~SABIO / RAMBO . . & XAVIOR / SUMMER 2010
I was thinking about RAMBO, because when I was looking up the archival footage for MARTIN CREED, I found a few RAMBO pix from that time too.
they popped even more than usual . . because actually BANKSY referenced the kind of ‘tag’ work RAMBO does, in his recent ‘rejected’ op ed piece / rant . . for the NEW YORK TIMES !!
BANKSY: “Nobody comes to NEW YORK to bathe in your well-mannered common sense. We’re here for the spirit and audacity, of which One World Trade has none. Instead you have to look to the rooftops – to the chorus of precariously roller painted names and slogans over the skyline like poison ivy.”
by “roller painted”, he means wide paint rollers on long handles, as used in house painting for ceilings/walls.
I also have a vague recollection of reading somewhere . . that these crude but hi-risk, acrobatic ‘tags’ were like ‘lace’ or ‘crochet’ on the city skyline.
when the work plays off an existing ghost of an advertising text . . IT is a bonus.
in this case it’s particularly brilliant, and done up, to the max . . by XAVIOR.
(please) MASTER YOUR BODY THERE’S A SOUL WITHIN – XAVIOR.
how they actually get up there and do the gravity-defying deed, and without being detected, is beyond my knowledge. but I guess those ladders on the extreme left, are a clue.
ARCHIVAL PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH. JUNE 2010, NYC.
ps: KAWS
used to do this type of action, too. back in the day when he was a young kid wannabe growing up in Jersey. I know this, because you can still catch an early ghost of a KAWS roller ‘tag’ on an industrial roof line on the main drag into the city, the tunnel into New York City .. from the Jersey City side.
kind of near that big HOME DEPOT.
will try to catch a photo, next time I go by.