Final Project Vimeo Link & Artist Statement

My final project Don’t Blink is a commentary on the public yet underground and fleeting nature of graffiti art and how many ignore it while some engage with it. I accomplish this by book-ending a graffiti art fan’s stop motion adventure into the Graffiti Hall of Fame with clips of passersby walking, driving, and riding a train right past it. When the kid in the beginning jumps and touches the “HARLEM” graffiti wall, the sound effects begin faintly. Sound drives the hyper-kinetic nature of the stop motion video, with dizzying and energetic electronic beats serving as the soundtrack. I pitched up the video at key moments to sync to the pace of the techno track which I also edited. I intentionally chose to include techno even though graffiti art is rooted in hip-hop culture. Hip-hop has become highly commercialized today but techno continues to remain underground, just like true graffiti art. While the Graffiti Hall of Fame is a commissioned public art space in a schoolyard, it was conceived in 1980 by New York graffiti artist, Ray Rodríguez (a.k.a. “Sting Ray”), as a site for local graffiti artists to display their skills without having to break the law. It is definitely an art space for and by the Harlem graffiti art community and not for tourists. Don’t Blink ends just as abruptly as it begins, hence the title. In other words, art is all around…blink and you might miss it.