“I had wanted to make an interpretation of me giving all of myself to my work… I wanted to convey that the cans were exploding with color, and that’s how my art was being created.”
– Rene Gagnon, street artist
In case anyone forgot, the Department of Homeland Security does not approve of – we repeat, does not approve of – you placing stickers that show a man with “his arms outstretched and his face pointed to the sky” and what “looks like a bomb” strapped to his chest, on airport trashcans. Here’s the story of how Rene Gagnon’s image, that was originally part of a street piece intended to riff on 1970’s grafitti argot, got the attention of the DHS.
One response
The two comments by readers “daveschroeder” and “KB” are far more intelligent then the article itself. A high contrast silk screened stencil sticker by an obscure street artist isn’t something I would rate high on my easily identifiable images list. Someone sees something that looks like a dude with bombs strapped to him (even looking at a blown up image of the logo its still hard to figure out those are spray cans http://renegagnonfineart.com/prints/images/originalBomber.jpg) and the authorities look into it, case closed… It’s not like they busted his door down and tore up his apartment. They were just trying to figure out the origin of a stupid sticker. This isn’t really Big Brother/Police State stuff.
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