different ways each of us sees a single place that is significant, but differently so, for each perspective.
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looking for something firm in a world of chaotic flux
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stencil Christ: a little note of subversion?
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December 24, 2007
A bit cheeky---a Christ-like face and a crown of thorns with a cigarette hanging from the mouth. It refers to the way that graffiti, as a medium of public expression for people, is a traditional art that is a cheap and relatively simple way to make images, has deep historical roots.
Gary Sauer-Thompson, face, Union Lane, Melbourne, 2007
Crispin Sartwell puts street art into its cultural context well. Referring to the US he says:
...think for a moment about who are the vandals, the taggers, the lovers of ugliness. Out where I live in rural PA, they've recently added a McDonald's, an Arby's, a Wal-Mart SuperCenter, etc. The corporate logos appear on signs along 83. There are huge signs everywhere. The buildings themselves - cheap, depressing architecture - started with the removal of trees, proceeded to the digging of huge pits, eventuated in rectangular concrete bunkers that dominate the landscape. The idea that the people who do this sort of thing, or even people who tolerate it, would turn around and call real art defacement and vandalism of these same structures is not even ironic. It's sick. All over America, police are protecting concrete abutments, shattered warehouses, and filthy freight trains, not to mention advertising itself, from the original, personal, at times brilliant expression and perfect craft of real artists.
The image of Christ is that of a street bum; a poet down on his luck; a human, all too human prophet. Such a contrast with the image of Christ in the established Christian religions. It's a little note of subversion
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Perhaps its a joint he's smoking?