Fighting graffiti with Art
( 2003-09-02 09:24) (bjtoday.com)
Two weeks ago, three local artists long offended by the proliferation of
informal advertisements scrawled and posted on telephone poles, bridges and
other structures around the city decided to take action to counter the graffiti
plague.
The group, made up of experimental painter Xiaomi, 28, and fellow women
artists Yang Ping and Meizi, have been covering up the unattractive ads with
their own artistic creations. On August 18, Xiaomi painted a whimsical, cartoon
self-portrait over ugly ads written on a support for a pedestrian overpass in
front of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Chaoyang District.
At the same site, Yang and Meizi drew a three-meter tall green plastic bag
with red eyes and another abstract work they dubbed Eyes of the City.
¡°No matter how beautiful our paintings are, they¡¯re not gointo make a big
difference in terms of the posting of these ads. We just wanted to make people
cluttering the city with these ads aware of their harm and make people think
about protecting the environment,¡± Meizi was quotd as saying in a report in the
Beijing Morning Post on August 19.
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