BSA Film Friday: 11.06.15

November 6, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Your Tour Through Dismaland with Butterfly and Lars Pederson
2. “The Wave”, Shepard Fairey in Jersey City
3. DIAN and his Bullshit Elephant in Brooklyn

BSA Special Feature: Butterfly & Lars Pederson Give a Tour of Dismaland

It’s 30 minutes of sheer edutainment as the blogger/writer/documentarian named Butterfly gives a tour to the urban art curator Lars Pederson through Banksy’s Dismaland in cooperation with ARTE Creative TV.

The views are sadly hilarious, pure sarcasm and commentary on issues and behaviors. If Street Art is meant sometimes to hold a mirror to us as we pass by, this is a genuine funhouse of mirrors at every turn. Of course, this isn’t Street Art – its site-specific contemporary art – and many of the artists are street artists, but not all. Butterfly and Pederson discuss the installations as they encounter them and the viewer feels at though they have gotten a true sense of the wonderful world of Dismal.

We asked Butterfly about the video and her impressions with it and she tells us that the whole Dismaland has been overwhelming for her on many levels. “From the excitement of seeing new artworks by Banksy, to discovering new artists, to confronting depressing moral issues, to having fun – for me it’s his most ambitious project to date in scale and objectives and he nailed it like no other artist.”

“Banksy’s curating role is fantastic as everything fits together as a whole, and it also highlights that consciousness on consumerism, the environment, politics is happening internationally and that everybody needs to take action,” she says.

You’ll recall that Butterfly shared her images with BSA readers in August when the show opened and gave us her review at that time, but now in retrospect, does the show hold up? “Yes,” she says, “We’ve seen previously some politically engaged artists focusing on the environment, politics etcetera, but when it is all gathered together in Dismaland the impact is “Boom!”. The messages sadly need to be reiterated because we are inundated by information / disinformation and we tend to become oblivious.

The most impactful of the installations for her was the one depicting immigrants attempting to escape to a better part of the world and the tragedies of families broken apart, some killed in the process. “It was very moving and disturbing to see the “Mediterranean Ride’ installation,” she says, “the migrant boats with floating corpses in the sea where the public could navigate the boats, but the boats never reached the shore.”

Butterfly summarizes the event like this, “Being able to make contemporary art accessible to everyone in a family-friendly setting, with an interactive element where the audience is an integrated part into the show, where guests are entertained and at the same time everybody’s conscience is awakened on our society issues – it’s unprecedented.”

The Wave: Shepard Fairey in Jersey City

An unusual mural just completed by Shepard Fairey and team at the request of the mayor of Jersey City, this single image is intended to reflect the way of cultural change taking place in this city across the bay from Gotham. Can’t help but think of natural disasters though. Of course Japanese art history is referenced here, as well as surfing culture, so we shouldn’t interpret it as a harbinger of negative things automatically. Regardless, it is very effective and the placement is primo, no?

Brooklyn Bullshit Elephant in Brooklyn (Dian & Life is Porno street art animation)

“Dian is a street artist from European art label Life is Porno. In 2015, he decided to do a series of stop-frame stop frame animations around Europe and the world. This time he turned a building in Brooklyn, NYC into his animated reality. And grew an elephant from his mushrooms…

Whole animation was spray-painted, without any computer animation. The Bullshit sign was installed by a legendary fusion artist Shalom Neuman. “

Jim Prigoff Writes: “SprayCan Art” and MEETING OF STYLES in San Francisco

November 5, 2015 Artists

MEETING OF STYLES had a huge event celebrating the 28^th anniversary of the seminal book Spraycan Art by Henry Chalfant and James Prigoff in September in San Francisco. Organized by the community organization Mission Art 415, a weekend long celebration took place in the Mission District that drew thousands of visitors and many artists and graffiti writers, and the two authors of the book. Included in the events was a lot of live painting, panels, black book sharing, autographing, sticker swapping and general re-connecting as old friends got together to talk about and discuss graffiti culture.

Today we are proud to present one of the book’s authors, Jim Prigoff as he gives BSA readers some insight into the events from his perspective as well as his analysis of the scene then and now.

Henry Chalfant with Jim Prigoff with Lisa Brewer and Randolph Bowes, creators of Mission 415 (photo © Craig Potter)

……………………………

~ by Jim Prigoff

The MEETING OF STYLES is an international concept whose main organization is based in Germany and their events are supported in cities and countries throughout the world including the Spraycan Art event that was held in San Francisco on the weekend of September 18-20 this year.

