Plebian’s Retaliation
To start off I want to thank you all for your warm welcome and your attention. I thought for my first post I would introduce myself and give a little on what my work is about. Why about me first? Because I am f***ing awesome. Not to mention that I am connected like lego bricks. Ego aside, lets get to it.
Plebian Unum is the name. ”Plebian” in its Latin origin referred to commoners of the time; that had no rights in the aspect of how government was ruled, and voting even at a council level was barred from these people. To put it simply, they were the 99% of their time. Ironically, I started my campaign prior to said movement. Still confused? Look it up, and it is noted I chose an alternate spelling but you will figure it out. Now as for Unum. Obviously that is a play on E Pluribus Unum. Instead of meaning “in many one” though, I wanted to capture the idea of one for the commoners, or underprivileged and unheard.
So onto the Prairie dogs of Lubbock which is the focus I am covering today. Here is my recent attack on the Hub City so you can get an idea of what I am talking about. http://imgur.com/a/MXTK2#8
When I was beginning my campaign I came up with an analogy for the way society was imbalanced. For some of you this will be obvious but for those of you who don’t I will explain. Prairie dogs are native to this region. You don’t see them around town much anymore because we have an open kill law. When I say open I mean if they are on your property you can kill them however you see fit. So there has been a mass genocide of these native creatures. Now comes the hypocrisy. We have this little barren piece of land we call “Prairie Dog Town”. It is a “safe haven” for the animals and has been marked as a tourist site. There is a two foot cement wall enclosing the creatures. So here is the problem. Much like society one cannot help from which they came. If a prairie dog happens to have been born in this little enclosure then it stands a good chance of thriving and living a fairly decent and fulfilling life. However, if born out side of this privileged realm the odds are rising against the creature and hardship and early death are more than common. There are few at times that may be rescued but for the majority this is not the case. The creatures seek food and a water supply so it draws them to farmers fields which ends up being their demise. Social Parallelism?
There is an obvious parallelism to the classist divide so I wont state the obvious. My concern is in the self righteousness that comes from those that feel like they have already done their “christian duty” in the minimal effort that has been done to protect a finite number of the creatures. This is much like what we see from the upper class, especially in lubbock. There is often a once a year thing, whatever it may be, that they will do as their righteous act and then spend the rest of the year bragging about it. I recently was doing a house painting job in a half a million dollar home. There was a change in the decision of a paint color and instantly $400 dollars of paint was unused. The owner chuckled and said that maybe they can donate it to Habit for Humanity and do their good dead for the year. I wanted to hit the bitch. I am not saying the donation isn’t good but this woman also runs a sorority house and is more concerned with her parties than those in need around her. The whole time working there it was nothing but complaints of the most frivolous things. It doesn’t stop there. Listen to the people the next time you go to a food drive, or a walk for this or that, or listen in on conversations people have at the supermarket. Society is a disgusting place where a vast majority only will do something helpful if it pays off immediately for their selves. Hence the need for invasion.
The urge for the invasion came after the failed attempts of a park beautify campaign. A group of individuals I knew had approached the city council and respected necessary individuals to propose that the electric boxes at city parks could be painted by artists. Of course talk of cost and keep up was an issue but in the end it was agreed that it would be all on the artists and volunteer handled. Did it pass or even reach a vote? No, and on three separate occasions. Seeing my friends becoming jaded, I stepped up and my campaign became clear. It was time to invade Lubbock with the creature that used to be Lubbock’s mascot in the 30s. Petey the Prairie Dog, look it up some time. I have now hit 39 locations and still going. As long as I am here the numbers will rise. virtually every major neighborhood has one and if not it will soon…
Thank you for reading and look forward to many more. I am going to take you into graffiti world of Lubbock, the local art world and its politics, I will do focuses on other street artists, as well as keep you up to date on the invasion. You can also follow me on facebook.
Keep your spray can primed!
Pl3bian
