“We are proud to be a place that uses art to heal,” says Program Director Tracy Kelly. The non-profit organization is free to low income youth and their families and serves an estimated 750 students per week.(Check out some of the extraordinary work being done by these artists here.)
Art Share will be receiving the proceeds generated by a new exhibit showing at the Continental Gallery in downtown Los Angeles. Titled “BLOC28 Artist Series 2,” it is the second cycle of artistic interpretations of Mickey Mouse created by graffiti artists around the Los Angeles area.
The alternative, often-edgy depictions of the famous mouse were originally spotted by Disney personnel in the form of illegal urban graffiti around the city. Instead of fighting the copyright infringement or simply ignoring the work altogether, the Disney Corporation, a company notorious for being protective of their flagship image, decided to sponsor the effort through the “BLOC28” series. The company also sponsored the creation of an exclusive line of street-wear bearing the artists’ images and logos.
Much like the young artists participating in the Art Share program downtown, graffiti artists, or “taggers,” use their illegal artwork as an outlet for expressing ideas and communicating with the community.
While the subversive nature of tagging may not be encouraged by the non-profit, many of the expressions of rebellion and dissatisfaction with the status quo are reflected by both groups.
The image of Mickey Mouse has become representative of classic Americana. Like apple pie and baseball, the image of Mickey conjures images of an ideal society. After all, he is the ambassador to the “Happiest Place on Earth.”
Ironically, the “BLOC28 Series” was created by a group of artists raised in places far from resembling Walt Disney’s man-made Utopia.(Click on the video below to hear graffiti artist Chaz Bojorquez, the “O.G. Godfather” of cholo-style graffiti, explain the inspiration for one of his most controversial “BLOC28” pieces.)
By taking a classic symbol of American utopia, such as Mickey Mouse, and changing its meaning -- making Mickey angry, hip, disproportional or a different race (as in the Zoro painting) -- the art in the Bloc 28 exhibit challenges viewers to see the iconic imagry in a new light. The image becomes subversive.
Yet, hanging on the walls of an upscale downtown gallery for the viewing pleasure of mostly white, upper class citizens, the purpose of the work seems somewhat tainted. At the same time that the images challenge the status quo, they also uphold a high-art mentality -- that the art, in a gallery setting, is more worthy than on the brick walls of a building as street art.
When oppositional art is absorbed by the culture it opposes, its meaning becomes warped. The art, plastered on tee-shirts, baseball caps, electric guitars and even a mountain bike, is being used for the financial gain of Disney, Washburn Guitars and various companies who will reproduce the images on their products as the hippest new product (baseball caps cost $35, tee-shirts $30 and the guitars will be released in 2009 as a signature style).
Granted, the original artwork in the Bloc 28 series will be auctioned off to benefit LA Share -- a noble cause -- but the future profits of the images will most likely be used to pad the pockets of the businesses that contribute to the gap between utopian America, and the reality that many hispanic and low-income families (who could not afford a $35 designer mickey cap) endure.
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