Hundreds of writers came, many from international countries like Mexico, France, the UAE (Dubai), Columbia, Costa Rica, Germany, and Guam. They painted long alleys in the Mission District including on Lilac, Osage, Cypress, Lucky, Orange, Horace and in the El Capitan parking lot. The event tied into the 28^th Anniversary of Spraycan Art because it was the first book to show the emerging art form as it left the NYC subway tunnels and walls and traveled around the world. With over 200,000 copies sold over the years many writers have told Henry and I how the book changed their lives, and in some cases people have said that it even saved their lives.

Dare from San Jose was at the launch of the book in 1987. He came back to support his friend being honored. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Friday night there were awards and honors plus a panel discussion at the Mission Cultural Center as writers began to prep their walls and fill the air with the smell of spray paint. At the book signing, the graffiti writer Picasso came with a book he had signed in 1987 during the San Francisco introduction of the book. Carefully wrapped in a silk cloth, two new autographs were added.

The original spray cans used were developed for painting small areas with a broad spray and writers would rack caps from oven cleaners and other spraycan household products and adapt them to develop a different paint flow; even developing their own techniques to alter the paint flow. The paint was highly pressurized. At the time paint manufacturers recognized and were delighted with the expansion of their market, but for many years they pretended that this new demand did not exist.

Spraycan Art books ready to be signed by Jim and Henry. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Today many new brand names have entered the field with lower pressurized paint flow and specially developed paint content and are marketing directly to the writers. Caps of all varieties are marketed and sold and business is big.

Deity (photo © Jim Prigoff)

After 40 years in the streets of the world, how could I not reflect on what is taking place today as contrasted with the days when literally thousands of scrawling tags confronted me as I traveled through the streets of NYC hunting painted murals and community art. What a journey! Who could have conceived that a relatively small band of basically untrained, creative youth could be the start of a worldwide art form that became the most important art developed in the last 40 years? Greatly aided by the Internet, where posts of new creations can now be seen instantly, literally millions of practitioners have gravitated to the medium in every corner of the world.

There was no going back. The traditional name letters and characters have morphed over the years into a much broader concept labeled Street Art and also today is known as Urban Art as multi-story buildings are commissioned to be painted using expensive lift apparatus, writers travel the world and their canvases sell for major dollars at art auctions in Paris and beyond. A look at BSA is clear evidence how the imagery created by the spraycan has basically changed to a whole new image focus.

Twick . ICP (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Like the small trickle of water that begins giant rivers like the Amazon, the Nile and the Ganges, this art form called Graffiti Art, Spraycan Art, Aerosol Art, Street Art or Urban Art, has emerged from its very humble beginnings to become a giant tide that I believe will continue to develop and change in the coming years.

Will there still be some traditional letters and characters created? Yes, but the vision and creativity of youth will be the driver of the future.

~Jim Prigoff

Steel (Nekst RIP) (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Eon75 (photo © Jim Prigoff)

LORDS . Anemal (photo © Jim Prigoff)

El Diore (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Illegal Squad (photo © Jim Prigoff)

ARM (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Crayone, Eon 75, Deb, Jim Prigoff, Henry Chalfant, Mark Bode, and Cuba during a special panel discussion. (photo © Craig Potter)

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Karl Addison Paints Pilot Seattle Wall for Next Year’s “artSEA”

November 4, 2015 Artists

artSEA and its producers are planning ahead. It’s ten months until the 10 day festival that will coincide with the Seattle Art Fair, but already artSEA is putting together their lineup of public artwork and artists.

Karl Addison. “Messier” Detail. For artSEA. Seattle. 2015 (photo © Karl Addison)

Today we are showing you the first wall, a “pilot art work”, as he calls it, by the muralist Karl Addison. He tells us it is part of an on-going series rooted in intimate portraits of humanity – this one is called Messier. Karl says it focuses on the power of primary colors blue and red, “to build the composition’s figurative strength.”

Executive director of The World is Fun (TWIF), Amy Faulkner, the volunteering organization that produces artSEA, explains what will be happening in this Washington seaport city of 3.6 million next August 14-14, and who will be there so far.

“Each artist in the artist exchange will be creating one public artwork (mostly murals), one community exchange (which will consist of a talk, workshop, or nonprofit benefit), and will participate in a group exhibition which we are working with an outside gallery to curate and execute.” We don’t know the name of the gallery but so far artists confirmed are Rylsee, TWOONE, Cern, Alice Mizrachi, Jessie & Katey, Paola Delfin, David Walker, Addison Karl, ROA, and Andrea Wan.

