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Last word on government Graffiti installation in Gonzalez's office gets mixed reviews
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 12/10/4 | Ilene Lelchuk

Posted on 12/10/2004 12:30:48 PM PST by SmithL

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez, who has thumbed his nose at the establishment before, let a graffiti artist spray paint his City Hall office walls with the bright orange message: "SMASH THE STATE."

There is irony. There is art appreciation. There are raised eyebrows.

Gonzalez, who has hosted monthly art installations in his office by unknown and known artists for the last four years, offered up this graffiti for one of his last exhibits before he exits City Hall on Jan. 8. Gonzalez did not seek re-election.

The timing and placement of the artwork are interesting, seeing how City Hall is a registered historical landmark, and you need approval just to hang a bulletin board -- and seeing how Mayor Gavin Newsom, Gonzalez's rival in the mayor's race last year, has been issuing strict edicts about the city's and public's responsibility to clean up graffiti vandalism.

The artist's message in traffic-cone orange that appears behind Gonzalez's desk was painted by Barry McGee, an internationally known San Francisco artist whose work first appeared anonymously in the 1980s on outdoor walls and tunnels.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: onlyinsanfrancisco
Organized anarchy within SF's Politburo
1 posted on 12/10/2004 12:30:49 PM PST by SmithL
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To: SmithL

So this is what he's paid to do?


2 posted on 12/10/2004 12:33:05 PM PST by Darkwolf377 (Air conditioners don't kill people, French snobbery toward air conditioners kills people)
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To: All

Seems like they created a climate of hate to me. Where are the PC police?


3 posted on 12/10/2004 12:35:31 PM PST by skip_intro
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To: SmithL

Cosidering that the "state" in question is California, not a bad sentiment.


4 posted on 12/10/2004 12:43:20 PM PST by Tax-chick (Benedicere cor! Quomodo cogis comas tuas sic videri?)
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To: SmithL
If there's no place for religion in government, why should there be a place for art? Why is government money used to give one person access to speech above another?
5 posted on 12/10/2004 12:56:05 PM PST by atomicpossum (I am the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to me.)
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