Eclair Bandersnatch: Street Artist for the Snowden Age

take the air pretty much anywhere in San Francisco ’s SoMa , Haight or Mission neighborhood , and you ’ll see one of Eclair Bandersnatch ’s glittery stencils , often boast “ Saint Snowden ” or Chelsea Manning . We talked to Bandersnatch about land art , tech and government together on the streets .

Bandersnatch has been stencil San Francisco streets for several year , and her subject launch the gamut from Godzilla to lady who depend like they ’d be comfortable at a 1920s party along the Barbary Coast . Her visual sensation is uniquely San Franciscan , mixing internet political sympathies with a queer sensitiveness — and heap dose of mood .

And ever since Snowden began to differentiate the media about the NSA ’s hugger-mugger surveillance plans , Bandersnatch has been change by reversal the Snowden Age into street art . Here ’s our interview with her .

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Giz : Why are Chelsea Manning and Ed Snowden important to your work ?

Eclair Bandersnatch : My employment ? They ’re of import to my aliveness ! And they should be crucial to everyone ’s sprightliness !

I see Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning as heroes on an larger-than-life grade . They volitionally sacrificed their careers and their freedom to empower us . man gave us mountains of rude datum and hard facts about the illegal , unethical , and immoral practice move on in our regime . Snowden showed proof that our phone birdsong , electronic mail , and web browsing natural process have been being recorded for inspection by the CIA , NSA , or whoever else Big Brother deem fit .

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But there are still a large number of people who do n’t get what the debate is all about because they are n’t capable to suck anything that is difficult or unpleasant .

What I seek to do is pry hoi polloi ’s nozzle out of their phones for a min and trick them into learning about take with imagery and prose . People like to be entertained and they like heart candy . If something ’s funny or has a menses to it , like songs do , then its much gentle for it to stick in your psyche and its more fun to get wind about , especially for light aid spans .

Photo: Jae C. Hong

Back in the day , when Chelsea Manning was still doing her Bradley drag , I wanted to call attention to what was materialize , and all the sudden it came to me : Flashy Hollywood stylus imaging of Manning with the lyric “ Caged Naked and Tortured ” I mean who could balk ? Its kink ! But it attract people in and they remember it , and then they want to learn more about the outcome .

Giz : Your art is literally part of the San Francisco street , and it ’s hard for me to imagine walking around my city without seeing one of your pieces glittering up at me from the sidewalk . Do you see Manning and Snowden as fighter for San Francisco specifically ?

EB : give that they both acted on rule , and in the stake of the whole human wash , I see them both as sub of the value that San Francisco has been make love for historically ; activism , liberty , societal consciousness , permissiveness , and challenging the position quo .

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Chelsea Manning has really capture San Francisco ’s inwardness . As many in the LGBT community recognise all too well , she was on the front line for years before she ever set animal foot in the Middle East . She sleep together the difference between fighting for country and doing what ’s veracious . And if you ’re expire to ask someone with her integrity to fight for your country , you better make indisputable that what your country is doing is right . She truly is one of “ the few , the proud , the strong . ”

Harvey Milk would definitely have demonstrate for Manning . And I ’m certain Milk River is rolling in his grave over Feinstein ’s justificatory tirade against Snowden . She ’s not a overnice Jewish daughter – I ’ll leave it at that .

Giz : What can you say or show using graphics on a sidewalk that you ca n’t say anywhere else ?

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EB : More importantly , who can you say it to ? A well placed stencil in the Mission can reach more the great unwashed in one day than at an showing in a art gallery or museum . What Banksy said to graffiti artists , that “ all other forms of art are a step down ” , it really is true . We ’re showing in the great venue in the globe , the urban center . The movement to do this derive from the notion of having no voice . Its an enactment of desperation and thwarting , but through it comes an amazing release and a tone that I am conduce and changing thing . San Francisco seems to be at the nitty-gritty of a pile of things powerful now , more so than most city I conceive of . And because of that you may put a stencil of Snowden on Divisadero and have it end up on the cover of one of the largest papers in Europe overnight .

The American news show media settle what is a matter or not , and I take that force back . If an exit makes me retrieve or somehow move me , its a chronicle as far as I ’m concerned . So whether FOX or CNN is talking about an issue does n’t touch on me , because I can get the narrative to the people who matter .

Its a good thing sometimes to be as delusional as I am , because I really do think I can make a variety . You do it what they say , “ Whether you conceive you could or you ca n’t , you ’re right ” . The only failure is to do nothing , and the time for apathy is over . Complacency is a luxury we can not afford .

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