From the organizer: SIXTE & MURIEL's debut called "NOBODY RESPECTS A BITER" exhibition, organized by GIANT STEP Urban Art Gallery, is an attempt to make a connection between the similarities of product branding, advertising and graffiti. Brand advertising and graffiti bombing have many things in common, the most obvious being exposure.
Both want to be seen by as many people as possibly, both strive to be in areas which are consistently busy and both take advantage of walls, fences and any other surface which would otherwise be left blank and unnoticed by the public. But it goes deeper than that, brands try to hold up a reputation of quality, but counterfeit clothes, shoes and other products bring that reputation into this graffiti and branding connection.
If one has a legitimate pair of shoes and a fake pair of shoes, one can spot the differences in quality quite quickly and easily, as with graffiti, quality goes hand in hand with reputation. If one is an original graffiti writer whom does not copy others, one will have far more respect and admiration from one's peers than if they seemingly copy or 'bite' from other writers. If a writer does this in a noticeable or obvious way, they will be labeled a 'biter' or a 'toy'. Fake clothing products are like the 'toys' of the textile industry.
Though graffiti on the street does not have the respect of the majority of the public like clothing and footwear brands do, in the graffiti world it is highly taboo to steal other writer's ideas, thus becoming a solid connection between branding and bombing. The work in this exhibition focuses on the most commonly faked brand logos. I have created a series of paintings and objects that depict these logos. They all look a little wrong, just like toy or bitten graffiti and I will attempt to describe to the audience through this work, the similarities between these two subjects.
This idea has evolved from my time living in Vietnam where the amount of fake products is almost unbelievable, to the point where it is very hard to find products, particularly clothing and shoes that are legitimate. This is combined with observations of many different graffiti scenes around the world during my travels over the last twelve years. I am not trying to promote these brands or persuade anybody to spend their hard earned cash on 'real' clothing and footwear, nor am I focusing any attention on any particular writers.
Graffiti has evolved from writers taking influence from others in their scenes and around the world. Graffiti as it is today is an enormous disjointed but electronically connecting, continuous group effort by tens of thousands of writers from all over the globe.
What I am attempting to convey with this exhibition is solely the idea of a connection between big brand advertising and painting graffiti on the street.
Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1120798461282892/
Thursday, 20 August
6:00 pm
Giant Step Gallery | 3A Tôn Đức Thắng, D1, Ho Chi Minh City
