BSA Images Of The Week: 10.23.16

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.23.16

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We have an unusually high number of “Unidentified Artist” pics this week along with some new names – which to us means the streets are alive and changing again, responding to new voices. Of course it is good to see some of the more familiar players as well.

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Astro Naut, BelowKey, BenFGraphic, BustArt, Cern, Faile, Free the Hearts, GB Pigeon, Megavote, Panmela Castro, SheWolf, Specter, Tatiana Fazlalizadeh, Who is Dirk.

Our top image: Panmela Castro borrows a phrase from Hillary Clinton to make her point. Or did Hillary borrow it from Panmela? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Tatiana Fazlalizadeh (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Specter updates the Yusuf Hawkins mural again. See our story on the last time he did this here. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Faile through the window (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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GB Pigeon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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“The Thinker” from Bustart (photo © Bustart)

“I just finished a huge wall for the Kettenreaktion,” Bustart says. “This is an art project in a abandoned factory in Switzerland. The last two months lots of artist were working in and on the factory and made installations, paintings, performances and much more. After the transformation the area will be open for cultural events. For more information please click HERE.

 

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Bustart (photo © Bustart)

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Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Unidentified Artist. A miniature piece can be just as impressive as the largest of murals. Is this vandal tossing an aerosol can? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Shewolf (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Belowkey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Unidentified Artist. Good luck cat. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Who Is Dirk (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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CERN (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Ben F Graphic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Megavote (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Astro Naut at an abandoned factory in Reggio Emilia, Italy. (photo © Astro Naut)

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Astro Naut at an abandoned factory in Reggio Emilia, Italy. (photo © Astro Naut)

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Loose lips sink ships! Lip Slip (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Utitled. SOHO, NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Wastedland 2. Andrew H. Shirley Corrals Counter-Culture in Detroit

Wastedland 2. Andrew H. Shirley Corrals Counter-Culture in Detroit

“The only way to support a revolution is to make your own.” Abbie Hoffman


 

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EKG Labs. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

PREAMBLE

At any given moment a counter-culture is developing before your eyes. Authoritarian governments know this. So do, as it turns out, lifestyle brands, sociologists, and PR firms.

Born of a genuine disaffection with the dominant culture as it steamrolls blithely forward, counter-culture has the ability to draw sharp contrasts into focus, expose secrets, challenge hypocrisies, redress inequality. It can also crack open a moribund mindset and give oxygen and sunlight and water to new ideas, new ways of being, alternate paradigms.

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UFO 907 & William Thomas Porter. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Counter-culture is essential to growth of culture, and while it can be shocking, disruptive, even painful at times, the wise know that the marginalized often lead the body politic toward a stronger equilibrium, a more perfect union.

Graffiti may not have begun as a subculture or a counter-culture, but virtually all of our recognized institutions steadfastly resisted it. Over time, they have become more open to suggestion, if with reservations and conditions. Eventually, everything is transformed by it in degrees.

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EKG Labs. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DETROIT CHARTS THE MOVEMENT

May we suggest that when it comes to the counter-cultural aspects of graffiti and Street Art, Detroit is a fine example of being in multiple stages of acceptance and denial, with examples of the counter-culture all along the continuum from rejection to absorption.

During a recent visit we saw old-school Detroit graffiti heads with their elaborate pieces next to newcomer kids from other cities bringing a raw-graff anti-style. You could also find corporate lifestyle brands polishing their art-cool bonafides while gently intermingling with grassroots community-minded mural organizing.

Further up the financial ladder you’ll witness blue-chip collector/investors getting down in a gallery culture that supports marquee art names, and major institutions courting younger “edgy” artists who started their “careers” far outside the mainstream, often outside the law.

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EKG Labs. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Andrew H. Shirley steps carefully in many ways as he leads us up a cracked staircase of oil-caked concrete, piss-poor lighting and the occasional puddle of murk. Our ears are still ringing from the sounds of a busted muffler in his car and we’re mulling over the sight of his dashboard vitrine that seemed to contain bones, feathers, amulets and pop culture debris reflecting in a ochre filmed windshield.

On the way here to Lincoln Art Park, we have passed graffitied car carcasses, crumbling ex factories, and fire torched exoskeletons of houses – all which lead to this loading dock entrance of a building once owned by Ford, now run as a recycling plant and, as it turns out, an art exhibition gallery.

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Our ride to Wastedland 2. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“So there was 40 years of garbage and the whole floor was filled with it,” Andrew says, “I came in here and I had to unload all of that sh*t by myself”.

A native of the big D, the slim-framed Mr. Shirley has spent half of his 40 years outside of it; writing graffiti, pitching and creating art projects, promoting scenes, studying film making and custom bike-making… generally pushing the margins of cultural acceptability in a way that looks sketchy on a resume – but would make smart brands salivate, if they had the guts.

“This is the 20th anniversary of me leaving this town and I have been back several times with several different shows,” he says about the group exhibitions and events that feature what he calls ‘underground aesthetics’.

“This is the first big public project where I brought a lot of my friends from New York and included the artists and makers here in Detroit who I have come to know over the years – all under one roof and showcasing all of their talents.”

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Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

THE FILM

Also, a film screening.

It’s the debut of “Wastedland2” in the middle of this 7,000 square foot dark cavern with a small grouping of stolen church pews facing the screen. The original Wastedland was a smaller tale – a petri dish of ideas that expanded and took root in a showier piece of exploration and mystery with higher production values.

The seating area is orbited by mini-dioramas of characters and scenes featured in the half hour graffiti mockumentary. Here is a handmade shack by Adam Void that perhaps epitomizes a metaphorical outsider clubhouse mentality common to the graffiti game.

To stage left is a stuffed 6-foot tall Cranky Cat standing erect amid piles of spent paint cans, a fire extinguisher, and exhaust tubes leading nowhere. In the movie Cranky is a feral and grouchy/whining character who propels the drunken aerosol action forward with escapades of ex-urban painting and existential fireside conversation with Wolftits and Amoeba Man in their “Wizard of Oz”-like  pilgrimage in search of truths. There is no Dorothy and no Toto in the film, but the animal head masks are trippy and comical even in the darkest moments. Each graffiti artist, according to EKG, was asked to make a costume that mimicked their spirit-animal. Amoeba Man’s plastic-wrapped head mask is a tour-de-force.

