The Great Russian Fish Protest

Letter Zero.80

Dear friend,

Allow me to start this letter with one of my favorite quotes:

"You have to work at seeing. It must be an aggressive act of visual curiosity." - Reinhold Marxhausen

Just let that quote hang there momentarily while I tell you a war story…

Last year a graffiti artist named Alisa was arrested in Siberia for a message she wrote in chalk on the pavement. She wrote:

“HET B–––E”

She blanked out the middle letters of the Russian word for war (ВОЙНЕ) because of a new law cracking down on anti-military activity. Alisa was facing big fines, not to mention up to 10 years in prison. 

Her defense? She told the judge that she wasn’t writing “Нет ВОЙНЕ” (No War) but rather her message was “Нет ВОБЛЕ” (No Fish). Amazingly, the judge accepted this defense, dropped the charges, and returned Alisa’s chalk to her. A tiny victory in a big war.

I’m telling this story because last week I sent out graffiti kits containing hundreds of stickers of cicadas, dragonflies, and butterflies. My friends and supporters are going to apply these insects to their surroundings - not out of rebellion - but as an exercise in finding beauty in the ordinary. 

The “Infestation” graffiti is not a political statement. Heck, I don’t even know if it qualifies as graffiti. This isn’t an act of protest. There will be zero arrests. The whole event will largely go unnoticed. So what’s the point?

Back to the quote I started this letter with by Reinhold Marxhausen. For those unfamiliar with Marxhausen, he was an artist whose philosophy greatly influenced the art department where I went to college. Needless to say, his ideas have had a big impact on me as well. He described seeing as an “aggressive act.” Here’s my interpretation of that challenging phrase…

You can’t just wait for beauty to appear. You have to work at it. Seeing beauty in the ordinary takes effort. Finding beauty in the ugly is even harder. But it’s there if you look for it. The Infestation manifesto is “Beauty hides in plain sight, just waiting to be infested by your imagination.” 

I don’t know what war you are fighting but there is beauty hiding in there. Find it, see it, and let it change you. Gandhi is credited with saying, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” I like twisting this expression to say, “Find the beauty you want to see in the world.” There is revolution in these words and no laws need to be broken in order to change your world. Stay creative.

Your friend,
Ade

P.S. I still have some Infestation graffiti kits available. They are for sale on my Etsy website or just send me a nice letter and I can drop some art in the mail for you as a gift.