Last week, I paid a visit to the graffiti permission zone in Oklahoma City’s Automobile Alley. If you’ve never been, it’s located just east of Broadway in an alley between NW 10th and NW 11th Streets.
I hadn’t been in awhile, and there was a lot of new artwork to see including a sticker and stencil exhibit of gas mask graffiti. It looks to me like the subject is wearing a hoodie and gas mask and holding two paint rollers and two cans of spray paint.
John Fekner: Stencil Legend
During the 1970s, John Fekner, street-art pioneer and present-day multimedia artist, used stencils to create more than 300 works throughout the five boroughs of New York City. They featured words, symbols and dates in an effort to bring attention to squalor and hazardous working conditions throughout the city. His stencils highlighted various environmental and social issues and inspired city officials to take various actions including reconstruction and demolition. One of his most famous works was Wheels Over Indian Trails at the Pulaski Bridge Midtown Queens Tunnel.
Sometimes, I’m surprised that Oklahoma’s graffiti artists don’t address social justice issues more frequently in their artwork. Maybe they do and I’m just not seeing it. I’m also surprised that none of them have painted a big “jenx67” on some highway underpass.
I swear, it wasn’t me, officer.
“…Every individual is unique in the world and has something to contribute no matter how small the thought or message might be. Perhaps a work on the street may provide a laugh or help someone get through a difficult moment, an anxious night, a period of strife or uncertainty in their life. Yes, some people may not like it; but art on the street is for everyone. It may be funny, soothing, insightful, joyous or reflective. It is an instant of communication intent on causing an immediate reaction on the viewer.
The project is…a tribute to every unknown individual whoever grafftied, scrawled, scratched, wheat-pasted, stenciled or spray painted without the public ever knowing the name of the anonymous person…”
More Jesus Graffiti
Oh, now I see the crimson wave,
The fountain deep and wide;
Jesus, my Lord, mighty to save,
Points to his wounded side.
The cleansing stream, I see, I see!
I plunge, and oh, it cleanseth me!
Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanseth me!
It cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me!
Amazing grace! ‘Tis heaven below
To feel the blood applied;
And Jesus, only Jesus know,
My Jesus crucified.
–Phoebe Palmer, 1873
There was so much fun and varying styles of graffiti in the permission zone this time, but I’m going to save those images for next week. I’ve had to put my dear Nikon in a box and ship her off to some repair shop. I hope they can fix her. She jammed up on me last week during an event. I’ve never been one to personify objects, but I feel about that camera the way I think my dad must have felt about the ships on which he served. She’s been very faithful and taken a beating. She’s helped carry me to all the places I needed to go and helped me see the world in entirely new ways. Especially, the world of graffiti.