Blunt Graffix - "Dead Rockstars"

Spoke Art x Blunt Graffix: “Dead Rockstars”
Curated by Matt Dye

Oakland Art Murmer
Telegraph: 2318 Telegraph Ave. Oakland, CA 94612

Opening: Friday April 6, 2012 – 6pm to 10pm
On view the month of April 30th

As human beings attempting to survive on this ridiculous and trying planet, the impending doom related to our dwindling time here is constantly looming over us.  Even if you aren’t the type to obsess over such inevitabilities, the news media will be sure to remind you and, if they fail to do so, then reality will eventually hit via the news of some passing loved one or even a distant acquaintance.  Don’t know anyone… at all?  Are you a reclusive hermit with no contact with the outside world?  Well, how’s that back doing?  How’s your hair, bones, and skin holding up?  One day it’s gonna be curtains folks and there’s not too much that can be done about it.  While we might all be in the same boat as far as our mortality is concerned, the main factors that differentiate us from each other are our perspectives and just exactly how much time we still have left in our respective hour glasses.  Throughout the progression (and/or regression) of our lives, our perspectives can change, as well as our health.  In fact, our health can have a direct and profound effect on our perspectives and vice versa.  Some people are content with just trying to survive as long as possible, catching the occasional prime-time sitcom, driving like a reckless asshole, or blowing their retail paychecks on a name brand handbag to zing a little momentary buzz through their life force.  Others focus intently on their offspring and/or world issues, hoping to leave the Earth a better place than they entered it, for the benefit of future generations.

The ways that we approach life vary as widely as our individual theories about the purpose and “meaning” behind it, but most of us seem to want to receive at least a minor level of acknowledgement, at one point or another, even if it’s just the acknowledgement that we do, in fact, exist at all.  “How much time/life do I have left in me to pull something big and noticeable off?“  “How much time do I have left to even make a simple yet longstanding impact on the realm that I’m leaving behind?“  For some people, just the idea of their conceptual existence and what that means to them can even be larger than the preservation of their physical existence.  For them, the idea of persisting through time as a powerful memory trumps the idea of simply surviving in their physical form as an unsung nobody.  Dying can make you a star, even if you’re not around to reap the benefits from it.  Some wingnut motherfuckers have even gone as far as firing off weapons in public, picking off random casualties, just so that their names could appear in print and, often times, be quickly forgotten; ironically, overshadowed by the nature of their extreme and misguided obsessions (I don’t know those Columbine kids’ names or remember their faces).  Nothing else epitomizes the live fast, die young, become immortalized on a T-Shirt scenario quite like the dead rockstar and tomorrow our friends at Spokeart will be presenting a new group art exhibit, curated by regular contributor/collaborator Matt Dye of Blunt Graffix, that will pay tribute to these icons, which have often forced us to consider our own mortality, while dreaming about ways in which our own memories might live on forever. Read the rest of this entry →