A funny thing about “art.” Sometimes the happiest of aesthetic accidents happen as a consequence of totally non-artistic impulses.
Take as prima facie example the case of the roller-shutter pictured above. It’s on a warehouse-factory building in the rapidly gentrifying Downtown Los Angeles neighborhood dubbed the Arts District. It’s a beautiful building, a grand structure standing as testament to L.A.’s glorious former industrial past.
The building — and specifically the roller-shutter — has also been the canvas for many a graffiti tagger or street artist. The owners of the building have painted over graffiti on the roller-shutter several times in a Sisyphean effort to stamp out Krylon spraypaint-wielding vandals.
But guess what happened?
They accidentally created a Mark Rothko painting!!! Well, let’s just say “Rothko-esque.” Yes, a post-modern abstract masterpiece has emerged by total fucking accident!
The current “artwork” will be there until the next layer of graffiti lands on it and it gets covered yet again or until real estate developers or investors snap it up and pay for around-the-clock security presence. In the meantime, it’s available in its current state for film production, as the sign reveals.
GLOBAL GRAPHICA 