Colby Bird’s Edition Published By CRG Editions
You might recall CRG gallery’s publishing wing, CRG Editions had a strong showing at the Editions/Artists Book Fair. In keeping with their brand of smart work that mates strong conceptual work with eye-catching imagery, their recent edition by the Artist, Colby Bird left my brain a tingle. From the press release:
The first in an ongoing series, the print is a reproduction of a cheap poster featuring Tupac Shakur that has been spraypainted over and is hanging on a painted wall. The spraypainted lines are reproduced using silkscreen over an archival inkjet printed poster mounted to museum board painted in acrylic to mimic the painted wall.Subsequent prints in the series will feature other posters with variations of spray painted lines that reference specific minimalist and Ab Ex painters. The lines on this piece are referencing the work of Sol Lewitt. Colby talks about the series as a way to both acknowledge and deny his desire for these adolescent items (dorm room posters) by re-presenting the posters in heavy-handed art historical terms. The conversation speaks about the masculinity of minimalist and Ab Ex painters and the masculinity of middle-class/frat-culture. There will be 4 prints total in the series.
You had me from, incredibly labor intensive means to reproduce cheap printed ephemera. Pairing the cheap inspirational poster memorializing Tupac with a minimalist grid seems like a weirdly generative collage that forces the viewer to start making connections between the constraints of 90’s rap and 60’s minimalism.
Having said that, I’m not sure I totally buy the piece performing masculinity with the surgical precision intended by the artist. Maybe there too many ways that this strange poster of a poster quotes masculinity, who can say? Didn’t Sol himself once manifest, “Once it is out of his hand the artist has no control over the way a viewer will perceive the work. Different people will understand the same thing in a different way.”
Image: Colby Bird
Love it. And further proof that printmaking is the hip hop of art.
Does that make painting the hair rock or the classical music of art?
Amze, painting is hair rock, classical music, and more. Painting is the ASCAP catalog of art.
Printmaking is the sweet mix-tape you made in eighth grade.
These comments are the best! And this post is excellent food for thought… the exchange portfolio my foil class is making is rooted in mass produced posters.