PHOTOS: What Happens When a Rebel Turns Graffiti Art Upside Down
Artist Evan Roth's award-winning work puts the action in interaction
- By Leah Binkovitz
- Smithsonian magazine, October 2012
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(Photograph © Evan Roth 2008)
Much of Roth’s work is subversive or rebellious—some of the key words on his website aren’t printable in this magazine—but he practices the grassroots philosophy he preaches. He champions open-sourcing, making public the computer programs he has developed to do things. He’s happy to share the software he created that allows a graffiti artist paralyzed with Lou Gehrig’s disease to paint by moving his eyes. And Roth produced the first open-source rap video, with the artist Jay-Z.
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Comments (1)
Anyone remember how John Philip Sousa took ragtime off the streets, out of the gutter and bars, and put it on the pedestal of art? What a valuable facet of human creative expression we would have missed out on, otherwise. The whole development of music throughout history could have been completely altered. I postulate that Mr. Roth is the Sousa of street art, picking graffiti up, teaching it some manners, and putting it in the gallery, textbook and museum where it belongs. Not to be imprisoned, but to proudly display a newly earned legitimacy.
Posted by Gwen Simonalle on September 20,2012 | 03:26 PM