Support, Therapy and Instability by Mint Serf

SUPPORT

THERAPY AND INSTABILITY Works by Mint&Serf, in collaboration with Jacuzzi Chris, Pablo Power and The Peter Pan Posse.

“GRAFFITI IS NOT ABOUT BEING PERFECT - IT’S ABOUT THE INSTABILITY OF THIS OUTLAW LIFESTYLE AND THE CHAOS THAT IT BRINGS ALONG FOR THE RIDE. GRAFFITI IS MY LIFE’S TURBULENCE EXPLODED ON A WALL.” -MINT&SERF

SUPPORT

THERAPY AND INSTABILITY

SUPPORT, THERAPY AND INSTABILITY works by

Mint&Serf in collaboration with Jacuzzi Chris, Pablo Power and The Peter Pan Posse

Introduction by Cat Marnell Critical Essay by Carlo McCormick

Made possible with generous contribution from Tim Cadiente of Barton Perreira.

@THEMIRF mintandserf.com ÂŠ2013 specialgraffitiunit.com

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT A special thank you to Tim Cadiente of Barton Perreira for making this book become a reality, Viktor “Pimp Daddy” Some of PrintMorNYC for printing a million proofs, Cat Marnell and Carlo McCormick for the wonderful words, ROOT [EQ] for lighting and digital support, Scott Furkay for photographing at The Broadway Chapter, David Forer and Alexander Sokovikov for editing and the Peter Pan Posse for Never Growing Up: Remo aka FreeMo, Shaun, Fore, Sha$, SI, Slutlust, Rez, Pact, Naw, Pj Monte, Sean Kinney, Nemz, Cayz, Kneo, Alex Wilmot, Trybe, DK, DA, Scraps, Uno, Prince Terrence, Leah McSweeney, Toper, CH, Zooted, Curtis Kulig, Claw Money, Miss 17, Theo Bark, Caleb Bark, Jonny Lennon, James Cruickshank, BluJemz, Wyatt Neuman, Matisse Patterson, Soze, Fler, Carolyne Cass, Kider, AR Galaxy, Gordon Stevenson, Sean Vegezzi, Dane Vegezzi, Pretty Boy Gabe, The Brothers Sollis, Rambo, Bowery Bob, Harry McNally, Pretty Lew, Frog, Violin Julia and Paloma. Mint&Serf would like to thank Dr. Merker, Andrei Sokovikov, Tom Wall, Kathy Sarago, Jennifer Wall, Adrian Moeller, Paul Lindahl, Jamie McPhee, Anthony Cotter, Remy Law, Alex Calderwood, Kelly Sawdon, Jeff Regis, Erik Foss, Karma Gardner, Mike Ternovski, Steve Ternovski, Duncan Bird, Mike Davis, Jun Lee, Jou-Yie Chou, Clayton Patterson, Brendan Hoy, Yuko and Tanya Arakawa, Maria Brito, Pattrick Duffy, Keary Millard, Harold Hunter, Peter Sutherland, Sara Rosen, Montana Spray Paint, Krink, Kelly Hulbert, Megan Garwood, Bucky Turco, Gabe Rosner, Emeka Patrick, Chris Nagy, Jordan Seiler, Joseph Santoli, the Mendelsohn Family, and South Brooklyn. I want to thank myself. None of this would be possible without me. You’re all tiny players in the great landscape of my enormous imagination. You’re all welcome for each insignificant breath I let you breathe in this heaven I’ve created for you. I’d like to acknowledge the everlasting love I show for each of you. I’d also like to thank each and every critic and intellectual flea I’ve created. You keep my sword sharp and my laughs hearty. While you sleep at night I prance in your head and tickle your mother’s bottom. The eternal fire of hate that boils in your soul will consume you. In conclusion I’d like to remind all of you the last image you will see on this earth bi of me smiling down on you. As you cross the river Styx and make your way thru the gates of the under world may my laughter be the soundtrack to your eternal damnation. Sincerely , the curator of the universe. - Jacuzzi Chris Pablo would like to thank Maureen, Ross, Holly, Emeka Patrick, Sybil Patrick, Lisa Shimamura, Osiel Rojas, Joel Morejon, Kip McQueen, Bäst, Shie Moreno, Christian Mendoza, Jose Parla, Rey Parla, Scott Johnson, Mike Minerva, Romon Yang, Rahul Odedra, Mike Pacarar, George and Noelle Benias, David Edgar, Andrew Lockhart, Joseph Ian Henrikson, Gretchen Pack and last but certainly not least David Reed.

