Tell It to The Judge ; Graffiti Artists Win in 5 Pointz Case

Tell It to The Judge ; Graffiti Artists Win in 5 Pointz Case

February 13, 2018

In a ruling that many graffiti and Street Artists interpret as a validation of their artwork and which may spawn further legal claims by artists in the future, Brooklyn Judge Frederic Block, a United States Federal Judge for the Eastern District of New York, awarded $6.7 million in damages to a group of 21 artists in the high profile case of the former graffiti holy place in Queens called 5 Pointz.

Under the leadership of artist and organizer Jonathan “Meres One” Cohen, also a plantiff, the award is in response to a suit that cried foul on the overnight destruction of multiple artworks on building walls without consultation or notification of the artists.

5Pointz. Queens.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Citing provisions of the 1990 Visual Artists Rights Act that grants artists certain “moral” rights, the artists claimed that their artworks on the 5 Pointz compound that was owned by real estate developer Jerry Wykoff were protected and should be afforded certain rights and considerations.

Arts and intellectual property lawyers and judges will now be examining the implications of the ruling and citing it as an example in arguments about art created on walls legally and possibly those created illegally as well. In a city that prides itself as being a birthplace of graffiti and Street Art, many artists and wall owners must ask themselves if there will need to be an additional layer of agreement before an aerosol can is held aloft.

5Pointz. Queens.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For today the plaintiffs will celebrate the win and derive a sense of validation for their works at the compound that hosted an organic evolution of works by local, national, and international graffiti and Street Artist for nearly two decades under tacit or explicit agreement with the owner.

“I am happy to see my art form recognized as true art,” says Mr. Cohen in an article from Hyperallergic today, and ultimately that is the message that the graffiti writers and Street Artists will take from the story. Others will argue that this is gentrification issue of developers profiting from and then dismissing the artists who bring attractive buyers to a neighborhood. Now that a dollar value has been attached, a certain audience will also begin to again consider the intrinsic value of those artworks in the streets that they dismissed as pure vandalism with little other merit.

5Pointz. Queens.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Of the nearly 1,000 comments posted yesterday on our initial Facebook post about the decision, it is evident that many people still see this kind of art primarily as illegal vandalism and opine that a ruling like this is only adding credibility to criminal behavior. In that argument it is helpful to remember that these artists all had permission to paint.

Undoubtedly additional legacies of the ruling will play out in coming months and years. For the moment, it looks like the artists won this time, which is a seeming rarity during a time when technology has created a nearly unmitigated “Wild West” landscape of rights and responsibilities when it comes to aesthetic expression.

Related stories:

Judge Awards Graffiti Artists $6.7M After 5Pointz Destroyed

Judge Rules Developer Must Pay 5Pointz Graffiti Artists $6.7M

https://qz.com/1107031/new-yorks-5pointz-graffiti-artists-are-suing-a-real-estate-developer-for-destroying-their-work/

Looking at 5Pointz Now, Extolling a Graffiti Holy Place

5Pointz. Meres. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Onur . Semor . Wes21 . Kkade . 5Pointz, Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Esteban Del Valle. 5Pointz. Queens.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zeso . Meres. 5Pointz. Queens.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

5Pointz. Queens.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kram. 5Pointz. Queens.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

5Pointz. Queens.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

 

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Berlin Wall Milestone : Down as Long as It Was Up

Berlin Wall Milestone : Down as Long as It Was Up

February 12, 2018

The Berlin Wall has now been down as long as it was up. 28 years, two months and 27 days passed in both cases, and we are still looking for sane global policy about the freewill of people to prevail.

Ronald Reagan, a Republican president lauded by the right, once intoned while standing in front of the wall,

“We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace…Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Dimitry Vrubel mural “My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love” first painted in 1990 and restored in 2009 is based on the iconic photograph by Régis Bossu of the Fraternal Kiss in 1979 between Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German Leader Erich Honecker on the occasion of Brezhnev’s visit to East Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Also interestingly in that same speech Reagan referred to the graffiti on it;

“As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner, ‘This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality.’ Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.”

Chiseling the Berlin Wall (photo ©Owen Franken)

Mr. Reagan saw the hypocrisy of building walls, separating people, restricting freedom. Yet we today have another president so far to the right of Reagan that he has even threatened to shut down the government in order to secure funding to build a wall along the border with Mexico.

Fiodi Frede “Sons of Bitches. Stop Lying. We Learned Nothing.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Which brings us to a more recent sentiment on part of the remaining wall, written in Spanish;

“Hijos de puta dejen de mentir no aprendimos nada”, or “Sons of bitches stop lying we did not learn anything.”  No kidding.

As we mark this mathematical marker, we present a few images of that wall that once stood unbroken for 10,316 days

Gabriel Heimler (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Andrej Scharow (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Michail Serebrjakow (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jim Avignon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rhino (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Images Of The Week: 02.11.18

Images Of The Week: 02.11.18

February 11, 2018 ,


BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

Got anything lined up for Valentines Day? No pressure bro. Just be yourself sis! All that baloney about wine and dine and flowers – oh HELL NO! We’re all on a budget up in here! In fact we did some research for you and here’s 8 Cheap Valentine’s Day Dates in NYC thanks to writer Melanie Gardiner.

And for the rest of you non-attached and gorgeous BSA Readers may we recommend the delightful new cinematic pleasure from Urban Spree and the Berlin Kidz called “F**k the System” now available for the price of a movie house soda on Vimeo. Each time you think they won’t do it, they totally do it. Including riding bikes on top of the train. That part is NOT recommended.

In other news, the people in Washington are playing with fire and it looks like a large percent of them probably want to burn the whole government down. A second shutdown in one month? We have pyromaniacs bent on destroying basic stuff that the people built and need. Now that the taxes for the rich have been lowered so that social programs will go on a feeding tube, how many minutes will it take before they say, “we simply can’t afford to pay for Medicare and Social Security’? Tick Tick Tick.

Corporate taxes are now the lowest that they have been since 1939. Because that is the standard of living you want right? The 1930s. Ask your grandma and great grandma what life was like in the 1930s before they hiked the tax rate on the rich. MAGA, baby.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Avocado, Baston, City Kitty, Dede, Duke A. Barnstable, Irak, James Goldcrown, Joe Iurato, Little Ricky, Nora Breen Project, Pear, Smiler, Tez, The Joe Miller, Token 3784.

Top Image: Unidentified artist. We spot some similarities with the work of Nick Walker but we don’t think this is his piece.  (with Token 3784 sneaking in) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Joe Iurato (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nora Breen Project with thanks to Billy Joel (photo © Jaime Rojo)

James Goldcrown. “It’s Not All That Black And White…” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Joe Miller tribute to Charles Bradley. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pear (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tez . Irak (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (with Token 3784 sneaking in for second time this week) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Baston (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Baston (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Baston (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Duke A Barnstable (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Avocado (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Little Ricky (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Little Ricky (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dede (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Smiler (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Sunset over Manhattan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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“David Bowie is” Coming To Brooklyn in March

“David Bowie is” Coming To Brooklyn in March

February 10, 2018

For those who felt that they lost a friend when David Bowie died two years ago, a new exhibition organized by The Brooklyn Museum will bring him back to you for a moment. For those who refuse to speak about him in the past, David Bowie is makes perfect sense to name an exhibition. As renaissance man whose work continues to influence the route of music, fashion, and culture, David Bowie is still here in New York City.

“From Central Park to shanty town, I’ve always heard that crazy sound.” A cut-out image of Bowie in the park accompanied by a lyric from “Don’t Look Down” (link at bottom of posting). Photograph by Brian Duffy. © @duffy_archive & The David Bowie Archive. Photo: @BrooklynMuseum / @thebrookelynway

Of course Bowie’s image is always reappearing in the streets of New York and other cities, as it did before and now more after his passing. A touchstone for many creatives and artists, his image is a reminder to pursue your own vision, however outside the norm. Eventually they catch up. Or not.

 

Gazlay  2009 portrait of David Bowie on the streets of Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Organized by Matthew Yokobosky, Director of Exhibition Design, the exhibition includes about 400 objects drawn mainly from the David Bowie archive, including more than 60 original costumes, handwritten lyric sheets, original album art, photographs, and videos, including rare scenes from the Diamond Dogs tour in Philadelphia.

Follow @brooklynmusem on Instagram   for developing news about the exhibit and associated programming, including the “Night of 1000 Bowies”.

David Bowie is

More on Brooklyn Museum website https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/davidbowieis

Photograph from the album cover shoot for Aladdin Sane, 1973. Photograph by Brian Duffy. Photo Duffy © Duffy Archive & The David Bowie Archive.

Last month Choir! Choir! Choir! teamed up with David Byrne and a TON of singers in the Ford Foundation lobby of the Public Theater during the Under the Radar Festival to sing ‘Heroes’ written by David Bowie and Brian Eno

“We passed upon the stair,
we spoke of was and when,
although I wasn’t there,
he said I was his friend,
which came as some surprise.
I spoke into his eyes,
“I thought you died alone
a long long time ago.”

“Oh no, not me,
I never lost control.
You’re face to face
with the man who sold the world.”

