TWEE 4571 by Yospyn

A few weeks ago I asked our readers if they could help me name this mysterious new street artist, but in reality I knew the answer all along.  These wheatpastings that went up overnight along 14th street were deliberately placed as part of Jeffry Cudlin’s show at Flashpoint, BY REQUEST.  The idea behind his show was to challenge local artists to create the ideal work of art, at least as determined by some of DC’s most influential art minds.  The catch?  He had to be a part of every piece.  In some cases his involvement was completely obvious, say for example, the 23′ long nude photo of him that you’ll either love or be terrified of.  However to please the tastes of Pink Line Project’s Philippa Hughes, local artist Cory Oberndorfer transformed Cudlin into a fictional street artist from Nova Scotia named TWEE.

I had the honor of accompanying Oberndorfer and TWEE one late night to witness and document the evolution of DC’s newest street artist as he pasted his bittersweet characters along 14th street.  The mission was simple.  Scatter some art that Hughes was sure to love along a street that she travels every day.  It would only be a matter of time before she became curious, and the gamble paid off when she posted a picture on Facebook the very next day asking, “Been seeing these along 14th Street. Who is it?”  ObernTWEEfer had nailed it.

At the show’s opening at Flashpoint, Hughes was completely shocked to learn that the pieces she’d been seeing were made specifically for her, and that the queen of art gossip had just been played.  It was a great social experiment that went off without a hitch thanks to the deviously creative minds of Cory and Cudlin.  BY REQUEST will go down in history books as one of the most outlandish, well-marketed, and beautifully executed shows in DC.  Well done, Mr. Cudlin.  I mean, TWEE.