In the wake of his latest public-art coup, the street artist Believe in People issued a manifesto with high praise for Yale’s art gallery — while also appealing to the gallery to hold onto a bronze satirical faux-historical sculpture he created rather than passing it along to an auction, thereby “subverting the principles that we, as a free people, give our lives to.”
That was the latest development in this week’s installment of the ongoing real-world public-art conversation series the artist has conducted with New Haven.
It began when he installed the faux plaque (pictured) on a brick wall outside the Yale University Art Gallery on April Fool’s Day Tuesday. The gallery removed the plaque. (Read the original story here, and original reader debate here.)
Then, as Independent readers voted in favor of preserving the piece, the gallery decided to save the piece. It mounted it for a one-day showing outside the gallery’s entrance on Thursday. (Scroll down in this story for a report on that.) Unless BiP claims the piece, the gallery intends to donate it to the annual Artspace fundraising auction.
In a missive released Thursday night, BiP praised the gallery’s actions and intentions, while taking philosophical exception to the idea of auctioning art. He asked the gallery to hold onto his piece for public viewing; he offered to create a replica for the Artspace auction.
Click here to read the full open letter.
“the museum’s shown a lot of character in adapting to a situation they didn’t ask to be a part of,” wrote BiP, who has challenged Yale’s exclusiveness in other pieces. (The message is written e.e. cummings-style without capital letters at the start of sentences.) “it’s not all acquisitions and black tie galas; most of the time you’re dealing with legal issues, restorations, building maintenance, a thousand other practical minutiae that have nothing to do with the art itself.”
Then, referring to his latest piece, a humorous formal depiction of the work of a hip-hop graffiti artist, he wrote, “on top of all the other million things you had to manage on limited resources, you have to respond to a barrage of people that are pissed off because you don’t want words like ‘boobz’ and ‘ass’ on the front of your building.”
He wrote that he believes “this is the first time an Ivy League institution (never mind a museum) has publicly shown support for illegal graffiti in a world where threatened art lords are desperately trying to put graffiti back in the box as some half-baked fad from 2007 … that’s brave.”
“.. they beat me at my own game.”
Then BiP made his appeal to keep the piece rather than turn it over tot he Artspace fundraiser. He called it “not morally justifiable to auctiona piece of art. that’s Banksy 101 and where the dialogue was ten years ago. it goes against everything I’ve ever fought for and everything I believe in. and if you think i’m going to take my piece back from the public I gave it to, you don’t understand how much I love New Haven. I go all out for my city. I would never betray them that way.”
He recommended keeping the piece on display in the museum’s collection “for free viewing” or else destroying it “to ensure that it will never be used to subvert the principles that we, as free people, give our lives to.”
“I loved this piece,” BiP wrote. “it might be the first half-decent piece of art I’ve made. but I would rather see it destroyed than corrupted.”
“it’s not morally justifiable to auction a piece of public art.”
An earlier version of this story follows:
Yanique Believes
Paul Bass Photo
Yanique Joseph thought she had finished browsing Yale’s art gallery Thursday when, after exiting the building, she ran into a surprise new piece.
It was a work of art that in the course of two days traveled from momentary open-air guerrilla street hanging to the trash heap to a new life as one-day, glass-encased outdoor mounting en route to an unknown next destination.
The piece is a bronze faux “National Register of Historic Places” plaque commemorating the oeuvre of fictional graffiti artist “Boobz,” aka Sam Dilvan (an anagram for “Vandalism”).
Renowned street artist Believe in People created the plaque and then affixed it Tuesday (April Fool’s Day) morning to a brick wall outside the Yale University Art Gallery on Chapel Street. The gallery promptly removed the plaque. Then, as Independent readers voted in favor of preserving the piece, the gallery decided to save the piece. It mounted it for a one-day showing outside the gallery’s entrance on Thursday. Unless Believe in People claims the piece within two weeks, the gallery plans to donate it to the annual charity auction to benefit Artspace. (Click here to read the original story about the episode.)
The gallery planned to leave the piece out until 8 p.m. closing time Thursday. A crowd was expected to pass by around 5:30 en route to a gallery lecture by MoMA chief Glenn D. Lowry on Islamic art.
As of 5 p.m., there was no sign of Believe in People. (Reached by email, he declined comment.)
I Love New Haven website’s Chris Randall, who photographed the piece in its original location before it disappeared Tuesday morning, was back outside the gallery Thursday morning capturing the new temporary installation.
Joseph (pictured at the top of the story), who runs a New Haven-based not-for-profit called Green Cities Green Villages, was leaving the gallery after popping in for a visit. She stopped to read both Believe in People’s plaque …
… as well as the gallery’s explanatory note.
She loved it.
“I think it’s great political theater or community theater,” she said. “And it’s good for the museum. It makes people want to come here. It happened coincidentally on April Fool’s Day, but it worked out.”