Michael Workman

Making sure your art gets seen can mean relying on unorthodox or even occasionally legally dubious tactics. Take the British graffiti artist Bansky, for instance (who hides his real name, fearing prosecution), best known for his cover of the last Blur album.

Bansky recently visited the Tate Modern museum in disguise, smuggling a hidden canvas. Unknown to Tate staffers and guards, the artist had come with a secret mission: while nobody was looking, he surreptitiously glued his canvas to a wall. Voila, a piece in the Tate permanent collection. Bansky had stenciled over the found painting, depicting a cosy rural scene of a cabin in the woods, with bands of police tape. Reportedly, the tape signifies how Britain "has been vandalised by an obsession with crime and pedophilia." Completing his addition was a title card reading "Banksy 1975. Crimewatch UK Has Ruined The Countryside For All Of Us. 2003. Oil On Canvas." After the canvas was discovered and sent to lost and found, Bansky was spotted selling another version of "Crimewatch UK," along with a video of his Tate antics, at London's Tom Tom gallery.

The closest thing Chicago has to a Bansky story involves Post Chicago, an artist-promotion project run by Keri Butler and Lisa Williamson. Since April 2003, Post has been enlisting artists to produce work in the form of flyers, posters, billboards and leaflets. Their most recent project, Vincent Dermody's "Love Chicago/Hate the Circle" perfectly suits the Bansky-style guerilla-art strategy. Dermody has produced stickers, postcards and posters, hanging them prominently in such locations as on buildings at the intersection of Grand and Halsted. A former member of the now-disbanded art collective Law Office, Dermody has used the project to target the "I (circle) Chicago" T-shirts designed by musicians Kevin Stacy and Lara Tinari. The couple has circulated the popular design on T-shirts, which Stacy says was done "because they seemed utilitarian and functional."

Dermody's Post Chicago project has succeeded in provoking controversy. "I'm looking at this like the blue circle in the 'I (circle) Chicago' shirt is a cypher--like we're two rappers, he's some goofball from another city and I want to dis what he's putting out there about my town." says Dermody. "This has always been a big personal issue with me. I graduated in '96 and I have no more peers in Chicago--they've all moved to New York or L.A. I'm hoping my quasi-political campaign will make people question the reason for buying that shirt."

"Vince's reaction to my design is why the blue-circle shirt exists in the first place," says Stacy, who manages the local nightspot Danny's. "Some friends told me about Vince's postcards and I walked down to Reckless Records, figuring there'd be some there." At Reckless, Stacy approached Michael Langois, a friend and employee of the store. As Stacy questioned him about the posters, Langois, also a friend of Dermody and former member of Law Office, waved Dermody over. "He saw me and said 'I'm not ready for this conversation.' I thought, well, if you're going to put up those posters, you'd better be ready for this conversation." Stacy recalls. "We met for about 45 minutes and he told me how he's going to be listed as one of the new up-and-coming artists in Artforum and about how he went to the Art Institute and I thought, 'Wow, who teaches the course in fascism at the Art Institute?' His reaction is very provincial. Vince has taken the blue circle to actually mean something--well, I've decided I'm going to show him what art is really all about."

Dermody takes issue with the blue-circle representation of Chicago as a city with, at best, an ambiguous meaning and, at the worst, totally devoid of meaning. "When I was putting up the posters, somebody asked me what they were for and I said they were for a new cologne. They were like, 'Oh,' and kept walking." Dermody came up with the idea for the poster project while having coffee one afternoon at Atomix Café. "My waiter was this guy, not a very good waiter, with a pierced tongue and he's wearing one of those blue-circle shirts. I thought 'This guy's probably from Ann Arbor, with his punk-rock attitude and rebellious tattoos' and I made a little doodle that ended up on the posters while I was sitting there."

"In a lot of ways it's all very flattering. What struck me the most was how it caused him to react in this way," says Stacy. "It's only helping raise the profile of the shirts; they're flying off the shelves now." Dermody agrees. "The cash is rolling in," he says. "I'm looking to slander that icon and make it even harder to understand. And I welcome a lawsuit. I'd just make more art from it." In fact, the issue has become increasingly personal. "He told me he was talking with some of his Lumpen/Buddy friends about my posters and they were saying 'Let's go kick his ass.' I looked at him and said, 'Sure, bring them on over. I've got a black belt in hapkido, I'd love to kick all their asses.' Stacy just laughed and said he was only joking. I watched him laughing and said: 'I'm not'," says Dermody. "No, man, I'm dying to spill some blood for my art."

"Love Chicago/Hate the Circle" can be found at various locations. For more information on Post Chicago, visit www.post-chicago.com, email postchicago@ameritech.net or call (773)342-5992. The I (circle) Chicago T-shirts can be purchased at the Museum of Contemporary Art Gift Shop, 220 East Chicago, (312)397-4000 and at Danny's Tavern, 1951 West Dickens, (773)489-6457.

(2003-10-29)

Also by Michael Workman

Ghost hunter
"The supernatural is more relevant now than ever," says Richard T. Crowe. "Just look at the Curse of the Billy Goat
(2003-10-23)

Eye Exam
Only his second solo exhibition, Berlin-based Hans Hemmert premiers "Drawings/Animated Video" at Vedanta Gallery in the West Loop neighborhood
(2003-10-23)

Tip of the Week
Curated by Garden Fresh, this gang of five has finally found a functional home
(2003-10-22)

Tip of the Week
Beyond seeing a satisfying mix of work by emerging and established artists, patrons will also enjoy a ground-level view of works likely to receive the recognition of museums soon enough
(2003-10-16)

Eye Exam
(2003-10-16)

Marshall Art
(2003-10-16)

Tip of the Week
(2003-10-08)

Eye Exam
(2003-10-08)

Eye Exam
(2003-10-02)

Eye Exam
(2003-09-25)

Tip of the Week
(2003-09-17)

Eye Exam
(2003-09-17)

about Newcitychicago | about Newcity magazine | advertising | privacy policy | FAQ | employment