You Want Me on That Wall?

The Mural Arts Project is buying paint for its street artist nemeses! (Limited time only. Void where prohibited.)

by Natalie Hope McDonald

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Published: Sep 1, 2010

Neal Santos

Today, overgrown weeds, plastic bottles and stray newspaper pages litter the lot on Fifth Street near Fairmount. But starting on Saturday, this small pocket of a seemingly forgotten landscape will be transformed into Cosmic Terrarium, a "motion painting project" in cooperation with the Mural Arts Project (MAP) and local new media artist Sean Stoops. In a creative move, MAP, long known for its anti-graffiti advocacy, has tapped local and international street artists to partner on the live experiment in painting and performance.

Neal Santos (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Dan Murphy of Megawords, Philly muralist Paul Santoleri and graffiti artists Josh "LeJosh" Smith of Philly and Alexandre "Psyckoze" Stolypine from Paris, will add their flourishes to the mural as it's created during the entirety of Fringe. Using paint and found objects to make the outdoor mural, the daily process will be documented via digital photography and edited into a time-lapsed video premièring Sept. 18 at the International House.

Murphy admits he wants to push the boundaries of what mural art means in Philly; it's a tradition he says has limited the notion of street art over the years. "I have been a graffiti writer for about 20 years," he says, "and only recently began to work on some murals. Like many graffiti writers, especially in Philadelphia, my view was that there was graffiti and there were murals. Murals were usually done in a place where graffiti was a problem and the mural became a solution."

What happens when a mural is completed has inspired Murphy to collaborate on what will become the city's newest temporary public art project. "The mural is a finished piece of artwork and it is not to be changed or defaced," he argues. "To me, this means the wall dies."

When Murphy met Smith after being asked to graffiti the Circle of Hope Thrift truck this summer, the foursome became interested in the dichotomy between sanctioned and guerrilla street art. "One of us is doing graffiti; one of us is doing a mural. One of us is cleaning up the space; one of us is hooking up a sound system," says Murphy. "I just want to give the power back to the people."

Stolypine and Santoleri also represent a kind of creative pendulum. While Stolypine paints large-scale graffiti art on the streets of Paris, Santoleri has been working all over the world on mural projects, including Copenhagen, Havana and Mexico City. He's also worked with MAP.

MAP Director Jane Golden says Cosmic Terrarium, while temporary, will consider light, sound and video in a way never before attempted by Mural Arts with a lasting film of the artistic process on this industrial stretch in Northern Liberties.

"The idea came from looking at teams of artists and graffiti artists around the world and how they collaborated on different projects," she admits. "As much as I love galleries and museums, art does not belong exclusively behind those walls."

(n_mcdonald@citypaper.net)

Cosmic Terrarium, through Sept. 17; video screening with discussion with Jane Golden and participating artists, Sat., Sept. 18, 2 p.m. free, International House, 3701 Chestnut St., 215-413-1318, livearts-fringe.org.

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