Karl Addison. “Messier” for artSEA. Seattle. 2015 (photo © Karl Addison)

http://www.artseaproject.org

NUART 2015 Box Set Boasts Jamie Reid, Martha Cooper, Futura, and More

November 3, 2015 Artists

A quick shout out today to a not-for-profit organization we work with in Norway called Nuart, whose Street Art festival is one of the best and which celebrated its 15^th year this September. As a fundraiser for the dedicated art collectors this year Nuart produced a collection of 15 plates in boxed set to fund-raise and to make a record of their evolutionary timeline.

Limiting the color range to red, black and white, the collection includes works by artists whom have crossed paths with and made important contributions to the graffiti/Street Art/urban art oeuvre – in some cases spanning decades.

The boxed set of plates is for the seriously committed collector and contains original signed works by Bortusk Leer (UK, Jamie Reid (UK, Dotdotdot (NO), Isaac Cordal (ES), Martha Cooper (US), Futura (US), Fra Biancoshock (IT), Martin Whatson (Handfinished) (NO), Icy & Sot (IR), Ella & Pitr (FR), Sandra Chevrier (CA), Dotmasters (UK), Mobstr (UK), M-City (Hand-sprayed original) (PL), and Pixel Pancho (IT).

NUART FESTIVAL 15TH ANNIVERSARY BOXSET: 2001 – 2015

NUART 2015 . Box Set. Futura. (photo courtesy of NUART)

NUART 2015 . Box Set. Mobstr. (photo courtesy of NUART)

NUART 2015 . Box Set. Martha Cooper. (photo courtesy of NUART)

NUART 2015 . Box Set. Sandra Chevrier (photo courtesy of NUART)

See more HERE

Visit www.nuartfestival.no for more details.
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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
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Malik and “Note” Bring 17 Street Artists to a Swiss Prison: “4661m2”

November 2, 2015 Artists

It’s the ultimate captive audience for your artwork. That wasn’t the original intention for this Swiss prison mural project called 4661m² but it is one of the outcomes – and one of its myriad ironies.

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Initiated by Aarau-based graffiti/street/fine artist Malik in May of 2012, the project eventually corralled 17 Street Artists, all but one from Switzerland, to enter the confines of the new high security Lenzburg Prison to paint murals on exterior walls, courtyards, hallways, and common areas.

“I was looking for a new challenge and a new and exciting project where I could show my art,” says Malik and while the 18 month project originated with his vision of getting a nice wall for himself, quickly the project grew far beyond his expectations to become an educational, sociological meditation on the penal system, the appropriate role of art within it, and our collective humanity.

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artists featured on this page: Malik, Note, Benjamin Solt. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Malik, Note at work. (photo © courtesy of 4661m²)

With help from partner artist Claude “Note” Luethi and funding from the “Lenzburg Prison Christmas Fund,” the successful mural program has also led to a short documentary this spring and the brand new release of a handsome tome by the two documenting a cross section of the images and the human experience as told by artists, prisoners, prison employees and even the director.

“The exterior wall is always also an interior wall. How we view it depends on our relative position,” says author and cultural scientist Johannes Binotto, in the forward to 4661m² – Art in Prison. The number is both the name of the project and the the quantity of concrete that the paintings eventually covered. In his examination of crime and punishment and our relationship to it, Binotto brilliantly uses the wall as metaphor from multiple perspectives by way of illuminating the ramifications of being inside or outside of any given wall throughout one’s life.

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Ti Lain. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Ti Lain. (photo © courtesy of 4661m²)

For graffiti writers and Street Artists, the wall has been destination, a vessel of communication, but the historical examples Binotto examines fairly mutate the wall as obstruction, unifier, protector, divider. The theme continues throughout the well-photographed and documented book with artists and organizers reflecting on, reacting to, their experience and their art practice. One every present irony is that many of these street artists undoubtedly risked arrest for painting on various city walls in their earlier days.

Opening the many doors of the prison to an unsolicited offer by Malik, the Director of the prison, Marcel Ruf, says his knowledge of Street Art and artists was admittedly limited, but he knew the place needed some color. “The corridors and work spaces were judged rather negatively by the majority of the over 7,000 visitors that came to the prison open day in May,” he says in an interview, “with most finding the premises dreary and colorless.”