“Man Who Sold The World”, David Bowie

Looking through our own vinyl collection, we found this fine example of early Bowie, “The Man Who Sold the World”. A perfect Saturday way to blow your mind. Listen to the single here on YouTube here.

 

“From Central Park to shantytown…” in “Don’t Look Down” on “Tonight”

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BSA Film Friday: 02.09.18

BSA Film Friday: 02.09.18

February 9, 2018

bsa-film-friday-JAN-2015

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

Now screening :
1. “Serenity” with SNIK in Manchester
2. Hellbent in Albany, NY
3. And Now a Message From Our Sponsors: Aphukenbrake
4. Low Bros in Rabat, Morocco

bsa-film-friday-special-feature

BSA Special Feature: “Serenity” with SNIK in Manchester

“To women who stood against injustice. We honor you. We witness to your courage and are humbled by your sacrifice,” says the narrator and activist Leigh Cook about the suffragettes in this new video following the duo SNIK as they create “Serenity” on Little Lever Street in the northern quarter of Manchester, directed by Doug Gillen at Fifth Walls TV.

And below is a behind-the-scenes reporter-on-the-ground-and-in-cherry picker video where Mr. Gillen speaks with organizers who attempt the gentrification issue that accompanies the mural campaign they’re expanding and Laura takes a swing at the topics of feminism, empowerment and the #METOO movement. Doug does some dancing.

 

Hellbent in Albany, NY

A promotional video for a mobile company using the mural painting of Street Artist Hellbent painting in Albany, New York.

And Now a Message From Our Sponsors: Aphukenbrake

Low Bros #sweet15s Episode 12 / Rabat, Morocco

“Good memories of last year’s JIDAR festival in Rabat, Morocco,” say Low Bros in this very entertaining brief visit to a beautiful part of the world. The use of their own footage throughout makes this much more eclectic and personal. Thumbs up for the music track by ADP & Levi Lennox.

 

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Black Panthers and Political Street Art from the 60s to Today

Black Panthers and Political Street Art from the 60s to Today

February 8, 2018

Amidst the hype surrounding the new Black Panther movie breaking records in theaters, we’re reminded by New York-based writer, photographer and documentarian Camilo José Vergara on City Lab that the people-powered revolutionary socialist organization Black Panther Party were superheroes on the streets of US cities who used art in the Streets to advance social and political goals.

Wheat-pasting political posters in the 90s “There is a Black Panther born in the ghetto every 20 minutes,” Former Brooks Bakery, 113 East 125th St., Harlem, 1995. (photo ©Camilo José Vergara)

“I was able to survey Black Panthers’ street graphics from the high point of the early 1970s, when they stood for black beauty, a respect for their African roots, anger at the police, self defense, and public service, all while exhibiting a unique style,” says the award winning Vergara  in this new photo essay of works on the streets about the Panthers. “They had moral authority as they risked their lives resisting arrest, taking over buildings, feeding children, and marching. Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Black Panther Party opposed the Vietnam War. But unlike him, the Panthers advocated self defense and demanded reparations for centuries of slave labor. ”

Read more in “The Black Panther Party’s History of Urban Street Art” here.

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Live From Stockholm – “BSA Film Weekend” At Magic City: The Art Of Invention

Live From Stockholm – “BSA Film Weekend” At Magic City: The Art Of Invention

February 7, 2018

The “Magic City” touring exhibition of a cross section of Street Art and graffiti practitioners has hit Stockholm and we are excited to be there in just a few weeks to host a BSA Film Weekend. There are so many artists using their imagination and ingenuity to transform public space today and some are documenting it through film, bringing us all into the experience to share the magic and get some education along the way.

 

In addition to the regular film program curated by BSA that has been running through the Dresden, Munich, and Stockholm engagements of Magic City, we’ll be selecting special new examples of inventiveness that are part science, part D.I.Y., and all kinds of mind blowing for the HUGE MAGIC program.

Photo still from Vegan Flava short film: “While They Seek For Solutions”

When we’re not in front of the audience we’re really looking forward to touring the local street scene and meeting new friends and taking in some of the new exhibitions and workshops within “Magic City”, which has broken all kinds of records bringing a wide range of high quality works to enthusiastic audiences thanks to curators Carlo McCormick and Ethel Seno and the rest of the creative team Anni Nocenti, Rainer Verbizh, and Tobias Kunz – all under the direction and forward-thinking vision of director Christoph Scholz. It’s been a complete honor working with this amazing and talented team of visionaries and professionals. We’re also proud that our editor of photography and BSA co-founder Jaime Rojo is one of the artists featured in the exhibition alongside some of his peers and heroes. Rojo has selections of photos especially for kids throughout the show and a photo essay in the sculpture exhibition.

