Meh

Last night I went to the opening of Painting Under Pressure, the new graffiti show at the Art Gallery of Calgary. I'm trying to think of something positive to say so I don't sound like a complete bitch. So far, all I've come up with is: it was free.

I think the main problem for me was the disconnect between the show and the venue. The show is based on the question: Is Graffiti Art? I can almost see this working in a larger, more traditional institution. But AGC is a contemporary gallery, so I'd assumed they would have chosen the 'yes' side about 20 years ago. Seriously, I didn't think you could still base a show on something so broad and obvious. Which leads me to the second problem - when they say graffiti, they mean graffiti. All of it. No subfocus, no era or style or approach or artist. Just graffiti. That's like doing a show on painting. What about painting? Oh, nothing in particular, just painting. We're even going to have real paintings there to look at!

Anyway.

Most of the work was dull. Big multicoloured murals. Lettering style that was big 15 years ago. There was a really cool installation in the lower gallery. I think the artist was Evoke, but it might have been a collaboration between two artists. It was kinda hard to read the labels because the place was PACKED. There was a wall with stream-of-consciousness text, which I'm always a sucker for, and some bits painted in that flat, children's fairy tale style that's everywhere now. But there was a piece where the the paintings on two walls were connected by hundreds of threads. It was neat, but it had nothing to do with street art. You could never create something like that on a wall, not least because it would take endless hours of standing there tying pieces of thread. It wouldn't have seemed too out of place if the rest of the show hadn't been explicitly focused on illegal outdoor graffiti.

The feedback area upstairs was straight out of museum studies 101. Maybe it will get some interesting responses if school groups visit, because that's who the show seems to be aimed at. But the only people there last night were the art school allstars. Thus, the comment area was filled with smart-assed remarks and silly doodles.

But I can't really complain. It was free.

Oh! I do have something positive to say. Two thumbs up to the latest hipsterboy look! I saw a handful of guys working the Jonathon Richmond/early 80s sensitive boy look. Skinny jeans, short hair with a longer section in front, falling carelessly over one eye. Looking a bit malnourished and angsty, but careful not to overdo it. Sadly, I'm probably 10 years older than any of them and it kind of made me feel like a pervert to size them up.