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| Feature by Abe Lincoln Jr :: Friday, April 09, 2004 |
| When I first re-entered the world of street art, one of the first sites I ran across was Stickerswitch. It's run by Josh out of his outpost in New Jersey collecting stickers from around the world and sending them right out again... If you're not familiar with Stickerswitch, its a great way to get your stuff out there and get some cool stickers in return. |
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What initially attracted you to stickers over other forms of street art? What made you go "Hey, I wanna be a sticker broker!"? Stickers solve so many problems for street art. By doing the creative work ahead of time, taggers have a persona and not just a name. Plus, the fact that stickers can be held, as opposed to regular tags, means they can be traded and put up anywhere. The idea of stickerswitch is an obvious and necessary development, I just decided to fill that need. What is stickerswitch's "mission statement"? I don't have a written manifesto, but I think that everybody needs to be directly involved with making culture for themselves, on a small scale, so that they feel like a part of it. The culture that we get sold is totally inaccessible and alienating. I see the potential for stickerswitch in its invitation to average kids to be directly involved in an art movement. Where do you want stickerswitch to go in the future? Stickerswitch can keep growing as long as it's still usefull to individual sticker kids as a way to get their stuff out there and spread art. Organizing some events where artists can come together, to actually meet, would be along the lines of stickerswitch's mission. How many packages do you estimate you get in a month? How many do you mail? Twenty to thirty in and the same amount out. With an average of 25 stickers a piece that becomes 500 to 700 stickers sorted and sent. Who's the artist you get the most requests for? It's usually impossible to grant specific requests because all the stickers move so quickly through my hands in the exchange but... Psalm, Robots will kill, Geldz, With Remote What's the hardest part of the job? Keeping on top of it. I'm pretty good at sending packages out quickly but I am always behind on scanning stuff for the website. It takes alot of time and I don't make any money off of it at all. Seeing as many stickers as you do, what in your opinion, are the best andworst "trends" (for lack of a better word) in stickering today? I'm really not that judgemental. I like seeing a huge variety of approaches to stickers. I don't like getting sent commercial stickers for products, because they're impersonal. I especially enjoy anything that took extra work and creativity. Hand drawn and hand cut stickers really show that the person making them cares about what they are doing. What are your top 5 favorite sites? StickerNation: stickernation.net (SN: Thanks!) Wooster Collective: www.woostercollective.com Sticker Switch: www.stickerswitch.com Ekosystem: www.ekosystem.org Stencil Revolution: www.stencilrevolution.com Who are your current favorite artists? BeeFree, Jet Pac, Swoon, William Pope. L, Joseph Cornell Any words in closing? I would just like to add a thanks to everyone who has ever contributed to stickerswitch because they make it happen. I would also like to invite anyone who's interested to submit stickers at Stickerswitch. Thanks again-it's really so nice to do this. |
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