New APER at the Pit

APER has been busy, tagging Spring Garden Road, painting at the pit, even posing for a photo in today's Chronically Horrid (Suitably hidden behind a respirator).



The Pit - Currently

QE2 Hospital Goes for a Record

Some graffitis go up and are then covered over fairly quickly, while some stays up longer. Usually graff on businesses seem to be among the former, rather than the latter.

The Queen Elizabeth Health Sciences Center seems to be trying for a record with this throw-up on the Bethune Building, University Street wall, which seems to be over a year old. (I'm sure the work order is in the mail...)

Bus Shelter WallpAPERed

This bus shelter on Spring Garden Road has been treated to a multimedia redecoration by APER - spraypaint, paint marker, sticker and scratched.

Context - Part 1

Imagine you are walking down the street, in broad daylight, when a man pulls out a can of spray paint and begins to deface the sidewalk. No one says or does anything. More than a month later, the paint remains untouched for all to see, throughout the Downtown core/ Spring Garden Road area. And it's not like there has been any sign of sidewalk repairs either.





It certainly is ugly, and yet there are no shrill cries for it's removal, no concerns of dropping property values, no councilors spouting soundbites for reporters. Clearly, in this specific case, the medium is not the message, or to paraphrase George Orwell, All graffitis are equal, but some graffitis are more equal than others.

I'm just saying...

A Reading Challenge

One time I asked one of the ADICT guys what a particularly cryptic piece he was painting said. He replied (very Kung Fu master-like) "when you open your mind to it, you will know what it says"

Anyone's mind (or Chinese-English dictionary) open enough to read this one?

The Pit as of August 22/2007

Things change at the Pit very quickly, so trying to get a current set of photos shot and posted, before they are outdated has been tougher than I thought it would be this past week.

Here, as of August 22/2007 is what's up at the Pit (The Water and Morris Street Parking Lot)

Free SAME

SAME has been missing in action this summer, after bombing Halifax all winter/spring. I had wondered if that suggested that he was a student, or had a summer job elsewhere, but a comment on the blog had a different explanation - "It's SAME, and he's in jail. FREE SAME!"

This seems to be confirmed by JEM on a wall in Spryfield.

Maybe HRM can give some of it's Graffiti removal crew a summer vacation, knowing that SAME is out of commission for a while. (But maybe they are too busy with APER for a holiday)

George Bush - "Errorist"

Say what you will about graffiti - mess, message, or medium is the message - sometimes a truly witty/profound graffiti comes along - like this one on a concrete drain pipe near an isolated HRM soccer field.

This deserves a wider audience. T-Shirts anyone?

Feedback Part 2

The Pit has been busy this summer. ADICT put up some new stuff, which APER quickly went over, followed by a new ADICT piece. (New Pit pics to come soon)

APER seems to have left a message for ADICT, covering over a SPACE piece. Unlike some writing, where the message can get lost in the style, this one seems loud and clear.

Or, maybe not, who knows?

Feedback/I'm Back Part 1

I was away for a while, and have been paying for my sins since by being extra busy at work, and subsequently have neglected the blog. No more.

Upon my return, I discovered one of the pitfalls of a blog allowing unmoderated anonymous comments - minor flame wars. There was some back and forth between APER, some of the ADICT guys presumably, and others - basically relating to APER's go overs at The Pit - style critiques and etiquette violations.

Ah well - as Brendan Beehan said "There is no such thing as bad publicity - except your own obituary. "