Taking Over Transit Adspace

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A group of street artists has started the Vancouver Transit Adspace Re-appropriation Project, or V-TARP, a public art project that reclaims highly sought after mindspace from corporate control. The project collects artwork from around the globe and installs them covertly on public transit in Vancouver. The project isn't city-sanctioned and meets the occasional resistance:

We have [generally] encountered happy transit riders, usually smiling, laughing or ignoring us. Unbeknownst to me, as I was installing this "I'm not lovin' it" piece beside a McDonald's ad, a man stomped up behind me and pushed my wife ninja IX out of his way. He began to rant as he tore the piece down, all the while I was photographing. I ripped the piece back from his hands and exited the train, only to hear from ninja that he pushed her violently and hurt her leg. It's probably a good thing that I was oblivious to this until after the fact or the situation would have really deteriorated. Anyway, the piece is ready to go up again. As an afterthought, this was a positive experience. After all, the point of V-TARP is to create or continue the dialogue around the use of public space. That angry man was passionate and aggressive, which made everyone on the train take notice of both of our actions. Almost everyone else was smiling and clearly had no problem with my sign install. As I exited the train, I yelled out proudly, "Long live public art!"

Check out their gallery and get creative with your own transit. Send us your jams and let us know how it goes.

• V-TARP homepage