There’s so much wrong with this I don’t really know where to begin.
It starts with some self-styled “infamous urban artists” co-opting ‘guerilla knitting’ in the name of a big fat corporate client and a global advertising agency, and ends up with the action being lauded for “whitening” Brixton’s image.
Here’s the background: Knitting duo The Fastener and Deadly Knitshade (Knit the City) decided that what Ferndale Road in Brixton really needed was an advertising stunt for Toyota’s ‘Positive Power’ campaign, something that had been dreamt up by folks at the Thatcher-loving, Tory-funding ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi.
Using Brixton’s streets as a free backdrop for their brand-pushing ‘street’ activities, the ‘yarnstormers’ shoved a load of knitted flower-like creations over the street’s bollards while the corporate publicity machine rolled into overdrive to capture the ‘quirky’ event for some edgy social networking promotion.
With both the ladies from Knit The City happy to pose for pictures during the ‘guerilla’ action, it seems that perhaps they weren’t being entirely truthful when they described yarnstorming as being all about, “conjuring up a piece of knitting or crochet, taking out out in the world, releasing it into the wild, and running away like a mad thing.”
The Ferndale Road action was enthusiastically reported in brand magazine, Popsop, who managed to dream up this pile of offensive, inaccurate shite while attempting to describe Brixton to their readers:
The district, which used to be quite an unpleasant part of the city in the 80s (it was associated with bombing and riots then), has whitened its image and become a nice, multicultural area—and the new project adds another lively and optimistic touch to the transformed atmosphere of this place.
With the area now nicely whitened up, Laurence Quinn, Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi lavished more praise on the venture:
The Yarn Stormers are a great example of a how a small number of people can create a large amount of positivity, as well as having some fun doing it. We’re glad we could lend our support and be a part of another one of their amazing knitted spectacles.
If your stomach can handle it, you can read more about Toyota’s meme-appropriating ‘Positive Power’ antics here, or discuss the (ahem) ‘graffiti yarnstorm’ on the ever-lively urban75 bulletin boards.
Update 12:10pm 5th Feb: They’ve now removed the ‘whitening’ comment.
Update 12:50Pm 5th Feb – Popsop editor apologises on the urban75 boards:
Dear friends,
Let me clarify something. I’m Popsop editor. It has come to my attention that you found one of Popsop articles to be racist. I’m very sorry, however, that is not true. That was just the wrong wording and factual inaccuracy. NO racism was meant there. And, of course, it has nothing to do with Toyota’s “guerrilla actions”.
Anna Rudenko is a freelance news editor from Ukraine. This is not her fault, but mine. Our team is multicultural and we do have strong Russian connections, as we have a partner website Popsop.ru in Russian.
That confusing part of the article has been removed. My team and I sincerely apologise for any confusion or troubles this may have caused.
Related posts:
To Crack City, Brixton 2005
Cardiff City vs Crystal Palace, Carling Cup semi-final at Selhurst Road, 10th Jan 2012
City of Glass at Brixton Offline, 26th Aug 2011
Avenue A freeze out, as snowstorm hits New York City
Brixton East – a new art space for Brixton artists, south London
Alternative Euro 2004 – urban75 football team
Out Of Focus: Photography exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, Chelsea
Urban Art Fair 2012 enjoys some sunshine, Brixton, London 15th July 2012
shit the city? total fakes
Twee twats
while stupidity (or may be just naive ignorance) lies in the words, i don’t see the problem with having some random knitted flowers on the street, as long as the branding is not ridiculous
Love you too, guys. x
Hello Deadly. Nice to hear from you. 🙂
I’ve always warmed to your actions, but don’t you feel that being hired to knit stuff for a multi-national automobile corporation’s ad campaign is somewhat outside the spirit of “guerilla knitting”?
Wow that’s a pretty aggressive stance against some knitted flowers promoting a carbon free car.
Except even Toyota admits that the production of the Prius requires more energy and emits more carbon dioxide than the production of regular petrol cars.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-grayson/eco-etiquette-is-a-new-pr_b_257154.html
Hello Editor. Good to get a reply. 🙂
It’s a carbon-free car promoted by a campaign for people to do something positive with their lives. It may not be ending global warming all on its own, but it’s a little way to doing so, and we are happy to be part of that.
