April 2017

NeverCrew in Hong Kong for “Discordant”

April 18, 2017 Artists

“…our collective obligations towards our environment.”

You wouldn’t think the phrase would need to be said, yet it sounds revolutionary in a consumer-driven, market-driven society. The Swiss duo NEVERCREW are clear in their intentions.

As ever.

Nevercrew “Discordant” Above Second Gallery. Hong Kong. 18th March – 22nd April (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Discordant exhibition is still running at Above Second gallery in Hong Kong and these images we captured there encapsulate the discordance. Nature versus man. Our desire for convenience, our disregard for the gifts the Earth gives, our total dependence on it nonetheless.

“Discordant emphasizes the juxtaposition of mechanical and natural elements to portray a world where mankind and nature, economy and environment, are constantly at odds with one another,” they say in the press release. They go on to comment on “the exploitation of natural resources, pollution, and particularly overproduction and mismanagement of waste as ‘a signal of an imbalanced relationship with the natural system.’ ”

Nevercrew “Discordant” Above Second Gallery. Hong Kong. 18th March – 22nd April (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The gargantuan garbage bag and the fish, the cloud of broken construction mater floating above the gift of wildlife, the ruthless slicing through mechanically of the whale.

It makes you think things like, “Who the hell do we think we are?” as we contemplate NEVERCREW’s “examination of humankind’s core struggle to strike a balance between the demands of lifestyle, efficiency and our collective obligations towards our environment.”

Nevercrew “Discordant” Above Second Gallery. Hong Kong. 18th March – 22nd April (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NeverCrew “Discordant” Is currently open to the public at Above Second Gallery in Hong Kong. The exhibition ends this Saturday, April 22nd.

BSA Images of the Week : Nuart Aberdeen Edition

April 17, 2017 Artists

End of Passover for many, the best day of Easter weekend for others, just another spring day for still others, and a fine finish to our little Aberdeen excursion. As we ready ourselves to charge forward on small streets in this city that has a severe case of Multiple Weather Disorder, we’re bringing scarves, gloves, umbrellas, a zip-lock bag with salt, sun block, swim suits, a snow shovel and a road flare in the backpack, for emergencies. Also a small flask of Highland Park 18 single malt skotch whisky for medical purposes.

Top image: A new figure by Isaac Cordal. The Donald taking his toys for a walk. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal. Nuart Aberdeen. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo) Perhaps needless to say, but the American president is not popular in any way here, and we sort of get reminded of it a few times a day – wherever we go.

The panel discussions with Evan Pricco and Pedro Soares and artists and Brandalism representatives were intellectually stimulating and sometimes deliciously gossipy. According to one audience member who attended Saturday’s talks, a favorite feature was when one participant was when a German guy in the audience took an opportunity to launch a diatribe against simply pretty pleasant public art and to compare this pleasantry with Hitler and death camps. That sort of thing always advances the conversation, don’t you think? But the point is well taken, even if it was delivered by hammer.

And they don’t stop. Herakut . Alterego. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Interesting to see that smaller pieces are also popping up here and there in the areas that these large and small approved artworks have appeared. You can sense again that there is an excited contingent of visual artists here who are feeling like they need an outlet and an outlet. We spoke with some really enthusiastic art students at the Drummond club, yelling over the thumping electronic music, who had fashioned hats and costumes out of tin foil.

Alexander Campbell, a sprightly and activist artist and student here at Gray’s School of Art who has the intensity of three, explains that the tin hats are really “conspiracy hats”, and speaks about larger issues that his photographic collage work addresses about war profiteering, definitions of terrorism, objectification of people, power, the coercive power of sex. The usual.

Herakut . Alterego. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It appears that joy and pain are intertwined always, histories overlap with today of the city always includes stories from locals about the white slave trade that flourished here in the area where Julian de Casabianca wheatpasted his two enormous children. Taken directly from images in the collection of the Aberdeen Museum he says, and a stunning installation that acknowledges the cultural history.

The overwhelming response of people on the tour to the pleasant and the unpleasant themes expressed or alluded to in a number of the works in Nuart Aberdeen says a lot about a culture’s willingness to look things frankly in the eye, as well as to just celebrate for the art of it. At the very least, people here say that they are experiencing something new in the public space with many other Aberdeenians, a true measure of the successful engagement of art in the streets.

Okay, gotta go do our last tour. See you all soon.