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Standing silently in the center of the floor behind the seating area in the exhibit is the massive tentacled steam-punked multi-eyed orb made of wood and steel that gives physical presence to the elusive anonymous graffiti crew called UFO 907. He also is the films’ diety and the holder of the aforementioned elusive truths.

Behind him on the wall is another slatted and animated version of UFO – perhaps more similar to the wiggly UFO 907 character sprayed across hundreds of walls in NYC. This animated sculpture version has a reservoir of black ink that drips on the floor.

Wastedland 2 is a road trip without road, a therapeutic buddy film without saccharine, staged in a post apocalyptic terrain that is revealed as graffiti oasis. The hapless beer- and weed-fueled journey is pure youthful angst suspended in chemicals and many in the audience laughed in recognition at the head-banging frustration voiced about fundamental life questions by these furry characters.

Despite the obvious obstacles posed by frozen facial expressions, there is a warmth in the interactions. Of note particularly is the party scene of mixed genders and the stumbling awkwardness of Wolftits with a potential lady friend; this will be the first time you’ve seen the mating game portrayed quite like this.

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“Cranky Cat’s Hovel” with Cranky Cat. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“This piece played the character of God in the film,” Andrew says, pointing to the all-seeing sculpture. “You may have seen that it was actually in a field in upstate New York.”

Yes, we made the trip to the rolling hills of cow-country to see it twice in a field of gently waving weeds. Previously we saw it in the lobby of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Previous to that we saw it being carved, soldiered, and under construction in UFO’s studio in Brooklyn. Truthfully, it does seem rather god-like.

Andrew says he transported the hulking orb by truck from rural New York to post-industrial Detroit, which must have taken 9 or 10 hours if he crossed into Canada and squeezed between the Great Lakes of Ontario and Erie.

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EKG Labs. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This old factory has definitely not been refurbished into a “white box” gallery space, and there are no guards. There may be a guard dog. The floors are occasionally flooded by a leak from a source that is hard to pinpoint, the lighting is so irregular as to appear incidental, and visitors should be careful not to bang their head on the soot-covered sculptures of clouds by artist DarkClouds that are affixed slightly above with stalactite-like ebony drips that could be solid or liquid.

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Dark Clouds. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As you parse the floors and avoid the paint-peeling columns Mr. Shirley is narrating just ahead of you with an earnest voice that weaves in and out of range, dashing off to find an extension chord perhaps, or a ladder, or to find someone to come explain the muscular graffiti pieces on display in the adjoining passage.

 

GANGSTERS AND WHITE KIDS

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BRZM ISH/ SYW. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Presently a twenty-something guy named Zak Warman appears and walks us past 10 or so freshly wild and layered graffiti pieces each displayed in their own bay, each representing important players from the last couple of decades in the Detroit graffiti scene. Zak tells us says that the Motor City scene is characterized by two distinct styles and constituencies at the moment, and this show combines both.

“I guess like the ‘gangster graffiti’ and the ‘white kid graffiti’ would be the best way to put it,” he explains while surveying the lineup and glancing at the rest of the show. “You know, the people who were like born in the gutter here and the people who came here in their teen years who moved here and such.”

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YOGURT / DFW. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“There’s people here who would never have painted together but maybe it was just the way that I showed them or my proposal. I was like ‘let’s just set everything aside that’s happened over the years – this is about us it is not about you. This is about everybody not just about our own f**king personal graff beef.’ ”

“It’s like the first time that everyone has come together into one big family.”

Mr. Shirley jumps in to further describe the nature of the work and the creators. “It is very important in Detroit to be able to ‘piece’, ” he says of the verb ‘piece’ that describes the noun ‘piece’ – a large, complex, and labor-intensive graffiti painting.

“In some places having a good tag is that first staple and then you move up from that tag,” he explains. “But here, because of the amount of time and space that you have to develop your craft all of these dudes really regard piecing above everything else.”

He walks down to the end of the line to point at a painted work. “These guys at the end – PERU and ARMY – they were doing 10-color pieces on the streets, as was SEKT – before anyone else. These guys represent a span of time from the early and mid 90s into the 2000s.”  In most cities you don’t have that luxury of time to develop an illegal piece, but Detroit has a number of stories like this.

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PERU ARMY. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A common story around Detroit is that, due to de-industrialization, the collapsing economy and the shrinking municipal budgets in the 1990s and 00s, the police were only arresting people for felonies. Since graffiti was not a felony, the police would simply drive by while aerosol was being sprayed.

“It’s not a myth,” says Andrew. “I painted a water tower one time – it’s still here today.” He recounts a story where one cop sat vigil on a rooftop for hours watching him paint on the water tower, only to be replaced by another until finally the painting was done. “I think he was just making sure that I didn’t get hurt and that I was okay,” he says with a sense of wonder.

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SEKT EBC / DFW. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

PARTING FOG

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EKG Labs . Drake. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It’s time to depart the Wastedland 2 exhibition and go to the streets in this run-down part of Detroit, where the art on the walls is roughly the same as the stuff we’ve just come to see.

It is unclear if this underground is simply about aesthetics, or if there is a deeper message. Maybe this is not a counter-culture after all, but a subculture.

As we stand by the elevated installation by artist EKG, dry-ice smoke billows out of a fully formed madman’s laboratory behind black curtains. Amid the visual field of blinkering orange light tubes and smoke that harken back to 1950s Sci-Fi movies, you see another character from the movie; the film’s box-headed admin assistant who robotically types out reams of black scrolls full of orange symbols to decode at a pivotal moment. This is an apt skillset to possess in an underground scene that is heavily coded and rife with implied and layered messages. A simple man of few words, EKG dubbed his character The Cyber Spirit Stenographer in The Court of The Overlord.

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EKG Labs. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We consider the amorphous steam from the Cyber Spirit and wonder how porous the veil is between the mainstream and the outsider artists who fuel this scene. When does counter-culture become culture? We can’t say for sure.

“Detroit is a pretty good example of counter-culture becoming culture, actually,” replies Andrew H. Shirley to our inquiry. “There is this corporatization that happens and there are culture vultures on the corners and in the nooks and crannies in underground scenes of America and they are exploiting it for monetary gain.”  True. But there is also word-of-mouth that spreads the news and the willing, thrilling adoption of techniques and languages by the naturally inquisitive types whose brain synapses are electrified by discovery.  With shows like this does Mr. Shirley feel like he is aiding and abetting the mainstreaming of a subculture like graffiti and its D.I.Y tributaries?