Many of the original “Magic City” team in Dresden three months before the opening in July 2016.

We look forward to meeting you this month in Sweden!

Each Friday BSA readers enjoy thoughtfully curated films; now Stockholm has the opportunity on February 23 and 24 to to experience it LIVE during two lectures at Magic City – which stays open till midnight Friday. Surprises are guaranteed.

Photo still from MOMO short film: “Three Tanget Half Ellipses”

Photo still from AKAY and Brad Downey short film: “Thrash Trap”

BSA Editor in Chief Steven P. Harrington, Magic City Curator Ethel Seno, Chief Curator Carlo McCormick, BSA co-founder and Editor of Photography Jaime Rojo. (Photo © Frank Embacher)

Imagine taking a trip with Steve Harrington and Jaime Rojo through some of their favorite short video pieces from their popular BrooklynStreetArt.com feature: BSA Film Friday. Experimenters, explorers, and dreamers all, you’ll see how today’s street artists are transforming our cities with a certain new kind of inventiveness that is part science and part D.I.Y. Each Friday BSA readers enjoy thoughtfully curated films; now Stockholm has the opportunity to experience it LIVE at Magic City. Surprises are guaranteed.

23 & 24 Februari | Street Art: The Art of Invention | Brooklyn Street Art | Tänk dig att ta en underhållande tur med Steve Harrington och Jaime Rojo genom några av deras favoriter bland korta videobitar från deras populära BrooklynStreetArt.com-program: BSA Film Friday. Äventyrare, upptäckare och drömmare – du kommer se hur dagens Street konstnärer omformar våra städer med en ny typ av uppfinningsrikedom som är delvis vetenskap och delvis D.I.Y. Varje fredag får BSAs följare njuta av de välproducerade filmerna. Nu får stockholmarna möjlighet att uppleva detta LIVE på Magic City. Överraskningar utlovas!

February 23
18-19.30 Film night | Brooklyn Street Art
Open until Midnight
ÖPPET TILL MIDNATT
 
February 24
18-19.30 Film night | Brooklyn Street Art
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Trippy Clusters of Inflated DNA at the NYC Ballet: Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO

Trippy Clusters of Inflated DNA at the NYC Ballet: Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO

February 6, 2018

Ephemerality is a core aspect of art on the streets that differentiates it from conventions of art making and collecting and displaying in institutional settings. The fact that an artist is willing to let go of their work in the public sphere is an act of courage in some way, willing for it to be entrusted to the rules of the street and the natural elements – to be painted over, damaged, taken, beaten by the weather.

That aspect of Street Art was on display during a recent installation inside the New York City Ballet as well when Turkish American artist Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO filled the modernist Philip Johnson-designed theater atrium with twisting ephemeral DNA-strand sculptures made of balloons.

Thousands of balloons.

Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO. NYCBallet Art Series at Lincoln Center. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Much like a graffiti writer with cans running through tunnels, along train tracks and over back lots, Zincirli is specializing in a hit-and-run practice that will fade quickly. With a practice that includes public space as well as private, outdoor as well as indoor, Zencirli and team creates an engaging otherworldly moment for you to engage with for just a short time.

Inspired by the palette of an Ellsworth Kelly painting, the tens of thousands of primary colored orbs of multiple sizes were blown up in 4 hours, clustered, and strung high above the travertine, gently nestling the Carrara marble Elie Nadelman sculptures, Circus Women and Two Nudes anchoring each end of the promenade. Normally these plump and smoothed figures dominate the massive space with 4 stories of pedestrian balconies to view them in 360 degrees but on a recent frigid January evening after the performance of an often envelope-pushing ballet program, guests circulated among and above them to see their newest temporary neighbors. Some of the clusters on the floor came alive when cued by the music and began to dance, adding an additional element of trippiness to the transformation.

Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO. NYCBallet Art Series at Lincoln Center. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Biodegradable and ranging in size from ten inches to ten feet, Zincirli’s balloons have cavorted with bodegas, health clinics, the LA Broad Museum and the occasional Frank Lloyed Wright house, each time an ephemeral flourish, an outcropping of exuberance, a temporary festooning and claiming of space before slowly and gently deflating.

As guests took selfies and swung or danced, drinks in hand, to the sounds of a DJ stationed somewhere up above, the artist swerved through the crowd on her roller skates across the travertine and beneath the colorful canopy. She, more than anyone perhaps, knew that with temporary installations like this, it is important to savor the moment.

Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO. NYCBallet Art Series at Lincoln Center. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO. NYCBallet Art Series at Lincoln Center. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO. NYCBallet Art Series at Lincoln Center. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO. NYCBallet Art Series at Lincoln Center. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO. NYCBallet Art Series at Lincoln Center. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO. NYCBallet Art Series at Lincoln Center. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO. NYCBallet Art Series at Lincoln Center. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO. NYCBallet Art Series at Lincoln Center. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO. NYCBallet Art Series at Lincoln Center. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO. NYCBallet Art Series at Lincoln Center. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO. NYCBallet Art Series at Lincoln Center. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO. NYCBallet Art Series at Lincoln Center. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jihan Zencirli AKA GERONIMO. NYCBallet Art Series at Lincoln Center. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

There’s one NYC Ballet performance left on February 24th. Click HERE to order your tickets.

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Ann Lewis + StudioSpaceNYC Leave Things “Unspoken” in Manhattan

Ann Lewis + StudioSpaceNYC Leave Things “Unspoken” in Manhattan

February 5, 2018 ,

Some existential thoughts and questions are left UNSPOKEN in our lives. A new collaborative exhibit in a 14th Street pop-up space offers you the opportunity to engage with some of yours. Of course, you need not say anything.

Ann Lewis + studioSPACEnyc “Unspoken”. Manhattan, NYC. February 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Artist/conceptual artist Ann Lewis has been working with the design team of studioSPACEnyc to create and interactive an experiential installation incorporating linear digital rainstorms of light-mapped emotion and memory for you to lay beneath and look up into as it glitters and trickles and flickers across your mind. You may also just wish to walk around them as they flicker in geometric masses, easily punctuated by your hand or body.

Lewis invites you to contemplate weightier (or loftier) matters of impermanence and infinity with toe tags hanging at the end of these 115,000 feet of reflective strings. To further engage with the immersive installation, you can leave your mark on one of the toe tags by filling out short answers to some of life’s magnificient and somehow elusive questions.

Ann Lewis + studioSPACEnyc “Unspoken”. Manhattan, NYC. February 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We spoke with the artist and the curator, Zahra Sherzad, of Killer Media, who produced the exhibition that runs through February 15th.

Brooklyn Street Art: You have used toe tags previously in your work. What do they symbolize for you.
Ann Lewis: Toe tags carry the weight of our lives on them. As much as their 5 or 6 lines can define a person they’re so impersonal but infer this inevitability to the living. I have used them in the past to humanize the data surrounding those who have lost their lives to police brutality, or drug addiction. They have, up until this point, symbolized a finality.

Brooklyn Street Art: As an interactive exhibit, viewers are invited to contribute their answers to rather existential questions like “ Do we actually exist” and “What is the ultimate freedom?” How did you arrive at these questions?
Ann Lewis: While developing this project the curator Zahra Sherzad and I lost a mutual friend to drug addiction. I spent a lot of time considering her death and began to recognize for the first time that the only reason I’ve ever feared death is because of the loss I associate with it when others have passed. Then I began to consider what if death is an amazing adventure? Just because it’s an unknown doesn’t mean it has to be feared. I went down a meta wormhole wondering if we’re even alive right now! It’s so great not to have the answers

Ann Lewis + studioSPACEnyc “Unspoken”. Manhattan, NYC. February 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Immersive exhibitions usually have to strike a balance between leaving you alone and engaging you to participate. How do you plan for the variety of responses?
Ann Lewis: In my opinion good installation art must really consider how a participant will flow through the space. It must offer space and time for reflection as well as opportunities to engage. I like to offer those opportunities at the beginning of the experience and if possible create a movement throughout the space that is nonlinear which lends itself to personalized, unique experiences that in turn become strong memories that stay with the participant long after she leaves the space.

Ann Lewis + studioSPACEnyc “Unspoken”. Manhattan, NYC. February 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: When you work on the street do you ever think of elements or people in public space as part of your exhibition?
Ann Lewis: That’s the first thing I think of even before I know what the work will be. A good percentage of the work I’ve put outside has been site specific. Scouting is such a fun part of the job. One must recognize the context in which the work will be viewed in order to really have the opportunity to create an impactful experience for the viewer.

Brooklyn Street Art: What would be a good outcome for you if you could chose a viewers experience at this show?
Ann Lewis: I think having a participant leave the space questioning her understanding of her own perception of our world would be very exciting.

Ann Lewis + studioSPACEnyc “Unspoken”. Manhattan, NYC. February 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: How did you select Ann Lewis and studioSPACEart for this exhibition?
Zahra Sherzad: We wanted to create an interactive art installation, around the conversation of dying with dignity for the TV series “Kill Me”. We chose Ann as a multidisciplinary activist artist using painting, installation, and participatory performance. She has an ongoing work called “…and counting”, an interactive installation made with hung toe tags.  We brought the StudioSpaceNYC boys in with their projection mapping strings to add a cinematic experience and as a way to transport people into another world.