PHOTO: SCOTT FURKAY

INTRODUCTION BY CAT MARNELL

obody likes an art critic, especially not artists, and

in life hang out with graffiti writers, that they really come to

especially when said art critic is by no means an actual

believe that they too are experts.

art critic.

And in 2010, when I met the Mint&Serf and became—as it

Graffiti writers have learned to deal with these people by just completely ignoring what they have to say.

just works sometimes—an immediate friend fan, there was truly nothing I enjoyed doing more than coming over to their

(Incidentally, graffiti talk on cocaine at after-hours apartments

Brooklyn apartment (which was cramped, because Mint&Serf

from the mouths of uncool non-graffiti writers is the most

were using it as their studio) settling onto a sofa, looking

annoying and most steadfastly ignored of all: FACT.)

around, and mouthing off. It never ended. Another afternoon at MIRF HQ, I’d start up “Your pieces seem a little…contained,” I remember telling the

again. “Why don’t you do something porny with a MIRF on it?”

Mirf as I gazed around their office. There were canvases stacked

I’d suggest, inanely. “Why not do a pop-up gallery?” Missing

against the walls and on shelves above the couch, marker

the point as usual. I never got it.

and spraypaint cans everywhere, and piles of posters printed and then stolen from Astor Place Kinko’s in every corner. I

Accordingly, Mike Mint would just stare at me blankly, in

was always nibbling daintily on an Adderall as I offered my

the manner, I imagined at the time, of many who spent their

insight: “Like, sort of—and you don’t mind me critiquing you

childhoods after school in Communist breadlines instead of

guys here, right—too controlled. Repressed.”

being normal.

“Marnell,” Serf would say. “Why don’t you walk Soda?”

arnell,” Serf would say. “Do you want to peel some vinyl?” And I was always flattered to be asked to

I’d ignore him.

help, even though in retrospect I was possibly being

punished for being such an annoying speed freak. Peeling vinyl “Maybe it’s your USSR upbringing,” I’d nod to Mint, who

is tedious and hideously boring and requires mind-numbing

never looked away from his computer. “Maybe you feel like

attention to detail and all that.

you can’t really, you know…be free.” I’d shrug. “I mean, it’s just so incongruous with the bananas wild gonzo stuff you

Anyway, I peeled the excess vinyl from sheets of letters

wild out doing every night drunk on the streets.”

that now are stuck all over the Ace Hotel bathrooms, and Mint&Serf peeled a million more of such sheets, and that’s

I cringe just remembering talking like this, suggesting that

what I remember about the art of Mirf, summer 2010: it was

my artist friends free their minds while I sat around taking

small-scale, it was very cool, it was sometimes frustrating

prescription drugs and blathering on like an asshole. And the

for the artists, and by declaring as much I was stating the

worst part is, I surely still talk like this to them all the time! It

obvious—everyone was frustrated and felt claustrophobic—

is a common and wildly uncool syndrome of unauthentically

though I didn’t know it.

urban (i.e. not-born-in-New-York) people, you see, who later 18

PHOTO: SCOTT FURKAY

“IT WAS JUST LIKE GRAFFITI ON CITY WALLS, OR IN SEEDY COCAINE BATHROOMS AT THE BARS GRAFFITI WRITERS HONE IN ON: EVER-EVOLVING, ALIVE, AND ESSENTIALLY UNCONFINED.” - CAT MARNELL

PHOTO: SCOTT FURKAY

“PPP AS A CREW IS ABOUT AS PREDICTABLY UNPREDICTABLE AND DYSFUNCTIONAL AS IT GETS.” - CAT MARNELL

f course, I didn’t understand then how Mint&Serf were

The canvases in this book are the first major works to come out

limited not by small imaginations (HA!), but by their

of the new space. They are massive—6’ x 7’—and were never the

lack of studio space. I’m a moron, you see. I had no idea

same day-to-day from the time that they were hung on the walls

back then that artists require big studios. They were sharing an

to the day they came down.

apartment with not only each other but their art careers, and also with a retarded, wonky-eyed compulsively masturbating