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Mizzo. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The book gives ample space to opinions and experiences of the artists in stunning before/after shots of spaces and pieces that you can only see now if are a prisoner or employee. Even here the experiences express a range of perspectives. Most found the atmosphere constricted, oppressive, depressing. Each artist say that they felt a certain responsibility to the audience that they wouldn’t normally have and adjusted their work accordingly because these pieces will be looked upon, in some cases, for years, or the remainder of life.

Artist Daniel Zeltner says, “I thought long and hard about the mark I would like to leave on a prison, and about who would see it, how they would react and interpret it, how they would feel. It is difficult, because the painting would not only be seen by the prison guards, but also by the prisoners – I also wanted to create something I could be proud of. Therefore, it was important to me that I paint something that’s open and leaves room for interpretation.”

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Lain. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ranging from abstract, figurative, and representational, to collage, illustration, and photo-realistic, the entire collection has something for many tastes, but we learn that the most critical audience was the staff of 180 who not only live with the art but the manage the daily affairs of the people who live in the facility. We learn that staff opinions on certain works are not unanimous but in general the replacement of monotonous grey is regarded as an improvement for the employees – and the new works provide visual signposts for navigating in a sometimes confusing maze of concrete.

One two page spread features the quotes from prisoners who have answered a survey about the project, the art, and the artists. Responses range from dismissive and critical, to suspicious, grateful, and laudatory.

The act of even considering the opinion of convicted criminals is offensive to the more penalizing among us, and this resistance to an art program of any sort is present throughout topics addressed and perhaps those avoided in the contributions here. These prisoners are likely serious offenders given their 23 hour restriction to their cells and opinions about their living conditions are surely contested.

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Never Crew. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Benjamin Solt talks about briefly getting to know some of the prisoners and then questioning the wisdom of that decision. “I often chatted with them and we discussed the paintings. One of them was very open and approachable, and at some point I asked him why he was there. Just a few moments later I regretted asking.”

The austere modern brutalism of the new prison is heightened by its minimalist technological details of sensors, cameras, phone signal blocking, and iris scanning. Often participants reference disembodied voices within the compound comingling with bird songs and cow bells just outside the perimeter of the compound.

With varying degrees of discomfort and a respect for a sense of mission, the artists describe their art and their emotional and psychological responses to working in the compound. Daniel Zeltner, who worked with David Lucco on a collaborative mural in an exercise yard, describes redoing his piece nearly entirely because he was unsatisfied with the somewhat chaotic energy that he had infused it with.

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artists featured on this page: Toast and Shark. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Toast. (photo © courtesy of 4661m²)

Onur contemplates his expected audience of primarily seniors when creating his mountain range and remarks that he felt troubled by the continuous surveillance, “I often felt watched. The knowledge that there were cameras everywhere was always at the back of my mind and as I usually work by myself in the studio this situation was quite confusing.”

Chromeo was reminded of his own previous stint in jail for doing illegal graffiti. “I found being locked in extremely difficult. Even though I wasn’t locked in this time, I struggled with the same oppressive feelings.”

For one recreation room, Malik and Note combined their painting efforts to create one continuous visual story that ignored the four planes and gives a view from the rooftops of an imaginary city at night that flows into day and subsequently spans a vast valley and stream. But bucolic scenes and sensibilities notwithstanding, their painting experience met one common description; “Intense.”

“We were surrounded by four solid concrete walls and were working in extreme heat, with continuous yakking and jeering from the inmates locked in the cells above us and all of that for four weeks, eight hours a day locked in the same room,” say the pair.

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Mizzo. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Among the descriptions of the exigencies of the prison and project, there are occasional sparks of institutional levity. Bruno Graber, Chief Director, shares his observations of the project and working with the artists and he inadvertently stumbles on a truism. “Seeing the artists at work was exciting. They seem to be night owls, early mornings were not really their thing.”

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Malik. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ultimately this is a group show new works by 17 artists, but you will not be free to see them, even though you are free. The many ironies are summed up in one of Binotto’s recollections.

“The knowledge that the locked spaces within the prison are blocked from our collective gaze challenges our typical differentiation between captivity and freedom. This is like the joke where the mathematician solves the task of fencing in a herd of sheep not by herding the animals together but rather by putting up the small fence around himself and then declaring ‘I define myself to be on the outside.’”

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Daniel Zeltner. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In fact 4661m² plays with the definitions of internal and external space so well that it throws both into question. You may reassess the role of artists, particularly street artists, in the dialogue they bring to public space as we rush from from one task to another, sometimes just keeping our heads above water.

“I always took a deep breath as I exited through the revolving door,” says Note, “I was free again – at least until what felt like five seconds later, when my iPhone began informing me of all the obligations I’d failed to meet.”