Brooklyn Street Art: Your projects have a social mission that runs parallel to your exhibits you curate. Are there particular symbols here that resonate with that mission?
Zahra Sherzad: “Unspoken” is a way to provoke thought around how we view death, which is what the series “Kill Me” is about.  We are not telling people what to think nor are we asking them to take a definitive position on the issues around mercy killing and dying with dignity. The viewers of the exhibition are asked to participate by filling out a questionnaire tailored to the shows script on the toe tags that asks questions about their relationship and experience with death.  As the days tick forward the installation grows as participants add new tags.

Ann Lewis + studioSPACEnyc “Unspoken”. Manhattan, NYC. February 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ann Lewis + studioSPACEnyc “Unspoken”. Manhattan, NYC. February 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ann Lewis + studioSPACEnyc “Unspoken”. Manhattan, NYC. February 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Ann Lewis + studioSPACEnyc “Unspoken”. Manhattan, NYC. February 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ann Lewis + studioSPACEnyc “Unspoken”. Manhattan, NYC. February 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

UNSPOKEN

Ann Lewis + studioSPACEnyc

January 18 – February 15, 2018

Killer Impact, a Killer Content company, is pleased to present “Unspoken” – a collaborative exhibit between artists Ann Lewis and studioSPACEnyc, curated by Killer’s Director of Visual Art, Zahra Sherzad at
149 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10011.

 

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BSA Images Of The Week: 02.04.18

BSA Images Of The Week: 02.04.18

February 4, 2018 ,

BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

Stomping through the streets of New York Friday looking for new Street Art and graffiti, the cold and the wind reminded us of a saying we learned from the Norwegians during recent trips there: “There’s no such a thing as bad weather, only bad clothing”.

Cold comfort perhaps, but an apt metaphor for weathering the storms. Prepare!

These photos draw from that frozen urban exploration we embarked upon to the hinterlands of places not typically known for a Street Art scene like Sunnyside, Queens and places now slaughtered with murals and some smaller illegal pieces like the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Hope you are as impressed by what we found as we are as Gen Z is making some of those Millenials look like old grannies out here! Real Talk.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring A Cool 55, Alex Andre, Damien Mitchell, drsc0, Alexander Evans, Ardif, Angry Red, Arrex Skulls, Below Key, Dede, Dirt Cobain, Gongkan, Keith Haring, Praxis VGZ, SacSix, Sean Slaney, Special Robot Dog, Teg Artworks, Thrashbird, and Voxx Romana .

Top Image: Thrashbird…and LBJ at the #greatwallofsavas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Cool 55 at the #greatwallofsavas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Cool 55 at the #greatwallofsavas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alexandra Evans . Alex Andrae at First Street Green. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damien Mitchell (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SacSix tribute to Biggie Smalls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dirt Cobain at the #greatwallofsavas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Arrex Skulls at the #greatwallofsavas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gongkan at First Street Green. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Special Robot Dog at First Street Green. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dede (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ardif. Detail. At the #greatwallofsavas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ardif at the #greatwallofsavas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Voxx Romana at the #greatwallofsavas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

drsc0 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Teg Artworks at the #greatwallofsavas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Below Key and friends. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sean Slaney and Angry Red at First Street Green. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sean Slaney and Angry Red at First Street Green. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Praxis VGZ (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Keith Haring (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. East River. January 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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New Print of “475 Kent” in Brooklyn Benefits Artists Who Built Community

New Print of “475 Kent” in Brooklyn Benefits Artists Who Built Community

February 3, 2018

475 Kent for Sale! Actually, it already sold to real estate developers a year ago – Roughly 20 years after an active artist community brought this nearly abandoned old pasta factory to life and made it desireable.

Buying one of these prints will defend their ability to stay in their live/work spaces.

475 Print # 1 Edition of 30. Rob Swainston . Alison Dell . Prints Of Darkness.

Today, those same artists and creatives are at the center of New York’s largest symbolic fight to keep artists in their live/work spaces, testing the letter of the Loft Law and the commitment to the people by the Loft Board. So far, nearly 50 families including older folks and children have been expunged from their spaces since the building was sold one year ago.

When you pay $56 million for a factory to turn it into a luxury loft building in Brooklyn, you probably kept some funds for lawyers to clean it out. Stop us if you’ve heard this one before.