So here’s our Aberdeen interview with the streets with images from Alice Pasquini, Herakut, Isaac Cordal, Juane, Jet Pack Dinasaur, Julian De Casabianca, and Martin Whatson

Herakut. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Martin Whatson. Detail. Art tour goers admire the art. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jet Pack Dinosaur. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist sending some love. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alice Pasquini. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tags. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Julien de Casabianca . Outings Project. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaune. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist . Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jetsonorama Wraps a House with Pots in Penland, North Carolina

April 17, 2017 Artists

When one thinks of pots and pottery and clay urns, you may imagine them with patterns and motifs wrapped around their exterior. Botanicals, animal life, figures, even architecture, all become decorative elements or patterns. Street Artist Jetsonorama is flipping the script in the North Carolina mountains this week by wrapping a house with photographic images of pottery, and sitting in the woods the presentation is striking, even provocative.

Jetsonorama. Penland School or Arts. North Carolina, USA. April, 2017. (photo © Chip Thomas)

Jetsonorama told us about the project, which he calls “Clay pieces pretending to be contestants on The Apprentice.” But seriously he says it is about a curriculum that was developed to train people for a trade so that they could provide an income for their families. Here below is his description of the genesis for the new curious looking work;

Jetsonorama. Penland School or Arts. North Carolina, USA. April, 2017. (photo © Chip Thomas)

“I’m just completing a week long residency at the Penland School of Crafts which is nestled in the North Carolina mountains. The craft school was founded in 1929 by Lucy Morgan to teach local women how to weave in order to contribute to their families economically. Over the years Penland has added courses in metal smithing, glass blowing, printmaking, photography, clay and has expanded offerings in textiles.

The institution is recognized internationally as a leader in the crafts taught. I was offered the opportunity to spend a little time there to get a feel for the place and to then install work on a building that houses gardening equipment called Green Acres. Having only a day to decide upon an image before sending files to the printer I opted to use a photograph of pots waiting to be placed in a traditional Japanese kiln where the pieces are fired over 8 days.”

Chip Thomas. Penland School or Arts. North Carolina, USA. April, 2017. (photo © Chip Thomas)

BSA Images OF The Week: Nuart Aberdeen Edition

April 16, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Top image: A new figure by Isaac Cordal. The Donald taking his toys for a walk. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal. Nuart Aberdeen. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo) Perhaps needless to say, but the American president is not popular in any way here, and we sort of get reminded of it a few times a day – wherever we go.

And they don’t stop. Herakut . Alterego. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Herakut . Alterego. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Okay, gotta go do our last tour. See you all soon.

So here’s our Aberdeen interview with the streets with images from Alice Pasquini, Herakut, Isaac Cordal, Juane, Jet Pack Dinasaur, Julian De Casabianca, and Martin Whatson

Herakut. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Martin Whatson. Detail. Art tour goers admire the art. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jet Pack Dinosaur. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist sending some love. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alice Pasquini. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tags. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Julien de Casabianca . Outings Project. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaune. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist . Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Nuart Aberdeen 2017. Aberdeen, Scotland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tours, Films, & Fight Night : Nuart x Aberdeen x BSA Dispatch 3

April 15, 2017 Artists

“I have two questions,” said one smartly sweatered and coiffed lady of a certain age. She had grabbed an elbow as we waded through the 350-person tour that we were leading through Aberdeen streets with Jon Reid. “Who gave you all permission to paint your pictures on these walls?” she asked. “And number two: When and where did this whole movement begin?”

Martin Whatson (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Those seemed like relatively easy to answer questions, and they would have been if a small blue car didn’t start honking it’s little insistent horn at us, seeing as we were standing in the middle of the road with Mrs. Siddens. As it turns out, Mrs. Siddens didn’t just have two questions. She had 162.

But that is to be expected here in Aberdeen right now as Nuart has more or less popped open the magic Street Art lamp and the lively spirits are swirling up Jopps Lane camera-in-hand behind parking lots and mechanic shops, and other streets that locals rarely explore.

So here’s an aspect of the scene that we don’t interact with too much – the completely gob-smacked art fan who can’t believe their luck to be regaled with new art and artists. The big cities that have a history with graffiti and, later, street art – or just the plastic arts in general, are often blasé when encountering a new addition to the street, so easily spoiled us humans are.

Jaune. Need we say more? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

But here in Aberdeen – today it looked like there had been such a pent-up desire for any kind of public visual expression of art in the streets that it erupted inside the bottle and verily foamed and frothed out to these historied brick streets.– Like a top secret camera-armed terrorist cell suddenly activated; old, young, entire families… all fanned out across the streets to capture hundreds, thousands of images of M-City and Jaune and Nipper and Alice Mirachi and Martin Whatson and all of the crew.

Okay terrorist analogies are ham-handed, but its just like that!