“I’d like to pull back the curtains and give a little peek of it but I’m not trying to shine too many flashlights or provide too much of a narrative into the ‘hows’ and ‘whats’ and ‘whys’. I think it’s important for the common man to see that there is an alternative perspective because too often they are just inundated by the media that is controlled by the corporations – who are telling them what to wear, how to think, how to act, what to pray to, what to feel and how to live their life.”

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EKG Labs. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

SOME LAST WORDS ON FESTIVALS

He does have a little beef with mural festivals though.

He thinks his Wastedland 2 show deals a fairer hand to local artist communities. “This is kind of in contrast to what seems to be an international phenomenon of bringing muralists, many of them the same muralists, from city to city – developing a ‘look’ that is kind of becoming a blanketed look,” he says.

“Detroit has so many f**king artists and part of the problem for me is that there are a lot of these mural festivals that are two thirds or 75% or 90% international artists and 10% or 20% local artists. It doesn’t allow for the city to see what is really happening here. I wanted to have a show where the background and the forefront of the show was about what was happening here.”

“While I do think the mural festival is very important in bringing in outside influence and outside interest into the city, for me it is just as important, or more important, to really praise and understand the origins of these movements in Detroit. That’s why I have reached out and had the help of friends to get these artists into the show.”

That said, we’ll say that the Wastedland 2 event was heavily promoted by the folks at the recent Murals In The Market Festival and many of the international artists who participated in the mural festival were also in attendance at the Shirley curated show, the bonfires, and music events at the sculpture park – as well as the screening of the movie.

Of course we also saw Gen Y and even Gen Z there with backpacks full of paint, dangling their legs off the retaining wall that overlooked the huge bonfire — who seemed to disappear when the freight train that ran along the lots’ perimeter came to a halt. There was also a guy from the Detroit Institute of Arts and a local plumber who talked to us about building a tree house in his front yard. Maybe it is harder to define culture than we thought.

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Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Amy Smalls . George Vidas. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Amy Smalls . George Vidas . GEN2. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rambo . UFO907 . Ryan C. Doyle. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rambo . UFO907 . Ryan C. Doyle. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rambo . UFO907 . Ryan C. Doyle. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rambo . UFO907 . Ryan C. Doyle. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Amanda Wong . Andrew H. Shirley. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dark Clouds. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Wolftits popcorn making machine. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Adam Void. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Greg Henderson. Wastedland 2. Detroit, September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Participating artists at Detroit Wastedland2, curated by Andrew H. Shirley include ARMY, BRZM, DRAKE, DONT, DYKE, ELMER, FOUR EYES, LIGER, MINCE, PERU, PORAB, REVEREND, SECT, SKWAT, TOUCH, TURDL, YOGRT and others from Detroit and also artists Adam Void, Amanda Wong,  Amy Smalls and George Vidas , Ben Wolf,  DARKCLOUDS,  EKG,  Greg Henderson,  Hugo Domecq,  RAMBO,  Ryan C. Doyle,  UFO 907,  William Thomas Porter,  WOLFTITS, among others.

Performers included The Unstoppable Death Machines, DJ Ihatejail.com (Crazy Jim from Wolf Eyes), Ishtar, Lt. Dan, and Dj’s Abacus, Prismviews, Black Noi$e, Abby and 100% Halal Meat


This article is also published on The Huffington Post

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Next stop on the film’s multi-city launch: Richmond,Virginia on November 4.

Wastedland 2” and the accompanying show will feature new artwork from:  Adam Void, Amanda Wong, Amy Smalls and George Vidas, Andrew H. Shirley, Conrad Carlson, DARKCLOUDS, EKG, Greg Henderson, NOXER, RAMBO, Russell Murphy, Ryan C. Doyle, UFO 907, William Thomas Porter, WOLFTITS, and live performances from The Unstoppable Death Machines and Richmond’s DUMB WAITER and TOWARD SPACE. There will also be graffiti installations from local Richmond vandals and the 907 crew.

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BSA Film Friday: 10.21.16

BSA Film Friday: 10.21.16

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

Now screening :

1. “What If You Fly” Sean Yoro AKA HULA
2. Herakut in Paris for “100 Walls for Youth”
3. Cleon Peterson: “Endless Sleep” at the Eiffel Tower
4. The Yok & Sheryo “Ping Pong Auto Shack” Murals In The Market 2016 /1xRUN/Detroit

 

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BSA Special Feature: “What If You Fly” Sean Yoro AKA HULA

This is outdoor painting that tests concepts of precariousness, ephemerality, temporality.

“It’s too bad that it didn’t last but that’s the way the world works. Not everything lasts very long,” says Inuit native Jesse Mike of the experimental portrait by Hula on a floating chunk of ice.

“One of my main priorities for working outside is to interact with the environment,” says the artist lying on a small raft of snow bobbing gently in ice cold water – his painting literally mixed into the snow next to him.

This is painting in the arctic, in between the drift ice and the main pack ice. Before it melts.

Herakut in Paris for “100 Walls for Youth”

A fascinating intermingling of realism, fantasy, and poetry, the composition features a helmeted youth sees a winged horse in the sublime otherworld that children so easily inhabit. Part of the 100 Walls for Youth program just begun with Street Artist C215, this wall also neatly aligns with the upcoming exhibition of the artists at the gallery November 25th

Gautier Jourdain, co-owner of Mathgoth, tells us that Jasmin (Hera) and Falk (Akut) looked no further than the streets of Paris for inspiration. “They asked a student who passed by in the street if she would like to be a model for their painting. She said yes and they took pictures and used them for direct reference.”

For our article and photos of this installation go here:

Cleon Peterson: “Endless Sleep” at the Eiffel Tower

Cleon Peterson tells the story of how he developed “Endless Sleep”, his painting at the base of the Eiffel Tower in Paris during the Nuit Blanche festival.

The Yok & Sheryo “Ping Pong Auto Shack” Murals In The Market 2016 /1xRUN/Detroit

Those Krazy Kids from Singapore and Down Under somehow have landed in Detroit briefly and have decided to Shack Up. Sexy ladies, devils, and tattoos all mill about.

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Herakut In Paris With A Message for the Kids About Magic

Herakut In Paris With A Message for the Kids About Magic

“Le duo allemand vient de signer sa première fresque à Paris,” says Galerie Mathgoth as they present Herakut and their new mural on rue Goscinny in #Paris13.

