I don’t know about you, but if my bedroom had looked like this when I was growing up, there would have been serious parental sanctions. Vandal’s Bedroom is a work by New York street artist turned gallery exhibitor Todd James – the second half of a larger exhibition called Free to Be You and Me at the V1 gallery in Copenhagen.
The Bedroom is an exaggerated recreation of what a young street artist’s headquarters might look like. Works in-progress are plastered all over the walls, tags of all kinds are pinned everywhere, pop culture pieces provide the budding graffitist with inspiration, and the bedroom is both workshop and living quarters.
We last saw James when he exhibited his Yield to Temptation body of work, and again here the cartoonish is very much in evidence, and the in-your-face vulgarity of some of the work is deliberately provocative. We’re pretty sure Hanna Barbera never imagined their wholesome characters queuing up to run a train on Betty Rubble, but this kind of boundary pushing is the central tenet of James’ philosophy on street art and vandalism.
Along with the bedroom, the exhibition displays some of James’ individual artworks interpreting modern piracy, fusing colourful and fun visuals with dark messages in his trademark style. On display until 27th October.
In courtesy of V1 Gallery and Jan Soendergaard