As for being “outside the spirit of guerilla knitting”, we’re artists who do commission work, as well as guerilla installations. This was a ‘permission to yarnstorm project’ for us. We’ve worked with a few big companies as our website shows. We don’t hide it. We always work in the spirit of promoting positivity and freedom of expression, but we’re not always guerilla.
On the day the people in Brixton who came along while we were installing the art really seemed to love it. They were full of kind words and big grins, and some stopped to help out or took away handmade bits of street art at the end of the day, which the kids especially loved. They chatted to us and to each other because of our work, and it was a really nice positive day. That’s partly because Brixton is a positive place, it’s lively and diverse and full of energy and as a South London local I love it to bits. It’s also partly because we were doing something different and quite odd somewhere that is usually just your run of the mill road.
The above comments amuse me though, ‘Shit the City’ almost made me spit my tea out laughing. Cheers, chaps. It’s always good to get feedback.
I’m sorry, but I can’t get past this line, “It’s a carbon-free car promoted by a campaign for people to do something positive with their lives.”
What on earth does that mean? What has ownership of an expensive car got to do with people who want to do something positive with their lives?
Sigh. Ok . Well I tried. Can’t say I didn’t try. *wanders off to drive round town putting babies on spikes*
Well done! @deadlyknitshade! Keep on going I love what you do. Love and peace! From a woman of colour who knits and lives in South London. Peace!<3
Knightshade – you’ve been well and truly greenwashed!
Promoting the polluting products of enormo industrial brands like Toyota really isn’t a great idea and all that ‘positive’ guff is embarrassingly naive.
Arrrgh flowers!! My eyes!! It buuuuuurns!!!
Oh no wait, it’s just a couple of kooky artists trying to bring some positivity to the streets of London.
Other artists get paid for their work and you wouldn’t call them sellouts. A girl’s gotta eat! If you can earn a living by bringing a bit of art and a bit of joy to people then I think that’s a good thing.
Yes it was sponsored by Toyota, but I think promoting an eco-friendly car is a worthy cause. It’s got nothing to do with race.
Deadly Knitshade is the Banksy of the graffiti knitting world – she invented the term ‘yarnstorm’. As far as I’m concerned, she can do what she wants with it, guerilla or not. Graffiti knitting is whatever you make it, it’s about being creative and if you’re offended by a big sun and a load of smiling flowers, maybe you need to cheer up a bit?
“Whiten?” Are you saying black people don’t/can’t knit?
@mary. Thanks for the feedback. Working on this project had a massively positive effect which you miss. An effect on the people who saw it in real life and in the lovely feedback online (not here but loads of places elsewhere). Our art really is about freedom, creativity and a sense of humour. Which seems to have been lost here.
If our street art is naive in your eyes then so be it. But it does a whole lot of good too. You’re missing that. I’m not embarrassed of it and the effect it has at all.
I wasn’t saying that your art was naive. I quite like it, actually.
I meant that you were naive for being suckered by the corporate greenwash and believing advertising expensive cars is some sort of triumph for the environment.
We need less cars, not more, and Toyota’s vehicles still have an enormous impact on the environment.
See:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/12/motoring-carbonemissions
http://www.greenwashingindex.com/toyota-prius-harmony/
http://green.autoblog.com/2007/10/03/nrdc-slams-toyota-for-greenwashing-and-supporting-hill-terry/
What a nasty, negative, condescending and aggressive article.
If Toyota are going to spend some of their advertising budget on nice things like this, fine by me. Much nicer than a few seconds of yet another “normal” car ad emphasising that cars go really fast, and that you can feel safe if you’re inside one. They’re going to spend that money anyway, and people are going to buy their cars anyway.
The use of the word “whiten” by the Popsop person sounds like it was ill-judged (and it appears that they have recognised this), but apart from that, I can’t see what it was about this that brought out this nasty, negative reaction…
“believing advertising expensive cars is some sort of triumph for the environment”. I think if you’re going to put words in my mouth it’s best to leave things there. Thanks for the advice. Always appreciated. And also for liking the work.
I’m very much hoping that everyone who has commented here on the choice KTC made to work on this project is doing everything that they can to make the world a better place too. In their work and in their other choices. 🙂
Please explain how you helping to advertise £21,000 cars in an area of social deprivation is making the world a better place. Thanks.
