Abarca teaches Invention in the Urban

If you missed the opportunity in June, you can still see some small-scale inventions by artist participants in Javier Abarca's workshop on "Spontaneous Public Art". Taught through the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Abarca formalizes the methodologies of inventions by stressing the link between the immediate context and the artist's addition.

"Close" Project by Santiago Cortizo in Abarca Workshop
A sticker in the upper right corner of the advertizement to "close" it.

Most graffiti artists, poster wheatpasters, advertisement placement buyers and sign designers seek only visibility by the targeted audience. Any relationship with the psychological or connotative implications of the physical surroundings is merely accidental.

Many commissioned public artworks gain strength from context, but negative commentary, irony or rational critique is normally prohibited from realization. As is the "messiness" - (Neatness is one of the few very consistent qualities of commissioned public art). Negativity, irony, critique and messiness are foundations of much temporary interventions from Robert Smithson to John Fekner to Bansky.

John Fekner's Bronx Project Stencils, 1980

Generally, the willingness to vandalize the public realm - even in minor ways - means the artist will not have a career in American public art. Public artists follow the rules, and the most successful, understand and RESPECT human social organization. If the artist is talented at creating powerful interjections, they are more likely to move into the museum crowd or non-art political action. The exclusion of these artists from commissioned public art is one of the main reasons American public is so tame in the public realm. The visual skills of survival on the street must be tested and practiced. The American public artists need to return to boot camp.

MANIPULATE STREET ELEMENTS

Shadow by Dos Jotas, Madrid and Peter Gibson a.k.a. "Roadsworth", Montreal, photo by marc
The best urban intervention website in WWW.WOOSTERCOLLECTIVE.COM

SILLINESS

Floating leg by Dan Witz and cartoon airplane flag man at the airport by Jace

HOPING THE AUTHORITIES WON'T NOTICE

Works by Leon Reid IV. The right leaning lightpost was fake and temporary. Part of Reid's "Kiss" series.

TINY WORKS

Do Not Buy by Abarca and Congregation by Kristi Sword (Candy Sprinkles)

MORE ABARCA

As an expert in typology, Abarca has taken unique sets of photographs of Madrid to understand the amateur application of letters to trashcans and cheap light box signs. Through the hundred photographs, a kind of style emerges in which precision is not important and a lack of forethought forces the maker to modify the letters during the application. One arbitrary placement frequently requires accommodation by everything else. Much more than standard graffiti, murals or signs, the process of making is palpable. The ghost of physical action and mental thinking emerges from the objects like abstract expressionism in slow motion.

Photos by Javier Abarca in Madrid

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