UR Corny Stop
7SoulsDeep / Instagram, 📸 2025
While I don't understand the appeal of 7SoulsDeep, they do seem to reflect the banality and hyperindividualism of present-day New York City. Vague and vibey, lovesick and low-risk, the simple, sometimes drippy street art aphorisms can be spotted across the city, plainly painted in the subway, along bridges, walls, sidewalks, on doors and mailboxes—
“Maybe I'm a fool for not giving up on you”
“I might fall in love with you”
“I get high just to be with you”
“a little obsessed, a little in Love”
Honestly, what am I supposed to do with this information? If it’s meant to be politically-charged word art, which I am leaning towards yes, it is (or was?), then why isn’t it more explicit? If these phrases have roots in class, race, and community, why leave room for rich white transients to construe them as they please? Specificity matters. Vagueness and generality compromise the message.
Jenny Holzer, from Truisms, New York, 1977
In the late 1970s, artist Jenny Holzer anonymously plastered her provocative “truisms” throughout New York City, hundreds of maxims that challenged readers to question power, politics, and social norms. Holzer’s words were blunt and opinionated. She left little room for interpretation, while allocating plenty of space for discussion and dialogue—
“PEOPLE WHO DON’T WORK WITH THEIR HANDS ARE PARASITES”
“FATHERS OFTEN USE TOO MUCH FORCE”
“ROMANTIC LOVE WAS INVENTED TO MANIPULATE WOMEN”
“ABUSE OF POWER COMES AT NO SURPRISE”
Wythe Avenue, Williamsburg, 📸 March 2025
Walking around Williamsburg this past weekend, I came across a 7SoulsDeep piece with a big red “X” over it. Adding insult to injury, someone had also scrawled “UR CORNY STOP” in green marker underneath. Ouch. Yet I welcomed this defacement. Not only did it zhuzh up the dry, floating text with some color and dynamism, but I also found the critique to be a thousand times more interesting than the street art itself—assertive and direct, with a clear point of view. And fucking funny.
Provoke me. Change my mind, move me to action. Don’t give me that safe, abstract, all-audiences bullshit. Tell me what you think. Make your audience do more than feel; give them a reason to talk. We all need to talk more, listen more, reflect more.