Wednesday 27 June 2012

Urban Poet: Sean Hart


I just discovered the work of French street artist Sean Hart. “I am a poet,” explains Hart, “and my poetry is a weapon loaded with the future.”

I am an outlawed
Incorruptible
I am not for sale
I am the distance between self-censorship and freedom

As I viewed Hart’s artistic production - his most notable series being Shine – I got to thinking about how words have a deep correlation to their context. Take “open the door.” It the kind of sentence I say when I come home with my arms full of groceries. It’s the phrase you might hear whispered by a giggling friend moments before a surprise party. But here, Hart takes three mundane words and gives them a new – eerie – meaning. You can almost picture him, painting incognito in the dead of night.

All photographs by Sean Hart

The same is true of the following images. One piece was created in warm Brazil and the other in an undisclosed location. I know which one I’d rather be at! (Well... neither when you stop and think about it... but palm trees trump bed bugs in my book.)



In a recent article discussing Hart’s work, RJ Rushmore from Vandalog writes “those photos look more likely to be photoshopped than the finished piece … Hart's website says [the photos are] legit. I'm not sure it really was painted. But I'm not sure it's important either way.

What do you think? How would you feel about Sean Hart’s work knowing it was created on a computer screen instead of in the streets? In fact, how do you feel about street art?

 

4 comments:

  1. This is interesting. I think that the important thing is that the artist is honest. Whether they are real paintings or not doesn't really matter, but he shouldn't lie about it. Otherwise, what's the point?

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  2. That's a great point, Dominique! Actually, I was in contact with Hart today and he is adamant that his work is the real deal. I’m excited to say that I will be interviewing him this week, so we’ll get to hear more about his process!

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  3. If Hart is a street artist, doesn't that imply that he does actually work in the street? But having said that, his message is powerful. I agree that if the work was indeed created on a computer screen, I am not sure that it really matters. Perhaps the problem is with the label of street artist. Is it important to label someone's work? Does Hart even want to be labeled? Wouldn't a label pigeon-hole his work and make it less free?

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  4. love all these shots! so fun! Happy Friday


    love from San Francisco,
    Britt+Whit

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