From The Hunter Envoy
You may have noticed some strange images during your daily commute this year. Subway doors that command "Do Not Lean on Poor." An ad for weight loss formula featuring a starving African child. A poster for a popular Showtime series, altered to read "Gentrification." You may have wondered, "Who had the balls to do this?"
The man with the balls is Poster Boy-an undercover, anti-consumerist pioneer, who has developed a new art form by cutting, pasting and remixing subway ads.
Dubbed "HELL RAZOR" by the Post, a reference to the only tool he uses to create his collages, Poster Boy has been making people laugh-and think-in subway stations all over New York. His prolific vandalism recently gained a following, even earning comparisons to Banksy, England's beloved street art mastermind. However, the spotlight has invited some unwanted attention from authorities.
On Jan. 30, undercover coppers arrested Henry Matyjewicz of Bushwick outside of a Soho loft party. "Posterboy nyc" was billed on the flyer for the event, a festival for the Friends We Love documentary series, which included a video of Poster Boy creatively defacing advertisements at the Montrose L station.
Matyjewicz rejected the cop-out he was offered-a guilty plea and 100 hours of community service-choosing instead to fight the power in trial. But wait. It gets more interesting. According to an anonymous email sent to the Times, Matyjewicz is innocent; he only represents the legal side of the larger "Poster Boy movement."
While there may, indeed, be a mash-up movement, there is also Poster Boy, the individual artist (who is not Matyjewicz-confused yet?). I interviewed him last Tuesday to find out what inspires the vandal-art that has recently aroused so much attention and confusion.
Your artwork pushes beyond the borders of typical subway art, both in form and in content. Where did you come up with the idea to make ad mash-ups?
I was, and still am, inspired by state of the world as well as my own economic situation. There were many experiences and individuals that inspired me to start and pursue Poster Boy, but I think economics was the catalyst for the work.
Do you pre-plan your creations, or are they all as spontaneous as they look in the Friends We Love videos?
I try to keep it as spontaneous as possible. Most of the time it happens like this: I take the subway to my destination-work, school, home, or play. I survey the platform for what is available in regards to text and image. Then, with only a razor, I cut and re-paste the content from the advertisements to create works. There is some premeditation with the collaboration pieces, but the energy is still very impromptu.
You are the man credited with defacing a police recruitment poster to read "My NYPD Killed Sean Bell." What are the social issues that concern you the most, the ones you wish to raise the public's awareness about?
Knowing the difference between what is legal and what is just is the main premise. There are countless other issues that I'm concerned with, but I want to avoid being too preachy. I keep the message simple because I'm convinced that knowing the difference between what is legal and what is just will lead to other truths.
Aside from the illegality of your art, why do you think Poster Boy is a focus of the NYPD's attention?
I think it's more the attention of the people who fund the NYPD, rather than the NYPD itself. The powers that be are, and always will be, afraid of the masses waking up. It's the nature of the establishment to try and remain in power. Hence the word establishment. To my surprise, I've gotten much love from NYPD officers and MTA workers. As much as we love to hate authority figures, we have to realize that they're human too. Sometimes misguided, but human all the same.
An email was sent to The Times, claiming Poster Boy is not a person, and therefore not Henry Matyjewicz, but a movement. Would you say this is true?
This is true. Search Poster Boy on the unbiased Internet. You'll find a multitude of work and interviews that support this. Even though it started with one person, Poster Boy has never been and will never be about one person. Everyone decides their level of involvement with Poster Boy. Whether it's Henry Matyjewicz volunteering to install a piece at a Soho loft, or the reader behind that computer screen having a slight shift in thinking.
Does negative press affect your art? Does it inspire you to push harder, or to back off?
Everything inspires me to push harder. I don't believe in negative or positive anything. A moral judgment, like art, is subjective. As long as my intentions are pure and motivated by love, people will have to deal with my actions in their own personal way.
Are there other cities, besides New York, that you want to target?
Thanks to the Internet, I've already targeted and affected other cities.
So, what's next for Poster Boy?
After public advertising is banned, who knows where people will take Poster Boy. I don't even know if the name Poster Boy will last. The name might be as ephemeral as the work. But as long as there is injustice, no matter the name attached, the spirit behind Poster Boy will evolve and persevere.