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Herakut. Paris. (photo © courtesy of Galerie Mathgoth)

A fascinating intermingling of realism, fantasy, and poetry, the composition features a helmeted youth sees a winged horse in the sublime otherworld that children so easily inhabit. Part of the 100 Walls for Youth program just begun with Street Artist C215, this wall also neatly aligns with the upcoming exhibition of the artists at the gallery November 25th

Gautier Jourdain, co-owner of Mathgoth, tells us that Jasmin (Hera) and Falk (Akut) looked no further than the streets of Paris for inspiration. “They asked a student who passed by in the street if she would like to be a model for their painting. She said yes and they took pictures and used them for direct reference.”

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Herakut. Paris. (photo © courtesy of Galerie Mathgoth)

Hera composed a poem and painted it after Akut placed the figure- a total of three days from start to finish. The text is a gentle reassurance to the young who may be confused or frightened by events that take place in this adult-run world right now.

Translated it is:

“This message is for the kids. Even though our times make it hard to see, there is magic. (We have seen it)”

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Herakut. Paris. (photo © courtesy of Galerie Mathgoth)

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Herakut. Paris. (photo © courtesy of Galerie Mathgoth)

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Herakut. Paris. (photo © courtesy of Galerie Mathgoth)

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Herakut. Paris. (photo © courtesy of Galerie Mathgoth)

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Herakut. Paris. (photo © courtesy of Galerie Mathgoth)

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Herakut. Paris. (photo © courtesy of Galerie Mathgoth)

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Herakut. Paris. (photo © courtesy of Galerie Mathgoth)

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Herakut. Paris. (photo © courtesy of Galerie Mathgoth)

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Herakut. Paris. (photo © courtesy of Galerie Mathgoth)

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Herakut. Paris. (photo © courtesy of Galerie Mathgoth)

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Herakut. Paris. (photo © courtesy of Galerie Mathgoth)


 

And speaking of Magic…

Herakut’s work can also be seen in Dresden, Germany right now for the “Magic City” exhibition, which BSA are curators of the Film Program and photographer Jaime Rojo is an artist in. See an interview with Herakut here and learn about how they used artist Ernest Zacharevic as their model for that piece.

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Jellyfish and Sharks and Octopi, Oh My! Tahiti’s ONO’U, Part Deux

Jellyfish and Sharks and Octopi, Oh My! Tahiti’s ONO’U, Part Deux

Our intrepid Ms. Cooper had to island-hop to snap photos of the rest of these colorful murals in Tahiti for the ONO’U Festival. Raiatea is the name of the island and Martha was told that it was known for being a sacred island where human sacrifices once took place.

“It is also the place from where voyages set out to explore surrounding islands. Two murals are based on that idea,” she say, then adds “mercifully no one painted a human sacrifice.”

Perhaps it’s is an aversion to those tales that produced only blatantly pleasant murals that feature cute sea faring creatures and the occasional errant Jaguar. Jaguars, for the record, do not favor these islands but appear to be a favorite of the French Street Artist Marko 93. There are, however Tiger Sharks swimming around sometimes, and jellyfish.

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Kalaouf at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Raiatea, Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Kalaouf. ONO’U Festival 2016. Raiatea, Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Niko & Inkie at work on their murals. ONO’U Festival 2016. Raiatea, Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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NIKO at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Raiatea, Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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NIKO & INKIE. ONO’U Festival 2016. Raiatea, Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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SETH at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Raiatea, Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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SETH. ONO’U Festival 2016. Raiatea, Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Seth’s Raiatea mural is of a female mermaid-octopus holding a ship. “Her tentacles represent the other islands,” says Martha.

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Marko at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Raiatea, Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Marko and friends. ONO’U Festival 2016. Raiatea, Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Paris based Marko 93 was one of the most social and generous of the artists, says Martha.

“His jaguars are colorful crowd-pleasers,” she says. “Marko had a very good rapport with the locals and cheerfully signed dozens of T-shirts for kids who took a graffiti workshop.”

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Marko with fans. ONO’U Festival 2016. Raiatea, Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Marko with a young fan. ONO’U Festival 2016. Raiatea, Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Marko enjoying the locals, and vise versa. ONO’U Festival 2016. Raiatea, Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

 


 

A version of this article appears on The Huffington Post

 

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See Part 1 of this series here:

 

 

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Luna Park’s “(Un)Sanctioned” Book – Our Interview & This Weekend’s Launch

Luna Park’s “(Un)Sanctioned” Book – Our Interview & This Weekend’s Launch

When we invited Luna Park to the Brooklyn Museum to be onstage with us and Swoon (Callie Curry) a few years ago, she told us she was a bit nervous because of the size of the audience, but really she was probably more nervous to meet the artist. That night on the stage with New York’s best known female street artist and Sharon Matt Atkins, the curator of Swoon’s Submerged Motherlands that was on exhibit upstairs, and Keith Schweitzer, Luna told us all the significance of the moment for her as a photographer and a Street Art fan.

“I can actually remember the first piece of Callie’s that I saw – for the very simple reason that it was my introduction to Street Art,” she said recalling a scene on the street in the (then) artists neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 2005.

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Katherine Lorimer AKA Luna Park (UN)SANCTIONED The Art On New York Streets. Carpet Bombing Culture. Great Britain 2016

“I was walking down Wythe Avenue, where the Wythe Hotel is now and all of the sudden this female face popped out at me from a door – and because I hadn’t really given Street Art or graffiti any thought up until this point I really had no way of putting this in any sort of context so it literally stopped me in my tracks…. It really represented a paradigm shift for me because all of the sudden the wool had been pulled from in front of my eyes and I started seeing Street Art and graffiti everywhere.”

She spoke of that moment that many of us in the scene describe when you become so sensitized to the practice of creating a public dialogue with one’s art that you begin to see it wherever you look, forever transforming how you interact with the city. It was at that moment when Luna was speaking to us all that the personal passion of her public photography came home to us.

“So I was actually very pleased to be invited to participate this evening,” Luna said as she looked at Callie, “because in a way I’ve come full circle to be able to sit with the woman who inspired me to take this journey is a great opportunity.”

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Katherine Lorimer AKA Luna Park (UN)SANCTIONED The Art On New York Streets. Carpet Bombing Culture. Great Britain 2016

The memory of the joy and the excitement of discovery of graffiti and Street Art is something we never take for granted, and we have always given voice to as many artists and photographers as possible on BSA for that reason. Luna, whose real name is Katherine Lorimer, this month introduces her first book-bound collection of many of her most electrifying moments of capture and documentation.