@Mary Brix: I think you’re confusing cause and effect a bit there… I don’t think that anyone involved in this project is claiming that “helping to advertise £21,000 cars in an area of social deprivation” in itself is “making the world a better place”.
Deadly Knitshade has already explained how doing this project had a positive effect on the people who saw it in real life (and it has also brightened up my day, just seeing the pictures). And that’s what she claimed it has done.
Separate to that, she knows (and is not denying) that doing this project may help to advertise the cars. The conclusion you seem to have leapt to, that she is claiming that “helping to advertise £21,000 cars in an area of social deprivation” in itself is “making the world a better place” is just you putting words into her mouth (or into her postings), or worse, thoughts into her head, that are you own, not hers.
Why not enjoy it, and see the good in things like this?
The best guerilla street art is spontaneous and fun and done for the joy of it. This is just a carefully stage-managed advert (albeit a pretty one) put on with the sole aim of trying to flog expensive cars.
I can’t abide greenwash and I can’t abide corporates co-opting street art to promote their own profit-led agenda, So I’m sorry to say that once I see the connection between the work and a multi billion multinational, it fails to be credible or meaningful as street art.
But if it makes other people happy, that’s great.
I’d like to add a thanks for all the wonderful comments – my particular favourite being the first ‘Shit the city’ Who doesn’t love a good pun?!
I’m personally glad for your rant just for that one comment.
We are artists whether you think so or not and trying to brighten up the landscape. If people enable us to make more art and brighten up more places instead of using that money to go on ‘another car advert’ then great.
It also promotes all street art and will get people thinking about how they can brighten up the area they live in… all good things especially as I’ve never once met someone who stumbles across our art who doesn’t love it surely that’s a good thing?
We will carry on doing what we love but it’s always great to hear people’s opinions, especially from those who are obviously doing so much to change the negatives parts of our world 🙂
Well, it does!
Hello. The articles linked to here do indeed make the case that the Prius isn’t at green as some of Toyota’s ads would have us believe, but put a Prius along a similarly-priced and specced petrol or diesel engined car, and the Prius edges it in the environmental stakes. So, as an alternative to a less green car that someone could buy and might buy, it’s the better bet. It’s a step in the right direction. It’s not as good as buying no car at all, but it’s better than buying something worse. That’s what Toyota is trying to do.
The actual siting of the street art is less to do with the socio demographic of that particular area and more to do with how it looks in the ads and in attendant PR material. (I’d anyway dispute that Brixton can just be talked about as an area of social deprivation. There’s a LOT of money around there as far as I can see.) And the contrast between the brickwork and the art is very striking. It looks good, and I bet it makes everyone who sees it feel just a little bit better about life in general, if not about Toyotas in particular. Well, everyone except those who just see evil cars and evil ad agencies and soon-to-file-under-evil guerrilla knitters.
There’s also a good argument to be had here about the point at which a company or individual can no longer appropriate street art for publicity purposes. Is it when they become a chain? Go national? Become global? What are the rules, exactly? Who’s allowed to do something gritty and urban and who’s prohibited? This one seems like a good fit: a company wanting to advertise a car that isn’t as shit as most of them, using an artist who, from what I understand, wouldn’t lend her name to the first wallet-wielding client who walked her way.
I think it can only be a good thing can it not? Where’s the harm? It’s not hurting anyone and surely we all need a little something like this to brighten our day. Lets not read too much into it and the comment about advertising £21,000 cars in deprived areas – what a load of rubbish. You see houses for sale in deprived areas and billboards advertising plenty of expensive items like cars. Well done Knit the City – I appreciate what you do!
Wow. A child dies of starvation every six seconds. I blame people who knit. They should really put down their needles, fill their expensive cars full of food and head off to the parts of the world full of starving children immediately. Deadly Knitshade, whoever you are, I applaud your desire to make the world a more lovely place by making it woolier, and if you manage to earn some sort of living through your amazing creativity, then I say hurrah. Howver, by making your work public, you are leaving yourself open to criticism….and comments from internet nutters. MOOOOOOOOO
@bravenewmalden It may not get attract as much press as trendy pop-up shops and arty happenings, but large chunks of Brixton most definitely are socially deprived.
