apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Not: There is better stencil art than that.

It's a lot better than the ones of George W. Bush I've seen on sidewalks around here...

i agree with sarahrae

It's about like a sticker on a pole. 'Oh, the base of this pilaster just needed a cute little zebra,' I don't think is art. It might be funny in the "mark of Zorro" kind of way except that it's "Z is for Zebra" like a children's picture book. I would not go so far as describe this as defacement as I would just accuse it of being pointless.

Maybe you just happened on a clue for a scavenger hunt, that's another idea.

Sorry, graffiti is just not cool anywhere ever no matter what it looks like. Defacing public or private property is terrible.

not the best stencil ever created, but definitely hot because it's street art.

please google banksy. does better stencil art than this.

As a recent victim of vandalism, I'm of the opinion that graffiti is never "hot."

Before you judge... you never know, the owner could have put that there.

Plus, I think it's cute.

i agree w/ michpc - Graffiti is never cool

Art, especially street art should have meaning, this seems rather pointless therefore, not hot

Banksy rocks.

A dimunitive animal is highly preferable to the prolific ugly and untrained scrawls that seem to be put up when the writer's eyes are closed. I say hot: I would actually like to have this guarding the front of my building.

Graffiti is wrong no matter how "cute" or "arty" it is. You're basically defacing something that belongs to someone else.

this is street art, not graffiti, and while I don't really like it at all, it's still a nice break from the regular forms of advertising that we are normally bombarded with in public spaces. more public art is always a good thing.

Banksy-inspired, but not as good as the real thing

I live in Savannah! And I've never seen that, or any similar graffiti. Where is it?

I don't think any graffiti is appropriate and definitely completely awful on historic structures.

It's no different than walking up to a stranger's car and stenciling a zebra on the bumper - it's vandalism. Do whatever you want to your own property, but kept your paint off other people's stuff!

amt230, i disagree totally with you. No matter how cutesy, hip or creative the unsanctioned defacement of property is GRAFFITI. Granted, we don't know if the owner of that wall allowed the graffiti but more often than not, they don't. I can't stand it when people justify crimes just because they're the hip thing to do. That zebra ain't art. Art inspires more than just a need to bash taggers in the head.

I like Shepard Fairey's work, there are some talented individuals, BUT...... coming from Southern California, don't eeeeeven get me started on graffiti and taggers....most of it is defacement by and they think nothing of defacing existing public art or genuine attempts at the "public art" that's being mentioned here. These cretins respect nothing.

correction to the above: "...defacement by lazy thugs and they..."

Thank you!

I find this is better than tagging, but not much

I actually like grafitti as an art form, but not in Savannah. That city is just too beautiful.

What d'y'all think of when the surveyors come around and spray paints arrows on the sidewalk, street and poles? That stuff eventually wears off but it takes a long time. Dig Safe! N4710n4L 6r1d wuZ H3r3, y0!!!

not. as mentioned above, defacing public or private property is uncool.

Now, this Mona Lisa image ALWAYS makes me smile, but still....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/97497803%40N00/469663073/

I printed that out and have it on my bulletin board in the office. 8^)

~giggle~

i like it, we have a street artist around my work and it makes me smile.

I think the idea of street art and graffiti is to make use of any space because no space should be a private space. Think of the street art and graffiti as the taggers who go out of the bad side and is making public art. Graffiti friends of mine actually say there are rules if you are a true bomber, but unfortunately there are the toys: the people who do it for the thrill or to mark territory.
I'm an art student, and recently was asked to do a project about public art, now nearly everyone in the class did something fairly legal, but some had cops approach them. We were all doing something very harmless and trying to send a message, if cops stop us for something petty like that instead of stopping taggers, maybe the art form isn't serving it's purpose. That street art should not be contained and should not be illegal. Artists should be differentiated from gangsters and toys within the law.
All of you can state what is wrong and right legally, but that is what art's function might be for-to evoke a response, for enjoyment, or even for contempt. Art is around to make you think why it should be only enjoyed within the confines of a museum and not outside. Banksy is amazing too, his show is all about taking risks and displaying social problems(even though he is much like murakami who has his own factory of developers). This zebra might not clearly do this, but this stencil brings any person who stops by, something, good or bad.