Heavy on New York artists, particularly her favorites and dear friends, the collection captures a splendid offering of the spine tingling pieces of ephemera one could stumble upon here in the last 11 years – if they did the hard work. Expertly collected and selected, this above all is a reflection of one personal journey.

In 2010 we interviewed Ms. Park with her Street Spot blog partner/photographer Becky Fuller and their west coast associate and Street Art photographer Stefan Kloo about their challenges and satisfactions in a rapidly evolving street photography scene.

“Today I go about following up on leads or hunches much more strategically, all the while ready to adjust my travels around the city as needed. Of course there are still plenty of serendipitous sightings – I revel in every lucky, random encounter,” she told us. After thousands of photos and many miles underfoot, this volume unfolds before you and one can see that it takes a lot of skill and hard work to be lucky.

We spoke with Luna about her brand new book and what the whole practice and journey has been like for her.

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Katherine Lorimer AKA Luna Park (UN)SANCTIONED The Art On New York Streets. Carpet Bombing Culture. Great Britain 2016

Brooklyn Street Art: What initially drew you to the practice of capturing and documenting graffiti and street art?
Luna Park: 2005 was a watershed year for me: having ended a failing relationship, I found myself in a personal and creative rut. Being in a transitional phase, I think I was perhaps more open to new inspirations. I was living in Greenpoint at the time, so I frequently cut through what was then still an active warehouse district on my way to the L train. It was there that I first stumbled across a piece by Swoon, a chance encounter that would propel me down a new path in life.

Once I became attuned to the proliferance of work on the streets, I started playing a game in which I purposefully varied my commute so as to never walk down the same street twice. I bought the first of many digital cameras and began honing my craft.

At the time, it was not unusual to regularly find new works by the likes of Faile, Dennis McNett, and Dan Witz to name but a few. There was so much weird and wonderful stuff to be discovered – like that tentacled UFO thing with the googly eyes hanging off the sides of buildings – the mystery of it all struck a nerve and piqued my interest. This being the early days of social media, documenting required a great deal more legwork than today – but being a determined and inquisitive person, I was up to the challenge.

I really had no idea how deep I would delve into this culture and how profoundly it would influence my life. Something about the experience of walking the city and finding art on its streets filled me with so much happiness, I quickly became obsessed.

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Katherine Lorimer AKA Luna Park (UN)SANCTIONED The Art On New York Streets. Carpet Bombing Culture. Great Britain 2016

Brooklyn Street Art:  There are any manner of art-making methods on the street today and a variety of approaches creating work in the public sphere.  What are some of the components or qualities of a piece that draw you to shoot?
Luna Park: Being drawn into conversations with random strangers is one of the greatest pleasures about shooting on the street. They see the camera, stop, look and invariably I end up debating with them what is and isn’t art. Even if we disagree, at the very least I’ve given them pause to think.

Ultimately one’s appreciation of art is entirely subjective – that being said, for me to shoot a piece, it needs to resonate with me on an emotional level. Some things, like clean lines or a good handstyle, just hit you at the gut level and don’t require overthinking because you just know they’re good.

If work is funny, clever, or political, that certainly draws my attention. I prefer originals to multiples, but only because the latter are often implemented so heavy-handedly that they come across as advertising. I like a good puzzle, so work that defies easy classification really pushes my buttons. And admittedly I’m a sucker for sculptural installations – the stranger, the better.

Thoughtful placement, with an eye for the surrounding environment, is another key factor. And of course crazy placement – of the ballsy, bordering on death-defying, how did they pull that off variety – always impresses. While not popular outside graffiti circles, I’m an unabashed fan of large-scale, highly visible vandalism.

I’m not an art historian, nor do I lay claim to any definitive or complete view on NYC street culture. It will take an encyclopedia to do that complex and nuanced subject matter justice. I can only speak for what I’ve experienced with my own eyes and that’s a very personal and highly opinionated view on the art on NYC streets.

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Katherine Lorimer AKA Luna Park (UN)SANCTIONED The Art On New York Streets. Carpet Bombing Culture. Great Britain 2016

Brooklyn Street Art: There is a larger discussion about legal versus illegal work today that calls into question the permissioned mural and myriad festivals that are producing elaborate compositions. Do changes like this in the scene affect your own photography?
Luna Park: Absolutely. As much as I enjoy some permissioned murals, they certainly don’t awaken the same sense of excitement as unsanctioned works. There’s no sense of urgency on my part to run out and photograph a mural – unless it’s something at risk of imminently being dissed or painted over.

What was once largely a DIY community affair has ballooned into a three-ring festival circus of wall brokers, gallerists, curators, agents, developers, sponsors, public relations officers, vertical media networks and high follower Instagram account holders with a sideshow of handlers and enablers all up in the mix. Each new wall brings with it a scrum of photographers loitering below lifts, eagerly competing to upload to social media before the paint has even dried and obsessing about having enough likes.

For me, street photography is a joyful and natural extension of the very personal and largely solitary experience of taking in art. The public spectacle surrounding muralism has sucked the life out of something that should be more pure, relegating us all to hamsters in a giant content-creation wheel.

Of course I still photograph murals, only I do it strictly on my time.

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Katherine Lorimer AKA Luna Park (UN)SANCTIONED The Art On New York Streets. Carpet Bombing Culture. Great Britain 2016

Brooklyn Street Art: Flickr as a photography platform sort of started you off with sharing your images and building community. How did it change your experience of shooting graffiti and street art and what part of it still resonates for you?
Luna Park: In its heyday, Flickr was a magical place. For many of us, it was not only the first, really game-changing social network, but one specifically catering to visual artists. It was where I got my first education in street art and graffiti: starting off with no idea how to identify artists, the hivemind of Flickr always pointed me in the right direction. Groups and discussion threads were active, and, for the most part, welcoming of newcomers.  By following artists and a few key photographers in cities around the world, I always had my finger on the pulse of the scene. And with each new follower, I gradually came to understand it as my solemn responsibility to come correct, step up my game and capture what I saw on the streets of New York as best I could.

I’m absolutely certain that without Flickr, my passion for shooting the streets would not have taken off like it did. It took me about a year of posting to Flickr before artists started inviting me to hang out at paint jams and attend openings. What was initially a virtual community soon solidified into a real, live community. So many artists I now call friends, I first met on the platform. Because the Flickr experience was so overwhelmingly positive, it removed any stigma in my mind associated with meeting people online. If anything, now I’m suspicious of people without an online presence.

