Banksy famously scrawled "this'll look nice when it's framed" on a Mission District wall in 2010--a nod to his frustrations at graffiti's role as vandalism in society.
This weekend, local artist _g (Gretchen Andrus) will attempt to call society out on its bluff.
_g will turn Valencia Street into a guerilla museum on Sunday, hanging 49 pieces of her framed artwork on walls, doors, boarded up windows and whatever else she may find.
"The frame is important because it is one of the few barriers that remains between street art and something you would see in a gallery or museum," she told The Huffington Post. "I want to push people to see if Valencia can actually become a museum or if people need the white wall structure."
_g recently left a job at Google to pursue art full time, but not before taking a cue from the tech industry.
"I learned in the tech industry that content is no longer curated by 'the expert,' instead community is king," she told HuffPost, pointing to open source systems. "In news, in education, in every other industry the quality as increased as a result of the community being more involved. Art can be the same way."
Thus, _g's work will not hang in a gallery to be admired from a distance, but will be in the community for viewers to do with her work as they will--touch it, leave it, throw it away or take it home.
She also aims to harness the more user-friendly aspects of the tech community. Unlike traditional graffiti, _g's work will hang on small sticky hooks that can easily be removed should community members choose to "opt out."
"There's such an opportunity to involve the community in art in ways that haven't been done before," she said. "And what better venue than San Francisco."
Check out some of _g's artwork in the slideshow below:
