Conclusion on super ephemeral art

Tanley Wong, a founder and editor of Arrested Motion, has said, “I’m a firm believer that if something happened one hundred years ago but it wasn’t documented in a book, it almost never happened, and the books of our generation are on the internet… It’s your responsibility as a graffiti writer not only to find the most prominent locations, but once your work is up, also do what Banksy does and take that picture.”

Wong’s advice applies to street art and graffiti in general, but it’s even more pertinent to super ephemeral art. Without documentation, super ephemeral art is gone almost instantly, maybe witnessed by a few or maybe witnessed by no one but the artist. With documentation, its life is effectively infinite. Super ephemeral art is a sub-genre of street art and graffiti so common that today it hardly registers as abnormal. Maybe it’s always been around in one form or another, bubbling beneath the surface, but super ephemeral art could not be as successful as it is without the internet and associated technologies.

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