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Voice of the Streets

The Stop Bush Project aims to help put Bush out of business.

by Staff | 2004.06.23

No one can argue that the Bush Administration doesn’t encourage the arts. The tables at your local Barnes & Noble are crowded with books exposing the intestines of Bush’s filthy cabal, Tim Robbins gallivants around on stage performing “Embedded” and Michael Moore ingested the top honor at the Cannes film festival for his scathing film Fahrenheit 9-11. But not all anti-Bush artwork has been made for commercial consumption. In May, David Bunde founded the Stop Bush Project, a website devoted to documenting any street art and graffiti that skewers a certain dimwitted pretzel-fearing cowboy. Loosie spoke with the 33-year old Manhattan resident about his vision for stopbushproject.com.

What is the ultimate goal of the project?

I'm not sure I have one yet. I feel very strongly about Bush leaving office - and hopefully this may contribute in some small way - but I don't think that this site is so much about that as it is about documenting. I just want to record as much work as possible before it all goes away. A lot of work I photographed at the beginning is gone now. I'm fascinated by the process.

What inspired you to found the Stop Bush Project?

I started noticing a lot of "STOP BUSH" graffiti when Bush was preparing to invade Iraq. I was impressed by how prolific the people doing this stuff were. And it clearly wasn't professional work so much as it was spontaneous, sort of gut reaction stuff. After noticing that there were a lot of references to this in other cities in the world, I decided to make a public space for posting it. "STOP BUSH" was the primary thing that was written in NY, hence the name of the project.

We see plenty of anti-Bush material here in NYC -- I noticed one pic was from Bedford Ave. in BK -- what other parts of the world, national or international, are you getting support from?

So far its been mostly NY and then more widely, the US, but also a bit from Spain and the UK. The little flags on the page indicate countries from which the images came - its all generated automatically. The site's young, but its already mentioned on some blogs, websites, and what-not in Holland, Russia, Denmark, France and Spain. Obviously, the more there is and the more diverse the sources, the more interesting the site will be. I'd love some stuff from Iraq!

As urban areas are already hotbeds of anti-Bush dissention, is this type of street art "preaching to the choir"?

Well, the thought is that this, in a way, is internet based street art - its audience isn't only urban areas. It brings the street art to the non-urban areas and makes the proliferation urbanites see here visible there.

What is your own experience with street art?

Little.

Did you personally create any of the anti-Bush material or are you relying solely on submissions?

No. It was rule I set for myself at the beginning - I wouldn't do any of it. It'd be a lot less interesting if I went around marking up NY and taking pictures. For the same reason, I ask all submissions to be "found" art - not personally created. Plus, while this site can be said to celebrate vandalism, I'm still working out how I feel about vandalism, which a lot of this is. Then there's the legal side - if I were creating the work, and someone got upset enough, it could kill the project.

How can street artists best unify to accomplish their political goals?

I'm not really certain. Its interesting in this case, the message is essentially the same without discussion beforehand. I think strong enough feelings between enough individuals create unity. I kind of think that a formal organizing would in some ways kill the "realness" of what one sees.

In the future, do you believe this anti-Bush street art will have historical relevence?

I'd like to think it will have historical relevance, but I doubt it will be in any grand sense. But the fact that it is happening and maybe hasn't before on this scale is significant. And documenting it helps - street art is transient - a record will help.

Make the call -- do you think Bush will be defeated come November?

Of course in New York, it’s really easy to say he'll be defeated. It’s way too gray - the Bush administration may have a stunt or two to pull in November.

Should Bush be stopped, what will happen to your site and the project?

The project will conclude. The site will stay up a bit longer. I'd like to try to come up with good way to formalize/encapsulate the whole thing - have a show or do a book. Trouble is, no one will care then - probably. The heart blood will be cut off. Thankfully.

To submit material (or just look at the pretty pictures) log on to stopbushproject.com.

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