art abandonment?

[glitterpigeon]

I have been getting really into art abandonment lately!

it's when you leave free art pieces in public places! the most common form of this I see is painting on rocks and leaving them places, though I usually put a free sign on a little canvas I have painted!

I have been kind of fascinated by it. it is an interesting way to play around with how we think about the way that art is displayed, I think. there's a lot to be said about that, that I don't quite know how to articulate yet.

there's also this sort of thing with all art, how at some point you just have to let it go. set it out into a chaotic spinnings of the world and hope that this little love of yours is treated kindly, that it is safe and understood. but most of the time in the small scale (once you like, die, or similar, though, then what happens to the physical object is really out of your hands) this letting go is metaphorical and emotional.

but it isn't with this. with art abandonment you are literally letting your art go. chances are, you will never see it again. you can put contact info on it, you can beg and plead that people who find it will use that to tell you they found it, but you can't make them do that, and you can't know for sure if anyone will even be interested. maybe no one will pick it up ever or it will just get thrown out. maybe that thing you care about more than anyone else will be seen by everyone else as worthless trash.

or maybe they will love it. maybe someone will be tired, coming home from a bad day at work, maybe they will find your art and they will feel, even it is fleeting, just a little bit happier. when I look into art abandonment, that is a lot of what I see. people finding a little more hope in the world, the world becoming just a tiny bit kinder.

to me, this is one sort of ultimate act of trust. it scares me, but I have always wanted to look at the things that scare me. the fear makes me only want to do it more, so that I might understand that fear better. so that I might experience a new type of magic that the world holds.

have you ever done art abandonment of some sort? (remember this is a very broad type of thing. a lot of things count as this) would you ever? have you aver found someone else abandoned art?

[Memory]

have you ever done art abandonment of some sort? (remember this is a very broad type of thing. a lot of things count as this) would you ever? have you aver found someone else abandoned art?

Yes! As you mentioned above, I've took part in the rock sharing! There was even a facebook group for it, I think I've mentioned it on this forums before... But for those unaware: On the facebook group, people would share photos of their rock finds and take the rocks with them, dropping them off in a different location for someone else to find! I'm certain some people kept the rocks they found because a lot of the time the design would be on the front and information would be on the back, including the facebook group name and something alone the lines of "keep" or "hide"!

I painted some of my own and placed them around my local area. I even saw them posted in the group a few times! I wonder where they are now... And I hope they're having fun!

[wygolvillage]

This sounds like a really beautiful way to think about art and creativity, I might have to try this at some point.

[di]

I've done this by leaving my zines different places on campus It made me feel so sneaky, like some sort of art ninja

maybe they will find your art and they will feel, even it is fleeting, just a little bit happier. when I look into art abandonment, that is a lot of what I see. people finding a little more hope in the world, the world becoming just a tiny bit kinder.

This is beautifully put <3 and it's definitely the ideal goal. I can't say if anyone found & resonated with my work, or if the custodian just put it in the trash. Either way, sharing my art felt meaningful to me.

This isn't art abandonment, but on the subject of free art, I went to a local craft fair and went up to a woman's table. She was giving away her art for free. Though I would have been happy to pay her for her effort, she insisted I just take it!

This is the beautiful little wall art she made.



I decided to give her one of my zines in exchange. It felt like a very pure human interaction.

[skull-aton]

This is such a beautiful concept!! I'm in love with the idea of giving a piece of yourself to the vast and wild world. I feel like it's almost symbolic of leaving a piece of your past behind as your grow!

have you ever done art abandonment of some sort? (remember this is a very broad type of thing. a lot of things count as this) would you ever? have you aver found someone else abandoned art?

I don't know whether leaving behind my old high school art projects to my high school is considered abandonment, but!! I remember when I graduated, I left behind every vase, notebook, and wood carving. I thought that maybe the art teacher could use it as, idk, past material references or if other students find them they'd get inspo.

Anyway, last I heard about it all, apparently they were all thrown away, haha! But it's okay. They served a purpose in my life, and it's okay if they served a purpose in others, too. (Whether that was doomed to be trashed, who knows! That's their destiny, I suppose.)

