Graffiti In The Hour Of The Wolf



Last night The Corsair attended the closing reception for "The Piece Process" exhibition at the Anonymous Gallery. All the usual urban contemporary art suspects were there, like Paper's Carlo McCormick, Greg Lamarche and Sacha Jenkins. It was an interesting exhibition on three generations of urban art, Baquiats and Warhols were hung on the same walls as Keith Haring, AIKO, Judith Supine and Momo Kadous.

So we went out for a cigarette with an attractive German woman. Started discussing the nature of Art. The cosmos. That sort of thing. Then, mid-conversation, without a by-your-leave or a Verzeihen Sie, she bends over, takes out a felt-tipped marker and briskly tags a building. It was, we cannot fail to note, a charming organic design, but it kind of threw us. Do they do that sort of thing in Berlin at 9PM on a fairly crowded street?

In Washington it is considered par for the course that while one is having a conversation one is also always looking over the shoulder of the talking partner to see if Someone More Important is around the corner. In urban contemporary art circles, apparently, one is always looking over ones shoulder to spot some pristine wall real estate to tag.