http://www.yatzer.com/1004_jan_vormann..dispatchwork
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39219355@N07/3625754121/
This is a project I’ve come accross a few times on the internet, and upon reading the assignment I think it applies perfectly to the category of transgressive semiotics. I am a huge Lego fan and have been for as long as I can remember. As an architect, they’ve inspired me and I still see them as a great way to model projects and express in a unique medium.
This project was done by Jan Vormann, an artist from Berlin, and the project was done in Bocchignano, Italy. She filled in pieces of missing brick and stone with Lego bricks, some of the stones dating back to Roman times. This, to me, is a prime example of something being transgressive because not only does it break the boundaries of the accepted canvas (like the BLF and the Banksy), but also breaks the borders of the accepted medium (Lego, rather than paint). She created the pieces to contrast with the old, dust-covered gray and brown stones and intrudes upon them with bright, shiny plastic. Though the pieces are more of a temporary medium due to the nature of plastic materiality, they emphasize the difference between the “serious” foundation of the old town and the new, modern styles of today. She created the installments in part to introduce the “sleepy” town of Bocchignano to the present.
Though it is considered by some to be art (like any modern art), it is considered a disrespectful intrusion by others. After the work was displayed on the internet, some of her supporters in Berlin then responded by “dispatching” Legos of their own between broken bricks in her hometown of Berlin. (http://www.yatzer.com/feed_1696_dispatchwork_in_berlin) The exhibition (as can be seen in the comments section of the previous link) was applauded by some for being innovative and unique, but lauded by others as being childish and irreverant. Personally, I think that these are valuable pieces of art, and, though temporary, can remind the old world and its art of what the new world has to offer.
I think the most interesting part of transgressive semiotics is who is considered the one to judge it as being transgressive. Even in the case I introduced, there were multiple sets of viewers: those passing it on the street, those participating in Berlin, and those commenting on the images on the internet. Each has a different standard, and each has a different definition of transgression, further perpetuating the graffiti vs. art debate.