The project 4661m² – Art in Prison was curated by Malik and Claude “Note” Luethi, and involved artists including: Malik, Note, Onur, Chromeo, Shark, Ata Bozaci, Robert Proch, Nevercrew, Mizzo, Daniel Zeltner, David Monllor, Benjamin Solt, Lain, Ti, and Sarah Parsons.

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Onur. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Note. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Note. (photo © courtesy of 4661m²)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Robert Proch. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Robert Proch at work. (photo © courtesy of 4661m²)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: David Monllor. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Sarah Parsons. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Sarah Parsons. (photo © courtesy of 4661m²)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Chromeo. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Malik. (photo © courtesy of 4661m²)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Never Crew. (photo © courtesy of 4661m²)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Never Crew . Mizzo (photo © courtesy of 4661m²)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Malik, Note at work. (photo © courtesy of 4661m²)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich . Malik. (photo © courtesy of 4661m²)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Malik . Note. (photo © courtesy of 4661m²)

www.4661m2.com

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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This article is also published in The Huffington Post

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.01.15

November 1, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

A stunning panoply of events all at once this Halloween weekend in New York – The Mets are in the “World Series” playing here and everybody is a fan, the New York City Marathon is today (oldest participant is nearly 95), and everybody’s clocks get set back an hour. More than your average number of freaks and weirdos have been on the subway and street and in bars and in your hallway, some asking for candy, and a lot of people decorated their haunted castles. Check out our Halloween Street Art posting from yesterday, Boo!

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Bifido, Binho, Cdre, City Kitty, Crash, Crummy Gummy, Curve, Hunt, London Kaye, Oldy, Rae, Ron English, Solus, Specter, Tony DePew, and Zafuto.

Top image above >>> Crummy Gummy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Oldy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Twunny Twunny Twunny four hours a day…Crash and Solus’ tribute to Joey Ramone – across the street from the ghost of CBGBs. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Observe . Listen . Reveal. Pillars of the fourth estate. Ron English re-interprets the three wise monkeys for #NotACrimeCampaign (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An all too familiar scene- not sure what to think of this one. Check out the cat in the lower corner. Bifido in Athens, Greece. (photo © Bifido)

Tony Depew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The tags on the cab are a great balance to the CURVE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Binho (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zafuto. Not sure if the tag was added later. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cdre takes on Chuck Berry. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RAE sitting on a wall like Humpty Dumpty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Specter billboard take over nearly levitates futuristically. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Could this be Tuco Wallach? This piece is very similar to his Manimal series. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hunt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklyn, NYC. October 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Boo! Halloween Street Art from Your Ghoulish Friends at BSA

October 31, 2015 Artists

Happy Halloween everybody! It’s a scary time on the streets and artists are always giving us disturbing and comical reasons to be frightened – it’s like we need some catharsis to help us process personal and world events. Whether it is Freddy Krueger or just a classic old bobbing skull, the specter of our fears and fantasies is alive and well just around the corner.

JPS in Stavanger (or should we say Stabbinger?), Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JPS in Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

EDMX is catching death with this skinny skater dude (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steiner sees you (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steiner (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Candy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz scares the bejesus out of passersby in Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz in Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal and one of his scary corporate death men in Boras, Sweeden. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ollio in Sweeden. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A tribute on the street to Jack Nicholson from The Shining. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

TAK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Left Handed Wave (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Norm Kirby (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pyramid Oracle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Times Square. Midnight Moment. photo © Jaime Rojo

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
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BSA Film Friday: 10.30.15

October 30, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. NYCHOS: Translucent Fear
2. Jamel Shabazz, Street Photographer
3. VHILS: Incision
4. Pichi & Avo for “No Limit” Boras

BSA Special Feature: NYCHOS: Translucent Fear

Nychos sees through the animal world with a fantastical and splendid x-ray vision, his huge murals peeling back layers of skin and muscle and veins and organs using spray cans as his knife. Here in the studio he prepares canvasses using the same precision, this time with the brush and airbrush as scalpel, handle, blade. Employing a new concept, many of his animals are clear for you to see in their entirety beneath a clear shell. The show show now running at Zurich’s Kolly Gallery is called Translucent Fear, and the video appropriate for this Halloween season wouldn’t you agree?

Jamel Shabazz, Street Photographer

Yeah its a trailer. Yeah it’s Jamel Shabazz. That’s all we need to know. Where’s Brooklyn at?

