Graffiti removal as subconscious art?

It's hard to tell if this video is super-serious or seriously satirizing itself. It treats the gray, white and beige blotches of "graffiti abatement" rendered by municipal workers across the U.S. as unintentional extensions of abstract expressionism and minimalism, and an "important step in the future of modern art."

Yes, those quilts of anonymous spots of graffiti erasure are often beautiful. But ... really? * The clip info says the original filmmaker is Matt McCormick.

Comments

[Louis Pagan]

Vote: Satire.

[Sandor]

Perfectly ambivalent. Your personal experience defines whether you'll receive the ideas as satirical in nature or as serious proposals. When I saw this film five years ago, it changed my perspective on graf. Most graf, like 95 percent of it, is noise. In Mexico, the noise percentage rises to 99. No matter how "down" or "art" or "rebel" the intent of the graffitist, most of it is does not feed or nurture any ideas other than that the writer needs a public forum for whatever. Since this phenomenon is wide-spread and therefore seemingly organic, it also seems natural that an opposing force has, in a seemingly organic way, sprouted to curb, or balance graffiti.

I now enjoy seeing graffiti go up because I know that within a day, it will be painted over, with a possibly pleasing, if inadvertent, aesthetic sense.

[Daniel Hernandez]

Thanks for your comment, Sandor.

I'm something of a street art anarchist; infinite layers create infinite beauty. The more the better.