Placement and time of day create a serendipity mashup of spray can art on the side of a car.
Susan says, “Can you unravel this photograph? Look carefully and you’ll see contains two different versions of street art: one is a reflection of an urban mural in the car window and the second is graffiti on the car door. Putting aside that each was created with spray cans, they have nothing in common. One was designed, requested, complex, a story, a history, a celebration. The other was done in a rush, secretly, possibly a gang tag, an act of defiance and defacement, minimal color and detail. It is striking how the two come together on the car, one overlapping the other, outlaw meeting artist, destructive meeting creative.”
Lucia says, “Move the car or arrive at a different time of day and you lose the reflection and everything Susan has described is gone. There’s another part to this mashup. The photo itself is dependent on the alertness of the photographer. All of my attention was on the beautiful mural, one of the many that adorn several alleyways off of Alberta Street. If I hadn’t turned around, I would have missed this fusion of art and graffiti entirely. It was all happenstance -everything coming together in a fleeting moment. It made me wonder. Does the mashup make the car an art object? If it were intentional, would we be calling this an art installation? Maybe. It’s all in how you perceive something, isn’t it? Oh, one more thing. Remember to look behind you when out on a photo shoot. As seen here, you might be pleasantly surprised.”
