For our final project, our task was to design a project that Commemorates & Resurrects a person or event from/in NYC to be located in NYC.

 

After separately mind mapping our ideas, we got together as a group to compare our ideas. After considering our options and their significance we enthusiastically landed on the idea to commemorate Jean-Michel Basquait, being a highly influential artist and New Yorker. One of the reasons behind our enthusiasm towards this, was the fact that we could relate our project to political situations and incidents currently surrounding us.

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an artist that was born to a Puerto Rican mother and an American-Haitian father in Brooklyn, New York. He is a mixed person of color who connects to his roots through his artwork and uses it as an important defining aspect of himself. Basquiat was a spokesperson of social injustices such as racism, oppression, class division, and many other problematic instances that arose during the 70-80s around Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Our goal was to create a piece of work the public can positively react to and appreciate the importance, significance, and power of the artwork created by the Brooklyn native contemporary artist Basquiat, whilst also empowering minorities during this difficult time, after the 2016 Elections.

 

These are photographs of some of our notes:

 

 

These are photographs of Basquiat’s commemorative plaque in Soho:

 

Our initial goal was to create a huge mural on a wall somewhere around New York. However, this was somewhat impossible considering that obtaining legal rights for a wall in NYC would take longer than we could afford. This disappointed us a little bit, because we wanted our pieces for Basquiat to be accessible to anybody around New York; we wanted our pieces to be seen and empower anybody walking on the streets on a typical everyday scenario. It turns out that we found the ideal way to do this. we found a way to integrate our project around the city.

It turns out that we found the ideal way to do this. We found a way to integrate our project around the city. We noticed that on various streets there are stickers on poles and stencils around on the sidewalks and on the ground:

 

So we started creating stickers and posters on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

This portrait of Basquiat was painted on Photoshop using a Wacom drawing pad.

 

 

We also started creating pieces using the Wacom Cintiq computers in the Graphics Lab:

 

We also created stickers of some of his most famous quotes, including the extremely empowering “I am not a black artist, I am an artist.”

We spelled out his quotes using his own handwriting because we felt that this actually ‘resurrected’ Basquiat, which was required by the task.

 

After digitally designing all the stickers, we printed them out using a printer in the Graphics Lab:

Final Outcome:

To fully accomplish the goal to commemorate Basquiat, we wanted people to be able to honor his work, meaning that it was highly imperative to find a way to inform people who may not know exactly who Basquiat is. Therefore, we came up with the idea to create a website that people can visit if their eye catches one of the stickers. On this website, we would have a bio & information on Basquiat, some of his pieces, some of our pieces, and a section where people can comment or upload some of their work for Basquiat. So we bought a google domain and created the website using a format from SquareSpace.

In all of the stickers, we included a link to the website we created at the bottom right corner.

This is the website: https://www.project-jmb.com

 

Lastly, we also created a stencil of Basquiat and spray canned it on a sidewalk, on the ground, like the one on the image shown above.

These images show the process of the stencil being made:

 

 

These are photographs of the stickers we placed around the city:

We placed them in areas that are likely to be noticed by someone crossing the street. For instance, we stuck some of them on the edge of the sidewalk, the area right before you step on the road; a place where you always look down to whilst waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green.