"Graffittied Graffiti" Favorite 

Practitioner: 

Date: 

Feb 1 2021

Location: 

Seoul, South Korea

At a gallery within a shopping complex in the South Korean capital, a couple saw paint cans and brushes at their reach and use next to what was actually a finished portrait worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thinking the available paint and brushes was a signal to be a part of the art, they ended up technically vandalizing the artists' work. The incident has sparked controversy and conversation on what it means about authenticity and authorship, consider the artists' intentions with the piece was to emulate vandalism, specifically through a graffiti aesthetic.

External sources: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/07/world/asia/jonone-vandalism-south-korea-art.h...
Posted by nahlahabdur on Apr 7 2021

Staff rating: 

0

Effectiveness

How does this project help?

Activates (people)Energizes and organizes people into action. Can include emotion work
Amplifies (issue or campaign)Brings public and political attention to an issue or campaign.  Can include prefigurative action, making the invisible visible.
Shifts (culture)Shifts the cultural landscape in order to imagine and enable change.

Timeframe For change

This project seems to be part of a campaign with a clear short-term goal. Short-term goals tend to be things like: create or repeal a law; get a President impeached; make the city administration repair a sidewalk. A campaign with a short-term goal needs a clear theory of change, complete with targets that can be cajoled or pressured into effecting the goal.
Provide conversation on is it okay to monetize and capitalize on an art form that has roots in protest and an outlet for working class artists.

Notes

It was not intentional, but the incident that arised due to the objectives of the artist and what he was trying to symbolize with this piece led to these issues arising.