Take a look at this map and look for the areas of red all around SW9 and SW2:
http://www.urban75.org/blog/brixton-poverty-and-wealth-map-reveals-the-areas-rich-and-poor-divide/
PS Great to see so much discussion going on!
Thank you everyone for your kind words. Myself and Deadly Knitshade put in a lot of hard work to make this street art and it’s great to see it was to no avail 🙂
Presumably Toyota paid you handsomely for your efforts in helping to advertise their corporate brand too?
Mary, it was a paid job, yes. Thanks for asking about our work. Most of the installations we do are unpaid and done for the love of it, but yes we were paid for this one. I don’t know anyone who would work for a high-profile company, and work so hard (the installation took weeks of 14 hour days to make) for nothing. It was our biggest project yet thanks to funding and it worked beautifully too. Phew.
You can check out some of our ‘permission to yarnstorm’ installations we have done on our website. I’m particularly proud of this one for BT: http://knitthecity.com/2012/06/18/bt/
You can see our free ones done as ‘guerrilla art’ here: http://knitthecity.com/yarnstorms/
And you can see why we do it here: http://knitthecity.com/why/
I’d also encourage you to check out Stitch London, the non-profit community craft group I have run from my own earnings since 2005. We’ve raised money for countless charities and taught craft for free every week for seven years in London.
I would ask what you do for a living but I don’t really want to get petty about it. I’m sure what you do is worthwhile too. I hope you get paid handsomely for it. Everyone should be able to make a living and if they can do what they love and promote a bit of love while they do it then hooray for that.
I’m off to have a nice cuppa and a bit of a knit. It’s been a very interesting day indeed. 🙂
I’m also seriously considering getting a Shit the City tattoo.
As I said, I like your work but do find that the way you portray it on your website is a bit over-egged – when you talk of having to run away quickly it gives a bit of a false impression, no?
Unless you’re running away to pick up your cheque, of course 🙂
As I said earlier you’re totally ignoring what I’m saying again. Ignored all the charity stuff and free stuff and concentrated on one job. I find it a bit mind-boggling how you can remain so negative. Though you’ve given me a brilliant laugh. You seem to be under the impression that artists like us make lots of money for the work we do. Brilliant.
And on top of all this I’ll never stop doing what I do. I know it’s doing good and I’m still proud of it.
Have a lovely evening. I’m off to swim in my giant pile of money like Scrooge McDuck and laugh at some orphans. 🙂
@deadlyknitshade ha ha – I love your comments. Unfortunately there will always be small minded people trying to piss on your fireworks. Well done on all your good work especially the charity stuff 😉
I think it’s great you do work for charity and I’ve already said that I like your work, but that still doesn’t stop your comment about ‘running away like a mad thing’ being somewhat shy of the truth.
At least one of the posters on the urban75 boards is impressed:
“On a lighter note, the girl with the camera in the photograph is hawt!”
http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/toyota-saatchi-guerilla-action-and-the-whitening-of-brixton.305938/page-2
Many thanks – that is indeed me with the camera in the picture! *blush*
Mary Brix, we do ‘run away like a mad thing’ on many occasions so therefore I’m not sure how it can be somewhat shy of the truth – and I’m not talking about when we get paid!
I think I’d like you both in real life, even after you’ve served up this corporate backslapping tosh:
“About the collaboration with Toyota, The Fastener of The Yarnstormers commented: “When Toyota approached us, we were impressed that they wanted to use the environmentally-friendly message of the Prius Plug-In Hybrid to brighten up London, and wanted to imbibe a similar message through our knitting needles.”
Deadly Knitshade, speaking about the campaign, said: “Knit the city are about taking hold of forgotten public spaces and giving them soul through their colourful woolly creations. Toyota are the perfect partners to help us spread positivity, bringing a smile to peoples faces and encouraging them to go out and make their own artistic mark on the world.”
http://www.saatchi.com/en/news/archive/graffiti_knitting_transforms_brixton_with_toyotas_positive_power
I’m guessing you haven’t worked with many PR companies. Clearly from all our comments here we both talk exactly like that. Bless you for hating the man but believing every last word. 🙂
*rides off into sunset on giant sheep*
I do wish @deadlyknitshade would refrain from:
1. referring to herself as an “artist”
2. calling her puerile transactional time-squandering “art”
3. acting like she is in any way qualified to speak on “street art”.
