by Crimethinc. Workers' Collective
Available in 284 free installments
Owner:
You can give your tile more time set into the asphalt by adding extra layers of tarpaper on top of the design. Before you go out, cut two pieces of tarpaper a few inches bigger than your tile aU around. Smear the pieces of tarpaper with a generous amount of glue, and stick them together glue side to glue side. This will keep them from drying out or sticking to things on the way to the installation site. Once you have laid the tile down and walked on it a bit, peel the two pieces of tarpaper apart and paste them?one on top of another?over the tile.
Brightly colored tiles look the best on asphalt; colors like dark green tend to be invisible unless they are used effectively with other colors. Make sure there is plenty of color or tone contrast between your figure and its background, especially if your design includes text.
Experiment with other materials! You have probably seen pennies, fasteners, and bits of brake light embedded in asphalt at intersections; thin bits of metal, mirror, or plastic will work too.
To make cutting easier, heat your VCT or linoleum with a heat gun or in an oven set on warm; make sure the area in which you do this is well ventilated.
As vrith stickers and stencils, pizza boxes are great for transporting pieces to their designated sites (figure i.io).
This technique has a lot to recommend it over standard graffiti and wheatpasting: it can be more permanent, it makes use of a medium not yet often utilized creatively, it is still virtually unknown to the authorities and so can be remarkably easy to get away vdth-Here's a dare: make asphalt mosaics as popular?and linpopular?tomorrow as spray paint murals are today!
Asphalt Mosaics 74
Banner Drops
Paintbrushes Rope or chain Plastic water bottles
OR similar weights Extra-strong upholstery sewing
thread or dental floss
Padlocks (no key necessary, if you
come upon them unlocked), or metal dips Sewing machine
Parking garages Highway overpasses Building roofs
Fabric ? you can use painters' drop doth covered in white primer paint, or visit the laundry bin of a disagreeable institution one night to collect their tablecloths
Paint ? preferably water-based, as oil paint takes forever to dry; house paint works well enough, and is cheapest
Gallon jugs filled with sand? /or weights,
if there is nowhere to tie the banner up Automobile
You could also try the balcony level of a church, movie theater, coliseum, auditorium
Ingredients
A banner drop can enable you to get a simple message out in dramatic style. Drop-banners take significantly more time to prepare, but significantly less to deploy than graffiti of comparable size, and are less illegal. They can be most effective in crowded environments dunng special events, or to accentuate and clarify an action taking place nearby You can make a really huge banner by sewing together smaller pieces of cloth" be sure
Optional Materials
Optinnal Deployment Locations
Instructions
If your city has a hazardous
liquid drop-off, contact them
and ask if you can obtain paint
from them free of charge.
Banner Drops 76
they won't come undone, though! Double- or triple-stitching with exceptionally tough thread is probably necessary. When deciding on the size, keep in mind the way it will be transported to the place of use, the dimensions of the area where it will be deployed, and the distance from which it will be seen.
To decorate your banner, you need not be an accomplished artist; simply draw a scale model of the image or statement you would like to paint, separate that image into equal sections, mark off matching sections proportionately on the banner, and use these as guides. You can trace the lines first with chalk. You will probably need an open space outside the surveillance of the authorities to work in, since when your banner appears you won't want it?or yourself?to look familiar to any agents of law enforcement. The paint will almost certainly soak through the material and onto whatever is beneath it, so be prepared for this as well, in terms of security as well as tidiness. Be careful above all not to spell any words wrong (!) or bunch up your lines of text near the end, and make sure your colors are striking and high-contrast and your images similarly easy to discern. Don't use spray paint to paint your banner unless you are especially talented with it.
