TinEye has it first appearing 2010-11-17
http://www.tineye.com/search/188f008fae5d1c71717460f055b1a37e726ee92e/?sort=crawl_date&order=asc
This is the kind of thing I point to as proof that graffiti is art.
I like to think he works at a factory that makes doghouses.
Wow that struck me deeply. Snoopy and I both dreamed of flying, and now look at us. Ugh. Ouch.
I want to see what Dilbert’s looks like.
This one is good, but I think I like the Snoopy one better: he looks more grown-up, which makes the whole gestalt just more… er, crushing and depressing.
I take it back. I don’t like either one 
Calvin can imagine another reality. Dilbert never can.
I can absolutely accept this sort of thing as art (though doing it without the ok of the owner of the “canvas” is still iffy).
It’s too bad that most of the graffiti that shows up is just incomprehensibly-scribbled “signatures” over any available surface.
True, I do see a lot of scrawls that I’d never call “art”. There’s also a third category, things I think of as graffiti’s version of conceptual art–although calling it any form of “art” may be a stretch. This, for instance, made me laugh, and seems to be the personal signature of a local graffiti artist…but is it art?
You owe the companies nothing. You especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.
Any advertisement in public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It belongs to you. It’s yours to take, rearrange and re-use. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.
Banksy - Wall and Piece
That’s great as a manifesto, and at least Banksy tends to commit acts of art.
On the other hand, if I applied those words to keying people’s cars in parking lots, would it have the same moral superiority?
It would entirely depend on who the owner of the car was.
I’m reading the argument as that public advertising is an attack which allows of no defense, and therefore we have the right to counterattack.
…I see. Where’s the cutoff, exactly? I wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of the line that says “the stuff this entity owns is fair game”.
Given the amount of graffiti I’ve seen on private houses or public fixtures, a lot of people must think the cutoff is pretty low.
I get that, I really do. But while I partially agree with it, it also feels like a very bad reason to ruin the day of someone who isn’t responsible for what you’re upset about.
So on the one hand you have the defacement of a corporate advert in public space.
On the other you have vandalism of a private vehicle.
Two separate topics if you ask me.
The world is made of blurred lines.
As per the Snoopy graffiti, I think it made a lot of people’s day.
I, err… don’t see any advertisements defaced in the examples in this post. Corporate or otherwise. Just sides of anonymous buildings. If you were only replying to my post in the context of defaced advertisements, perhaps that could have been more clear?
There’s also a LOT of gradients that can be lumped together into “companies”. Some large and anonymous, some tiny and extremely human. Would it be ok to deface the property of a little two-man company struggling to get along? How about a little larger? Where does it become “I don’t owe these people any courtesy”?
And I agree, which is one reason why I said I’d accept it as art.
I also think that’s not a catch-all justification for defacing someone else’s property without permission, which is why I said doing something like that is “iffy”. Though I’m not meaning to assert that such a thing was done here, since we don’t know.
That was in reference to the Banksy quote
“It belongs to you. It’s yours to take, rearrange and re-use”.
That could have been more clear, certainly.
Never said it was. That seems to me like a bit of a leap. Sometimes you’re justified punching someone in the face, sometimes you ain’t. Context is everything.
And art is in the eye of the beholder.
Maybe you consider the Snoopy graffiti art, maybe the building owner doesn’t.
Maybe some people consider corporate billboards a blight on our culture, maybe others don’t.
If you’ve got a witty piece of art that makes a scything public statement, then spread the love. Waiting for a grant from a gallery is a waste of time.
