The preceding art piece can be applied by anyone and is meant to increase an understanding and awareness of the artists relationship with the powers that consume him/her. The original conception of this piece came about through many discussions with friends about the growing trend of graffiti artists willing to sell their representations of graffiti culture to a mass audience in turn for a share of the profit. More specifically it was a response to a Nike advertisement I saw downtown where two very well known graffiti artists were commissioned to design a billboard.

Having some time to look back on this, I understand that the artist is fucked in any situation. On one hand they could not do the ad but lose out by not capitalizing on this marketing scheme. Or the artist could choose to do the ad, get paid, but also feel the repercussions of that by his peers. In either situation, Nike is going to execute the ad using graffiti as a strategy, whether the artist chooses to participate or not.

One resolution to this is to find a middle ground where by participating in this marketing strategy you were able to interject a subtle personal response to this problem. This may be a way of trying to appease both your personal desires as well as giving corporate companies what they seek. It is slippery ground to be on, certainly my project deals with one minute detail of this complex issue at hand. Hopefully this may stimulate graffiti artists who choose to make work for large companies by directly responding to this situation instead of conforming and not raising any issues at all.