(Knowing the at crowd,I'm bracing myself for a response, ^ ^* wish me luck)

NOT! NO!
Graffiti is never okay.
To say it's an art form is to ignore the fact that architecture truly is. Isn't it bad form to impose your art on top of someone else's?

Stenciling a zebra on your own property could be either artsy or tacky.

Stenciling a zebra on someone else's property is ugly and illegal.

Thank you madamelai!

Reading through the comments I was getting ready to write many points that you took up. I would gladly take a world overflowing with 'graffiti' as opposed to perverse advertising trying creating insatiable needs and rampant insecurities among the masses in a world which literally and figuratively can not afford it.

Sao Paulo has very recently made advertising in the city of illegal! Even storefront signs are restricted in size. Imagine the worlds fourth largest metropolis is free of the debris that the vast majority of us are so accustomed to that we more or less take it all for architectural details.

the best kind of art is when there are artists/architects collaborating.

The zebra appears to be painted on a building of some historic significance... well, who knows what the building is or how old it is or who it belongs to. If it were found to be on the cinderblock wall at a warehouse, would anyone mind as much? I know there seems to be an absolute argument, but it's like whenever anyone suggests keeping books in a bathroom, who cares? Not all books are interesting or good enough to keep dry and steamless and poo-germless.

Does anyone suppose this building is a court or a dental office or private residence or something? Maybe it is a laundromat or a liquor store? I don't think this zebra merits that much attention, actually, but I think some surfaces are naturally going to be considered more sacred than others. Some may still disagree, but there's no reason to assume the owner of that pilaster is going to be too mad about a little zebra. Then again, he or she may. "Gang" tagging tends to make property owners a little nervous that people will feel unsafe patronizing those businesses, while there is similar stenciling over at the junkyard fence I routinely pass and nobody cares. It's not all that rundown there, it's just a little stenciling.

bad overspray and underspray. learn to use a stencil and it would look a million times less offensive.

it seems like AT is grasping at random topics now.

I lived in Savannah for 3 years, went to SCAD and loved the town but I think this is going to far. It might be cool for LA or NYC but not for the SAV. Art kids going to far for such a historic town, they should just chill and have a PBR at Pinkie's! The design kids their would never do that.

Oh yay! Will zebras soon replace deer/deer antlers in the hip art world?

Savannah--why? In some ugly suburb or dull strip mall, okay if you have to, but not in Savannah.

Gang tags, like MS13 tags, make me more than a little nervous. Gunfire lowers the tone of the neighborhood.

Oh yay! I'm glad you saw that. I've never seen the zebra, but there is a hippo on the side of the furniture store on broughton near city market. Everytime I walk by I see it and it makes me laugh.

No such thing as private space, huh?

When do people get permission to pour a can of paint over everything you own, in your own house? If it's not private space, and they call it "art," that's all that matters, right?

@ madamelai : what gracious speech! thank you. Your reaction, indifferent to everyones opinion, is what art is about, much more than the zebra itself :-)

@ idea chick : probably....

And about private space, my apartment is regulary invaded by unwanted TV commercials, advertisements that waste paper, very annoying commercially oriented phone calls, computer software telling me to but this or this add-on, salesmen trying to sell me a new internet line...shouldn't THAT be illegal?

And the hell, it's just a tiny zebra a stroke of white paint and it's gone.




Surprising the difference between the actual survey and the reactions in the comments.

A friend of mine who lives in ATL was befriended by a crazy guy who came around and spray-painted his own personal logo on my friend's foundation. So I'm wondering if this is some sort of Georgia craziness.

I'll bet this is the work of a SCAD student.

SCADanielle: The zebra is located on the York Street side of a building on the corner of Bull and York... Kind of at the southwest corner of Wright Square, across from the Wachovia.

KTG: The building is home to one of those little touristy gift shop stores. It's old and probably historic, but not hugely and significantly so in a town full of historic buildings.