She is a buffoon who has pearl stitched her way into matters beyond her own critical faculties.
I do wish she’d take her grubby earnings and shuffle off quietly.
@deadlyknitshade: why thank you for that patronising mini-lecture.
FYI, I’ve actually worked in several vaguely related fields as a “creative” of sorts, but the day I start spouting shite about a multinational car manufacturer being my “perfect partner to help me spread positivity,” is the day I’d really have to consider what the fuck I was doing with my life.
Enjoy riding that sheep.
I’ve been remarkably reasonable considering how rude people have been. Your mini lectures have been less positive and much more patronising. To the point of rude. As have moderated comments you publish that verge on personal attacks. And you’re picking and choosing what to listen to and what to ignore, and what’s utter rubbish and what’s gospel, all from the same document that a PR company wrote for the press. Despite my best efforts to address your queries and insults you haven’t responded to the majority of what I’ve said or the comments of people who took my side. So it isn’t even a proper discussion.
So call me a sell out. Call me a buffoon. Call me whatever you like. People love my street art (I’m still calling it that) or hate it. The ones who hate it can look at something different, ignore it, make their own art or call me names online till it makes them feel better.
In the end there’s freedom for everyone to be happy, sad or angry about it if they like. And there’s freedom for this artist to keep making her art. That’s what’s so bloody amazing about the world. We all get to live in it and make our mark. I’m still proud of the marks I’m making despite everything you have said. The positive comments on here have just reinforced that. I’m also proud I haven’t gotten into the name calling and negativity you have.
And best of all, love it or loathe it the art gets people talking and thinking (proof on here in spadeloads) and that’s what art is all about. That’ll do me.
Who knew handmade flowers with smiley faces could be so controversial? They look so misleadingly dopey.
@simon Gosh. Harsh words. What makes an artist an artist then? We’ve worked on installations for the Tate twice in the last couple of years as commissioned artists, as well as BT ArtBox last summer.
Plus kudos on use of the word buffoon. Haven’t heard it in years.
Hello again. Perhaps if it wasn’t for the unfortunate use of that word ‘whitening’, this article might never have been written and people might have noticed something colourful in their environment and thought ‘that’s nice’. Instead, everyone’s been lured into reading an article that they thought might have juicy racist overtones, discovered that it hasn’t and have expressed their disappointment by railing against the global corporates (yawn) and, hilariously, against art that they don’t approve of.
*drives off in eight-year-old Citroën*
@deadlyknitshade
Who knew *CLIMATE CHANGE* with smiley faces could be so controversial?
<– Fixed that for you.
@bravenewmalden your eight year-old Citroen is quite possibly greener than Toyota’s ‘positivity-spreading’ offering.
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2008/05/the-ultimate-pr/
Deadly Knitshade, when you say “In the end there’s freedom for everyone to be happy, sad or angry about it if they like. And there’s freedom for this artist to keep making her art. That’s what’s so bloody amazing about the world.”, it makes me sad – because the one thing people have genuinely taken exception to (mock indignation aside) is the fact that the more commissions like this appear and artists like yourselves are taken in by the ‘good intentions’ of corporate paymasters, the less and less freedom actually exists. I mean, for example, I appreciate that your work attempts to redress the drabness of urban life, but really what the hell business of Toyota is it to decide that a certain area of Brixton needs to change? It’s an interesting inverse echo of the ethos of graffiti and a major irony that the spirit of street art is invoked – graffiti artists spent years being chased and prosecuted, because they’ve committed criminal damage. Whereas if you’ve got the money to do it councils will bend over backward to accommodate you while you turn a vibrant hotspot of the recent history of urban Britain into a teletubby playground.
Toyota commissions a group of knitters to briefly transform a small area of Brixton using a medium that by its nature is both temporary and sustainable, while a graffiti artist, perhaps invoking the spirit and ethos of street art, decides that a local garden wall also needs to change, with a frankly hideous result that’s likely to hang around for years.
That’s unless someone uses highly toxic chemicals and a few man-hours to remove it, of course. You just need a pair of scissors to remove the yarnstormers’ efforts.
It’s just an ad gimmick. The spudniks were better. At least no-one knew who was making them.
Well of course it is. Isn’t all advertising just a gimmick.
Incidentally, which Toyota are they advertising, or is it the brand in general?