Jaune (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Our BSA Film Friday LIVE event at the Belmont Filmhouse was a lot of fun, with engaged and aghast reactions to art interventions by artists like Kut Collective, Akay, and Vhils. Hawaiian born artist Hula’s portraits painted on ice rafts in the melting arctic cap amongst the Inuit people was the one that actually elicited gasps, with at least one woman crying.

Also Street Artist Fintan Magee left his wall early to come to the show and be our special guest presenter of his video about his mural made during his time with Syrian children who were confined to refugee camps in Amman, Jordan recently.

Add Fuel at work. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Also, have we mentioned the Fight Night? A Nuart tradition worth preserving, with artists and experts of all ilks convening as small teams on the stage to debate two sides of an issue. Friday night in the “Underground”, a basement pub with wood and soldiered steel stools and deliberately dark lighting, the assembled clump of fans Street Art and beer gathered around the stage to hear a debate that pitted large murals against small interventions.

Among the sparring, personal insults, laughter, and flashes of Juanes leg’s vexing and tantalizing the crowd beneath his new his new plaid kilt, somehow the female panelists on each team landed some of the strongest arguments. – Alice Pasquini for the small interventions and Jasmine from Herakut presented thoughtful reasoned rationale while the men bandied about jokes referring to size and an inexplicable reference to baby pandas by Evan Pricco turned into a running joke. Ultimately, the “small interventions” team prevailed by the thinnest of margins over large murals in during the final audience vote.

Isaac Cordal (photo © Jaime Rojo)

So the panel discussions, on-stage interviews with artists, kids programs, tours and movie screenings continue today, with us introducing the debut of “Saving Banksy” and Nuart’s James Finucane introducing the 2011 mini-doc about Nuart and it’s early beginnings.

In an exciting development, there are some surprise Street Art pieces going up in the areas that the new formal interventions are going, suggesting that a seeding of the soil is producing local fruit. It is spring after all. Time for a renewal. Slàinte mhath!

Isaac Cordal (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alice Pasquini. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alice Pasquini at work. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This Nipper interactive piece provides all the tools a passerby needs to be a Street. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nipper an aspiring artist plays with interactive piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nipper (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Herakut. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

At the Fight Club/Pub Debate last night from left to right. Jasmin from Herakut, Pedro Soares Nieves, Sasha Bogojev, Alice Pasquini, Jaune and Evan Prico debating the merits of large murals vs small scale interventions. Pedro’s team argued in favor of murals and Evan’s team argued in favor of small interventions. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Almost 350 people showed up for the first ever street art tour in Aberdeen battling cold, rain and hail, sun and clowds all at once!. Here they admired the piece by Martin Whatson. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The crowds in front of Fintan Magee’s work in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The crowds in front of M-City’s mural. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

These intrepid art lovers who lasted throughout the entire tour were such troupers and they stood at the last mural by Add Fuel in the background braving the intense cold rain falling on them. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Film Friday Special Edition: Nuart x Aberdeen x BSA

April 14, 2017 Artists

Aabody* at the club got tipsy* last night in the Anatomy Rooms, a former academic space for students at University of Aberdeen that still has random skeletons and 3-D plastic diagrams of humans cut in half.

Julien de Casabianca. Outings Project. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anatomy Rooms is now an artist-run space with studios for “makers” and creatives of various disciplines and the Nuart Aberdeen event brought a central focus to Street Artist Julien De CasaBianca in the main lecture hall; we watched attentively pacing back and forth in front of us where bodies were probably dissected for lectures.

To many people’s delight, he gave a riveting and humorous lecture to the packed hall of rowdy desk-pounding bookish attendees, recounting his path of accidental entry into the Street Art scene via reluctant museum visits and classical painters – which alone would have been entertaining enough.

Jaune. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

However Professor Julian just happened to throw in additional colorful story-lines about Corsican mobsters, stenciled signs at concentration camps, jail time, accidental homicide, and an uncle’s planned suicide that was accompanied by an elaborate display of fireworks.

At the end of Julien’s barrage of 234 slides and the accompanying raucous applause, the rambunctious guests headed down the steps for the beer (2 pound donation), the loo, the Street Art Instagram projection show by Jon Reid, and the darkened DJ chill lounge which seemed to be playing slow jams from the 80s and 90s, encouraging art folk to gently sway their anatomies in close proximity to one another.

Also, murals.

Jaune, stencil artist who features city workers in his small pieces for Nuart Aberdeen, heralds the important contributions they labor over to make our cities and homes livable day after day after day. Just steps away from one of those new stencils with paintbrush in hand, we found this municipal worker maintaining the city’s streets with a coat of fresh paint. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

De CasaBianca’s “Outings Project” completed his second enormous installation of a thoughtful boy in a previously industrial passage over slippery rounded brick streets.

