BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
By festooning foreboding razor wire with decorative flourishes of welcome, Icy & Sot invert a symbol of exclusion and fear. The effect is shocking in its embrace of joy and color and life; the surreal visual combining two opposing views of a border that uses their contrast for unusual illumination.
Icy & Sot “Imagine A World Without Borders” Miami, FL. January 2017 (photo © Icy & Sot)
In fact the brothers say this recent intervention in Miami is to address the surreality that we have been plunged into by forces who would divide us as citizens with fear-mongering, the ban on travel from majority Muslim countries and the presentation of a huge barrier wall across the southern boarder as a panacea.
Icy & Sot reliably put their finger into the wound to see how deep it goes. As artists they have also learned that a little truth goes a long way, especially when it’s an ugly truth. Maybe that explains the flowers. They tell us that because the constant flow of bad news about immigration and the government actions they weren’t able to focus and work on their future projects for a couple of days but instead they just wanted to make works in response to those actions.
Icy & Sot “Imagine A World Without Borders” Miami, FL. January 2017 (photo © Icy & Sot)
“This country couldn’t have been great without its immigrants,” they tell us in a statement. As recent immigrants themselves, they feel the topic very personally. “It’s not fair that one persons decision can affect the lives of so many people inside and outside the country – we are some of those people who have been affected. We came here as immigrants and what we have accomplished here we couldn’t have accomplished anywhere else but its sad that we don’t feel the same anymore.”
Of their new art piece, they say, “Barbed wire has long been connected to crimes against humanity. A person trying to pass through or over barbed wire will suffer discomfort and possibly injury,” they say of the razor coil that often entangles a those who attemp to cross it. “In our piece we change the barbed wire into flowers, which is a metaphor for welcoming people at the borders.”
“We wanted to show how beautiful it could be to imagine a world without borders.”
Icy & Sot “Imagine A World Without Borders” Miami, FL. January 2017 (photo © Icy & Sot)
238
138
45
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
At its core, the community mural performs a very important role in unifying a neighborhood by focusing attention and coalescing around a common sentiment. Whether social, political, or poetic, they gi...
“До побачення Київ, я буду повертатися найближчим часом! (Goodbye Kiev. Thanks for the good times and the inspiration),” says Reka as he leaves the Ukrainian capital and celebrates the latest mural f...
“You must have rocks in your head if you think that you are going out with your friends dressed like that!” says your mom as you add more gel to your hair while pouring over every detail of your magn...
The previous NYC record for frigid cold on January 7th was 6 degrees (F). Tuesday broke that record at 4 degrees. Olek decided we needed a blanket. Olek for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC (photo © Jaim...
The perception you may have of Tunisian calligraffitist el Seed’s new limited edition hefty white-box tome is that it will contain austerely designed blue chip contemporary works, a book meant to be s...
