The emancipation of the proletariat will be at its own hands!
Just thought we’d announce something vaguely Marxist on Presidents Day to get your attention, since the masses are awakening to the idea of a democratic socialist as a possibly viable Presidential candidate. Ah, but we citizens are now deep in the stew of consumerism, quite cut off from the means of production. Now we city people just buy stuff, and sell stuff.
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Part of that selling, especially when it comes to beauty and fashion, is to create obsolescence. Integral to the street messaging is to continually insult and degrade the passerby and plant insecurity about our appearance and physical attributes in our minds, ensuring that we never actually are good enough until we buy this new shirt, blouse, lipstick, purse, watch, cologne, sunglasses, sneakers, underwear.
Now as New York’s fashion week is underway with new looks for next fall and winter, street artist Vermibus continues to mount his personal DIY full frontal attack on beauty culture and fashion, one street poster at a time.
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The Situationists of the 1960s would likely smiled at his brand of détournement, pranking the everpresent models who belittle you as you walk in public. Ironically in New York people are so focused on the game of keeping their jobs and their rents and their social lives that they pass right by Vermibus in broad daylight as he replaces these ads with his dissolved/repainted ones.
Some curious folks stop to watch as he replaces the gorgeous healthy wealthy young people who have fabulous lives and smooth complexions with these brutal and stylized grotesques. It’s like a jolt to the commercial streetscape in the frigid winter. The subtle changes are a curiosity that brings out the cell phone for a quick shot and a question to a companion. Then they hurriedly clop up the sidewalk to the next appointment.
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vermibus (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Irish illustrator Joe Caslin has just completed a two-mural campaign this spring in Dublin’s city center on the side of a castle in Co Galway in support of this May’s country-wide same-sex marriage re...
The French duo Boijeot & Renauld have logged one full week and three days of crossing Manhattan via Broadway. As you know they are embarking on an ambitious project where they intend to cross Ma...
Outdoor Gallery - New York City by Yoav Litvin The outdoor gallery is the one we visit most and NYC is always front and center in our heart even as we branched out to about 100 other cities and tow...
Concreate Urban Art Festival, held now for the second time, has clearly taken over Keran Hallit in Espoo, Finland. Keran Hallit is a huge former logistics center currently operating as a space for ar...
A colorful harvest of local folk on walls here as we bring you images Nether has been painting this summer in his native Baltimore by himself and with friends. A mix of community projects and independ...