“Ooh, I love how that one looks!” I would say, visiting one day

beagle named Soda and two cats (Serf got rid of his eventually

as I constantly am. “Don’t do anything more to it!” And the next

by liberating it into the wild; don’t even get me started).

day it would be completely different: there had been a party at the loft the night before, say, and five visiting graffiti writers had

I had missed the glory days of the Canal Chapter and the Stanton

changed the canvas completely. It was just like graffiti on city

Chapter, studio spaces where Mint&Serf had had loads of space.

walls, or in seedy cocaine bathrooms at the bars graffiti writers

“After we lost our storage as a result of closing the [respective

hone in on: ever-evolving, alive, and essentially unconfined.

Chapters] everything—art, photos, etc.— ended up in my three bedroom rent stabilized apartment in Brooklyn,” Mint says. “Not

And what Mint&Serf, Pablo, Jacuzzi Chris—SAME—and countless

the best idea to have a studio space so far from the city. It’s like

other graffiti writer friends, from Remo to SI to DK to Shaun

a different country. But you gotta do what you gotta do.”

to Pact to BC and on and on and on have accomplished with these pieces, which I love more and more the more I look at

“It was like a meth lab,” says Serf.

them (it is hard not to keep looking—they are so layered after months and months of tag upon tag upon tag) is to confine the

“We used to pour polyurethane in the kitchen,” says Mint. “And

unconfined: the spirit of vandalism, the energy and electricity of

spray paint in one of the bed-rooms.”

New York City graffiti. They capture the rawness and roughness of the streets where these boys grew into men and then decided

I didn’t understand back then that for Mint&Serf —and I imagine

being properly grown up and suited-up was too square and not

any artist—not having a studio space, is like a bird not having a

for them, and so gave in to being boys again.

wing, or an athlete not having a leg, or any other boring metaphor you can think of. Basically, you can’t run free, or fly, or go fucking wild. You can’t bring over other artists to work with, or clients, or, most importantly, your friends, who as a crew have always been integral to Mint&Serf’s work in particular.

onsequently, they are thrilling pieces, as chaotic and exciting as the people who created them and whom I am proud to call my closest friends. Again, I am no art

critic, and I am not trying to be one. But what I can speak of with Then in December of 2011, Mint&Serf moved into the Broadway

authority is the title of the book—”SUPPORT, THERAPY, AND

Chapter, a massive full-floor loft space in Tribeca that immediately

INSTABILITY”. As I write this Remo sits in jail, I’ve just come

became headquarters for the artists and for PPP (Peter Pan Posse).

back from a month of rehab in Thailand; God knows where Same

PHOTO: SCOTT FURKAY

PHOTO: MICHAEL AVEDON

is, I could go on and on. PPP as a crew is about as predictably

keeps graffiti artists up all night roaming the streets like feral

unpredictable and dysfunctional as it gets.

animals and running from police until sunrise. My friends have

taught me so much about how to live in a way that is truly

ut we are truly a family. I have observed the bond

alive: I owe so much to their wilding, their creativity, their

between graffiti writers. They don’t all love each other,

freedom from conventional standards of life and art, their punk

but they need each other. Watching my friends become

rock-ness. It is an honor to present this electrifying collection

revitalized and happier by the introduction of the Broadway

of their work to you.

Chapter—where they hide away from the world (and sometimes the Vandal Squad, or their girlfriends) together and make art until it’s time to hit the streets and make some more—is often magical. Not to be too gay—I mean, sometimes it’s a shitshow, and everyone is drunk and annoying; don’t get me wrong. In case you are gagging reading this, but I don’t mean to gush about

Cat Marnell,

anything or anybody particularly really except for the spirit

PPP Queen

of graffiti, the energy and life-force of derels and vandalism,

February 21, 2013

the lack of inhibition, the dysfunction turned into energy that

New York City

PHOTO: SCOTT FURKAY

WHO MADE THAT MESS? WAIT UNTIL I GET MY HANDS ON THOSE DAMN KIDS! BY CARLO MCCORMICK

t once burdened and beholden to words, as is apt for a

that seems a lot more interesting and enduring. Of course, I’m

language-based art, the very term graffiti is contentious

not alone in taking such a position, though such hybrid thinking

and fraught with contradiction. In the time it has taken

can be a pretty lonely place and, in a world of graffiti purists, you

to span the globe as the de facto tongue of coded and stylized

certainly get your share of haters.

communication for youth culture, it has come to mean so many different things to so many different people. This confusion, which

We must mention this because truth be told, when first confronted

often borders on antagonism, is itself linguistic. Is graffiti a verb,

by this body of work by Mint&Serf, seeing such a primal scrawl

an adjective or a noun? Does it describe an act or an art form and,

and unleashing of utterly unmediated id, it would be hard to

if we grant it the latter, does that connote a style, genre, medium

think of anything we liked less. Something that disturbing and

or movement? This is just the kind of problem that artists like

contrary to what one values is actually not a bad place to begin

Mint&Serf can only make more complicated.

when seeing art for the first time and is clearly preferable to the way that most art just bores us all to death, as what is at first

The (still valid) debate over the exact nature of graffiti is

challenging will often prove to be the most rewarding. It took

ultimately an ideological split over form and function driven by

me a while to appreciate these paintings, and to be honest if it

two diametrically opposed agendas. Simply put, there are those

weren’t for the fact that they had done a whole lot of admirable

who believe graffiti is all about the act and there are those who

work prior to this project, I probably wouldn’t have bothered

believe that art, or artistry, transcends mere action. Such is the

to keep thinking about it. Then again, when something bothers

split personality of ‘Graffiti Art’ and again, when it comes to

you that much it is hard to get out of your mind, so who knows,

something like multiple personality disorder, Mint&Serf have

maybe its inevitable that hoodlums like these guys eventually

a certain mastery in their ability to both conjure the irrational

get over on all of us.

while somehow also reconciling these internal contradictions.

internalized language by which reputations are made in the

graffiti community. That is not to say that I’m any less enamored

of vandalism. Or rather, they are precisely somewhere between

of criminal enterprise and respectful of all that it takes to really

the two - a deliberately artless mess conceived as conceptual

get up as a writer than anyone else, just that those aspirations

art. That Mint&Serf invoke both while plausibly denying either

that push a young graf artist to try for more than simply burning

is what makes the art and artifact bleed into one another like

their name in public spaces, but to take their vision and put it

some spatter shower of gore in an irredeemably visceral B movie.

out there in the broader context of aesthetics, the dialogue of

It’s as if they have taken the most extreme biases of both worlds

contemporary art, and perhaps most importantly the greater

- those who contend that graffiti is no more than the worst of

lineage of art history that defines the human condition, well,

juvenile crime and has no place in the discourse of fine art, and

hough the paintings contained in this book must rank

In full disclosure, this critic has always cared a lot more about the issues of what makes great art than the somewhat hermetic,

as some of the most self-indulgent art ever produced, what is remarkable is that despite all this they are pretty

damn smart and more a conceptual project than a mere orgy

those who hold graffiti is singly that which occurs as a crime

if it gets the same reaction, like “my kid could have done that,”

upon the topography of public space and private property such

then all the better because the conceit is ultimately in the context

that it ceases to be graffiti the moment it is put to canvas- and

and guess what, no one else did this asshole, it always was and

brought each intractable position to such a point of exaggeration

always will be about who did it first.

that they collide with the explosive energy of a highly potent provocation. I still hate these paintings and imagine some part of me always will feel that way, but I love them all the fucking same. Perhaps they represent one of those dangerous moments where there is a true break in the hegemony of good taste and sensible reasoning. Somewhere in the lineage between Duchamp submitting a urinal as art and Pollock peeing on a canvas, Mint and Serf’s brutal rupturing of style and content as well as form and function is just as conceptually radical as Marcel’s R. Mutt and not so far from the drunken reeling of Jackson’s drip. And PHOTO: SCOTT FURKAY

PHOTO: SCOTT FURKAY

“...THE CONCEIT IS ULTIMATELY IN THE CONTEXT AND GUESS WHAT, NO ONE ELSE DID THIS ASSHOLE, IT ALWAYS WAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE ABOUT WHO DID IT FIRST.” - CARLO MCCORMICK

PHOTO: SCOTT FURKAY

GREEN BAY PACKERS, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

PHOTO: SCOTT FURKAY

BLOODSPORT, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

GLORY WHOLE, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

JUXTOPOSITION OF HARMONY, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

OCCUPY THESE NUTZ, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 4’ X 5’

