I want to start doing this. In South Africa, a guy is going around putting these stickers in random places. I love this idea. I need to order me some stickers.
Email from the Project Creator, Elli Garb:
Hi Jenny
I didn't hear the show but wanted to drop you a mail just to outline what the project is about.
For interest's sake. For clarity.
This sticker campaign was borne out of a personal need. The need to produce art combined with my need to feel affirmed. The need to still feel the thrill of public tampering combined with the fact that I'm already a grown up. The need to make a positive statement (even in a whisper), in contrast to the negative overload I'm overwhelmed by.
So, that all being said, the idea started brewing. The vehicle was simple to choose. Stickers are, without doubt, my favourite creative medium. Easily produced, easily applied and easily overlooked. (Followed as a close second is stencil graffiti which is just as satisfying but more upsetting for my mother...)
I like to produce art even though I would hesitate to call myself an artist. That has always felt too serious for me. Too highbrow. Too inaccessible. So I simply make stuff I like and display it. I like to use the city like a giant post-it note pad. And this project is just that.
The stickers are applied to everything from parking ticket dispensers to ATM's. They've made their way into rehabs and clubs. They've travelled to shopping centres and corporate office parks. Secretly. Unobserved. Sometimes they stay stuck for weeks; sometime they disappear within hours of application. It's a self-funded project, which has meant it has had to happen in bursts. But there is poetry even in that necessity - it's sporadic and unexpected. It's easy come, easy go.
And, while the design is relatively neutral or under-designed (by design), the application is pure punk. The outcome is the juxtaposition of urban viral communication and a little bit of heart.
The message is one, which I hang onto - sometimes for dear life when times are wobbly. I need to know that in spite of it all, in spite of myself, everything is according to plan. Everything is in the right place at the right time. Everything is as it should be, even if I don't necessarily understand why.
I need to keep reminding myself of this fact. Because sometimes I can be a slow learner. And because I like to hear good things over and over again.
