July 17, 2006
Is Borf Back?
Everyone's favorite (or least favorite) graffiti artist seems to be planning a comeback -- lately we've noticed posters around U Street announcing a "video communique release and street party" on July 29. Sounds strange, and the website it directs people to, www.borfyou.com, doesn't seem to work. Maybe it's Borf, maybe it's a prank, maybe it's people who aren't John Tsombikos, but in any case we're curious -- espectially with the "video communique" part. Are they going to wheel out a TV and play a video, a la substitute teacher in school? Or will Borf be reporting in to his followers from his family's home in suburban Virginia? We don't know, and the folks at the Borf Support blog aren't much help, as they haven't posted anything since March.
Then again, it's also possible that Mr. Borf has gone semi-mainstream and is just trying to hype a benefit show in New York in which he has a few pieces. We'll find out later this month.
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Tsombikos doesn't live in the District and it's very annoying that his graffiti still mars my DC neighborhood, and now these posters are up everywhere. I wish that "Borf" would just go away, you know, get a real job, go to college, or better yet, join the military and ship off to Iraq.
Borf is so 2005. Borf please go away.
My wife made (and wore) an excellent Borf Halloween mask last year. I don't think anyone recognized her, though.
I look forward to Borf going back to jail.
Although shipping him off to the military is a good idea. Let him learn some discipline that way.
A stencil an a sharpie does not make an "artist", this guy is a hack.
these posters have suddenly appeared all over mt. pleasant. is it too late to amend tsombikos's sentence to require him to clean up all borf-related propaganda for all time, even if some other douchebag put it up?
I saw one of those posters in Cleveland Park and wondered the same thing.
I want to jump his bone.
If he's issuing a "video communique," will he be wearing a balaclava, sitting behind a folding table and wielding an AK-47?
The http://www.borfyou.com/ site is registered to the person below. Perhaps DCist investigative reports can give a ring...
WHOIS Record For
borfyou.com
Registration Service Provided By: ALTICON INC
Contact: +301.5763068
Website: http://www.alticon.net
Domain Name: BORFYOU.COM
Registrant:
N/A
Bernadine Dohrn (bdohrn@borfyou.com)
325 Center St
Apt B
Chicago
Illinois,60613
US
Tel. +001.7734344700
Creation Date: 17-Apr-2006
Expiration Date: 17-Apr-2007
Domain servers in listed order:
ns48.1and1.com
ns47.1and1.com
Administrative Contact:
N/A
Bernadine Dohrn (bdohrn@borfyou.com)
325 Center St
Apt B
Chicago
Illinois,60613
US
Tel. +001.7734344700
Technical Contact:
N/A
Bernadine Dohrn (bdohrn@borfyou.com)
325 Center St
Apt B
Chicago
Illinois,60613
US
Tel. +001.7734344700
Billing Contact:
N/A
Bernadine Dohrn (bdohrn@borfyou.com)
325 Center St
Apt B
Chicago
Illinois,60613
US
Tel. +001.7734344700
Status:ACTIVE
they painted over the "this is borfism" on the newspaper stand i pass by on my way to work.
i actually felt kinda said.
bye bye borf.
I liked borfs tags. i really love the stencil style graff - like Banksys.
I just wish i had never read the article in the citypaper on borf.
he should really never speak. much less expound his dumb manifestos.
You mean this Bernardine Dohrn?
I suspect that law classes in Amsterdam may be keeping her a little too busy to keep up on Borf's day-to-day activities, but "video communiques" sound right up the Weather Underground's alley.
Yeah -- thanks for the tip, Tigidal, but believe me, whois is the first thing I turn to when I see a mysterious, unhosted domain name. But as Jim pointed out, the info is almost certainly bogus given the name on the record.
Maybe they could cover over the Borf graffitii wiht some liquor ads or something. You know. Something hip and upscale.
Borf is nothing like Bansky. Borf is just a talentless little punk. I've seen NEW borf graffiti in my neighborhood and I can't wait to sick the cops back on this bitch ass loser
A communique? LOL. As if. Are we to grab our notepads and prepare for instructions re: the PHASE 2 implementation of the Borfian Empire's Grand Plan? I'll bet the capitalists are TREMBLING with fear. Close the gates! The anarchists are coming!
p.s. BORF is art. How can it be anything else?
It can be a hobby, a waste of time or a vanity project without necessarily being art.
I tend to lean towards waste of time.
Yeah, OK it isn't Rothko or anything, but to say it isn't 'art', well that's just absurd and a clear indication that the author of the post doesn't understand what art is.
I have a urinal behind an alarmed glass case in a museum somewhere. You sayin' that ain't art?
Sorry Marcel, I think that's a piss poor excuse for "art".
OK, fine, BORF is art.
That settled, it's about the most ridiculously pathetic, smugly self-important, irritatingly pissant little punk art I've seen.
