Next Level Bullshit
Zora Avila
Next Level Bullshit Media Release
Next Level Bullshit is a study of urban organics. The very nature of “urban organics” is that it can only occur within the confined structure of an urban environment – a city. Modern design, planning and architecture are all based on an order, on straight lines and predictability. However, these inorganic mazes of purposely designed order are only relevant in that they provide a modern habitation for the organic – the people - which represent the unpredictable, the emotional, the complex.
Next Level Bullshit is a reflection of the confluence of architectural structure and order both designed for, yet often broken by, its very inhabitants. Next Level Bullshit asks the question: Is graffiti endemic to cities enlightenment, expression and art, or is it nothing more than ego and destruction? Is tagging no more artistic than a dog cocking its leg on a building to mark its territory?
Post-modern commentary has sought to elevate graffiti and street “art” from pure vandalism to reflective art, highlighting the local vernacular. But is that just some next level bullshit? Is destruction simply destruction? Who decides if vandalism is art or damage? Why is the “art” of a graffiti artist revered as beautiful, while tagging by a gang so maligned?
The Next Level Bullshit series uses highly structured and deliberate geometric form as the representation of modern urbanization – the architecture, structure, design and mathematical perfection inherent in cities. This is juxtaposed against the organic - inhabitants; the other end of the spectrum: graffiti, which is creative, colourful, personal, ever-evolving, egotistical, and subversive. In the context of a politically correct, evolved, urban world, is graffiti actually art – or is that a sanctimonious acquiescence to the fact that “we just can’t stop it, so we may as well embrace it”? Is it just some next level bullshit?
Image: Next Level Bullshit No. 3, Zora Avila, mixed media, 100 x 100 cm
Next Level Bullshit is a study of urban organics. The very nature of “urban organics” is that it can only occur within the confined structure of an urban environment – a city. Modern design, planning and architecture are all based on an order, on straight lines and predictability. However, these inorganic mazes of purposely designed order are only relevant in that they provide a modern habitation for the organic – the people - which represent the unpredictable, the emotional, the complex.
Next Level Bullshit is a reflection of the confluence of architectural structure and order both designed for, yet often broken by, its very inhabitants. Next Level Bullshit asks the question: Is graffiti endemic to cities enlightenment, expression and art, or is it nothing more than ego and destruction? Is tagging no more artistic than a dog cocking its leg on a building to mark its territory?
Post-modern commentary has sought to elevate graffiti and street “art” from pure vandalism to reflective art, highlighting the local vernacular. But is that just some next level bullshit? Is destruction simply destruction? Who decides if vandalism is art or damage? Why is the “art” of a graffiti artist revered as beautiful, while tagging by a gang so maligned?
The Next Level Bullshit series uses highly structured and deliberate geometric form as the representation of modern urbanization – the architecture, structure, design and mathematical perfection inherent in cities. This is juxtaposed against the organic - inhabitants; the other end of the spectrum: graffiti, which is creative, colourful, personal, ever-evolving, egotistical, and subversive. In the context of a politically correct, evolved, urban world, is graffiti actually art – or is that a sanctimonious acquiescence to the fact that “we just can’t stop it, so we may as well embrace it”? Is it just some next level bullshit?
Image: Next Level Bullshit No. 3, Zora Avila, mixed media, 100 x 100 cm