Beware Wet Paint

The latest technique of the council to rid the city of the ‘scourge’ of flyposting is documented above. Flyposting is about as old as the printing press itself, and when every surface of the city is covered in adverts anyway, I struggle to understand the aesthetic revulsion caused by a series of A2 posters over a shop which is boarded up anyway, whereas massive LCD video screens, scaffolding adverts, floor graphics and billboards seem to pass the aesthetic litmus test. I suspect it may have more to do with the ‘anarchy‘ of flyposting space not being paid for.

Anyway, this effort seems a little more imaginative and effective than the usual council tactic of just cleaning them off, though I like the way they painted black over Calvins eyes as well as the details on the poster, as if this somehow pacifies his evil flyposted presence. This initiative does follow on the back of a previous endeavour of sticking cancelled notices over all flyposters, a technique dropped when someone started removing them and sticking them over the council logo.

This all coincides with Glasgows attempts to win the Commonwealth Games for 2014, and a general clean up of the city centre. It might be worth reflecting on what the vibrant (flyposted) club, music and arts scene in Glasgow does for its economy and international reputation before trying to undermine it. It’d also be worth reflecting on whether this is any worse than the proposed act of civic vandelism about to be instigated in the M74 urban motorway, tenuously justified as being essential to the games bid itself, and the route to a happier healthier city.

0 thoughts on “Beware Wet Paint”

  1. Additional Point: The example I picked here doesn’t really make the point I was aiming at, namely that flyposting is part of the local arts and social culture, through clubs, gigs events etc. The example used is a national one belonging to a record label, so somehow doesn’t feel as worthy, but I just used it because I thought the ‘eye painting over’ was funny. The above example is kind of the same as boxfresh doing ‘banksy’, or other fairly cynical ‘guerilla’ activities.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.