Skullphone - Sticker Art

Found: Camino Rosa & Ola Vista, San Clemente (SC okayed by Lara)

High up on a wall littered with stickers in San Clemente, I found this Skullphone Sticker slapped up next to quite a few other stickers on a wall near a liquor store. The area was in a slightly seedier location, so the amount of sticker and graffiti was non surprising to me. But, what was surprising to me was due to maybe the amount of stickers there, there was no effort to take them down or rid the area of the street art. In many different things I have read, cities and locations oftentimes try to rid themselves of their label as a dirtier, seedier area, and attempt to clean and rid itself of the street art and graffiti within the area. Seeing as in general, San Clemente is a fairly affluent beach town, this wall came as a bit of a surprise. Regardless  so far, a multitude of different methods of street and graffiti art were presented in this area, but sticker art reigned as the supreme method. 

What struck out first and foremost here with this piece is that we've moved away from methods of "graffiti" in the way of tags of wheat pasted projections, and instead moved on to the medium of sticker art. And as such, with such an artists with high notoriety like Skullphone, I found it interesting that the medium, sticker, is so versatile and can be used essentially anywhere. Thus, the sticker is this medium that makes it easy for any artists, known or not, to get their name out in the public eye. Just as it would be acceptable for national companies ranging from stores, schools, etc use stickers to get their message or their advertisement out, the stickers used in street art saved that same function. We as consumers use stickers to promote our loyalty and devotion, proudly showing off our favorite bands, or schools we go/went to, even churches we attend. Why would it be any different for a street artists to continue to be marginalized for presenting and marketing themselves in a similar manner?

Continually, this action really fuels the idea of creating works of street art and presenting them as a more mainstream art due to its skill level. Anyone can slap a sticker on an object, and walk away quickly. It takes less time, effort, even skill than bombing a wall or scouting a location and a perfect time to finally cover a wall. For example, this past weekend I saw Shepard Fairey and his wife stopped at a stoplight. His wife got out, slapped on Obey sticker on an electrical box, got back in the car and drove away. There was no need for planning foresight, stress, gathering supplies. Just like this Skullface sticker, she peeled off the back, walked up, stuck it on, and walked away. Simple as that. 

I was really impressed with the medium of sticker art  as a subculture of street art because it seems so widely accepted in other contexts. It would probably be somewhat unacceptable for McDonalds to start a campaign of tags and bombs on city walls and street. But, it probably wouldn't be as big of a deal seeing and McDonalds sticker on a wall, or a window, or a car. I question the double standard that it presents in other categories, specifically street artists (such as Skullphone) and their presentation and representation to the general public. 

*Slightly anecdotal, but I worked for a printing company that made stickers for bands throughout San Diego county. The paper we used for them made it nearly impossible to get off of whatever wall or window you stuck it on. When you would try to peel off the corner of a sticker, that was literally the only part that ripped off. Essentially, these stickers were indestructible, and a perfect versatile medium for street art and public awareness. I still find stickers from some 5-6 years ago stuck on walls today.