There are multiple shades of color that wash over this brand new image by two artists who were married on the roof of this former pasta factory in 2001. Both accomplished professors (art and biology respectively) Rob Swainston and Alison Dell also began their print shop in the building in the mid 2000s, humorously called “Prints of Darkness”.

In one of the many incredible stories associated with the artists community at 475 Kent – three weeks after Swainston and Dell were wedded on the roof tenant and renowned photographer Robert Clark shot images of the 2nd plane hitting the World Trade Center from that same roof, a photo appearing on the cover of Time that week and in National Geographic among other publications.

475 Print # 2 Edition of 26. Rob Swainston . Alison Dell . Prints Of Darkness.

To help raise funds for tenants legal and architectural expenses here Swainston and Dell donate their talent, time, and print supplies for a very special release; a portrait of the building that made this a home and a community for 20 years of entrepreneurial artists, photographers, designers, musicians, filmmakers, curators, gallerists, publishers, writers, editors, teachers, models, programmers, architects, street artists, printers, sculptors, builders, fabricators, chefs, brewers, botanists, performers, and all their lovers, spouses, and kids.

Sales of the print will benefit the 475Kent Tenants Association and all funds raised will assist with legal and architectural expenses incurred as the building and its residents move through the legalization process under the Loft Law. A test case for the new 2010 Loft Law that provides protection for cultural creators like these, the process has been less than favorable according to a recent article by Ben Sutton in Hyperallergic: “If Things Were Going Well, We Wouldn’t Be Here”: Artists Protest NYC’s Loft Board”

Writes Sutton, “Despite a promise from Mayor de Blasio that he would defend them, New York City’s loft tenants feel more vulnerable than ever and are taking their concerns to the board charged with helping them.”

475 Print # 3 Edition of 23. Rob Swainston . Alison Dell . Prints Of Darkness.

You’ll be hearing more on the unique place that this building holds in the story of New York’s Arts community in coming months as residents will be adding to their legal war chest with fundraisers that have already received pledges of support from some of the biggest names in Street Art and photography, painting, food, and the plastic arts. True community builders, the activist spirit of the art scene here for two decades has already fought and won to fight off power plants by energy interests all along the riverside of Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the early 2000s, where thousands of school children would have been breathing polluted air.

They’ve fought for community gardens, funding for parks, protected bike lanes, and sane siting of waste-disposal plants, among other efforts. In January 2008 the entire building was evacuated, shoving 250 people out in two hours by the Fire Department because of dangerous conditions created by the matzoh factory that had been running in the basement for many years apart from the artists involvement. After actively mobilizing support from the City, the press, their politicians, the community board and the larger New York artists community and supporters, they helped the owners construct a new fire-safe sprinklers system among other things and moved back in the building en masse four months later.

Clearly this is a dynamic community of creatives that fights the good fight and you can help bolster their efforts today by bringing 475 Kent into your home.

Click on 475Kent.org .

Click HERE to learn more about Prints Of Darkness

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BSA Film Friday: 02.02.18 : BANE & PEST in Chernobyl

BSA Film Friday: 02.02.18 : BANE & PEST in Chernobyl

February 2, 2018 ,

bsa-film-friday-JAN-2015

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

Now screening :
1. RECOVER – Street Art in Chernobyl

bsa-film-friday-special-feature

BSA Special Feature: RECOVER – Street Art in Chernobyl

Chernobyl is a nuclear disaster that figures profoundly into the modern age – and for centuries into the future.

Today not so many people talk about this man-made horror that killed a Russian town and chased out its survivors in 1986 just 90 kilometers northeast of Kiev. Called the most disastrous nuclear accident in history, it evacuated 115,000 and spread a radioactive cloud around the Earth, with European neighbors like Scandinavia, Switzerland, Greece, Italy, France and the UK detecting the effects of radiation for years afterward. Three scientists at The New York Academy of Sciences have estimated that over time the number of people killed by effects from the meltdown was almost a million.

Because of the nature of radiation, Chernobyl has been estimated to not be safely habitable for about 20,000 years.

Not that you read many critical essays about the innate evil or catastrophic danger of nuclear power in your corporate media, possibly because they take paid advertising from the industry.

Naturally we’re not making light of the subject. But it is of great interest when two Street Artists have recently penetrated the Exclusion Zone of Chernobyl and today we present a short documentary of their experience. After securing permission and accompanied by a guide, BANE & PEST, a Swiss/Cypriot Street Art duo based in Chur, Switzerland, made it inside to paint. They learned not to touch anything and to tread lightly, Geiger counter in hand and 50 kilograms of paint in tow.

In the course of their 5 day excursion you can sense the gravity of the disaster as well as the effect of the experience on the artists. Faced with more existential questions perhaps than they contemplated previously, you learn that their art is transformed as well as their view of the Earth we depend on.