With all that wheat-paste splashed acrossed the wall in buckets there was a huge puddle of the white gooey stuff just waiting for at least one intrepid camera-happy Street Art hunter to evaluate carefully.

M-City. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

M-City put the final aerosol touches on his two walls, which are set at a 90 degree angle with one another along a tightly winding street that snakes among old factories with smokestacks and a parking garage that serves a nearby shopping district.

The images of oil barrels falling through the sky onto two oil tankers below and into the ocean have a direct relationship to the petroleum-fueled economy of Aberdeen and we’ll need to get that full story from the Polish stencil machine and professor – We’ll get back to you on it.

Herakut. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jasmine was high on the lift making final adjustments to the Herakut mural that on Aberdeen Market that now commands a triangle of pedestrian activity while Falk, the second half of the German Street Art/fine art duo, was off getting married. Slacker.

Juane continued to find secret small locations to install his miniature workmen stencils while Isaac Cordal prepared a wall for a larger multi-terrace show of his morose and guilty businessmen to contemplate their existences upon.

Fintan Magee at work. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nipper, the Norwegian (Bergen) of generous spirit, worked with local artists and volunteers to create his glassine envelopes stuffed with artworks – which are then snapped onto clip-boards and hung around the city center. These missives are meant as encapsulated communications, with some containing directives to carry out activities, while others are simply a collection of collage, drawings, crafts from local artists, poets. He calls them #missiondirectives .

Fintan Magee at work. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This is Street Art as a most engaging act, a method of somewhat random communication that meets you at eye level and asks you to participate if you would like. While Cordal and a friend and Jaime played Jenga nervously at the breakfast table and the waitress brought a small iron skillet of eggs, tomato, sausage and bacon, (John) Nipper talked about one of the local artist contributor’s idea for the street missive that she was making contents for.

Nipper. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

John says that she wanted to encourage the concept and practice of taking a creative journey, so she was thinking of buying a bus ticket to a favorite Scottish destination and putting it in the pack to be hung anonymously on the street.

Fintan Magee has been working on the first of two walls that will together form one complete story, with the assistance of local artist and public art curator Mary (check out “Painted Doors” here in Aberdeen) and her legs and knee-high boots are actually featured standing upon a boulder in the brand new mural.

Robert Montgomery. Process shot. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fintan tells us that he still has a lot of work to do, but he will be to stop work today by 1800 hrs so he can get over to our BSA Film Friday LIVE show tonight – we’re actually showing one of his videos among the 12 we have selected for the Belmont Filmhouse – Aberdeen’s foremost independent cinema. As our special guest tonight, Fintan is going to regale the audience about the genesis of the film and what he was doing in Amman, Jordan at the time.

So we are about to run out on the street and see as much as possible right now – but if you are in Aberdeen we’re really looking forward to meeting YOU tonight at BSA Film Friday LIVE! (see more information below).

If you got tickets to “Saving Banksy” which we’re introducing tomorrow, lucky you! It’s sold out the for largest theatre of their three screens. Aberdeen represent, yo!

Isaac Cordal. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Window dressing. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Film Friday LIVE tonight at Belmont Filmhouse – more HERE.

*Aabody – Doric for everybody, or as J-Kwon says in that dope 2000’s jam “Tipsy” – “errrbody”.

Nuart X Aberdeen x BSA: Dispatch 1

April 13, 2017 Artists

This white and grey skurry appears rather plump as he waddles across the stone road in Aberdeen toward the cherry picker that holds Jasmine from Herakut aloft as she paints the new piece on the concave wall. Skurry is the Doric term for seagull, and Doric is a dialect of the North East of Scotland that thrives principally here in this seaside oil city of 230,000, so you’ll hear a few terms creeping into the sentences here and there.

Jaune plays with Elki Stencils’ Piper painted 13 ago in Aberdeen, Scotland. Nuart Aberdeen. April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

There are plenty of skurries flying above and cawing and milling about these narrow streets. With their clean feathers and portly dispositions they are also looking a lot like a Sunday dinner, bellies round from a hearty diet of shellfish and other small sea creatures – and Doritos, according to a humorous story of theft you’ll hear here over a tall beer in a dark bar.

We’ve just arrived and it’s a cold and windy Passover/Easter week and nope, no bagpipes or kilts yet. Well, except for the one punk girl in a kilt-inspired skirt and black boots near Belmont Street walking past the former St Nicholas Congregational Church, now the home of booming nightclubs called Priory and Redemption over the last couple of years.