VHILS: Incision

“The best poems ever written destroyed a white sheet of paper,” says the ever serious philosopher VHILS as he schools us on his technique of creation through destruction. The process yields beauty, but at what cost, he asks – particularly when gauging the successes of the industrialized world and the losses of indigenous customs and ways of life. A sorrowful look at an impressive show called, “Incision”

Pichi & Avo for “No Limit” Boras

Pichi & Avo share this new timelapse of the piece they did at Boras “No Limit” in Sweden last month. You can read more about it here:

Borås “No Limit” 2015: Graffiti Tags, Murals, Greco-Roman Antiquities

Amsterdam Dances with Graffuturism and Stencil Masters

October 29, 2015 Artists

Amsterdam rocked the decks this month to celebrate urban contemporary art and street art in the Netherlands with visual and music based events giving artists many platforms to shine.

BustArt and Fake for Urban Art Festival Amsterdam. (photo © courtesy of UAFA)

Graffuturism, a term and movement coined a handful of years ago to describe an intersection of graffiti, street art, and abstract geometry continues to stake out new territory and here were gallery and street exhibitions proffering some of the current practitioners whose work could be described as such.

The 5^th Urban Art Festival Amsterdam featured their own collection of Graffuturists from Europe, the United States, and South America including Poesia, the unofficial founder of Graffuturism in a show of works on canvas, prints, drawings on paper, murals and site-specific abstract installations.

BustArt for Urban Art Festival Amsterdam. (photo © courtesy of UAFA)

Running concurrently was a Stencil Masters show featuring some of the top knife-wielding artists known on the street today along with a few senior early proponents. The diverse program of gallery, street installations and DJs courtesy of the ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event) helped further contextualize the art forms for a wider audience of fans.

Fake for Urban Art Festival Amsterdam. (photo © courtesy of UAFA)

Stencil Masters exhibition
ABOVE (usa) – BTOY (es) – BUSTART (ch) – C215 (fr) – CANVAZ (irl) – CZARNOBYL (de) – E.L.K. (au) – FAKE (nl) – HUGO KAAGMAN (nl) – IVES.ONE (nl) – JANA & JS (de) – JAUNE (be) – LIJNE (nl) – MANDO MARIE (usa) – NAFIR (iran) – ORTICANOODLES (it) – OTTO SCHADE (uk) – PIPSQUEAK WAS HERE (nl) – STF (fr) – TANKPETROL (uk) – TERA ONE (de)

Graffuturism exhibition
BLAQK BLAQK (gr) – CORN79 (it) – GRAPHIC SURGERY (nl) – KENOR (es) – LABUENA YLAMALA (es) – MICK LA ROCK (nl) – OKUDA (es) – OVNI (es) – POESIA (usa) – POETA (ar) – SKOUNT & GWION / TVBdesign (es) – VESOD (it) – WOW123 (de) – X-O / THE LOST OBJECT (nl / usa)

Fake for Urban Art Festival Amsterdam. (photo © courtesy of UAFA)

XO for Urban Art Festival Amsterdam. (photo © courtesy of UAFA)

Skount for Urban Art Festival Amsterdam. (photo © courtesy of UAFA)

To learn more please go to www.urbanartfestival.com

Boijeot & Renauld: Manhattan Crossed, A Perfect End at the Battery

October 28, 2015 Artists

C’est fini!

In 30 days Boijeot and Renauld slept with more of Manhattan than a Wall Street regulator. And the press was there to report it: The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Le Monde, the Today Show, Agence France Press (AFP), and a handful of art and design blogs all covered them from the street, intersecting with them at various points as they wended their way through Manhattan on their beds and chairs and tables for one entire month.

A boisterous palm reader told Laurent that he couldn’t handle money and a sleek Tarot card reader told all three of them insights into their future. They were serenaded by an opera singer and a violinist, lectured by an art professor, visited regularly by an anchorman, argued with by an senior who wanted to leave his garbage on top of their table, doted on by smiling art school students and generous housewives, offered showers and house tours, proffered meals by chefs, accused of drinking alcohol and smoking pot (they did neither), and given a good show by junkies shooting up in Starbucks bathroom(s).

The two artists (Laurent Boijeot and Sebastian Renauld) and their trusty photographer (Clement Martin) each took turns fetching meals or water or fresh coffee or tobacco or to wash bed linens or get a hot shower at a gym or scoping out their next location a few blocks south. Taking exactly 30 days to live on Broadway from 125th street to Battery Park, Boijeot and Renauld say their days were usually busy, despite long stretches napping on beds and their central theme of sharing a cup of coffee with a stranger at the table.

