Wasted Waste Wasting

Mark @ 26th & Belmont Billboards

I've always been a big fan of Situationist graffiti:  caustic slogans such as In the decor of the spectacle, the eye meets only things and their prices; Under the paving stones, it's the beach; and Art is dead, Godard can't change that.  I would a million times over prefer revolutionary agitprop scrawled on walls, rather than a half-assed tag.  At least propagandists risk arrest for their ideals, rather than their ego.  That said, I was thrilled to see this scrawl on a PBR billboard:  USA:  Wasted Waste Wasting.  It is a phenomenal critique of a culture of excess and escapism.  To me it begs the question:  At whose expense do we party?  What social responsibilities do we neglect as we consume ourselves into a pleasant, yet ultimately superficial intoxication?    

Aware of the short life-span of graffiti, I hung out on this corner on a cold December night waiting to photograph a willing subject.  The first person to walk by was Mark.  I stopped him and explained my project and told him my ulterior motive, pointing out the scrawl on the billboard.  He glanced at the graffiti and seemed disinterested.  Nevertheless, he agreed to pose for a picture if we made it snappy.   Though he wasn't too interested in the graffiti, he was at least willing to associate himself with it.  I like to think that some small part of him related to this scrawl, that he understood it even though at the moment he was distracted by a "people to see/places to be" mentality.  That is the nature of revolutionary agitprop, it's message is subtle yet arresting, sowing the seeds for a struggle that may fill your heart, rather than an impulse that will only fill your cup.