Ok not really, what would I do with it? Sure it’ll give me some street cred especially if the tiger’s wearing a diamond encrusted collar and I’m walking all nonchalantly in the streets of the city.
This was an inscription on an Urban Art project entitled “Before I die I want to________”. It originated in New Orleans, where Candy Chang converted a wall of an abandoned house into an urban art piece.
It’s a very simple idea. It gives bypassers time to reflect on their lives and share their personal aspirations in public space. The side of the house was converted into a giant chalkboard, stenciled in the sentence: “Before I die I want to ________” .The wall turned a neglected space into a constructive one where we can restore perspective and understand our fellow man in new and enlightening ways.
The project blew up in ways never expected and people’s hopes and dreams have ranged from the funny to the poignant: Before I die I want to… sing for millions, see my daughter graduate, eat a salad with an alien, straddle the International Date Line, see the leaves change many times, be someone’s cavalry, hike the Appalachian Trail, cook a souffle, black out in a foreign country, help numerous children, hold her one more time, love and be loved, abandon all insecurities, be completely myself.”
This project has expanded to all corners of the earth from the Netherlands, Mexico, Australia, Portugal, Kazakhstan, even to our own South Africa(http://beforeidie.cc/walls/johannesburg-south-africa.html). The project is growing every day and together we can make public spaces that better reflect what matters to a community and individuals.
 |
| Before |
 |
Writing is on the wall
|
 |
| Blank canvass |
 |
| Add some Chalk |
 | ||
Individual (s) street artists into the mix
|
 |
| Dreams |
 |
 | ||||
| Ideas
|