Thanks to Yahoo’s mismanagement, Flickr missed the critical jump from desktop to mobile app. Like rats fleeing a sinking ship, more artists and photographers alike shifted to Instagram and the Flickr community of yore died a slow death. I still regularly post to Flickr for the simple reason that it’s an indispensable index to my photo archive. The librarian in me latched onto the organisational aspects of Flickr immediately and to this day, I make sure that anything I upload has all the necessary hashtags. What good is an online photo archive if you can’t find anything?

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Katherine Lorimer AKA Luna Park (UN)SANCTIONED The Art On New York Streets. Carpet Bombing Culture. Great Britain 2016

Brooklyn Street Art:  How does it feel to see your images collected together with words from friends and bound into a book for the first time – as opposed to seeing them primarily on screen?
Luna Park: It feels great! After documenting NYC streets in a digital format for eleven years, it’s immensely gratifying to see it condensed into a proper, 192 page book. I’m very proud to that my contribution to the history of the movement is now officially on the record. And it is an honor to have my work on a bookshelf next to that of my heroes.

I’ve wanted to put a book out for a while now, but the timing hadn’t been right until now. I’m very thankful that my publisher, Carpet Bombing Culture, not only gave me this opportunity, but were also tremendously supportive during my darkest hour last year. Having had this book project on which to focus all my energies really helped propel me through a difficult time in my life.

And don’t believe what people say: the book isn’t dead by far.

Brooklyn Street Art: What would you like people to know about this amazing evolving scene of art on the streets?
Luna Park: The streets are an incredible wellspring of inspiration. Don’t just sit there – engage with your environment. Explore more. Go outside your comfort zones. Stop thinking about doing something and do it. Be passionate about something. Anything! And give it all you’ve got.

 


 

All photos of the book’s plates © Jaime Rojo

Katherine ‘Luna Park’ Lorimer’s book (UN)SANCTIONED The Art On New York Streets from Carpet Bombing Culture will be launched in conjunction with AdHoc Arts 10th Anniversary show at the opening party at 17 Frost Gallery in Brooklyn NY. Click HERE for further information. Copies of Ms. Lorimer’s book will be available at the show.

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Welling Court 2016 Part II and AD HOC’s 10th Anniversary this Weekend

Welling Court 2016 Part II and AD HOC’s 10th Anniversary this Weekend

Long before Bushwick Open Studios and the Bushwick Collective there was Ad Hoc Gallery in a part of Brooklyn better known for bullet proof plexi-glass at the corner deli than being any kind of artists haven. Kool kids were actually filtering in to find cheap rents and space in the early 2000s and Garrison and Alison Buxton and a few other closely knit creatives, teachers, entrepreneurs, and activists created a gallery/community center that welcomed Street Artists and graffiti peeps.

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Rubin 415 and Joe Iurato (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Their gallery featured solo and group shows that included Shepard Fairey, Swoon, C215, Chris Stain, Know Hope, and many others over a five year period and Ad Hoc provided an entrance to the contemporary art world. Somehow they did it in a way that honored the roots of the culture, not simply cashing in on it. Smart and worldly, they also had open hearts to other people’s projects. We even had our inaugural BSA show and book launch there in 2008, donating all the money to Free Arts NYC and selling work from an impressive number of talented artists whose name you might recognize.

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I am Eelco (photo © Jaime Rojo)

10 years later the actual gallery is long closed and they moved to Vermont to get more space to raise their daughter Halcyon, but the Buxtons still sell art, curate the occasional show, and have stayed seriously in the New York mix by hosting an annual street mural jam called Welling Court for the last half decade. True to their community roots, they keep the roster very wide and inclusive. This year the mural painting continued long after the actual event, so we recently went back to Queens to catch the ones we didn’t during this summers jam.

Coming up this weekend there is a big 10th Anniversary party for Ad Hoc here in Brooklyn again, we thought we’d show you the murals we missed for the first collection of 2016 murals HERE. Hope to see you at this weekends Ad Hoc 10th Anniversary event at 17 Frost.

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Free Humanity (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mr. PRVRT (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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SeeOne and Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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SONI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Daze . Crash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Crash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Daze (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Esteban Del Valle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Werc and Zèh Palito (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Lady Pink . J Morello (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Epic Uno  . M7Ser (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mr. June (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sinned (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Katie Yamasaki . Caleb Neelon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Depoe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Queen Andrea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Ramiro Davaros-Coma (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Ad Hoc Art. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Halcyon from Ad Hoc Art Crew… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Ad Hoc Art 10th Year Anniversary and Luna Park’s book launch Art Show will take place this Saturday, October 22nd at 17 Frost Gallery in Brooklyn. Click HERE for further details.

 

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BSA Images Of The Week: 10.16.16

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.16.16

 

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It’s been a spectacular amber and golden and green autumn week when you’re able to ride your bike around and see a lot of great new and old Street Art and not break a sweat because the air is fresh and cool and the sun is spectacular.

And the streets are alive!

We found a new REVS, a new JJ Veronis and a big full-poster Clint Mario. Given the fact that two of the pieces are beautifully crafted metal sculptures and one is an ad take over in the subway, that gives you an indication that artists are active right now – and public space is being engaged. Get on your boots and take a hike, take your imagination and a sweatshirt in case you’re in the shade, and Street Art is out there waiting for you.

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Bies, City Kitty, Clint Mario, Downtown DaVinci, Elle, Gaia, Hooker, InDecline, JJ Veronis, REVS, RWK, Sable Elise Smith, and Sean 9 Lugo.

 

Our top image: REVS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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JJ Veronis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Clint Mario. Subway ad take over. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Downtown DaVinci (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hooker at Welling Court. Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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City Kitty at Welling Court, Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Elle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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GAIA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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GAIA. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sean 9 Lugo at Welling Court, Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Robots will skate! Sean 9 Lugo collaboration with RWK at Welling Court, Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Indecline (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Bies (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Unidentified Artist. This piece is signed but we couldn’t read the signature. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sable Elise Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Berlin. March 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

 

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The Gray Wolf and “The Art Of Beeing” in Detroit

The Gray Wolf and “The Art Of Beeing” in Detroit

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Louis Masai and his friends Tee and Emil are in Detroit right now on the 2nd city of The Art of BEEing tour, and the Gray Wolf is on their minds because it is endangered. Their numbers have been cut down in recent years because of humans shooting them and trapping them.

