Tipster A. Crawford sent this one in (thanks!), and we thought it interesting. It was produced by a group describing themselves as the first “social merchandising company” and they’re called The Hundreds. They came to Detroit in May and looked at Detroit’s graffiti scene in this video.
There are some solid interviews and raw insights, and a little NSFW language (which what you’d expect), but it portrays the general feel that Detroit’s a magnet for those who want to make their mark on a wall. They have a play on the famous graffiti artist “Banksy” and call him “Hanksy” with an animated Tom Hanks face superimposed on him. Hanksy has visited other cities as well, including NYC and Montreal.
“You go to L.A. you go to jail, you go to New York, you put up a sticker, you go to jail. I mean they catch you, you’re going to jail. And you come to Detroit, you can do burners in the daylight,” says Jesse Cory from the Innerstate Gallery in the video.
It wrestles with the question “Can street art save Detroit?” as well as gentrification.
“The unique opportunity in Detroit is to do it differently. You see the artists and the young people that are moving to Detroit and they’re a lot more sensitive to context than maybe in a city like New York or San Francisco. Just more sensitive to the history, wanting to be involved in the community, and that’s kind of what the ethos of this moment in Detroit is, and that’s one of the exciting things about being here right now,” said “Chad” who came back to live in Detroit.
The piece has a lot of access to the people in Detroit’s graffiti scene, more so than many videos or articles we’ve seen. And for that, we think it notable. We could add more, but really, just watch the thing.