RAW ‘N UNCUT, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

NO STEE, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

MENTAL FAILURE, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

YOUNG DUMB AND FULL OF CUM, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

PHOTO: SCOTT FURKAY

“THREE THINGS ARE CERTAIN WHEN IT COMES TO BECOMING A GRAFFITI WRITER: 1.YOU WILL FIGHT 2.YOU WILL GET ARRESTED 3. YOUR WORK WILL NOT LAST”

PHOTO: SCOTT FURKAY

THEY PPPAY, YOU PPPLAY! PETER PAN

hen you meet a graffiti writer, take a look at him—

streets having fun at the expense of your responsible future your

come a little closer and really examine him for a few

parents wanted for you. Graffiti is tragic, absurd, self indulgent,

seconds. You start to notice fresh scabs, dislocated

fun and an outlaw lifestyle, one that only a few can sustain and

knuckles and other distinctively roughed-up features. I’ve long

survive for more than a several years without being incarcerated,

since lost track of which scar is from what fight. You only really

injured or killed. Drugs and fistfights, warrants and jail time

remember the serious incidents in your life, like the couple of

keep things joyfully unstable and alluring; on the vandal, in

scars from fighting fifteen rock-carrying Triads outside of Suzy

trouble feels just right. All of this is why I got into graffiti many

Wongs in Beijing, or the three-inch scar above my right eyebrow

moons ago and is why teenagers from Astoria to Albuquerque

from a more recent altercation with four douchebags on Mulberry

still rak spray-paint from their local hardware store and spend

Street over my blatant disregard for “their” building. If its not

their nights scribbling their name on other people’s property.

a scar from fighting, its from falling through a dilapidated roof,

painted wasn’t a graffiti lover per se. Three things are certain

when it comes to becoming a graffiti writer: 1. You will fight. 2.

County in the Bay Area, New York City nights on the town are

You will get arrested and 3. Your work will not last.

more fun when she has us escorting her around the downtown

getting beat up by undercover cops or taking a spill after hopping over a barb wire fence while being chased by a vigilante only to find out the next day that the owner whose store gate you

he rich girls in their twenties love a mischievous graffiti writer with his unlimited sense of adventure and almost demented lack of responsibility. Whether a snobby girl

from the Upper East or a baby-faced NYU transplant from Marin

maze of loft parties, shitty dives and even shittier clubs, where the Scaling roofs in the Lower East and car bombing in Jamaica,

dealers, doorman and bartenders all know us. And so particularly

Queens; fighting on Bleecker and ragging Canal; crashing

ambitious and clever nightlife girls will cheerfully glom on to

opulent parties in SoHo; having bathroom sex in seedy afters

a native New Yorker graffiti writer, and not just for sex. These

of Bushwick; climbing billboards off the Bridge and doing fill-

girls, not unlike a lifestyle brand that “hires” a graffiti writer

ins on Vegas casinos; trucks off Delancey; catching mop tags in

for our authentic “urban” coolness, want some of our New

Tokyo clubs; racking spray-paint from Liquidators on Broadway;

York City magic to rub off on them, and they’ll pay for almost

making lizzy bags; boosting college books and stealing circuit

anything—beer, cocaine—to keep us around and happy. (SAME)

breakers; running away from the police in the Village; greasing

is the MVP of capitalizing on this lifestyle: he has spent more

dirty cops in Moscow; chasing pussy, getting pussy and sharing

than a decade without having to work a real job, just entertaining

pussy with your compadres; getting kicked out of clubs and

rich mediocre girls. (He is writing a book about it called ‘The

ejected from concerts; mobbing deep; fighting more; writing

Life Of Leisure’.)

some more; chaos, chaos, and more chaos. You wake up one day—the Kentucky Gentleman hangover sets it—you look in the

