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Friday, July 11, 2008

Thoughts on Ed Boxx

I don't know if prolific tagger Ed Boxx (also known as Rexx Ram or Red Foxx) is really dead, or if he faked his death as a prank.

I don't know who Ed Boxx really is, and I don't think that I know anyone who has met him in person.

I have no idea what is meant by "Get Up, Get God."

I don't know how I feel about the artist's use of historic buildings as tablets for his work. Actually, I do. I don't like it. But I don't like it a whole lot less than I don't like property owners letting their buildings deteriorate to the extent where they don't even try to clean up grafitti.

One thing that I know for certain is that this Ed Boxx piece on the dormitory buidling of St. Mary's Infirmary captures my attention and admiration. The skyline drawing, the colors, the imitation of the building's rooftop cross in the work -- this is pretty deliberate work. I'd rather not see this work on this building, but that's not the root problem. Not at all.

2 comments:

Doug Duckworth said...

Redevelop or Succumb, as stated on the Spivey, pretty much sums it up.

Don't like it? Don't neglect your property. He isn't tagging well manicured South Side homes.

Anonymous said...

actually, he isn't tagging south side homes, or mansions in ladue or mcmansions in st. charles. why not? to whom are these tags directed? the complacent commuter whizzing by in their SUV? the locals trapped out of middle class respectability? if the first, then tagging seems actually a cop-out versus other forms of communication which actually attempt to confront power relations. If the latter, most locals see taggers as no different than the other outsiders who use blighted communities for their own political, economic and symbolic purposes. the work of many local taggers remind me of the first year photography students whose portfolio abound with the sentimental shots of decay--the kitten in the broken window, the flower from the cracked sidewalk, etc., etc.