Thursday, March 17, 2011

The wrong profile: Joe Strummer gets tagged



As a reader noted in the comments, someone tagged the Joe Strummer mural outside Niagara on Seventh Street and Avenue A a few days ago... added a little color to the lapels and sleeves ...

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't tag the art, stupid. This looks like the tag that Beau had on his gate at Bao Restaurant on St. Marks which he has fixed.

Lisa said...

LAROC has been busy - this tag is showing up all over the EV recently. But to disrespect Joe Strummer - now that's tasteless, clueless and classless all rolled into one.

dmbream said...

Notice the "LAROC" under the collar.

From The Villager last week:

'Who is LA II, and why can’t he get any recognition?'

By Clayton Patterson

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_410/whois.html

LA II/LA ROCK/Angel Ortiz was a long-time partner of Keith Haring's. The Villager piece is a plea for greater recognition of his contribution.

More from a 2002 Village Voice piece by Colin Moynihan:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2002-07-23/news/keith-haring-s-silent-partner/

The tag in the picture is one letter off, and I imagine Ortiz would know better than to tag the Strummer mural.

Maybe a misguided tribute by a young Roc fan after reading the article? LA III?

Not cool, indeed.

Anonymous said...

It's disrespectful to tag a memorial. And what kind of name is Laroc. It's Carol spelled backwards!

Billy said...

I try not to poke my nose into politics if there had anything to do with disrepect, but this doesn't look like a complete disrepect where as if he was to put a big X over it... For those that don't know LAROC aka LA2's history might wanna take a closer look. There is an historic significance to LAROC tag sitings...
Some reference notes:
http://www.artantide.com/artisti_BiografiaArtista?lang=2&idArtista=154

Anonymous said...

It's just another Artist trying to get into the spotlight..there is no message here..it looks cool but nothing more...it's pure LES.
Just a Lost Soul wandering the streets...had a taste of fame back in the 80's...Now
is trying to make a comeback...why doesn't he file a lawsuit against the the Keith Haring Foundation for ripping him off ...now that would be news worthy.

Lisa said...

Angel Ortiz is now working out of AAA Glass Plus at 528 East 11th Street, they've become sort of a factotum gallery for his work. If that really is him tagging the neighborhood, Fresh Paint's defense aside, then he really needs to set some boundaries. Because tagging another artist's mural certainly can be construed as either disrespect or a desperate ploy to call attention to one's sorry self.

dmbream said...

Follow up:

Ortiz was responsible for one of the recent taggings at the Scharf mural on Houston.

And he dropped "LA ROC."

http://animalnewyork.com/2011/03/kenny-sharfs-mural-bombed-again-and-again/

Not cool.

Billy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Marty Wombacher said...

London Calling: Fucking with Joe Strummer = Bad Karma.

Nazz Nomad said...

the strummer painting is a great tribute, but it doesn't really look like him. More like a bobblehead version.

Anonymous said...

Fully agree that tagging Joe is bad karma. For all he stood for and how much he loved the neighborhood its wrong. I'm all for freedom of expression, but if you feel an actual connection to Joe or the mural, create something on your own, somewhere else. Otherwise piss off.

Anonymous said...

Oliva got bombed too. There have been a few tags but the recent thing just ruined what was left of it.

Kimberlee said...

It remained untagged for so many years, it breaks my heart to see someone mess with it. Even if they were some big name, find your own place to mark up... not a memorial :(

BEAU said...

LAROC got locked up this last week, I saw him on avenue D with a sputtering can on tuesday. He tagged over my face on st. Marks ad I fixed ti temporarily with a bright white rather than the antique the face was originally executed in.

Unknown said...

This stirs the blood.