१९ डिसेंबर, २०२०

"I don’t hate art. But I don’t know what the hell that was."

Said building owner Nate Comte, quoted in "Cookie Monster Mural Puzzles Artist and Enrages Property Owner/A man claiming to be a property owner in Peoria, Ill., wanted a Soviet-style mural of Cookie Monster. The artist who did the job now says he was tricked (and paid) by an impostor" (NYT). 
[The artist, Joshua] Hawkins, who apologized to Mr. Comte on his Facebook page, said he was still trying to figure out the real identity of the man who hired him, whom he described as tall, fit and in his 40s....“He knew [Comte's] building, he knew his name and he knew he wasn’t there,” Mr. Hawkins said. Around Peoria, a riverfront city of about 110,000 people in central Illinois, the episode has spawned an untold number of theories about who might have commissioned the mural....
Mr. Hawkins asked [the person who hired him] what the Russian words meant and the man replied, “Peace, land, cookies.” “I thought he was opening a bakery,” Mr. Hawkins said.... Mr. Hawkins said he was not vexed with his mysterious patron... “The guy paid me and he paid me pretty well.... So I’m not mad at all about that.”

Meanwhile, the building owner says he's getting hate mail for painting over the mural. 

३४ टिप्पण्या:

stephen cooper म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
Lurker21 म्हणाले...


It's truly conceptual art.

Ugly as heck, but the concept was brilliant.

Robert Cook म्हणाले...

Intriguing. It reminds me of the fantastic book PRANKS! published years ago by RE/SEARCH Books. The book is a compendium of various public pranks perpetrated by a wild array of artists, anarchists, and discontents. (There was a PRANKS!2 published, as well.)

ambisinistral म्हणाले...

I call BS on the mysterious stranger hiring him. I think the artist painted it for publicity. He owes the building owner money for that 'prank'.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

Apparently it wouldn't play there...

Beth B म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
The Vault Dweller म्हणाले...

I also kinda doubt the artist's story. But it could have happened I suppose. I thought the painting was fairly funny though. The strong Soviet theme contrasting with the indulgent Western decadence of Cookie Monster is funny. Depending on what the building was used for, if I were the owner I might have kept the painting.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Peace, land, cookies

Democracy, whiskey, sexy.

Titus म्हणाले...

Will it play in Peoria

madAsHell म्हणाले...

Intriguing. It reminds me of the fantastic book PRANKS! published years ago by RE/SEARCH Books.

Cookie, I know we don't see eye-to-eye, but you have to find this funny.

tim maguire म्हणाले...

Mediocre execution of a brilliant concept. Still, I would have left it there. It's just a generic brick building, the mural didn't cover something better.

Kevin म्हणाले...

It's surprising how poorly it was done. And the artist is a moron for not demanding to see the permission from Sesame Workshop (formerly Children's Television Workshop) for use of its copywrited intellectual property. The BEST case scenario is that the mural gets painted over in a day even if the building owner wanted it, because SW and HBO would come down on them like a ton of bricks

J Melcher म्हणाले...

seems to me the New York Times is ripping off without credit a story that first appeared in the competing New York Post.

Pity the Times didn't pick up the Rielle Hunter Biden story.

DavidUW म्हणाले...

Times never does original "reporting."

It can do original lies as "told to them by anonymous sources" but never "reporting" of actual facts.

Big Mike म्हणाले...

I trust the artist paid the cost of having his mural painted over. I don’t care whether he was the pranker (as ambisinistral and I suspect) or one of the pranked, but the store owner needs to be made whole.

CWJ म्हणाले...

That? Soviet style? Not a chance.

And yes, the artist's story is fishy.

Narr म्हणाले...

I was just about to say what CWJ said-- that's not Soviet style, it's just stupid.

It's a piss-poor mural anyway, at least at this stage.

Narr
How soon it washes away

Narr म्हणाले...

I don't hate Art.

Narr
I don't even know the guy

RichardJohnson म्हणाले...

I didn't want to deal with the NYT:DuckDudkGo: cookie monster mural peoria.

John henry म्हणाले...

And just for icing on the cake, the city building inspectors fine the building owner $1,000/day for an unlicensed "sign".

I have no idea if this happened but I id be more surprised if it didn't than I would be if it did.

City: "you have an unlicensed sign there. That's $1000/back to when they started painting"

Owner: "I had nothing to do with it! It was vandalism!

City:" fuck you. Pay me"

John Henry

gadfly म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
gadfly म्हणाले...

Any fool knows that Cookie Monster's vocabulary is and always was extremely limited to "Me want cookie!", "Me eat cookie!" or (with emphasis),"COOKIE!" Sesame Street provides no evidence that the blue cookie eater can speak or understand Russian.

Artist Joshua Hawkins, likely broke the law in painting the mural without a city permit for alteration of a commercial building in hand. Contractors are usually held responsible for acquiring such permits.

Readering म्हणाले...

Sesame Street has been produced in something like 70 languages.

In LA i wonder if building owner penalized for unilaterally whitewashing a public mural.

GingerBeer म्हणाले...

Let this be a lesson to shopkeepers on Madison's State St. Those boarded-up windows are here to stay.

gadfly म्हणाले...

Hawkins said: “The guy paid me and he paid me pretty well.... So I’m not mad at all about that.”

So I say: "Open up Quickbooks or provide a bank deposit ticket that shows evidence of payment received." Bookkeeping is required, especially now that the world knows that you claim that a sale transpired. Then there is pay made to the 10-man crew, as well as paint and painting supplies purchases.

Rt41Rebel म्हणाले...

It's not the first time that a Sesame Street character has been involved in international propaganda, I went looking for the Bert - Bin Laden connection, but I found more than just that.

https://www.businessinsider.com/12-sesame-street-scandals-that-have-plagued-the-shows-history-2012-11#after-911-bert-was-featured-in-a-placard-next-to-bin-laden-5

Rt41Rebel म्हणाले...

Oh, and who can forget the Big Bird - Mitt Romney controversy?

gadfly म्हणाले...

@Readering said...
In LA i wonder if building owner penalized for unilaterally whitewashing a public mural.


With apologies to Neil Diamond: LA's fine but it ain't home to the Cookie Monster art and Peoria's sign with Muppet graffiti ain't shown no more.

BudBrown म्हणाले...

печенье

Mr. Forward म्हणाले...

Peace, Land, Cookies. Bezos 2024!

Curious George म्हणाले...

"Peoria, a riverfront city of about 110,000 people in central Illinois..."

Chicagoans would say it's in southern Illinois. Everything south of Roosevelt Road is southern Illinois.

John henry म्हणाले...

Fiber and Molly Mcgee were both born in Peoria

John Henry

Iman म्हणाले...

How about that! An intentionally funny piece in the NYT.

Rusty म्हणाले...

@Readering said...
"In LA i wonder if building owner penalized for unilaterally whitewashing a public mural."
The canvas didn't belong to him. He appropriated it without permission or compensation. That is theft is it not counsellor?
Also. He's not Banksy.