Jaune at work. Nuart Aberdeen. April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elsewhere we found a kilt on one of Street Artist Jaune’s miniature stencil workmen, newly sprayed at the foot of a larger 13 year old stencil of a traditional ‘piper’ by Scottish Street Artist Elki, who now does a lot of studio stencil work in Glasgow. This fresh collaboration is a metaphor for what is happening here with Nuart Aberdeen this week, say a number of the local art scenesters, including artist Jon Reid, who is touring us around on foot with his friend Justine and Evan Pricco from Juxtapoz.

Jon peppers his tour with plenty of local history and pointed commentary as we head up Castle Street (well named), past the Salvation Army citadel, glancing at the old clock tower, the courthouse tower, the Tolbooth Museum in a 17th century former jail with steep spiral staircases and tales of crime and punishment.

Isaac Cordal. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

He looks at the old Elki stencil of the bagpiper and says that its one of those Street Art pieces that somehow is taken care of, despite the rules of ephemerality one usually expects in the urban art game. “They’ve always preserved this one. There’ve been tags and stuff around it and you can see where its been whitewashed but they’ve always preserved it.”

For Jon, a tall young guy with a beard and strong voice who has been following and advocating the local art scene with his blog “Dancing in the Dark” for a number of years, seeing this new addition of Jaune’s signature workmen is a meaningful development, symbolic for the local artists scene and to street culture here. And Nuart is a part of it.

Hera from Herakut at work. Nuart Aberdeen. April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Seeing it makes me quite proud, to see that Aberdeen has got this festival up and that people are embracing it – everybody can take something from it, the artists and yourselves and the local people,” he says as we walk a few more meters past the a large billboard that will be new Robert Montgomery piece for Nuart Aberdeen.

Only two words from the upcoming missive are visible so far, written in white block font on the upper left corner of the black rectangle.

“Modernism Modernism”

Perhaps this is a most apt description for a this new festival that is inserting fresh artistic voices among the winding streets and the historic buildings of Aberdeen. Sort of like these teens you watch doing hardcore BMX bike tricks despite the cold April winds blowing here across the fortified base of the yet another ornate Flemish-Gothic granite behemoth from hundreds of years ago. The tricks and energy of the new generation brings the site alive on the street, startling and relevant in these raucous moments of change and upheaval.

Herakut. Process shot. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Julien De Casabianca. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alice Pasquini. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nipper. Detail. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nipper. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Martin Whatson. Detail. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

M-City. Process Shot. Nuart Aberdeen April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chip Thomas Invoking Life Back Into a House for 2017 Joshua Treenial

April 12, 2017 Artists

Curators Kóan Jeff Baysa and Bernard Leibov selected about 15 artists and collaborators to create installations for the 2^nd edition of the Joshua Treenial, which opened the first weekend of April and today we have one of the artists who showed his work, Street Artist Chip Thomas aka Jetsonorama. An initiative to educate about ecological issues in the desert – as well as an attempt to stir up cultural tourism, the organizers chose the title “Event Horizon” this year. The title is a tellingly foreboding spacetime term that here is referring to environmental disasters now nearing the point of no return. Nearby the Salton Sea already has passed that point. (see video at end)

Using his wheat-pasted photographic works on walls to summon the sky and clouds, he hangs a translucent panel from the skylight and watches it dance in the breezes, invoking the life that once was in this abandoned home, revitalizing a moribund space.

Here Chip talks about his installation in the 3 walled structure built half a century ago and how this public/private installation came to be.

Chip Thomas. Event Horizon. Joshua Tree National Monument, CA. March 2017. (photo © Diane Best)

By Chip Thomas

I went to Joshua Tree in January 2017 to select a site for my work and to collect source photos. After prepping the work over a couple weeks I returned in March and worked for a solid week to install the project – through some of the most intense winds.

The site chosen has an interesting history. In the 1940s there was a land grant/homesteading movement where people were given a tract of land on which they had to build a home of a minimum size within 5 years of getting the land. Many of the people who took advantage of this program were citizens of Los Angeles who liked to get away to the Mojave Desert. Now there are scores of abandoned, small homes slowly returning to the earth.

Chip Thomas. Event Horizon. Joshua Tree National Monument, CA. March 2017. (photo © Diane Best)

One of the things I feel good about with this project is having had an opportunity to reactivate an abandoned space. Blake Simpson, who owns the property where the abandoned house is, said that he’s not been in the house for over 10 years.

After the original tenants moved out the house became a squat. When I began working there was one old sofa that had been infested by mice with mouse nests in 2 of the corners of the house. Now Blake plans to use the space as a place for community gatherings and art making and performance.