The Gray Wolf has a bad reputation for threatening herds of cattle but it is overrated and Defenders.org says that “wolf predation on livestock is fairly uncommon,” yet “wolves suspected of preying on livestock are often killed.”

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Gray Wolf. Endangered. Detroit. Michigan. October 2016. (photo © @teebyford)

Our local deli guy who sells Lotto tickets and sandwiches here in Brooklyn calls Michigan “The Islamic State”, which is pretty funny because the racist hype that leads to Islamophobia in some quarters these days would find that statement bone chilling and confirmation that the newest bogeyman is taking over. It’s meant to be funny, Yo!

It just means that a lot of Muslims are living in Michigan and anyone will tell you that the ones in the Big D are especially cool.

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Gray Wolf. Endangered. Detroit. Michigan. October 2016. (photo © @teebyford)

“We discovered a thriving Arabic community in Detroit where children were playing safely in the streets,” says Louis of his visit. So much for stereotypes about this religious group who have lived in the US for about 400 years.

Mr. Masai feels like the city itself is victimized by a few stereotypes as well. “The media talks about Detroit as if it is a derelict forgotten city, but we discovered a whole community that has been here for a long time and they definitely wouldn’t agree with their city is a dead or abandoned space,” he says.

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Gray Wolf. Endangered. Detroit. Michigan. October 2016. (photo © @teebyford)

“No one could argue that the city has many abandoned buildings on every street corner, fires and smashed glass are the norm. But within this are thriving communities…we were embraced and invited into the homes of a thriving Latino community, and also by many artists.”

Yeah, but what about the bee population? “The bee community is thriving in Detroit! We met beekeepers who reminded us that when a space becomes uninhabited by humans it becomes the best kind of space for bees to occupy and this city believes in a more hands-on farming way of life, with allotments and backyard vegetable plots being the norm.”

Thanks to Detroit for looking out for these dudes, and thanks to you for thinking about the endangered gray wolf. More about them at the end of the article.

“We leave Detroit wishing we had longer to explore,” says Louis.

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Gray Wolf. Endangered. Detroit. Michigan. October 2016. (photo © @emil.walker)

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Gray Wolf. Endangered. Detroit. Michigan. October 2016. (photo © @teebyford)

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Gray Wolf. Endangered. Detroit. Michigan. October 2016. (photo © @louismasai)

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Gray Wolf. Endangered. Detroit. Michigan. October 2016. (photo © @louismasai)

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Gray Wolf. Endangered. Detroit. Michigan. October 2016. (photo © @louismasai)

 

Click http://louismasai.com/projects/the-art-of-beeing/ to learn more about the project.

Want to help the Gray Wolf? Adopt one!  Take Action, the “Wildlife Action Center to send a message to government leaders.

Species foundation – http://www.wolf.org

 

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BSA Film Friday: 10.14.16

BSA Film Friday: 10.14.16

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

Now screening :

1. Jazoo Yang x TJ Choe: Strawberry House (South Korea)
2. Solo x Diamond via Grounder (Italy)
3. DeAk Crew: Toxic Graffiti – You’ve Been Infected. (Cyprus)
4. Real Time Web Series: Episode 2 – Askew By Berst (New Zealand)

 

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BSA Special Feature: Jazoo Yang x TJ Choe: Strawberry House

One senior in Busan, South Korea, didn’t like the hasty red aerosol scrawl on houses that were being marked for destruction. So she converted the tags to images of strawberries.

In this video Jazoo Yang and TJ Choe show you how they took inspiration from her act and covered the doomed neighborhood before it was destroyed.

Solo x Diamond via Grounder

Shot like an excerpt from a movie, the Italian writers Solo and Diamond each get half a van to crush before the boss comes back.

DeAk Crew: Toxic Graffiti – You’ve Been Infected.

And now we visit Limassol in Cyprus on a sunny day in June to watch the finer skills of DeAK Crew on a concrete wall.

Real Time Web Series: Episode 2 – Askew By Berst

New Zealand’s Bobby Hung has started this series of long-form audio interviews interspersed with music to accompany the graffiti writer guest as he knocks out a piece. You need a lot of time to invest but you do learn a lot about a person’s perspective and process and history. This episode the guest is Askew One.

Film & edit: Berst GBAK TMD @Berst_1
Audio technician: Peeti Lamwilai @Peetilamwilai

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ONO’U Festival 2016 as Captured by Martha Cooper in Tahiti

ONO’U Festival 2016 as Captured by Martha Cooper in Tahiti

Lucky Us! Our senior reporter on the ground in Tahiti for this years’ ONO’U Festival is the quick-witted eagle-eyed Martha Cooper, who shares with BSA readers her fresh shots of the action in paradise.

Personable and outgoing, Cooper covers a lot of ground quickly, introducing herself and asking questions and snapping pictures. Of course people often know her before she knows them, especially in the Street Art/ Graffiti game – but frankly she just wants to see artists work and learn about their process.  So get working!

We’re thankful that Martha is taking the time to share with us all her images and some details of the surrounding action, which we elaborate on here for you.

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Phat1 AKA Charles at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“Charles is painting an Omamao bird endemic of Tahiti,” says Martha, “and it is listed as a critically endangered species.” Why do you hear this same story in whatever part of the world you are in today? More importantly, are you doing anything about it?

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Phat1 AKA Charles at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Phat1 AKA Charles with help from Lady Diva AKA Jeanine Williams. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

After the mural was finished, Martha says there was a blessing of the mural. Above you can see the minister in the photo above performing the blessing.

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Bordalo’s sketch for his installation. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Bordalo shows us the original sketch for his new piece made with recycled trash.

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Bordalo II at work. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Bordalo II. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Bordalo II. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Adnate at work on his mural. Martha tells us that his muse for the mural was a woman whom both he and Martha had photographed in the market.  ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Adnate. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Adnate & Askew. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Seth at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Returning mural champion Seth made good use of “an odd shaped wall, turning it into the Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace ship which led a flotilla of yachts protesting again French nuclear testing in French Polynesia,” Martha tells us. According to Wikipedia, “Fernando Pereira was a freelance Dutch photographer, of Portuguese origin, who drowned when French intelligence detonated a bomb and sank the Rainbow Warrior, owned by the environmental organization Greenpeace on 10 July 1985.”

Martha notes that Pereira also was a photographer and he was trying to save his equipment at the time that the ship went down.  “The mural shows Polynesian girl in her fragile canoe pulling alongside the ship.”