It makes the girls’ lives seem less boring for a while, though after

mirror and notice a couple of grey sprouts poking out of your

about six months, the novelty wears off and they try to box us in

chin and start realizing that you have been wilding for ten-plus

with expectations and responsibilities like $100 dinners in the

years and—unlike your cousin in Boston—you do not have a 401k

West Village and a mind numbing tech packing nine-to-five at a

plan or health insurance; you don’t have a steady job and you

licensing company in Midtown. If you’re the graffiti writer being

don’t have a family of your own. You are still running around the

dated, you have to decide whether to conform, or alternately, to

PHOTO: SCOTT FURKAY

continue raging and living like a fucking weirdo. Every couple

a few hundred dollars your company can use marketing and

of years, I have tried to pick the “right path” toward a “normal

forecasting data to buy into the sacred culture of legends with

life” by dusting off my old design portfolio and updating my

multiple names, unknown DOBs and even less known addresses.

tired resume with made up graphic design positions I never had and going on entry-level interviews, only to realize that

Urban Youth Marketing has an army of designers, marketers

mundane position is the very reason why I first started doing

and strategy builders, that spend endless amount of billable

graffiti. I didn’t want to redesign a Pepsi logo, or lay out Chase

agency hours researching Tumblr sites and Instagram feeds,

bank brochures or color-correct banner ads for Macy’s. The only

meeting valuable “cultural assets”, “ambassadors”, “influencers”

thing I ever wanted to promote is my own name. That’s the way

and “trend setters”, that can help them grow their respective

I am and there’s nothing anybody can do about it, not even the

brands. To them everything is a trend, a marketing activation,

poor girl who would do anything for me, as long as I got that

a repost on a Tumblr site, a popular culture reference, a limited

damn job. So much for believing the dream.

edition hat and not so limited edition shirt, an intern’s online

scavenger hunt for what’s cool, an Adobe Acrobat presentation,

o parents in their right mind would want such a life for

a juxtaposition of bullshit, standardized self-expression and a

their kids, but that is exactly what attracts teen angst to

YouTube tutorial on subculture. There’s no such thing as an

graffiti. For as long as graffiti is illegal and fun, which

underground anymore, all thanks to the internet.

its going to be for a foreseeable future, it is always going to be

It was unbound, underground and autonomous of the preceding

generation of drop-out hippies—until of course someone from

spends his lofty agency time clicking through endless portfolios,

the older generation realized the commercial potential of the

all while looking for an inspiration for the new Duracell campaign

scene and decided to corner the market (fill in three brands like

his agency just landed. And they are damn good at what they

CBGB, Ramones, etc.) Graffiti culture, like hip-hop and punk

do! Travis, the $100 flannel-shirt-wearing and ironic-phrase-

rock, is part of a larger advertising/marketing landscape to brands

tattoo-sporting, newly-appointed creative director of a boutique

big and small, that relies on staying young, relevant and cool.

agency will adjust, embellish and Photoshop your fill in just

way ahead of the “cool” factor curve. Illegality, individuality and fame is what makes it appealing to so many teenagers. Same reason why hard core and punk exploded in the 80’s: it’s taboo.

ore often than not, a good artist spends all of his time establishing a new idea while working an odd job like drug-dealing, bartending, DJing and/or sign-making

while not making a lot of money. Conversely, a good designer

enough to claim it his own. The inspiration comes swiftly from The Urban Youth Market is what many big brands are after,

scrolling through 12Oz. Prophet and within seconds, he has

because you gotta get ‘em while they are young. As long as

a juicy screen-grab of a fill-in ready for a national campaign.

there are kids running around stealing paint and scribbling in

Screen-grab that wall, copy and paste that fill in, then drag and

the streets, “lifestyle” brands will always want to buy into the

drop into a Photoshop layer. And it happens all the time.

genuine, raw and unbound energy of graffiti: Graffiti Outlaw Life. (I am certain there is a company out there that uses “GOL”

Fuck Travis! (Pause.)

acronym in their annual marketing projections.) I didn’t always despise people like Travis, but I really can’t “Street Art Trend Report” was an article I came across on one

stand them now. They lift your work for the advancement of

of these trend forecasting websites. “This valuable collection

some mega brand. Now, these part-timers who sit high up in

of street art trends is ideal for a variety of companies, from

their boutique agency’s “open space lofts for better working

major advertising agencies trying to decipher emerging patterns

environment” are draining your girlfriend of more than a decade

in youth culture, to smaller design firms.” What the fuck! For

of all her individuality and personality, repackaging her and

exporting her on to everything from textiles for a new collection

yourself into a â&#x20AC;&#x153;cultural assetâ&#x20AC;? and start whoring yourself out.