“The table was the most important part of the performance,” says Renauld as he describes the psychological grounding force of the simple pine rectangle around which the artists convened, and re-convened, and re-convened. People talked of their jobs, their families, their relationships, their aspirations and disappointments. The artists say that more than once they learned details of people’s lives that surprised them, pleasantly and otherwise.

Police officers were friendly and even helpful once they understood the nature of the public art performance. In some neighborhoods some officers communicated back to their precincts details about the performance and they notified others who walked the beat that it was okay, with some even stopping by to say “hi” and take a photo. Most New Yorkers walked by nonplussed, uninterested, hurried. But invariably the questions would come; sometimes quizzically, timidly, other times demanding.

“What is this?”

“Are you protesting something?”

“Are you selling this furniture, how much is it?”

“Are you advertising for Sleep Ez?”

“Do you have a permit for this?”

“Can I sit here?”

That was their favorite question.

Both artists insist that the “performance” on the sidewalk was to examine the interaction of New Yorkers directly with them in their al fresco kitchen.

“This is about the street being a place for sharing,” Boijeot says, “If we don’t use it for sharing our humanity then we really miss an important original meaning of the street.” He is the sociologist of the two, and if New Yorkers though that they were the observant ones, his descriptions of conversations and behaviors and mannerisms and attitudes quickly reveal that the artists may have subtly turned the table a number of times on Manhattan sophisticates.

“So many people asked me if I had a permit – and I told them that it is legal to be in the street with your art and your furniture.” He laughs to remember the befuddlement. The artists learned that most didn’t fully comprehend their rights to free speech and association in public space. That was surprising.

In some conversations the issue of homelessness came up, with some New Yorkers asking them if their project was a commentary on homelessness, an idea they roundly reject. “It would be indecent to associate our project with homelessness,” says Renauld with some insistence, “because we are doing this easily and of our own freewill – but homelessness is not this.”

The topic was raised a few times about their race and their French accents playing a big factor in the way mostly white Manhattan and its police regarded their performance. Surely if they were African American or of another background they would have received a different response?

The artists diplomatically demurred on the topic, saying that they did not feel familiar with the city enough to offer an opinion, but Renauld says they do not doubt that their skin color made the project easier for certain people to appreciate. “These are important questions to consider – along with homelessness, etcetera, but we don’t think it is our role to address them,” says Laurent, “That is the role of citizens and institutions.

Lifting furniture and carrying each table, chair, stool, and mattress was tiring after a while and the feeling of performance was 24/7. Keeping clean was a challenge as was getting cell phones charged and figuratively they each slept with one eye open as pedestrians, cars and bicycles passed by all night, every night. Fierce rains pummeled them under plastic tarps and when those failed because of winds they spent a few hours looking out at the storm from inside an ATM lobby. Temporary handwarmer packs emanated just enough heat when the temperatures neared freezing, and sleeping fully clothed under a blanket was usually sufficient, especially if joined by a new friend.

The most surprising thing was when strangers would say “Thank you for coming here,” or “Welcome.” These were not the stereotype of New Yorkers they had learned from movies and stories.

What did they see that was not something to write home about? Without a doubt, private building security guards took the cake; caustic mini generals with an exaggerated sense of power and an underwhelming sense of humanity, or the law. Like the two guys who woke them at 5 a.m. on 38th street to tell them to get out of the sidewalk because they didn’t want homeless sleeping there when office people were arriving to work – and they threatened to call the police. “I said, ‘Call them, I hope you call them right now because they will come and tell you that it is legal for people to be here,” They didn’t call.

Another guard menacingly pointed up to a window and said the tenants did not want to see the sight of them there. Then there was the doorman of a well-heeled building in the Wall Street area who woke them to tell them they were blocking the entrance. “The lobby was under renovation and people were going in and out of the side doors,” says Sebastian. “I looked at the orange construction tape draped across the front door and said to him ‘I know you are making a joke!’”

So finally after more blocks than they could count, Boijeot and Renault and their camera man Clement made it to Battery Park on Saturday night. Two days before their friend Geraldine had arrived from France for her first time in the States. She has been on many of their other performances in European cities like Berlin, Brussels, Zurich, Venice, Paris, Basel, Dresden, and their hometown of Nancy, and she wasn’t going to miss this opportunity to be part of their first US performance.

As the sun was setting on the glistening harbor a quintessential “New York Moment” arrived; a sailing ship pulled up to shore alongside the park and Clement inquired with the shipmates if they might have a ride in the harbor. He must have been persuasive because within moments Clement and Geraldine were headed across the bay toward the Statue of Liberty –sitting atop the artists bed on the main deck.

