Graffiti Mashups?

Today's Polaroid comes from Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It can be found on North 3rd Street, between Berry Street and Wythe Avenue. I didn't want to do Polaroids from the same neighborhood so close together, but this particular piece of graffiti struck me for multiple reasons, and as such I felt compelled to write about it.

What is so interesting about this particular tag is that it is a combination of two different forms of graffiti. It is somewhat difficult to see in the picture, and for that you have my sincerest apologies, but on the wooden panel there is a picture of a monstrous creature opening its jaws in a rather threatening way. It is made of paper and pasted to the wood. Right below on the window frame, someone has tagged the words "I DREAM OF LOVE". The violent image and the sentimental words shouldn't work together, but they do.

Due to the nature of the pasted image (it is rather weathered and parts of it are peeling away from the wood) and the fresh look of the paint, I feel that these two parts of the work were not done at the same time. I am inclined to think that they were not even done by the same person. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw this was "Oh wow, a graffiti mash up!" Mash ups, or the creation of something whole (such as a song, video, or website) made up entirely of parts of other things, have become quite popular over the past few months in popular culture, particularly in the world of music, with rap artists collaborating with rock musicians, as well as DJs cutting and pasting samples from songs to make new songs (I suggest checking out Girl Talk - he particularly likes to juxtapose hip-hop with indie rock) - why not apply this to graffiti as well? Both parts of the whole - the image and the words could stand alone on their own, but are made so much more powerful when combined. The monstrous image makes me wonder what kind of dreams of love the artist has. What do you think?

If you go visit this particular piece of art, you must, must, MUST stop at The Bagel Store, located on North 3rd Street and Bedford Avenue. I have never had a bagel as good as theirs, and the sundried tomato tofu spread is to die for. It can get very crowded and busy in there (the bagels are so good that they have a regular following) but the service is very efficient, and the bagels are so worth it. Their hot chocolate is also quite excellent.

And now: a short diversion. It has come to my attention (thank you, Ahmed!) that the intentions of this blog may not be completely clear, and I want to take a moment to lay them out a little bit more clearly. If you feel unclear about what it is I'm trying to do with this blog, please go to the first post. I've edited it to make my intentions a little more clear.

That's all for today. Also: if you know of any particular tags you think I should go visit/want me to blog about here, please leave me a comment with the location of the tag and I'll try to make my way over there.