Chip Thomas. Event Horizon. Joshua Tree National Monument, CA. March 2017. (photo © Chip Thomas)

Chip Thomas. Event Horizon. Joshua Tree National Monument, CA. March 2017. (photo © Diane Best)

Street Artist/fine artist Chip Thomas standing in front of the house. Event Horizon. Joshua Tree National Monument, CA. March 2017. (photo © Diane Best)

Here’s an excellent primer on this subject of the homestead structures by an artist who has documented many of the jackrabbit homes.

The Salton Sea: The Accidental Sea

Banksy Goes Into The Hospitality Business in Palestine

April 11, 2017 Artists

Hotel, museum, funhouse? Political/social satire, self-advertisement, genius? All of it and more. Street Artist and showman Banksy’s team of advisors, marketers, fabricators, and assistants have already mounted a vast museum show, a theme park, a treasure hunt across New York, among other events. When it comes to creating spectacle and courting controversy, Banksy and company know how to get attention and this spring it’s happening again in fabulous Bethlehem with a hotel in which you can actually book a room – and learn Banksy’s political opinions.

Giulia Blocal took a trip there to take in the local color and to enjoy the Walled Off Hotel and she shares her observations here with BSA readers.

Banksy. The Walled Off Hotel. Bethlehem, Palestine. March 2017. (photo © Giulia Blocal)

by Giulia Blocal

After having released a video ironically describing Gaza as an attractive tourist destination in 2015, Banksy is back in the Palestinian Territories with a project that levers on the same key but pushes it further. This time his invitation to visit Palestine isn’t a provocation, but a fact. And in order to be taken seriously, he opened an actual hotel in Bethlehem, which overlooks the infamous wall that divides Israel from Palestine.

A few days ago, I accepted the above-mentioned invitation and went to Bethlehem. I was eager to see with my own eyes what had already become one of the most controversial projects of the year – as it always happens when it comes to Banksy. While some people still haven’t forgiven him for dropping out of the streets, others are arguing that, with The Walled Off Hotel, he is speculating on Palestinian suffering.

When I got off the bus, several taxi-drivers-improvised-guides came to me, eager to help. Banksy-related tourism was already a thing in Bethlehem, where the artist had painted several murals (along with many other street artists who had left their sign on the wall, among whom the Italian BLU and the German twins How & Nosm) and, after the opening of The Walled Off Hotel, the situation was denounced by graffiti-purists as intolerable.

Banksy. The Walled Off Hotel. Bethlehem, Palestine. March 2017. (photo © Giulia Blocal)

Much to their dismay, the declared goal of the project is exactly that: to bring tourists to the Palestinian Territories, therefore helping the area both economically and through addressing the inevitable media interest to the problems arising from the conflict.

However, The Walled Off Hotel is just what it claims to be: a hotel. Eight fully equipped rooms customized by Banksy and fellow artists Sami Musa and Dominique Petrin, some budget barracks for lower income travelers, a gallery showcasing artworks by contemporary Palestinian artists, a museum that looks at the wall from different angles, and a Piano Bar area where non-residents can have a ‘mocktail’, a salad or the very English afternoon tea.

Inspired by the Colonial style (in reference to the 100^th anniversary of Mandatory Palestine), at a first glance the Piano Bar reminded me of a sophisticated English tea room, but after my gaze had wandered around a bit I’ve begun spotting all the quirky, twisted, Banksy-style artworks.

Banksy. Clay sculptures by Iyad Sabbah. The Walled Off Hotel. Bethlehem, Palestine. March 2017. (photo © Giulia Blocal)

CCTV cameras, which compose the sophisticated Israeli security system, are hung on the wall as if they were mounted deer heads, right above a single row of harmless slingshots, which represent the Palestinian resistance.

The bust of a rebel, who unquestionably looks like Michelangelo’s David, is in a cloud of tear gas, skewing the representation of heroes in classical art.

Vandalized oil paintings, two goldfish flirting from different bowls, cupids flying seraphically, although wearing oxygen masks… all artworks are imbued with brazen social commentary, each one highlighting a different aspect of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Banksy. The Walled Off Hotel. Bethlehem, Palestine. March 2017. (photo © Giulia Blocal)

Next to the pieces specifically created for the hotel, Banksy reinterpreted some of his most politically subversive works of art, such as the kids swing-riding around an army watchtower (painted in Gaza in 2015) and the iconic rebel throwing the bunch of flowers, which here are actual flowers put in a vase.

After having a “Earl Grey & Tonic”, which was so good to make it up for the absence of alcohol, I was off to the Art Gallery, which is curated by the art historian Ismal Duddera, who selected different artworks from Palestinian artists and relied on Anisa Ashkar for the inauguration of the temporary exhibition. The gallery space has been totally underrated by the media, but trust me: it’s worth a visit.