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Seth at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Seth. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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NIKO at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“This guy says he can paint any animal he’s seen out of his head—very impressive!” says Ms. Cooper about NIKO, whose mural shows animals arriving in Tahiti from around the world from the harbor close to where the wall was. “The USA is represented by an alligator with a Miami Dolphins hat on,” she says.

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Okuda taking a break. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Okuda at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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MAST at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Mast sketch for his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

MAST was channeling Brooklyn hard in Tahiti, with this shout out to the honeys back home, the subway at Franklin Avenue, and he reconfigured the train lines to reflect the letters of his crew – The Great Escape (TGE).

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Mast. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Cranio. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Leon Keer. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

The anomorphic master Leon Keer is pictured here with his wife assisting. Martha says that these figures are “Painting of robots arriving from the harbor.” As usual, Mr. Keers work rather blows your mind when it is completed and you are standing in just the right location.

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Leon Keer. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Leon Keer. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Inkie at work on his wall. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Kalouf at work on his wall. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Kalouf left with Marko on the right. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Peeta. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Hoxxoh. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Jobs & Abuzz. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“Tribal Pursuit” is the name of this wall by Tahitians Jobs and Abuzz, named so after the board game called Trivial Pursuit. “The black lines are the Maquesa’s cross,” Martha says, and “the designs are the contradictions of old and modern traditions from Polynesia such as  the ‘head breaker’ a traditional weapon and tiki, the sea animal because they are surrounded by water.” The skull, of course, “represents the atomic tests.”

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Charles and Askew partake on  traditional dance with a local troupe of female dancers. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Gola Hundun Creates a “Tree of Life” for “Land-Shape Festival” in Denmark

Gola Hundun Creates a “Tree of Life” for “Land-Shape Festival” in Denmark

Virtually every human culture has an allegorical image that illustrates the Tree of Life. Street Artist Gola Hundun is growing his own in Denmark on the Jutland peninsula – one that he has named the Yggrdasil Crómlech.

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Gola Hundun “Yggdrasil Crómlech” Land Shape Festival. Vrå, Højeskole. Denmark. October 2016. (photo © Gola Hundun & Emil Schildt)

The Land-Shape festival in Vrå, a railway town of 2,500 people in the Hjørring municipality of Denmark, is inspired by the American Land Art movement that some trace back to 1960s minimalism and the growth of “installation art”. For many, this geological art hybrid is still a curiosity and Denmark is taking advantage of its rich coastal countryside by opening the land here to 50 or so artists such as street art culture-jammer/rural land portraitist Jorge Rodriguez Gerada, the performance/installation artist Sandro Masai and the color-mapping stone artist Maja Gade Christensen.

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Gola Hundun “Yggdrasil Crómlech” Land Shape Festival. Vrå, Højeskole. Denmark. October 2016. (photo © Gola Hundun & Emil Schildt)

The Italian Mr. Hundun has been creating earth science and pagan tradition-inspired hybrids of his own with murals, installations, and sculpture in the last decade and here he takes inspiration from the Norse mythology and its stories that were once more often told in this part of the world.

By combining the symbols of the Yggdrasil, a common name for the tree of life that you may see today in full-back or arm tattoos, and the Crómlech, a concentric circle typically made of standing stones, Gola creates the Yggdrasil Cromlech. In this case, the cromlech is more of a moat than a wall.

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Gola Hundun “Yggdrasil Crómlech” Land Shape Festival. Vrå, Højeskole. Denmark. October 2016. (photo © Gola Hundun & Emil Schildt)

Quite opposite of the Street Artist’s common expectation of ephemerality, Gola expects his new piece to grow into something magnificent over the next decades. “Yggdrasil Cromlech is a living piece, which every year will look different,” he tells us.

“In 3 to 5 years the climbing plants that I planted on the main structure will grow on all of the element, and in about 30-50 years the young trees will start to look like a column. The central part will be completely transformed by vegetation. It will be interesting to go and check the process from time to time. I promise myself to go and visit it every 5 years.”

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Gola Hundun “Yggdrasil Crómlech” Land Shape Festival. Vrå, Højeskole. Denmark. October 2016. (photo © Gola Hundun & Emil Schildt)

The current shape of the installation is already arresting, and you are invited to step inside the enclosure to experience the energy – you may not be alone however. “The underlying idea that inspires this project is to create a sustainable sanctuary for Jutland’s wildlife with a permaculture approach,” he says. “The installation’s goal is to increase resources for local fauna, especially during winter time but also in the summer season, providing food sources and opportunity for refuge.”

Inspired by Norse mythology and his own study of various designs of the Yggdrasil throughout history to design and construct the new and unique holy place/ art installation.

“The Yggdrasill is an immense tree that is central in Norse cosmology and it functions in connection to nine worlds which constitute the entire universe. My structure also has nine branches that symbolize these worlds.”

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“The Ash Yggdrasil” (1886) by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine

He speaks of the many depictions and variations of the Yggdrasil in history and cultures, and describes the one he is inspired by for this work.

“The Yggdrasill is populated by and related to the many animals that protect it, take life from it and menace it. On Yggdrasill’s top an eagle with a hawk perch inside his eyes, four deer between its branches, a squirrel moving up and down its trunk and a snake on its bottom.,” he explains. “In my piece Yggdrasil is the core of the Installation, and the audience can reach it by jumping on two step stones on the water ring that hug the structure. The structure has a small door that invites anyone who wants to get inside it, to find some isolation or a relaxing atmosphere.”

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Gola Hundun “Yggdrasil Crómlech” Land Shape Festival. Vrå, Højeskole. Denmark. October 2016. (photo © Gola Hundun & Emil Schildt)

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Gola Hundun “Yggdrasil Crómlech” Land Shape Festival. Vrå, Højeskole. Denmark. October 2016. (photo © Gola Hundun & Emil Schildt)

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Gola Hundun “Yggdrasil Crómlech” Land Shape Festival. Vrå, Højeskole. Denmark. October 2016. (photo © Gola Hundun & Emil Schildt)

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Gola Hundun “Yggdrasil Crómlech” Land Shape Festival. Vrå, Højeskole. Denmark. October 2016. (photo © Gola Hundun & Emil Schildt)

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Gola Hundun “Yggdrasil Crómlech” Land Shape Festival. Vrå, Højeskole. Denmark. October 2016. (photo © Gola Hundun & Emil Schildt)


 

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