of graffiti pillow cases to graffiti image-mapping of the latest

There is nothing wrong with playing that game; artists have been

version of Grand Theft Auto to make it look more authentic.

doing it for centuries. Who am I to even judge? I have accepted

Fucking parasites. Eating away at it and sucking it dry, one

money from lifestyle brands and still do. You want to make a

campaign at a time.

life of running around the streets like a teenager on his first

visit to New York City, then you have to figure out a scheme in

he ironic thing is, many of these designers have respect

order to play this little game (unless of course nepotism in the

for graffiti, some of them even dabbled a little until

art world, trust fund or illicit drug trade is your arrangement).

they got caught that one time catching a marker tag in

It is a game and rarely a sustainable one, because these culture

Friedmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Alley. That night in Central bookings, sitting on the

vultures will always find someone a little younger and a little

cold tile floor anxiously waiting for their name to be called to

hungrier. However, Urban Youth Marketing is ideal at first.

see the judge set them straight for the rest of their life. Shook Ones Part 4.

A meaningless collaboration on a useless product and a corporate commission for a blue chip brand and you have money in the

But look, its not all that bad. If you are lucky, you can spin

PHOTO: SCOTT FURKAY

bank. You get on the gravy train of marketing budgets and

become dependent on commercial gigs to pay your rent. The more money you get as an “urban” artist, the more hot air flows into amorphic bubble of confidence thats about to burst. You begin to grow your client list, as if you are a boutique agency fighting for new business. Your commodity is your “urban” art and your daily rate is your social metrics. There is even a Mission Statement page on your website, a three paragraph summary about how your “art” and your influence in the Downtown scene can better connect brands to the young urban male demographic. You use marketing slang like: “trendsetter”, “opinion leader” and “cultural forecaster” to further convince them that you are the “social influencer” they must work with, in order to remain young and cool. You label a folder on your desktop “Commercial Commissions” and stuff it with ten page contracts, proposal decks and mock-ups.

orporate inquiries start coming in a few times a week, while the bubble keeps growing. You befriend these corporate types with their company AmEx cards, that are culturally numb and only

understand how to quantify art and music in terms of CPM (cost per mille), marketing budgets and end-year sales reports. After one of your meetings to discuss the next year’s “art” proposals one of them jots down in their pad “Things to Check out: Andy Warhol’s Factory”. Are you serious? You open the treasure chest of sacred culture to them in hopes of squeezing their marketing budgets into your pockets. They pay, you play. Your fame and their marketing budgets is what got you here in the first place and now you are stuck doing a balancing act between culture and money. Is it whoring? We are a commodity that helps them sell their products, conversely their marketing budgets is what fuels our lifestyle. Its a vicious cycle and you better get used to this, because culture never existed without money and probably never will. So to end this, the only real “graffiti trend” that a corporate type needs to worry about is that we will always be down to take his money—ostensibly in exchange for something he and his brand can never hope to own. Graffiti only has so much power when taken out context and slapped on a Limited Edition bottle of Hennessey. The real magic graffiti can’t be bartered, packaged, conferred, or even really explained, neither here or over lunch with an ad executive. It remains feral and secretive in the streets, in the snow storms, in the shadows.

PHOTO: SCOTT FURKAY

FIERCE MARKETING BUDGETS, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

NEVER NEVERLAND, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

DUSTED AND CHILLIN’, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

DAMAGES, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

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OUTLAWS, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

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YOUNG BOSSES, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

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COKE SLUTS AND DUSTHEADS, WINOS AND THIEVES, THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE..., 2012 Mixed media on canvas 4’ X 5’

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ZOOTED, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

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STUCK OFF THE REALNESS, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

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MALCOM SEX, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

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GORGEOUS FEATURES, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 6’ X 7’

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PREDICTABILITY OF INSTABILITY, 2012 Mixed media on canvas 4’ X 5’

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SUPPORT, THERAPY AND INSTABILITY works by

Mint&Serf in collaboration with Jacuzzi Chris, Pablo Power and The Peter Pan Posse

Introduction by Cat Marnell Critical Essay by Carlo McCormick

Made possible with generous contribution from Tim Cadiente of Barton Perreira.

@THEMIRF mintandserf.com ÂŠ2013 specialgraffitiunit.com