Ron English Reveals Boston's Bad Side: Shepard Fairey Redux

Image from English's website

They’re very, very strict [in Boston]. A friend of mine did a show there years ago — Joe Coleman. He’d toured around the country for years before he got to Boston. In this one part of what is almost like a stand-up routine, he blows himself up by strapping fireworks to himself. They arrested him on felony charges for concealing explosives [Sound familiar?]... And there they tossed him in jail... we were pretty certain they were going to throw us in jail too, but they didn’t. But again, Shepard didn’t know that he had warrants for his arrest there until he got there. The pieces that Shepard did that he had all these warrants out for him on were legal pieces.

Police will arrest you for things that aren’t crimes if they are out to get you for some reason. And then you have to go to court and defend yourself against those crimes. One time I just put up a sticker, and I was arrested. They used five arresting officers to do it and they pulled a knife. They charged me with four misdemeanors and a felony. For a sticker. I think they like to pile a bunch of charges on you so that when you go to court you have to face all these charges and then if you plea bargain, you can only plea bargain down so far. They really want to make sure something sticks. If they throw 27 felony charges at Shepard, it’s more likely they can get at least one to stick. Even if 26 of the 27 are erroneous. Or 27 of the 27 are erroneous.

They seem to have something against street art there in Boston... Boston is a very specific town. It’s an aberration... In a lot of towns, artists' greatest fans are cops — even if they end up arresting them. They’re blue collar workers, so they have an intimate relationship with the work. In a way, they are the artists of the cops. I’m also blue collar, and I’ve always had an awareness of my art being very elitist and trying to find ways for it not to be. To find that other audience. To bridge the schism.

Is putting art on the street an effective way to bridge the schism between the lowbrow and the elitist, or is it just plain illegal? English's distinction is rather problematic: you'd think the police represent the interests of blue-collar folks who stand to "benefit" from street art, yet there's somehow a proletarian resentment of imported artists, seen as elitists who want to appropriate our streets. "Keep off Dot Ave, Fair(e)y!"

So what does Boston's apparent opposition to street art really say about us? It seems reflective of the town's divide between blue-collar natives and white-collar imports, possibly resulting from a resentment of the latter by the former and a refusal to acknowledge the former by the latter. Homegrown Goldenstache doesn't arouse as much ire, but nor has he received as much recognition (book him, ICA!). Does it all just come down to the irony of "street" artists getting "real" exhibitions? Let us know what you think in the comments.