*http://tinyurl.com/26pbkb5
*
Roger Waters <http://www.roger-waters.com/> of Pink Floyd knows the artistic
potency of an image on a wall. But his recent campaign to wheat-paste an
anti-war quote from President Eisenhower across American cities to promote
his touring revival of the Floyd staple The Wall unexpectedly proved his
point, after his employees pasted the quote over the storefront of Solutions
speaker repair in Silver Lake. The wall has served as an impromptu fan
memorial to the late singer-songwriter Elliott
Smith<http://www.sweet-adeline.net/>for nearly a decade.
Smith passed away in Los Angeles in
2003<http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/esmithaut1.html>,
and fans have left personal messages and quoted lyrics on the wall, the
backdrop to the cover art of his album Figure 8, ever since. But as of
Monday night, fans noticed that the wall also featured Waters image of a
soldier cradling a child with the Eisenhower quote nearby.
Though the oft-abused wall has also been a favorite target for taggers and
is frequently overwhelmed by non-Smith-related writing, local reaction to
Waters wheat pasting, including an L.A. Weekly blog
post<http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/art-of-music/roger-waters-ellio
tt-smith-mur/>,
was swift and critical. In a phone interview Tuesday evening, Waters
apologized to any Smith fans who found his choice of walls callous.
It was absolutely an accident, Waters said. I didn t want to disrespect
Elliott Smith s fans, and I ve instructed (the team) to remove the wheat
paste immediately. It was a random pasting in the normal course of this, and
I want to make it public that we had no intent to offend or cover up
something precious.
Waters, who said he was unfamiliar with Smith s work until this incident,
said the national wheat-paste campaign is being coordinated from his New
York offices and that the street art team based there didn t know the wall s
importance to L.A. music fans.
A multimillion-selling artist accidentally using a memorial to a beloved
local singer to promote the revival tour of a classic album is unfortunately
ironic. For Smith fans, it could underscore a cultural generation gap where
a small independent album like Either/Or is as canonical to them as The
Wall is to the mainstream.
Waters, who headlined Coachella in
2008<http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-pig1-2008may01,1,4436910.stor
y>and
brings his "Wall" tour to the Staples Center on Nov. 29, wrote a
similar
apology on his Facebook page <http://www.facebook.com/rogerwaters> Tuesday.
He hoped his team wouldn t be singled out among many others who have
regrettably used the wall for non-Smith-related art or tagging.
It s not like this was some pristine monument and Roger Waters is the Big
Bad Wolf who covered it up, Waters said.
The pasting is made of biodegradable material, he said, and will be easily
and quickly removed out of respect for Smith fans. But in hindsight, Waters
felt the Eisenhower quote, about both the personal, economic and social
costs of waging warfare, wasn t too far afield from the work of Smith, a
singer who articulately documented intimate emotional pain.
That s why I was so incensed when I read that article that said I paid
someone to disrespect Elliott Smith, Waters said. I admit I didn t know
his music, but I ve talked to people who do and it s clear he was a young
man who felt deeply, and any empathetic person wouldn t have an issue with
publicizing that quote.
I would guess, and this is only a guess, he said, but it s my guess that
he would have been sympathetic to that message.
-August Brown
*http://tinyurl.com/26pbkb5
*
Roger Waters <http://www.roger-waters.com/> of Pink Floyd knows the artistic
potency of an image on a wall. But his recent campaign to wheat-paste an
anti-war quote from President Eisenhower across American cities to promote
his touring revival of the Floyd staple The Wall unexpectedly proved his
point, after his employees pasted the quote over the storefront of Solutions
speaker repair in Silver Lake. The wall has served as an impromptu fan
memorial to the late singer-songwriter Elliott
Smith<http://www.sweet-adeline.net/>for nearly a decade.
Smith passed away in Los Angeles in
2003<http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/esmithaut1.html>,
and fans have left personal messages and quoted lyrics on the wall, the
backdrop to the cover art of his album Figure 8, ever since. But as of
Monday night, fans noticed that the wall also featured Waters image of a
soldier cradling a child with the Eisenhower quote nearby.
Though the oft-abused wall has also been a favorite target for taggers and
is frequently overwhelmed by non-Smith-related writing, local reaction to
Waters wheat pasting, including an L.A. Weekly blog
post<http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/art-of-music/roger-waters-ellio
tt-smith-mur/>,
was swift and critical. In a phone interview Tuesday evening, Waters
apologized to any Smith fans who found his choice of walls callous.
It was absolutely an accident, Waters said. I didn t want to disrespect
Elliott Smith s fans, and I ve instructed (the team) to remove the wheat
paste immediately. It was a random pasting in the normal course of this, and
I want to make it public that we had no intent to offend or cover up
something precious.
Waters, who said he was unfamiliar with Smith s work until this incident,
said the national wheat-paste campaign is being coordinated from his New
York offices and that the street art team based there didn t know the wall s
importance to L.A. music fans.
A multimillion-selling artist accidentally using a memorial to a beloved
local singer to promote the revival tour of a classic album is unfortunately
ironic. For Smith fans, it could underscore a cultural generation gap where
a small independent album like Either/Or is as canonical to them as The
Wall is to the mainstream.
Waters, who headlined Coachella in
2008<http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-pig1-2008may01,1,4436910.stor
y>and
brings his "Wall" tour to the Staples Center on Nov. 29, wrote a
similar
apology on his Facebook page <http://www.facebook.com/rogerwaters> Tuesday.
He hoped his team wouldn t be singled out among many others who have
regrettably used the wall for non-Smith-related art or tagging.
It s not like this was some pristine monument and Roger Waters is the Big
Bad Wolf who covered it up, Waters said.
The pasting is made of biodegradable material, he said, and will be easily
and quickly removed out of respect for Smith fans. But in hindsight, Waters
felt the Eisenhower quote, about both the personal, economic and social
costs of waging warfare, wasn t too far afield from the work of Smith, a
singer who articulately documented intimate emotional pain.
That s why I was so incensed when I read that article that said I paid
someone to disrespect Elliott Smith, Waters said. I admit I didn t know
his music, but I ve talked to people who do and it s clear he was a young
man who felt deeply, and any empathetic person wouldn t have an issue with
publicizing that quote.
I would guess, and this is only a guess, he said, but it s my guess that
he would have been sympathetic to that message.
-August Brown