December 7, 2007
One More Posterchild Post
Torontoist has already done a pretty good job of letting you know how rad Posterchild is. In fact, the extent to which Torontoist writes about Posterchild could be seen as the textual equivalent of a marriage proposal. So without rehashing what has already been said about our favourite local street artist/public space crusader, just know that his radness is still on the upswing with new and improved versions of what he’s known best for: Mario Question Blocks. Now "Boppable and Reusable!" It's like we've always dreamed!
Writes Posterchild:
Made out of scrounged plywood and measuring in at 2 feet cubed, this is the largest (any bigger and it wouldn't of been able to fit through the door) and sturdiest Mario block I've built to date. Too bad it only lasted about 48 hours. As you can see, this is also the first block I’ve built that you don't have to destroy to get at the powerup inside. It's Boppable and Reusable! In fact, it is also auto-reloading! The falling leaves from the surrounding trees did the job nice and slowly. Slow and steady. Of course, if you were in more of a hurry, you could always reload it manually—as long as you weren't really short. I don’t know who took it down, but I doubt it was the city. They aren’t known to be that speedy.
Also of note is his December 3rd remix of the now popular image of ROM "bomber" Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson.
In response to a recent Citytv interview during which Jonsson fumblingly cites readymades as his inspiration (see also our interview with Jonsson), Posterchild stencilled Jonsson on his knees, with his head replaced by Duchamp's Fountain, on the side of OCAD. "He is such a perfect stereotype of the sort of arrogant artist that gives the rest of us a bad name," says Posterchild.
Anyhow, more sweet images of Mario blocks in Kensington, as well as copycats the world over, after the jump! Get it? Jump? Eh? here.
Photos from Posterchild, featuring Ryan North as bopper.
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The Thorarinn urinal-head stencil is on the side of OCAD, not the ROM, according to his site.
Posterchild's video game reference hanging over my head is supposed to make me think differently about the use of public space? I think it's arrogant for him to assume that it could have that kind of affect on me. It's as confrontational and provocative as the running shoes hanging off the telephone wire beside it.
In fact, now that I think about it I'm wrong. The box makes me want to buy the crack that the guy who threw the shoes up there on the wire could sell me, and play Mario all night.
Haha, the juxtaposition of the ROMb and the Mario blocks is reminding me of those Ohio teenagers who were arrested for hanging a Mario block in their small town because the cops thought it was a bomb.
ROM BOMB WAS AN INSIDE JOB
WAKE UP PEOPLE
lol.
stevos - How arrogant is the assumption, really, when you freely admit in the next sentence you find it confrontational and provocative? Would you say the same thing if it was on private property (perhaps with a Scotiabank endorsement)?
These photos need lolcats captions.
chris- you're right. the thoran graff is at OCAD, not the ROM. my brain knew that, my typing hand apparently did not.
kevin- the best thing about the ohio question block bomb scare (other than the fact that those cops must have had lackluster childhoods to be so unversed in mario bros.) are the photos of the kids with question block t-shirts that say 'this is not a bomb.' juxtaposition to the max.
not liking street art, or comics, or mass meetups is a crime on torontoist. there is no room here for differing opinions.
p.s. i think these are stupid.
i can has powerup?
T-Rex: Sorry, I meant to say it's not as provocative as the hanging shoes (bad typo on my part). I just felt that the shoes, put up by someone else for a different reason, have more of an affect on me (if it's true that it's associated with crack dealing). As for the private property issue: good question. If Posterchild had put them on private property, I probably would have a different reaction, you're right, because its position in private space would bring about a different kind of discussion. It depends on why it would be placed there. If it was sponsored by the private space itself (a la Nuit and Scotiabank), I would react more to the sponsorship than the piece itself. But say Posterchild puts it in a Scotiabank above the teller counter, during daytime hours as a subversive act, then it'd have a strikingly different meaning as well. I'm glad you asked the questions, because it made me think a little harder about my initial reaction (maybe arrogant was a harsh judgment indeed?). I don't necessarily feel it's a "bad" piece, but I don't think it provokes me, out there on the street, to bop it out of anything more than light-hearted fun...and if I did bop it, I don't think it'd be much different for me than if I jumped up to grab onto a branch hanging off a tree. I wouldn't feel as if I'd broken any of my own or society's boundaries, to be honest.
@stevos: Yes, shoes on a wire does commonly signify the location of a drug dealer, among other things.
Ironically, bopping a Mario "Question Block" will sometimes get you magic mushrooms, if you're lucky.