Art duo SERF & MINT and Pablo Powers spotted a NPA worker gleefully ripping down the artwork they installed for the New York Street Advertising Takeover yesterday in Little Italy and decided to embrace the wheatpasting vandal. How? By snapping a photo of him, adding a “Buff Bum” caption, printing it up at Kinko’s and then reinstalling it back on the billboard, after clearing out the newly pasted ads of course. As MINT jokingly notes, “it’s beef.”

After the success of the last New York Street Advertising Takeover, Public Ad Campaign’s Jordan Seiler organized another contingent of conspirators—including ANIMAL’s own Will Sherman—to liberate the mostly illegally operated NPA billboards in Manhattan and Brooklyn on Sunday. Like last time, the first wave of volunteers in nifty OSHA-approved neon vests, buffed the ad spots with white paint, followed by a second wave of artists who added their unique touches, turning the locations into temporary public canvasses and challenging the outdoor advertising company’s claims to legitimacy.

This time however, the NPA became hip to the widespread attack pretty quickly and responded with violence-threatening workers and lots of wheatpaste, in some cases reclaiming the space as quickly as it had been buffed and decorated. The NYPD also joined the cat and mouse game and at last count, we heard that three people were arrested although it’s not clear if they were whitewashers or artists. We put together a preliminary gallery of the mind clearing billboards and ephemeral artworks that are probably all covered by ads already, so just be thankful for digital cameras! Update: The New York Times reports that a total of five people were arrested and also published a ridiculously funny photo of mask-clad street artist Gaia.

Photos by Bucky Turco/ANIMALnewyork

The photos of last month’s New York Street Advertising Takeover do offer some interesting perspectives, but this interactive map really helps convey the project’s scale. Included on the newly public map are photos of the more than 120 illegal billboards that were whitewashed, photos of the artists’ work, some of their stories, and links to video footage. Besides adding to the creative dimension of the project, the map also helps show how rampant illegal and un-permitted NPA billboards are. Even after painting out 19,000 square feet of illegal ads, there were still dozens of illegal ad spots that were untouched. |Public Ad Campaign|

In addition to the one artist that was arrested during the New York Street Advertising Takeover, several other participants were taken into custody: 2 whitewashers and one videographer. Jordan Seiler of Public Ad Campaign writes:

The whitewashers were picked up at 3:00pm in the Lower East Side and spent a heroic 40 hrs in central booking. After being charged with criminal mischief the DA reduced that charge to disorderly conduct. . . . The artist was arraigned around 8pm on the 26th after having spent approximately 25hrs in jail. He was let off with an ACD and 2 days community service. The videographer doing timelapse of the artist at work did not fair so well and is still being brought up on charges.

It’s ironic that out of all four people, the videographer is stuck in jail the longest. While there could be any number of reasons, including general slowness and inefficiency, we have to wonder whether it has something to do with the new police guidelines for not arresting photographers and videographers on made-up charges.

A volunteer for the Municipal Landscape Control Committee whitewashes illegal advertisements for Belvedere’s hallucination-inducing vodka. Photo by Will Sherman/ANIMALnewyork.com

Over the weekend, we gave you firsthand accounts of the New York Street Advertising Takeover that was responsible for whitewashing 120 illegal billboards that artists then transformed into public canvasses. For many, the photos online are the only way to see the results since NPA employees quickly re-pasted their unlawful posters over the art. Much of the cynical coverage lamented how little time the whitewash and artwork lasted, in most cases less than 24 hours. However, permanency wasn’t the point, after all that’s not the nature of these locations, the wild posting business or street art for that matter. It was to highlight the extent of this illegal advertising and the city’s lack of enforcement. But even worse than listening to these armchair activists over think the action is this woeful speculation on behalf of New York magazine’s Daily Intel:

What’s especially painful, we think, is that the people employed to wheatpaste the posters up are very likely the same kind of artistic, creatively inclined folk who painted over them. You could even say it’s ironic. And thus, the endless cycle of hipster-on-hipster violence continues.

And what did they base that on? Obviously not any kind of actual reportage or even a semblance of common sense. To assume that the drones the NPA hires to slap up promotional posters somehow represent the same “creative inclined folk who painted over them” is a shocking level of ignorance even for a soccer mom magazine like New York. Then again these are the same out of touch people that were shocked to learn that undercover cops ride around in yellow cabs so it’s not all that unexpected—but still!

Photos of artist Clarina Bezzola at work in Freeman’s Alley on Saturday and the same illegal billboard on Sunday by Will Sherman/ANIMALnewyork.com

Had Public Ad Campaign’s New York Street Advertising Takeover just finished with the whitewashing of 120 illegally NPA operated advertising locations, it certainly still would have been a success. But no, Jordan Seiler had to turn things up a notch. Once the buffers were finished painting over the ad blight, over 50 artists (of which only 1 was arrested) moved in to transform the newly created public canvasses into works of art. While my colleague was buffing the billboards, I was indiscriminately shooting the action, including the best part: the artists, who used posters, paint, and even performance art in their creative reclamations. Jump for the massive billboard-beautifying gallery.

Photos by Will Sherman/ANIMALnewyork.com

On Saturday, Public Ad Campaign’s Jordan Seiler organized a massive ad space takeover in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The target: NPA’s illegal outdoor billboards. They’re the main company that wheatpastes up promotional posters for various brands or what’s known in the industry as wild postings. According to Seiler, the Department of Buildings informed him that many of the locations operated by the outdoor advertising outfit are unlawful and although there’s occasional arrests, the city mostly ignores the law breaking executions. So starting around 11AM, a total of 26 whitewashers (including this very editor, shout out to Team 10: JustSeeds & AnerA), were broken into groups and provided with paint, orange worker vests, and maps. In total we covered 120 of the 132 locations planned in Chelsea, West Village, Chinatown, East Village, Lower East Side, and Williamsburg.

A second wave of approximately 50 artists then moved into to take advantage and beautify the newly created public canvasses. Unfortunately, every battle has its casualties, and one team of buffers was arrested. But overall, Seiler was happy with the outcome: “It was a complete success and we’ll be fighting the arrests in court.” Click through the reclamation gallery above for a small sampling and stay tuned for part two tomorrow: the artistry. And here it is: Artist Horde Turns Newly Whitewashed Billboards Into Public Canvasses

Photos: Bucky Turco