brian lee clements

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PROJECT


ADD

Street Art (2002-2004)


DESCRIPTION


The ADD project consisted of a screen-printed series of posters with a thick black border that encased a single verb with an oversized-halftone image. These self-printed posters were wheat-pasted on electrical boxes and freeway pylons in Los Angeles, while you were sleeping. ADD was developed as a tactical counter to street-level advertising by injecting affirmative-verb posters in that field of view, that embodied immediacy and the pursuit of authentic experiences and actions, and to naively encourage people to pursue more intense modes of existence.



ORIGIN & DEVELOPMENT


ADD began as an 8mm film of an individual walking the streets while writing a single verb on paper with a marker, then folding into a paper airplane before tossing it in the air, before doing it all over again. During the rise of street art at the turn of the century, as websites (i.e. Wooster Collective), magazines (i.e. Beautiful Decay), and books (i.e. Art of the Rebellion) provided artists multiple platforms to share their work, ADD evolved into a street-specific project.



INFLUENCE


ADD was influenced by Hakim Bey’s Temporary Autonomous Zone, Michel de Certeau’s Practice of Everyday Life, and Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle.