June 2016

A Selection of Murals from “MURAL” in Montreal 2016

A Selection of Murals from “MURAL” in Montreal 2016

Have a look at some of the murals from this months MURAL festival in Montreal, which began in 2013.

There is no discernible theme among the collection here aside from many of them being technically outstanding. MURAL itself has become a very commercial gathering of food and lifestyle vendors, VIP events, a small art fair, hella-brands and djs and, you know, beards.

Klone Yourself and Phillipe Pantone are a couple of the artists pushing boundaries here, with the latter skillfully reproducing a 90’s computer art that is nostalgic and smartly updated in its 3-D rendering.

Our great thanks to photographer Daniel Esteban Rojas who did an outstanding job capturing these to share with BSA readers.

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Meggs for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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D*Face for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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Fonki for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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Natalia Rak for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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Mateo for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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Buff Monster for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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Jonathan Bergeron for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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Jonathan Bergeron for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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HSix for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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Five Eight for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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Acidum for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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Klone Yourself for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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Felipe Pantone for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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Roadsworth for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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Roadsworth for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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Miss Teri for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

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XRay for Mural Festival 2016. Montreal, Canada. (photo © Daniel Esteban Rojas)

 

With our out most gratitude to Daniel Esteban Rojas for his exclusive documentation of the completed murals in Montreal.

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Nychos Slays in New York : IKONS Revealed as Never Before

Nychos Slays in New York : IKONS Revealed as Never Before

“Scientists, psychologists, surgeons…in the end we’re all driven by a similar curiosity.”

This month has been a whirlwind in New York for Austrian Street Artist /fine artist /illustrator named Nychos and he’s made quite the iconic impression. Anchored by a show that opened last weekend of canvasses and illustrations at Jonathan Levine Gallery in Chelsea named “IKON” and assisted by a co-branded sculptural event with the Vienna Tourist Board, the surreal dissectionist didn’t rest there.

In the weeks leading up to and after these events he also managed to hit a number of walls in Coney Island, Bushwick, and Jersey City…oh and he knocked out a box truck as well.

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Nychos. Coney Art Walls 2016. Coney Island. Brooklyn, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In addition to pulling out an astounding sculpture of Sigmund Freud looming over a couch that drew a crowd to the foot of the (also iconic) Flatiron Building at 23rd and 6th, the afterparty and reception featured Dominic Freud, the great grandson of the founder of psychoanalysis, who surmised that if he were alive today he would definitely have wanted to put Nychos on his couch.

Indeed the you may wonder about the mind of this sharp-knifed artist who has decided to diverge from the realm of slicing open animals and fantastic creatures to taking apart cultural and pop-cultural icons for his fascinating painted science experiments.

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Nychos. Coney Art Walls 2016. Coney Island. Brooklyn, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With a free hand on the can and rarely a sketch, and an athletic kineticism that verges on dance, this artist is fully in his zone, at times delivering what one important art world figure described to us as a “virtuoso” performance, even when he’s de-boning Ronald McDonald. Among his new subjects on walls and canvas are included such recognizable figures as Batman, Darth Vader, Mickey Mouse, Elvis, Marilyn, Motörhead’s Lemmy, and the Statue of Liberty.

Yes, it is grotesque, and yes, some of these subjects were actual people. Additionally, there is a comical dark side in it’s glossy finish and stylized splash, with perhaps a greater critique of consumerist entertainment culture and more than a touch of sadism. This is the pretty gore that is familiar to an un-shockable generation raised by vampires. You know who you are.

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Nychos. Coney Art Walls 2016. Coney Island. Brooklyn, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We asked the celebritic internist to talk about his work and his prodigious program across NYC and he gave us an inside look at the heart and mind of Nychos.

Brooklyn Street Art: You like to open things up and look inside. Would you consider yourself more of a scientist or psychologist?
Nychos: I consider myself an artist. But yeah, the question is justified. Scientists, psychologists, surgeons…in the end we’re all driven by a similar curiosity.

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Nychos in collaboration with the artist Lauren YS for The Bushwick Collective. Brooklyn, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Usually you depict primarily factual arrangements of organs and systems – but you also include a huge amount of movement and activity and emotion! How do you feel? How does a viewer feel?
Nychos: People who see me paint often tell me that it’s like watching an entire performance, so you could say the movement is not only in the piece or only me, it’s a synergy of both. I feel like the viewer can recognize these (e)motions in the finished piece as well.

Brooklyn Street Art: Is this work intellectual or emotional? Or both?
Nychos: Both. In my eyes, a creative process always includes intellectual and emotional content. Both aspects are fuelling each other. At least that’s what I see in my work.

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Nychos in collaboration with the artist Lauren YS for The Bushwick Collective. Brooklyn, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: We associate your work with the animal kingdom, but you are slicing Sigmund Freud open here in New York – What will we all be studying?
Nychos: I’d suggest you tell me afterwards. I can only say that “Dissection of Sigmund Freud” and my exhibition “IKON” at Jonathan Levine Gallery are a good way to announce that I’m going to set a focus on human anatomy in the future.

Brooklyn Street Art: Does Ronald McDonald actually eat his own food or is mostly whole grains and salads and fresh wheat-grass juice.
Nychos: Good question. I’m gonna ask him when I see him next time.

Brooklyn Street Art: OneTeas, Ron English and Banksy have all bashed McDonalds a number of times with their work – why is that brand so hateable?
Nychos: Well, I’d say McDonalds is just the embodiment of all these fast food chains, so the criticism does not only refer to this specific brand, but to all of them. McDonalds just made a damn good job with burning this weird clown into our brains and with it the bitter taste of today’s dining culture.

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Nychos. A drone surveying the progress of the mural at The Bushwick Collective. Brooklyn, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. The Bushwick Collective. Brooklyn, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. The Bushwick Collective. Brooklyn, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. The Bushwick Collective. Brooklyn, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. “Dissection of Sigmund Freud”. Vienna Therapy. Manhattan, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. “Dissection of Sigmund Freud”. Vienna Therapy. Manhattan, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. “Dissection of Sigmund Freud”. Vienna Therapy. Manhattan, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. “Dissection of Sigmund Freud”. Pictured here with Jonathan LeVine. Vienna Therapy. Manhattan, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. “Dissection of Sigmund Freud”. Vienna Therapy. Manhattan, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. “IKON”. Jonathan LeVine Galler. Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. “IKON”. Jonathan LeVine Galler. Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. “IKON”. Jonathan LeVine Galler. Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. “IKON”. Jonathan LeVine Galler. Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. “IKON”. Jonathan LeVine Galler. Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos for Green Villain. Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Nychos IKON is currently on view at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Manhattan. Click HERE for more details.

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Kosbe & the Sticker Social Club Hustle a Booth at Coney Island

Kosbe & the Sticker Social Club Hustle a Booth at Coney Island

You want a booth at Coney so you can play a Carney? Do it yourself!

Shout out to tireless creative New Yorker Kosbe and the Sticker Social Club who quickly set up shop in the Coney Art Walls compound with their carnival style game booth last month and have been entertaining passersby ever since. It wasn’t originally part of the formal Coney Art Walls show but the Street Artist/graff writer/art director/hustler/hard worker/Renaissance man got this sculptural installation up in a matter of days and the booth has been showing original artworks and playing games with curious art fans since then.

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Sticker Social Club. Coney Art Walls 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“We used found material sourced from the boardwalk and felt this reclaimed material was a good representation of Coney Island,” Kosbe says about the booth that is topped with a “Down the Clown” sign that they found in a refuse pile. Elsewhere in the show is signage that borrows from popular amusement vernacular by Stephen Powers. For Kosbe, its about the process as well. “It created a dialogue between us and several of the residents and employees of Luna Park and the neighborhood who actually contributed to the build out and came back later with a sense of excitement and pride at being a part of the art project.”

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A sword swallower at the Sticker Social Club. Coney Art Walls 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With handmade stickers and artworks by many friends and local NYC based artists who regularly get together to make art, the sense of collaboration with Sticker Social Club is always palpable. A tireless advocate for collaboration and participation, Kosbe is the driving force behind many of the clubs activities, meetings, installations.

This booth recalls Coney Island’s magical past, and “We also feel it relates to graffiti’s roots in making something out of whatever you can source on a bare minimum and utilizing materials from the street,” says the affable and energetic Kosbe. On opening day a number of people could be seen tossing beanbags and other projectiles while being goaded on by artists who sometimes gave out stickers or original drawings to winners. Curator of Coney Art Walls Jeffrey Deitch stopped by a few times and talked with the artists, happy to discover this collaborative team was willing to contribute so much to the exhibition.

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Sticker Social Club. Coney Art Walls 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Always sensitive to his environment, the artist didn’t want to encroach on the wall by artist Sam Vernon, who had placed her new work up as part of the formal show. “We lucked out in finding that ‘Down a Clown’ sign that we feel complimented and didn’t detract from Sam Vernon’s vision or color palette. We like how both pieces evoke imagery and a sense of the Coney boardwalk as if you are visually walking through it.”

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Sticker Social Club. Coney Art Walls 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sticker Social Club: Sticker Social Club hosts art events and drawing meet-ups as a means for young, upcoming artists to gain exposure as well as meet and learn from other like minded artists. The club regularly hosts events including drink and draws featuring artwork and music from live bands and DJs. Artists include: Cosbe (or Kosbe), Abe Lincoln Jr., Fling, OneTooth, Alone, Royce Bannon, Baser, Buttsup, Chris RWK (Robots Will Kill), Crasty, Dano, Tony DePew, Doper Jones, Jos-L, Froot, Herm, Imamaker, Adam Lawrence, Mister Guh, Sameshit, Tako Venus, Tone Tank, Wish 194 and many more.

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Raising Yellowcake in Grand Canyon: Icy & Sot, Jetsonorama in Arizona

Raising Yellowcake in Grand Canyon: Icy & Sot, Jetsonorama in Arizona

Yellow Cake: A simple sweet dessert confection that gets its signature color from 8 egg yolks and a cup of butter, and is great with either vanilla or chocolate icing.

Yellowcake: A type of uranium concentrate powder obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. Also, its radioactive. Also, Colin Powell showed off a vial of it at the United Nations to sell the Iraq invasion in 2003 to that body and the world.

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Icy & Sot. “Nuclear Plant” Navajo Nation. Arizona. June 2017. (photo © Icy & Sot)

Being more knowledgeable about the dessert variety of yellow cake than the desert variety of uranium contamination, we turn to Street Artists Jetsonorama and Icy & Sot to educate us about the active uranium mines that are at the North Rim of The Grand Canyon. The three worked jointly in June to create new public works addressing the topic and we have each of them here for you to see.

“The issue of uranium contamination and nuclear waste is timely as there is an active uranium mine at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon presently and a proposal to start mining at the South Rim,” explains Jetsonorama (Chip Thomas), who is a local artist, a practicing doctor, and a social activist advocating for the people who live on the reservation and the natural environment in general.

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Icy & Sot on a roadside billboard. “Radioactive Pollution Kills. It’s Time To Clean Up The Mines”. Navajo Nation. Arizona. June 2016. (photo © Icy & Sot)

For the last few summers Thomas has been hosting “The Painted Desert Project”, a selection of national and international Street Artists to create works in this region that respond to the communities, history, and geography of this part of Arizona and the Navajo Nation,

It would appear that the introduction of such contamination into communities, national monuments like the Grand Canyon, or local water supplies – whether by design or negligence – would be considered a provocative act by any rational person. So too is this series of art interventions by Icy & Sot meant to be provocative. The brothers, for example, attached the “Radioactive” symbol onto the branches of a tree overlooking the canyon to dramatize the integral effect that such poisoning is having on natural elements.

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Icy & Sot.  Navajo Nation. Arizona. June 2016. (photo © Icy & Sot)

In two video performances recorded onsite in the desert the visuals are much stronger, including a typical consumer floor fan you could pick up at the local Best Buy store that is blowing radioactivity freely in the same way that desert winds are carrying radioactive dusts from many sites across the land. The second performance sees a jump-suited figure unceremoniously dumping a Yellow Cake, presumably made of yellowcake, upside down onto an American flag that is draped across a card table in the open desert – leaving a messy affair that is not easily cleaned up – and then walking away.

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Icy & Sot.  A still from the making of “No More Yellowcake”. Navajo Nation. Arizona. June 2016. (photo © Icy & Sot)

“There are over 500 abandoned uranium mines on The Navajo Reservation and more than 80% of the mine sites have not been cleaned up,” says Sot when describing the issues they are addressing with their new works. “There are currently no federal laws that require clean up of these hazardous sites and they continue to pose significant danger to the Navajo people.”

“In a region with an unemployment rate around 50% investment by private industry is hampered by not being able to build around these contaminated lands,” says Jetsonorama, “While Icy & Sot chose largely ephemeral installations to dramatize the situation of uranium contamination, I chose installations focusing on the subtle, insidious effect of living, working, playing on contaminated land.”

A statement accompanying the video:

“No More Yellowcake” 

“Yellowcake is a product of uranium mining. Many Navajo people worked at the mines, often living and raising families in close proximity; they were unknowingly exposed to dangerous levels of radiation and chemicals. Uranium mining and yellowcake processing continues today and threatens the environment and the health of communities across the U.S.” Icy & Sot

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Icy & Sot.  Navajo Nation. Arizona. June 2016. (photo © Icy & Sot)

“The Killing Wind” 

“Toxic radioactive particles left over from abandoned uranium mines on Navajo land take the form of dust which travels with the wind for hundreds of miles. It can be inhaled or blow into streams or onto nearby ground spreading radioactive contamination.” Icy & Sot


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Icy & Sot. “Contaminated Land” references the drinking water supplies of the western U.S., much of which is fed through the Colorado River. Navajo Nation. Arizona. June 2016. (photo © Icy & Sot)

Using a more subtle approach to the topics at hand, you’ll see Jetsonorama’s photographic image of “radioactive” green sheep, an image of girl on a home-made swing, and a local guy named Jamison feeding his dog on contaminated land that he says is “near AUM.” The artist explains that AUM stands for Abandoned Uranium Mines and then shows us a link to a map that contains record of 521 such sites scattered across the land in this region.

We noted previously in an article about Jetsonorama’s work that the New York Times did a story about this area in 2012 entitled “Uranium Mines Dot Navajo Land, Neglected and Still Perilous,” but very little appears to have changed as a result of it. Says Jetsonorama, “There are still over 500 abandoned uranium mines on the reservation spewing alpha, beta and gamma radiation contaminating land, water, animals and humans.”

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Jetsonorama. Gamma Goat.  Navajo Nation. Arizona. June 2016. (photo © Jetsonorama)

In describing their various stencil works and installations in the area, Icy & Sot told us they were struck by the lack of knowledge of the local community who in danger of being exposed to these deadly and sickening man-made disasters.

“The Navajo people did not have a word for radioactivity and did not know about the dangers of radiation in the 1940s when mining companies began surveying their land,” they said in a statement. “Today the mines are closed but their toxic legacy persist in contaminated soil and drinking water with elevated levels of radiation.”

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Jetsonorama. Cow Springs.  Navajo Nation. Arizona. June 2016. (photo © Jetsonorama)

The government has created an education program aimed at kid wandering or playing near such radiation sites, including a new cartoon character named “Gamma Goat”. It may capture the imagination of a youth and deter them from inadvertently exposing themselves to this multitude of sites, many poorly marked and not guarded or sufficiently protected.

“There is an insightful documentary on uranium contamination on the Navajo nation by a young Navajo woman called ‘Yellow Fever’ which refers to the illness uranium workers would get that is characterized by flu-like symptoms,” Jetsonorama tells us. “In the film the filmmaker talks of recent efforts by the EPA to educate children living on the reservation to the dangers of uranium exposure.  To this end the EPA developed a comic book/coloring book the protagonist of which is called “Gamma Goat” who warns kids to stay away from abandoned mine sites.”

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Jetsonorama. JC at Cow Springs.  Navajo Nation. Arizona. June 2016. (photo © Jetsonorama)

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Jetsonorama. Jamison on the White House.  Navajo Nation. Arizona. June 2016. (photo © Jetsonorama)

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Artist Unknown. A water well that someone has warn neighbors they should not draw from. Navajo Nation. Arizona. June 2016. (photo © Jetsonorama)

 

Thank you to Chip Thomas AKA Jetsonorama and Icy & Sot for sharing with us their photos and videos and for helping us describe the project for BSA readers.

 

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

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BSA Images Of The Week: 06.26.16

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.26.16

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Berliners called it the “großes Ohr”. The Big Ear.

Run by the American NSA and the British in their sector, this “listening station” stands atop a man made mountain of rubble, at the bottom of which is said to lie the unfinished Nazi military-technical college (Wehrtechnische Fakultät) designed by Albert Speer. These structures with round orbs could be seen above the city from many angles rising from deep in the Grunewald Forest and yes, we can confirm that the one complete geodesic orb at the very top has such astounding acoustics even now that the sound of a camera clicking or clearing your throat or stepping on a piece of broken glass is instantly amplified anywhere within it, then re-echoed multiple times.

Our top image: Plotbot at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Plotbot at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“In its day,” says security expert and former employee Bill Scannell in a video online, “Teufelsberg (‘Devil’s Mountain’) was one of the most secretive intelligence facilities in the entire world.” Now it is a relic of the NSA behind three rows of barbed wire fences and a sort of freewill painting destination but the hulking grey and ivy clad compoung is a strong reminder of the extensive spy apparatus that the general public continues to get glimpses of in leaks and reports today.

Today this is a graffiti haven and hippie/punk love-in where people go to experiment with cans and rollers and brushes, drink beer, listen to scratchy voiced acoustic versions of Amy Winehouse, and pad around barefoot wearing nothing but a towel. The “guard” at the entrance, also shirtless and barefoot with a somewhat serious gaze requires from you a toll of 7 euro per head to get in, then smiles benignly as continue your trudging up the hill.

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Strok at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

On the sunny hot sticky day that our guide took us, we saw enough good international and local artwork to offset the mediocre, boxes of old electronic doodads laying around on the ground and sticking out of boxes, blackbirds singing in trees, and strips of open asbestos fluttering in the breeze. Art themes ranged from standard graffiti name-making to the apocalyptic, the darkly sarcastic, pop culture parody, and a frequent critique of the surveillance stories we find in the news today.

It’s almost breathtaking with the Berlin views of the valley below – including another man-made mountain nearby that is often used for kite-flying, the Olympic Stadium from 1936, and the The Fernsehturm television tower close to Alexanderplatz in the central neighborhood of Mitte;  this devilish mountain definitely had us entranced. Then we hiked back down the mountain through the deep wood and fields looking for air conditioning and cold beer.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alaniz, Biko, Crisp, Deuce7, Fanakapan, JBAK, Jule, Icy & Sot, Jule, Low Bros, Moe79, Mundano, Nasca, Never, Plotbot, Self Made Crew, Strøk, Tony Bones, and Wing.

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Alaniz at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Alaniz at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Alaniz at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Alaniz at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Alaniz at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mundano built a three step platform for you to climb and look directly into the eyes of his figure, who pleads with us to “Damn the Dam on the Tapajos River” at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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JBAK at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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MOE79 did this stencil of Edward Snowden at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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MOE79 at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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A tongue-in-cheek public service message from MOE79 at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nasca at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Self Made Crew reinterprets Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer” eating a Döner kebab at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Self Made Crew reinterprets Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer” eating a Döner kebab at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Self Made Crew paints a big ear at “The Big Ear” (großes Ohr), abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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NEVER is always getting the short end of the stick at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BIKO & MACK at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Icy & Sot at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Low Bros at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hulk Hogan victory lap at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Something awfully Jeremy Fishy about this Jule piece at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Some old stuff Tony Bones and Deuce7 that we’ll guess is 8 years old at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Fanakapan at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Crisp . Wing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Girl Power (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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Luca Ledda and Troubled Dreams in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Luca Ledda and Troubled Dreams in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Lucca Ledda’s chubby men are constantly being tormented and abused by someone.

If it’s not a full-bosomed dominatrix holding his leash then he is being pulled by his long rabbit ears from a hat, sandwiched between two buns with lettuce, or spinning slowly on a rotisserie with a sprig of rosemary.

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Luca Ledda “The Dreamers” Festival Mostar. Bosnia. June 2016. (photo © Luca Ledda)

For his newest bad dream in Bosnia, the Italian Street Artist is equally surreal, set afloat from a jack-in-the-box, corkscrewed by a thorny rose, but still free to imagine – little dreams issuing forth from his reverie. Looking closely you see he is holding a key to his chest, perhaps this is the one that will free him.

The title is “The Dreamers” and the 6 meter x 4 meter piece was completed during Street Arts Festival Mostar last month in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

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Luca Ledda “The Dreamers” Festival Mostar. Bosnia. June 2016. (photo © Luca Ledda)

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Luca Ledda “The Dreamers” Festival Mostar. Bosnia. June 2016. (photo © Luca Ledda)

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Luca Ledda “The Dreamers” Festival Mostar. Bosnia. June 2016. (photo © Luca Ledda)

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BSA Film Friday: 06.24.16

BSA Film Friday: 06.24.16

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Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :

1. Faith47’s New LGBT Themed Mural in Manchester for “Cities of Hope”
2. NYCHOS: Making of Vienna Therapy. “Dissection of Sigmund Freud”
3. LIVE Webcam of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s “Floating Piers”

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BSA Special Feature: Faith47’s New LGBT Themed Mural in Manchester for “Cities of Hope”

Cities of Hope Mural Project creates more than a selection of eye popping visuals for Manchester, it creates community. Pairing artists with local grassroots organizations, the content and themes are related to the neighborhood and the local issues in many ways.

South African Street Artist Faith47 brought her socially conscious practice to combine the Triangle Project back home with the Partisan Collective in Manchester to create this new kissing couple for a slice of wall. Here her focus is to support LGBT peoples’ rights to access a safe environment away from the commercial venues in other parts of the city.

“Relationships rise and fall, societies blossom and crumble,” says faith47. “The profound connectedness between us creates and destroys life. We are sensitive and caring, yet at the same time vulnerable and cruel.”

 

NYCHOS: Making of Vienna Therapy. “Dissection of Sigmund Freud”

An unusual tour through some of the cultural institutions and locations in Vienna associated with Sigmund Freud, as seen through one of the cities newer inhabitants, the dissectionist Nychos. A dual promotion of tourism in the city as well as the artist himself and his new show opening at Jonathan Levine this Saturday in New York,  the artist gives you a backstage view of how that crazy Freud brain sculpture was conceived and made this spring to ready it for last weeks’ debut on 23rd street in front of the Flat Iron Building.

LIVE Webcam of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s “Floating Piers”

First it was Christ walking on water, now it’s Christo.  At 80, and without his dear love at his side, their project is now something they can share with thousand of others with “Floating Piers”

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Skount Ferries You To Hell via Amsterdam

Skount Ferries You To Hell via Amsterdam

Go to Hell!

Pay your fare!

In Greek mythology there is a ferry man who will take you there in a boat. Skount brings all of this to the beach in Amsterdam in a quick mural he put up last week.

In his capitalist critique, only the rich can afford the ride across the rivers Styx and Acheron into Hades (Hell) in this painting of the Charon (ferryman).

“A coin used to be paid to Charon for passage, usually an obolus or danake, was sometimes placed in or on the mouth of a dead person. The people who could not pay the fee, or those whose bodies were left unburied, has to wander the shores for one hundred of years,” he says.

Bon Voyage!

 

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Skount. Amsterdam. June 2016, (photo © Skount)

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Skount. Amsterdam. June 2016, (photo © Skount)

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Skount. Amsterdam. June 2016, (photo © Skount)

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Skount. Amsterdam. June 2016, (photo © Skount)

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Stik : His First Collected Volume of Work

Stik : His First Collected Volume of Work

An unusual little tall man, this Stik man.

Deceptively simple, he expresses profound truths that are anything but. Since the turn of this century in his hometown of Hackney, the formerly homeless Stik has been bringing his unassuming line drawn character out to the streets of northeast London, often Shoreditch. With few details and is as uncluttered as a logo, Stik towers above on the side of a housing behemoth, or a water tower, or a doorway.

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Now comes a handsome tome in red canvas that tells more about this artist who has been staying mum for so long. Like the unflashy Stik man, Stik is not malicious but thoughtfully quietly present, giving modest and monumental witness to the street – as well as social issues common to the street. While he does many authorized projects for human rights, social equality, and issues addressing immigration, homelessness, and family, Stik is largely and quietly advocating for an equitable view where each one is treated fairly.

Simple enough, right?

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STIK. Published by Penguin Books – Random House. New York City. 2016

 

Photos of the book plates by © Jaime Rojo

 

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Greetings From Berlin – Soaring Walls from HowNosm, London Police Borondo, Van Der Sluijs, Super A

Greetings From Berlin – Soaring Walls from HowNosm, London Police Borondo, Van Der Sluijs, Super A

Traveling around Berlin this weekend we took a couple of trains and an unexpectedly looooong walk into the neighborhood of Tegel in search of Urban Nation’s huge One Wall installations that we haven’t been able to catch in person. The gentle breezes, smells of leafy trees, and unending barrage of mocking birds was punctuated by the excited fans of German football yelling out car windows and waving flags.

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Collin Van Der Sluijs . Super A.  Detail. Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Here in this semi-suburban breezy summer bliss far from the Kreuzburg artists enclave that Street Art and graffiti fans think of Berlin for, you’ll find Tegel boasts these four towering pieces by How & Nosm, The London Police, Borondo, and a collaboration between Collin Van Der Sluijs and Super A. Singularly, each one impresses. Seeing the quartet of soaring murals all at once; let’s just say it is well worth the trip.

After that, we figured out how to take the double decker public bus back to the U6 train line. Berlin has this public transportation thing nailed.

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Collin Van Der Sluijs. Super A. Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The London Police. Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Borondo. Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Borondo.  Detail. Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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How & Nosm. Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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How & Nosm. Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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BSA Images Of The Week 06.19.16

BSA Images Of The Week 06.19.16

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No we’re not worried about Donald Trump falling from grace, as in the new piece by Ron English leading the show this week. That’s not the point, people. It’s that we have fallen so far that a guy like this can get so close to the White House.

By the way, Nychos is killing it in New York right now. Pieces in Coney Island, Bushwick, a truck side, a Freud sculpture at the Flat Iron, a new show at Jonathan Levine this week, a couple other walls planned including one at MANA.  He’s very impressive in technique and work ethic. A shout out to the fellas who are capturing the action at Chop’em Down films. Top notch!

Meanwhile, we have a LOT of summer to enjoy. Get going!!!

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 18ism, AskewOne, Balu, CDRE, Dabs & Myla, GIZ, KAS, City Kitty, Myth, Nekst, Nychos, OG23, Rime MSK, Ron English, and Vik.

Our top image: Ron English brings Donald Trump as Humpty Dumpty on a wall – in collaboration with The Bushwick Collective and Mana Urban Art Projects. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Giz and Bart kick it with the Smurf next door for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dabs & Myla for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Vik for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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AskewOne MSK for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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RIME MSK for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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OG23 for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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18ism for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Indelible Funk  for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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AskewOne. Nekst tribute for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos “Translucent Heart Attack” for The Bushwick Collective and Mana Urban Art Projects. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. Dissection Of Sigmund Freud Flatiron Plaza. NYC. Vienna Therapy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. Dissection Of Sigmund Freud Flatiron Plaza. NYC. Vienna Therapy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos. Dissection Of Sigmund Freud Flatiron Plaza. NYC. Vienna Therapy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kitty City with Balu (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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CDRE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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CDRE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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CDRE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kas. Brussels, Belgium. June 2016. (photo © KAS)

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Untitled. Manhattan. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Who is That Masked King? Olek and Virginia MOCA Disrobe Neptune

Who is That Masked King? Olek and Virginia MOCA Disrobe Neptune

Troubled waters here just off Virginia Beach as the tourist season kicks into high gear and families spend the day collecting seashells and the random plastic bottle cap that washes up on the sand.

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Olek. King Neptune Intervention for Virginia MOCA. Virginia Beach. June 2016. (photo © Olek)

Street Artist Olek ran into a snag this week here as she and a team of volunteers made and installed a crocheted covering for Paul DiPasquale’s original statue of King Neptune that has been here a little over a decade. The two year process for the project with Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and the New York based artist came to an inauspicious halt during the installation Wednesday when the inclusion of a rubberized gas mask caused a dispute that ended with King Neptune left to brave the elements in his raw mid-prime once again.

“Art is intended to be controversial. To some degree it’s intended to spark dialog,” MOCA executive director Debi Gray was quoted just last month when defending a couple of challenging artworks by artist Mark Ryden in “Turn the Page”, the museums’ Hi-Fructose 10th Anniversary exhibition, a show Olek is also a part of.

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Olek. King Neptune Intervention for Virginia MOCA. Virginia Beach. June 2016. (photo © Olek)

Whether it was the prospect of another potential controversy so soon, an unapproved design change, or some other perturbed local gadfly whispering in her ear, the director and the museum were not letting the rubber mask go forward during the installation. With only about 60% of the installation completed, all of it came down, leaving the volunteers from the middle and high school and other local artists without the satisfaction of seeing the completed project for this week’s ArtWalk.

In terms of the interstitial approach to documentation that exists on The Internet, it doesn’t matter of course that the project was only partially up for part of one day because there were many good photos captured before it was disassembled, leaving the impression that Olek’s project was a success. Coming from the graffiti and Street Art milieu, we are all accustomed to the ethereal nature of art and our chance encounters with it. Not that this is much conciliation to those who had contributed toward the project.

