ART IN THE AGE OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION

GUEST BLOG: The Adventures of Andy Bowness (Hide Your Arms!)

 

Greetings, readers! Welcome to a new Blog Mini-Series, featuring guest blogger, Andy Bowness, the man behind Hide Your Arms (the top-rated t-shirt blog in the world…oh, snap!) Andy, a Northern (Lake District) UK native, is a recent Philadelphia transplant and a totally swell fellow!

We decided to conduct an experiment with Andy. Armed with 1 disposable camera and 1 Art In The Age tee, we set Andy free to roam Philadelphia! Over the past several weeks, Andy has documented his adventures, and now presents his findings

 

When I told people I was coming to Philadelphia they would usually reply in one of three ways; they’d start singing the theme tune to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, ask me if I’d seen Louis Theroux’s show about how dangerous Philadelphia is, and tell me that I “just had to run up the Rocky steps.” I haven’t seen Will Smith on a basketball court yet (or even gone to West Philly), and I haven’t been witness to any crimes, but I have been to the ‘Rocky steps‘.

I had presumed that going to the top of the steps would be a pilgrimage reserved for frat boys, and whilst they are the group that run the most enthusiastically, it’s pretty interesting to see such a varied cross-section of America (and the world) making the trip to the Art Museum, even if some of them are probably only there for the fantastic view of Center City. Whole families go and have their picture taken jumping up and down (even if the kids have no clue who Rocky is), couples go there, joggers finish their runs with a triumphant gaze across the city before heading back to wherever they came from, people have their wedding photos taken up there (I have actually seen this happen), and during my three visits to the Art Museum (I’ve never actually been inside, mind you), there has always been a queue of people waiting to pose next to the Rocky statue. All this and Rocky isn’t even a real person!