BSA spoke with one of the artists, Bane, and the Zurich-based directors Zoran Stojanovic and Thomas Brunner about their experiences creating art and filming a documentary inside Chernobyl, now considered part of a war zone in Ukraine.

BSA: It appears that your experience of Chernobyl continued to change – from the planning, to the traveling there, to discovering the city. Would you say that your perceptions of the former city evolved over time?
BANE: It was clear from the beginning that we did not know what to expect. The city itself was like a journey into the future.

This is what the world looks like when we no longer have people. Nature and everything around it is regenerating very fast. It was a very nice look into the future.

BSA: Were the preparations and precautions you took sufficient?
Tom & Zoran: Well – we received the request to accompany Bane and Pest on their trip to Chernobyl only about two weeks before they planned to start the trip. The film team who had initially accepted the job jumped off the project due to fear of radiation.

The time which was left for the preparation of this adventure was of course very short but the unique chance to travel to such a fascinating place and to be part of this project made us decide to do it.

Unfortunately our insurance did not accept the coverage of our camera for this trip as the Ukraine is still regarded to be a war area. In the very last minute we were able to buy a second hand camera at a reasonable price. But we did not have any time to test it and could only view the first footage when we were already in Kiev which is rather crazy.

As far as precautions were concerned, it was a lucky coincidence that Tom’s godfather, who had worked in the security department of a nuclear power plant in Switzerland for many years, could give us very valuable advice on the necessary preventive measures we had to take.

BSA: Not many Street Artists/graffiti writers can say that they painted in Chernobyl. Would you recommend it?
BANE: Only with caution. I think it’s the wrong place for a “hall of fame”

One should very consciously approach the matter and with extreme caution choose the subjects.

BSA: What was the thing that surprised you the most as filmmakers when approaching the environment?
Tom & Zoran: We knew that the exclusion zone was extremely fascinating from the visual point of view and would give numerous possibilities for our work. But what we found when we got there was beyond all our expectations. The number of abandoned buildings is amazing – there is everything: an old theater, a former swimming pool, a deserted hospital, a former school. Just a real town.

Chernobyl is nowadays a tourist attraction as well. So we found some ‘arranged places’ which were sort of ‘prepared’ for the photographers from all over the world. That is something we did not expect.

BSA: As you traveled through the factory and hospital and around the antenna, would you say that you felt the presence of life in a city that once was fully alive?
BANE: Life was pulsing everywhere. No civilization noise, no aircraft noise, no cars. Nothing at all.

The environment was so quiet you could almost hear the trees growing. Birds were heard from far away. Since no more people have an influence on the environment, this has the opportunity to live fully.

BSA: Did the team feel overwhelmed by your surroundings at any point?
Tom & Zoran: The moment we passed the nuclear reactor where the accident happened was very moving indeed. At that stage the reactor was still very clearly visible and not covered by a sarcophagus as it is now.

When we first came to the amusement park with the famous big wonder wheel we all were totally overwhelmed by unbelievable emotions. On one hand you feel very sad for all these people who had to leave their homes and
give up living in their town, on the other hand one is fascinated by the incredible silence and special beauty of this place. You just do not hear anything there – no cars, no people, no birds. You might be standing 30 meters away from somebody else and still be able to talk at a normal volume. This is stunning.

As a team we grew together very closely there.

BSA: Were you limited to only painting these official murals?
BANE: Actually, we only had the permission to paint on the outskirts. After our arrival we were told that we can paint wherever we want. Thus, we also decided to paint three pieces instead of one.

BSA: What is your observation about the animals and trees that have been taking over the area and how did that affect your choice of subjects to paint?
BANE: As we changed our way of choosing the spaces, we have decided to dedicate the pictures to the wildlife that have settled in the area. It can be said that the whole environment in Chernobyl first brought us to these subjects

BSA: Was there any kind of human threat while you were filming and the artists were painting? How animal threats?
Tom & Zoran: We have to say that we have been accompanied by a local guide who knew the area and also the dangerous parts of it very well. So we always felt very secure.

After a while we had the opportunity to walk around on our own with a radio set and a Geiger tube. In Chernobyl and in Pripyat this is all very well organized. You pass the military checkpoints and controls of your papers.

Tourist groups only stay for a short while at the known places and are then transported further on. The security is taken very seriously by the authorities.

Although we knew that nature is “fighting its way back” and animal population is growing again, we never got into a critical situation with animals. Rather, we were fascinated by horses grazing peacefully or foxes sneaking about.

All images are screenshots from film and ©Pixel Love 2017

 

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