The times I found abandoned art was usually near dumpsters. And I always felt that they deserve a home! So I have one, and it's this funky little painting of three boys playing baseball, and a baseball is hitting a kid in the head! (In a goofy way! all the other children are laughing)

[glitterpigeon]

I decided to give her one of my zines in exchange. It felt like a very pure human interaction.

I think that the sharing of art, whether through means like this or through making art with other people or other ways is one of the most human things to do. and a very very important one. that's why I am soo drawn to things like this. idk. if I didn't need money to live I would probably give all my art away for free. (and I already do that with most of it anyways tbh)

I make a lot of zines and while I don't leave them places I often try to keep a few on hand to give to people I meet, and it's always nice. it's kind of fascinating the different people in different positions who have my zines now. and also it's always just nice to meet a friend at a library or cafe or similar and give it to them, even that is weirdly exciting. 

[Melooon]

I was sitting in a cafe yesterday thinking about zines and I looked down at my feet and spotted a wild zine roaming around. So I picked it up and it was a complete directory of "sticker artists" in the city I live in; e.g. these are people who hand make artworks on sticker paper and then stick them on random things around the street.

Its one of those things thats so incredibly obvious Im shocked I never thought about it existing before  The stickers dont last very long, they get torn or washed away or stuck over; but for a short moment the whole street is their gallery; anyone can enjoy sticker art 

[glitterpigeon]

Its one of those things thats so incredibly obvious Im shocked I never thought about it existing before  The stickers dont last very long, they get torn or washed away or stuck over; but for a short moment the whole street is their gallery; anyone can enjoy sticker art 

I have been considering making stickers and putting them places. motivated partially because I keep seeing weird transphobic/anti-vax stickers everywhere and I would like to cover them up/remove them. and it seems like it's not that hard to get blank stickers and draw on them.

[di]

Yay for random finds!

I have an update myself. Over the weekend I found somebody had left a self-published chapbook (aka poetry zine) in a Little Free Library. (IDK if y'all have those in your areas, but they're nice DIY wooden boxes people place in their yards to distribute free books.)

Now I'm very happy to have a local writer's work in my collection. Makes me happy about humanity

I have been considering making stickers and putting them places. motivated partially because I keep seeing weird transphobic/anti-vax stickers everywhere and I would like to cover them up/remove them. and it seems like it's not that hard to get blank stickers and draw on them.

You have my full support not only as an artistic endeavor, but an awesome way to transform the ugly and make it better!

[caracalled]

Yes! As you mentioned above, I've took part in the rock sharing! There was even a facebook group for it, I think I've mentioned it on this forums before... But for those unaware: On the facebook group, people would share photos of their rock finds and take the rocks with them, dropping them off in a different location for someone else to find! I'm certain some people kept the rocks they found because a lot of the time the design would be on the front and information would be on the back, including the facebook group name and something alone the lines of "keep" or "hide"!

I painted some of my own and placed them around my local area. I even saw them posted in the group a few times! I wonder where they are now... And I hope they're having fun!

Ahh! I found one of those recently and discovered art abandonment through that! It was a little rock painted to look like elmo (sesame street) and it's always in my bag, traveling everywhere with me now! I love that little thing!

I don't have facebook but if that's not a requirement, I might make my own sometime!

[Memory]

This is kind of similar to Bookcrossing, which is a thing where you leave books out in public (with a link to the book's Bookcrossing profile in it) and hope that people pick it up, read it, and even register finding it on the Bookcrossing page itself so you can track where it wandered.

[thank you!]

have you ever done art abandonment of some sort? (remember this is a very broad type of thing. a lot of things count as this) would you ever? have you aver found someone else abandoned art?

A few years ago I was in an art collective that made art to burn, like effigies and stuff like that. I know its not exactly the same thing but I think it carries some of the same sentiment

to me it felt like an act of rebellion. We're all subjected to capitalism, and as artists we're expected to fit into that system. Burning that art felt like we were saying "I will not be part of that system, I wont let the products of my labor be profited from, they're for me and me alone". I think that a lot of kinds of art abandonment are doing that same kind of thing in a different way, like its saying that it doesn't wanna be part of that system, and instead it wants to be something that's for everyone who sees it

I had an idea a couple months ago about burying a painting, which is odv on hold because that doesn't sound very environmentally friendly. I think its interesting because maybe in that case I'd be saying that I don't want to be part of this system, I want this art to be a private letter from me to the place I bury it