ART EXPLOSION

This Monday morning from 4-9am the Free Art Society and roughly 50 members of the New York artistic community ambushed second street between aveneues A and B in a gorilla arts movement titled “ART EXPLOSION”. Our goal was to show the powerful efects art and color have o the human experience and to reclaim and inhance public space. There was zero wheat paste or tagging involved and no buildings or businesses were perminantly changed. The goal was to show the community how art in public space could enhance their daily lives. Following installation of all of the pieces were 2 hours of performance art in the streets for the community members going off to work.

This movement was in effect, a physical representation of both the open source ideology as well as William Burrough’s cut up method. open source is a scientific and artistic approach to the public accessibility to the code and methodology of a project. Originally it was software specific however the ideologies have expanded to focus on the aspect of community creation.

This ART EXPLOSION spent three months in development and organization among the 80 artists that attended meetings. The only guidance given to these artists by the Free Art Society was “make a piece- pick a location- put it up- no destruction or permanent damage to existing structures.” The final product of the street was ultimately developed and changed by every individual participating. In essence it was one massive, collaborative collage. While none of the work presented on the street itself was software based the ideologies and practice were very similar. The event did step into the technological realm through one mans work. Doezens of photographers documented the installation and performance art putting it online and one artist, Vlad, took video footage of the event and had it streaming online available for whatever purposes they may desire.

The event also sympathized with William Burrough’s cut up method. the beauty of the cut up method is that it is available and accessible to everybody; artist or not. The idea is a chance creation of a new art through the practice of collage. The EXPLOSION was in essence a reshuffling of the public space and enjoyed and created by both artists and non-artists. I myself am not a trained artist but I collaborated in a large collage that is still hanging in the street.

Lastly, just as the opne source ideology and the cutu p method preach- the creation is for everyone to have and change. This was the final characteristic of the ART EXPLOSION and one of the primary messages of the Free Art Society. The Free Art Society’s goal is to free art from its traditional spaces and make it accessable to the community. To support this effort all of the art posted on 2^nd street will stay up until taken home by a member of the community.

The following video’s and photos were taken during instillation and during performances.

footage of ART EXPLOSION
footage of installation
photos of installation and the aftermath