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Olek. King Neptune Intervention for Virginia MOCA. Virginia Beach. June 2016. (photo © Olek)

According to statements from the artist and the museum, it appears that the mask would have been allowed to go forward if it had been entirely crocheted – at least that is our reading of the situation. We asked Olek why the monarch of the waters was wearing a mask in the first place, she told us that it was a commentary on our collective responsibility for dumping all kinds of waste into the oceans.

“My mission was to deliver the strongest work that would bring awareness to Mother Nature’s current disturbing situation; namely, the alarming state of our oceans. I added the mask because it was made a strong point. Everyone including the executive director, Debi Gray, and both curators, Alison Byrne and Heather Hakimzadeh agreed that it was a brilliant idea.”

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Olek. King Neptune Intervention for Virginia MOCA. Virginia Beach. June 2016. (photo © Aaron McLellan)

“We placed a lot of trust in her and are dismayed that she would take advantage of that,” says Ms. Gray of the museum in an interview with local website WAVY.com. “Although MOCA and the city embraced her message of ocean conservation, the addition was not part of the approved proposal,” a statement from the museum said.

Comments sections on local website stories are mixed with anger at both parties, regret, indifference and naturally, some comments are unhinged, misinformed and completely hilariously unrelated. From our perspective, we’re sorry that an agreement could not be reached and it didn’t work out because we know what the power of art can be. That said, maybe there is a solution yet to be discovered! The summer has just commenced and the future is unwritten.

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Olek. King Neptune Intervention for Virginia MOCA. Virginia Beach. June 2016. (photo © Olek)

Olek spoke with us about the situation and answered a few questions as well.

Brooklyn Street Art: Did the artist of the sculpture embrace your vision?
OLEK: The first person I contacted regarding the project, and then subsequently the Mask idea was of course the artist, Paul DiPasquale. He loved the idea of crocheting Neptune and agreed that the mask would make a stronger statement.

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Olek. King Neptune Intervention for Virginia MOCA. Virginia Beach. June 2016. (photo © Olek)

Brooklyn Street Art: Did you have an agreement with the museum that was changed?
OLEK: I had an agreement with the museum and the only real issue that arose was the addition of a huge uncrocheted rubber mask. Initially the museum didn’t want the rubber mask to be included. However, after a number of meetings a compromise was made. The museum and I agreed that if the mask was crocheted, it would be acceptable.

Brooklyn Street Art: Aside from the difficulty of the events, do you feel disappointed that the piece will not be on display?
OLEK: The work created a dialog so I think the piece accomplished something. I hope art in general can inspire and initiate change. As I said in my statement:

“My work is never finished – the continuous response of the viewers makes the art.  My contribution is the tool that helps people realize their own expressions.  I hope that it proves that all things are interconnected.”

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Olek. King Neptune Intervention for Virginia MOCA. Virginia Beach. June 2016. (photo © Olek)

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Olek. King Neptune Intervention for Virginia MOCA. Virginia Beach. June 2016. (photo © Olek)

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Olek. King Neptune Intervention for Virginia MOCA. Virginia Beach. June 2016. (photo © Aaron McLellan)

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Olek. King Neptune Intervention for Virginia MOCA. Virginia Beach. June 2016. (photo © Olek)

De-installation begins with the mask coming off as shown in the above picture.

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Olek. King Neptune Intervention for Virginia MOCA. Virginia Beach. June 2016. (photo © Olek)

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Olek. King Neptune Intervention for Virginia MOCA. Virginia Beach. June 2016. (photo © Olek)

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Olek. King Neptune Intervention for Virginia MOCA. Virginia Beach. June 2016. (photo © Olek)

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Olek. King Neptune Intervention for Virginia MOCA. Virginia Beach. June 2016. (photo © Olek)

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Olek. King Neptune Intervention for Virginia MOCA. Virginia Beach. June 2016. The Team. (photo © Olek)

 

Our special thanks to Aaron McLellan and his company North End Bag Co. for additional images of them fabricating the mask. The rubber and the aluminum part was provided by Geoff Long.

Also included in Olek’s commentary to us about the project and related events:
This was not completed by the artist alone. MOCA and Olek would like to thank the many volunteers including students from The Visual and Performing Arts Academy at Salem High School and art students from Virginia Beach Middle School. They have spent countless hours to help create this work. They all came and crocheted without knowing what the final project would be. They lent their talent and trust in both MOCA and the artist, knowing that they were spreading a positive message of hope to our community and beyond.

 

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