John Tsombikos is a spoiled suburban dweeb who thinks he's making grand statements about the culture values of capitalism.
Really, all he's doing is destroying property in a city where he doesn't live, about which doesn't care, and to which shouldn't be allowed to visit. In fact, the judge in her sentence said as much....I hope that Tsombikos' probation officer has seen these various BORF items around town and is investigating.
Tsombikos should be put back in jail until he learns how to behave like a civilized person, or at least until he agrees to apply his trade exclusively to his own forgettable and miserable suburban hellhole. I'm sure his neighbors in lovely Vienna will appreciate having something more cultural than the 7-11 and Applebee's to brighten up their pastoral enclave.
And please stop comparing the crude BORF tags to Bansky. That guy has both talent and wit, while Tsombikos has neither.
What about my loaf of Blue Bread on display at the Hirshorn? Is that not art either? Marcel's point is that art is defined by the artists, not the public, critics, gallery owners, museums, etc. Art is what the artists say it is. That has always been a difficult concept for non-artists to accept.
It's art in the same way that those Sark books are art - "Eat Mangoes Naked" and "Run Barefoot in the Moonlight." It is hackneyed art - Chicken Soup for the Anarchist's Soul.
Typically, hackneyed art doesn't garner this much attention. People look at it, look away and forget it.
To make clear, I mean "it's art" as a reference to Borf, not to the REAL Marcel Duchamp or Man Ray artwork.
But there is a slight difference between their use of ready-mades and "art is what I say it is," and the kind of petulant foot-stomping that some "artists" engage in.
In the age of Damien Hirst, a urinal ain't exactly revolutionary anymore.
Sounds like someone should report the false whois data.
Please, Borf is not art, it's vandalism. And the snooty declarations that people who refuse to accept it as art don't understand art is just plain bullshit.
Borf is a hack; he has nothing to say, and no mastery of his media in which to say it. His grafitti is art in the same way that greeting card doggerel is poetry.
Are we meant to take this proliferation of famous but dead artists as a coalition in agreement on the value of Borf?
Because it seems to me that Duchamp and Warhol represent pretty different viewpoints, and that the one actually kind of undermines the other.
BORF vs BANKSY "barf" guy: since you are so frigging hung up on the kid going back to jail "until he learns how to behave" , it's worth mentioning that your witty and talented little buddy BANKSY doesn't really walk on the right side of the law. Dude vandalizes "respectable" art galleries and prominent landmarks on a fairly regular basis, so in that respect, he's not much different from BORF.
Besides that, when has incarceration, much less DC Jail, taught anyone "how to behave"?
And besides that, your horrified reaction is probably exactly what he's looking for. If you're that pissed off, then the vandals are winning.
One might argue that the effectiveness of the Borf graffiti can be measured by how much contempt and self-righteousness it continues to generate among upper-middle-class white people on the internet.
Every time some crotchety whiner complains about Borf, he scores a little more cachet with other kids who also enjoy infuriating crotchety whiners.
the duchamp and warhol denominator is pretty obvious to me. duchamp's fountain is warhol's soup can. ok, borf's ideas are trite, his technique is nothing special, but to completely dismiss the artistic value of the expression based on the fact it is also vandalism... that's a very narrow avenue of thought that borders on snobbery. was basquiat a vandal? keith harring? There was a process, there was some meaning.
Like it or not, the Borf stuff was art. The very fact that we're taking the time to comment on it proves it. it's just art that you don't like. like i hate william wegman, he vandalizes my soul. you have to at least give the kid props for the route 50 sign he hit.
I think most people dismissing Borf dismiss him not because it's grafitti and they have something against walls.
It's more the fact that a lot of his "art" seemed to come from stencils, and even more of it was just insipid Mclean-anarchist aphorisms. Some of his paintings were interesting, and some showed talent - but too many were just greasepen on Stop signs.
I will happily give him props for the stunt aspect of the Route 50 sign. I'll appreciate it as art if I find out he freehanded it.
At least Bansky and his approach has the intelligence and savy to ensure that his work is absorbed into the mileu of the "respectable" art world, as you so blithely put it. Tsombokis seems to possess neither attribute and could apparently care less about the art scene's interest in him. It makes me question his commitment to the Corcoran school of art and/or his "art" career, such as it is.
Good news is that the latest borf stunt is quite easy to remove, as I found out tonight. A quick spritz from a watering can, a quick scrape with a putty knife, and the party invitation is history.
My artistic expression has been to take down the Borf posters and black out his name when I get a chance. Maybe you've seen my work? I now carry a fat black marker specially for him.
Remember: Borf is a 4 letter word for love HACK.
He's no Shepard Fairey that's for sure.
