Kept - Paper Labels Records Steve Smith

Steve Smith

The last decade of the 20th century into the first decade of the 21st represent a High Renaissance age of hip hop—an era in which rap music had reached critical mass and was exploding

whose Japanese American family has been in the United States for generations

Paul Getty Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum

and James L

Kept - Paper Labels Records Steve SmithSome 25 years in the making, I present my collection of the now largely defunct spray paint paper labels. My interest starts in preserving my own history, as most of these are from cans I used personally. They are now discontinued colours from various cities and countries. Most were stolen, from gas stations in Sweden to hardware shops in Minneapoliss suburbs. On one hand, keeping the labels kept a record of the quickly changing seasonal colours; to