I came back downstairs and headed to the museum, which aims at retracing the evolution of the occupation, from the British imperialism (represented by a wax statue of Balfour while signing the declaration, recalling that “it all began 100 years ago with an Englishman and the stroke of a pen”) to the apartheid wall, the one we can see just by peeking through the window.

The museum displays different items, from ‘Visit Palestine’ and ‘Boycott Israel’ posters to the camera that saved the life of the cameraman Emad Burnat (author of the award-winning film ‘Five Broken Cameras’) by stopping a bullet fired by a soldier during the protests in the Bil’in village in 2005.

There are two clay sculptures by Iyad Sabbah, from the extremely moving public artwork that originally stood in Gaza, and ‘the scale of justice’, a sculpture by Banksy himself twisting a well-known Biblical adage into a more fitting “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a thousand teeth”.

There is also a shop selling spray cans to leave your sign on the wall, although it is specified that not only it’s illegal, but also disliked by those locals who are against the ‘beautification’ of the wall.

Banksy’s sarcasm goes beyond the installations and the paintings inside the hotel and, as it often happens with his art, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. The way he manages to convey media attention is itself part of the artwork and, this time, his highly provocative invitation to Israelis to visit the hotel fits for the purpose. Some people criticized the biased nature of the project as Banksy leaves no doubts where he stands but, as he spray painted on the walls of Gaza back in 2015, “if we wash our hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless we side with the powerful –we don’t stay neutral”.

Our sincere thanks to Giulia for sharing her experience and photos with us. Read more of Giulia Blocal’s growing list of travelogues on her Travel & Street Art Blog called BLOCAL. (www.blocal-travel.com)

Grandpa Gives Thumbs Down : EDJINN for 12 + 1 Project In Barcelona

April 10, 2017 Artists

Grandpa is giving you the thumbs down.

Street Artist EDJINN from Barcelona just created this wall that clearly expresses it’s dislike for so-called Social media and “community engagement”.

“I want to contrast old people with new technologies, social networks and the new ways to interact that young people use, and the disconnection it might be for older people,” he says of the satiric illustration he’s created for the 12+1 project in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.

Who can argue with this? We spend our days looking at phones, not each other – more concerned with the opinions and ideas expressed by total strangers that we call “friends.” Meanwhile the lady standing next to you brought your mother into the world and you are too busy “liking” and emoticon-ing to notice her.

Dislike.

BSA Images Of The Week: 04.09.17

April 9, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Hooray! Spring is here in New York again. That means daffodils and crocuses are sprouting up among the soda cans and candybar wrappers and cigarette butts in the park’s gardens, and new proud or furtive aerosol missives are being sprayed on crumbling walls and phone booths are getting hi-jacked with posters by artists and galleries are again overflowing onto sidewalks for openings.

Our thanks to everyone who came out for the Heliotrope fundraiser this Thursday, to Swoon for being Swoon, and to her for asking us to curate the new line of prints, and to the six artists who gave their best to us all and to the Heliotrope projects in Haiti specifically: Case Maclaim, Faith XLVII, Icy And Sot, Li-Hill, Miss Van, and Tavar Zawacki (Above). Thank you also to all of Swoon’s team for helping us mount the show.

Also saw the press preview of the new documentary about NYC Street Artist Richard Hambleton called “Shadowman” this week, which was thrilling, frightening, sickening, and beautiful. People in the room were all feeling a bit nauseous when the lights came up – but for various reasons; the commercial art world seems to suck the beauty out of things, artists can be finicky like cats, and the worship of drug culture is dreadfully overglamorized and it killed off lots of cool people and cancer (from smoking) is actively killing the artist right in front of your eyes, which he freely admits to. Also, his work is amazing.

Accurately capturing the ragged, wooly, wildly creative downtown scene in which Hambleton first came up, Director Oren Jacoby premieres “Shadowman” at The Tribeca Film Festival in NYC on April 21, 2017.

On a totally related note, we were sad to learn Friday afternoon of the death of Glenn O’Brien, influential part of the NYC “Downtown” art and cultural scene in the 1970s, 80s and much much more. We had last seen him doing an interview with Lee Quinones in Chinatown for Lee’s show two years ago.

This week we’ll be seeing you at Nuart Aberdeen! It’s Nuarts’ first foray into another city and really it’s just a stone’s throw across The North Sea to Stavanger, the original home of Nuart in Norway. The kids are on spring vacation in Aberdeen all week so we know we’ll see a lot of swag youth traipsing around to see new artworks going up by artists and thoughtful academic types attending conference lectures. Drunken types will be attending the Friday night fight at a local bar. BSA will be at Belmont theater presenting BSA Film Friday LIVE and introducing “Saving Banksy” and “Beautiful Losers” over the weekend. Come on over; can’t wait to meet you!

