DickChicken
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Author: Jauretsi | Posted: June 29th, 2009 | Filed under: Art | | Comments Off |
There is a new tag up on the streets of New York City lately. I keep bumping into this tag (below) on the way to my deli in Soho. I laugh when I walk by it every day, and think back to the days of old, when graf writers competed to come up with most “out of box” name. There were sleek names like FUTURA2000, REVOLT or ZEPHYR. Then there was always that ONE silly name. It was the writer who had to have that wacky name, almost poke fun at himself, and be the comedian in the bunch.
Back in the 1970’s, there was a guy who went by the name STAYHIGH149. He was one of the most famous graffiti writers seen in the subway cars (back when the subways were painted all up). His tag was silly, humorous, warm and something that made you snicker. His stick figure was inspired from a TV show called The Saint, a 1960’s spy thiller starring (ex-James Bond) Roger Moore. STAYHIGH occasionally comes out of retirement, and hit the streets for ol’ times sakes.
Then there was the next generation writer called EARSNOT (1990’s until today), who runs with a crew called Irak. This is what I call “the new breed”. EARSNOT tags were always curious to me. Part humorous, part menacing. How could you miss that name? They were all over New York, as well as other cities — from Los Angeles to Paris. It turns out, EARSNOT’s real name is Kunle (Nigerian name). He is a mellow, cool, quiet spirit who works at one of the cities premiere sneaker spots. Earsnot earned his stripes as a prolific tagger and is very much a part of the city’s creative community today.
Back to the newbie on the block, DICKCHICKEN. It seems this kid sat down and asked himself, “what are the 2 most random words I can put together?” — and voila! Out came the new silly name of the moment. A moniker you can’t ignore, and that inevitably gets burned into your brain… a true promotional stunt in this jaded town of over stimuli.
As you can see, another writer seemed to have gone over DICKCHICKEN’s tag and converted the D into PR, which is pretty appropriate for the new world of graffiti, now saturated with internet postings, specialized database websites, and online fame. It’s a whole new world of PR for the once “word of mouth” street culture.
As usual, the older writers retire due to stabilized relationships, new wives, children, etc (why risk getting arrested?). It is much safer to integrate into adult art galleries and make “real money”. The torch inevitably gets passed on to the young guns to take over that high-risk responsibility of bombing the streets with their names.
I’d say that right now, there’s a slew on new scribbles, new battles, and a fresh batch of unrecognizable names contributing the the hieroglyphic fabric of New York streets. Lets see if this newbie DickChicken evolves into a larger entity in the next few years.
For now, the funny tag is at least worth a smile on the street on a bad day.
J
