I was in Williamsburg a couple of weeks ago, and my friend, who’s in the picture, told me about this great piece of graffiti a la Banksy that just cried out to be photographed. (My husband says it’s Brooklyn’s Flat Stanley.) It’s actually a piece of waterproofed paper or some similar material, rather than spray-paint on the wall. I’m glad I got the pic when I did — we walked by 24 hours later and it had been vandalized. Close-up after the jump.
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it was ‘vandalized”? interesting choice of words given that the act of sticking this to the wall was itself vandalization.
posted by vandalized on 8-15-2006 at 11:58 am
It’s called wheatpasting. The glue used causes the paper to become waterproof. Mostly they are screenprinted images on something like newsprint.
posted by Jon on 8-15-2006 at 12:02 pm
Thanks, Jon! I’ve never heard of wheatpasting, but the effect is cool. As for “vandalized,” I chose that particular word for a reason — the vandal basically scribbled some words in a rather artless fashion, whereas there was clearly a lot of effort put into the original work. I don’t know what the official definition of “vandalization” is, but for me, I suppose it’s an “I know it when I see it” kind of thing, and I knew this when I saw it.
posted by Mary on 8-15-2006 at 3:48 pm