It's good to see a white, suburban kid who has had every opportunity and priviledge in life finally getting a break in life. Bravo, Borf, may your dad's clear-cutting construction business help finance many future artistic endevours, cause it sure beats getting a job!
You people have absolutely no sense of humour and should be embarassed in yourselves for this.
Also, his artistic talent is clearly not in doubt by virtue of the piece he has sampled at Visual Resistance.
Rabo said: "Like it or not, the Borf stuff was art. The very fact that we're taking the time to comment on it proves it."
When I was in college, someone wrote the word "nigger" in foot-high letters across a dorm hallway. The whole campus talked about it for weeks. Was it art? Of course not.
Getting a bunch people talking about what an ass he is doesn't make Borf an artist, and it doesn't make his tagging art.
Legba said: "You people have absolutely no sense of humour and should be embarassed in yourselves for this.
Also, his artistic talent is clearly not in doubt by virtue of the piece he has sampled at Visual Resistance."
We don't have a sense of humor because we don't see rampant vandalism as de facto art? Perhaps it is not us who should be embarrassed but rather those taken in by such a simple con game.
Furthermore, whether Tsombikos is talented or not is not the issue---it's whether Borf is art or simply hackwork. Anyone can write their name everywhere. many people have. Borf took it to maddening extremes and that's why he doesn't engender the same feelings of affection as say, Cool Disco Dan or Syco.
oh come on, the racial epithet story is an absurd comparison. and i've seen a ping pong table hanging on the wall of museum.
the definition of art is largely subjective.
I once saw Borf eat a baby. A black baby, I might add.
How is it an absurd comparison, d? Rabo stated that the very fact that we are talking about Borf proves that it's art. He's sayin in so many words that generating discussion indicates that something is art. I gave an example that showed that generating discussion doesn't actually do that. Nothing absurd about it.
And a pingpong table hanging on a wall--i.e., WITHIN A SPECIFIC CONTEXT--is alot different than writing the word "borf" everywhere, completely devoid of any context at all.
Oh, I gotta sense of humor alright, Legba Carrefour, I can laugh with the best of 'em.
In fact, I think I laughed hardest when Tsombokis was sentenced to jail. Funny stuff, seeing some scrawny bitch-ass punk shackled up in the Moultrie courthouse.
Maybe I'll get to laugh again if we can prove he's violating his probation....
I'm a graffiti writer, and let me just say that I wish that I could inspire the kind of reactions in all of you that borf has.
"Furthermore, whether Tsombikos is talented or not is not the issue---it's whether Borf is art or simply hackwork. Anyone can write their name everywhere. many people have. Borf took it to maddening extremes and that's why he doesn't engender the same feelings of affection as say, Cool Disco Dan or Syco."
I love how Cool Disco Dan is held up as the lord's word. It was almost two decades ago at this point. The only reason people treat his name with massive reverence is because he was among the early taggers (and the man was a tagger. No one has ever said otherwise. Taggers and bombing, for all that people on here have been dumping on Borf for tagging--which isn't even all he did--they seem to miss that it's a massive part of the form. TAKI183 anybody?) and if you trash talked on him, people who are legitimately into graffiti would laugh at you.
Invoking his name as somehow evidence of "good" tagging and Borf as "bag tagging" is absurd. Borf very well may have got up (particularly if you include news coverage) a good deal more than he is. If you accept the one you have to de facto accept the other.
Borf managed to do some very impressive large scale two-color stencils that were in extremely high-profile locations (the latter definitely being among the yardsticks used in graffiti). His legitimacy as a member of the graffiti community isn't particularly in doubt with the graffiti community. And have you seen Borf's submission for If They Came For you In The Morning (a benefit art show for activist Daniel McGowan)
You can't look at that and then say with a straight face that he isn't an artist. You can say "I don't like it." But you can't seriously say there's nothing "art" about that.
If you're against what Borf did on the grounds that you're against graffiti per se, this is a position that, while I violently disagree, is consistent with itself.
If you're against what Borf did and then tout Cool Disco Dan, you have zero ground on which to stand.
I don't believe you're correctly using the word "activist". The word you're looking for to describe Daniel McGowan is "criminal".
Conveniently, the same word you're failing to come up with to describe Borf. So you only have one new word to learn, Legba.
it's funny you're calling daniel a criminal as he maintains his innocence and is only ALLEGED to have committed a crime. you supposedly go to trial to see if youre guilty or not.
you people are ridiculous.
"I'm a graffiti writer, and let me just say that I wish that I could inspire the kind of reactions in all of you that borf has."
Oh yeah? Can I ask for what purpose? Wow, you wish you could quench your desperate thirst for attention like BorfBitch has? Grow the fuck up.
And while you're at it, needy child, give us your address so we can tag your car, your TV, and whatever the fuck else we want, just so we can get a reaction.
Tsend Tsombikos to Tsingapore.