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring: Bifido, Chip Thomas, Chzz, Faust, Hydeon, Janz, Mdom, Nick McManus, Pyramid Oracle, Rubin 415, SacSix, Sheryo, Sonni, Swoon, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, and The Yok.

Janz. Ransom notes and collage. The main collaged figure in the center reminds us of the work of Richard Hambleton and the Studio 54 fixture Grace Jones. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chip Thomas’ portraits of Rose and Paul at The Reservation. “Rose and Paul who have been together living, loving and experiencing lives challenges + joys together for the past 65 years” -CT (photo © Chip Thomas)

Chip Thomas portraits of Rose and Paul at Antilope Hills. “Rose and Paul who have been together living, loving and experiencing lives challenges + joys together for the past 65 years” -CT (photo © Chip Thomas)

Bifido. Mommy. “This is in a squat place. Some people occupied this space and they use it to give Italian language courses for new migrants, to present concerts, mount exhibitions, build a study room and generally create others things for people in the district. I made this work here to support activity and the guys who every day spend their time helping other people.” Bifido (photo © Bifido)

The prints of the six artists for Helitrope Prints that BSA had the honor to curate for Swoon. Form left to right: Tavar Zawacki (Above), Icy & Sot, Miss Van, Fiath XLVII, Swoon, Case Maclaim and Li-Hill. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The photographer and, in our humble opinion, performance artist Nick McManus perilously stands atop a foot stool to snap the perfect Polaroid group shot at The Heliotrope Foundation’s Pop-Up on Thursday with Swoon’s new hand drawn sketches to his right. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“The Intimacy Project” Gets Close to the Artist with Fer Alcala

April 8, 2017 Artists

“…the real heroes are the people noticing things, paying attention.”

~ John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Somewhere between celebrity and anonymity sits the Street Artist, depending on their wishes and fortune. We always feel lucky to see the artwork first anonymously on the street, because it needs to stand for itself, free of the passerby’s association with their knowledge of its author. Later, when you are in the presence of the artist with their work, the relationship you have with it is permanently altered. If you have established some trust, you also can learn so much about an artists relationship with the physicality of their process of art-making; the posture, the breathing, the gesture, the distance.

Photographer Fernando Alcalá Losa has made it a focus of his own art practice to notice the small and the great aspects of the artist’s process and captures important details that allow the viewer to understand the dynamics and relationship between an artist and their creation. In December on BSA he wrote,

“It’s about being there, right there, feeling the energy of creation. It’s about intimacy, about detail, about the personal connection with the artist, because you were able to be that close. And not everyone can be that close, that’s for sure…

I’m grateful for having the chance of living these moments of proximity, knowing that those artists that you’re shooting at trust you and allow you to be there, right there.”

Today on BSA we’re pleased to present a very rare collection of Fernando’s images that tell just these stories, these primary relationships that are in alignment with the life of a creator; a struggle, a dance, a wandering journey of discovery, a spirited production, an execution of plan. All of these aspects and more can be seen, and sometimes captured by the artist behind the lens.

“The Intimacy Project”

Fernando Alcalá Losa

Some weeks ago, I read a post from someone on Facebook saying that the figure of the artist wasn’t important, saying that the piece was the only relevant thing in fact.

It sounded funny to me because there’s no artwork without the artist, but I understand what was meant, although I disagree from a photographic point of view. “The Intimacy Project” is an idea that has been in my head for some time and it has been developing in parallel with my evolution as a Street Art photographer.

When I started to interact with artists, I was kind of obsessed about keeping the distance, physically speaking, and about not disturbing the artist. As time went by, I began getting closer to everything; not only to the wall, but also to the person who paints the wall. I became more confident, always trying to be respectful and operating from my best intentions – and I continue doing this today.

“The Intimacy Project” is about the person behind the artist, about the human side of the creative process and about what happens from a close up view while a piece of art is being produced.

It’s about gestures, expressions, obsessions and techniques. Because the artwork, the final result, is important, but the human being who creates it is also important for me…indeed…

“The Intimacy Project”

Took place over the course of one year
Three different tools used: Iphone, OlympusE510, FujifilmXT10
Scenarios: Openwalls Conference 2016, Ús Festival 2016, Contorno Urbano 2016 / 2017, La Arnau Gallery, Fem Rimes, Fem Graff 2016, Nau Bostik, Wallspot

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