The view of Lower Manhattan was breathtaking for her, overwhelming for him. “I looked up at the skyline of Manhattan from a distance and it was like all of the pressure of the street was released, and I felt exhausted,” says Clement. So he laid down and napped for an hour of the two hour ship ride.

After a final dinner at an extended table with new and old friends they dined on Mexican beef, beans, and rice from a chain restaurant nearby, followed by store-bought red velvet cake and hot coffee. The midnight breeze blew quite chilly and a little sharply.

The artists pushed the three beds together, inviting everyone to join them under cover for the last overnight sleepout. Jokes, cigarette smoke, portions of songs and poetry were all foisted into the air while artists and guests looked at the open sky and that little green lady from France out in the bay. Only 6 hours to sleep before this performance was over.

And three weeks till Tokyo.

Boijeot & Renauld: Crossing Manhattan With Your Living Room on the Sidewalk

Boijeot + Renauld Update : Rain, Wind, & Inquisitive Upper West Side

Boijeot & Renauld: Update #3 (9th Street and Broadway)

Boijeot & Renauld: Manhattan Crossed, A Perfect End at the Battery

All furniture made by Boijeot and Renauld in Brooklyn with machinery and facilities provided by local businessman Joe Franquinha and his store Crest Hardware.

Sincere thanks goes to Joe Franquinha “The Mayor Of Williamsburg” and proprietor of his family owned business Crest Hardware for his enthusiastic support of this project. Joe has always been an ardent supporter of the arts and the artists who make it and he came through again this time. Thank you Joe.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
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Pyramid Oracle Divining Messages on the Street

October 27, 2015 Artists, Interview

On the scene for a couple of years on New York streets is the mystical portraitist of some secret order known only to the Pyramid Oracle. Many street artists use their tag or street name as a cover. This one uses it as a theatrical character ambiguously imparting truths and insights, rather hoping you will fill in the missing patches with your imagination.

Here we have some recent additions to the street that are at once sage and sorcerous, cryptic and calming, plump with symbols and harbingers of good or evil, or not.

After all, an oracle is merely a vessel through which divine understanding may flow, a tool of the gods and goddesses to communicate about the future and the past, guiding you to something greater. And if you don’t buy that, at least you may admire a three-eyed lady who greets you on your way home from school or your job or the laundromat.

We had occasion to talk with this mystical medium of monochromatic hand-made wheatpastes and while his answers were sometimes murky and he likes to speak in the third person (or fourth, or fifth), we found that we could divine some greater truths and insights about the spirit of this street medium named Pyramid Oracle.

Brooklyn Street Art: Sometimes your images appear to be quite labor-intensive hand paintings, while others look like linotype prints, or even commercially printed replicas. Can you talk about your thought process for deciding which method you use?
Pyramid Oracle: Most of the work is primarily hand painted, and depending on the paper used the techniques will vary. On white paper the lines tend to be made in a relief printing style and with butchers paper – which is now mostly used, its possible to utilize the mid tone to build washes and highlights. There are far more layer involved when using this craft paper. This way the paintings take 3 times as long to paint but the product is far superior. In general the intention demonstrates a laborious commitment to the work, which sets itself apart.

BSA: For the hand painted pieces, for example – does it begin with a sketch in a notebook while you are traveling on a bus or something? What steps are involved that lead up to producing a piece that appears on the street.
PO: There are several categories or subjects in which the content is derived. You could look at Pyramid Oracle as the illustrations of an evolving independent study. Sometimes the images are the culminations of concepts and ideas already discovered that now serve as cornerstone achievements of understanding. Other times the ambiguous nature of esoteric wisdom has seeded itself deep within the subconscious. Like a subliminal intuition, it slowly influences the vessel, piece by piece until another puzzle is complete. Either the image is imagined in full to convey its message, or the concept is stitched together through the sketches painted over time, slowly adding up.

BSA: What qualities are you looking for when selecting a model for your portraits? Should they be particularly wise, or perhaps spiritual?
PO: Most of the works are inherently existential and spiritual in nature, having allegorical qualities to serve as more than the powerful image that initially draws you in. With the characters chosen, each expression is in words…immeasurable. So much of what is sought to be captured cannot be easily contained in one explanation, that multiplicity is the essence of why visual communications are so powerful and valuable. The intention is to remain cryptic without limiting any audiences ability to have there own interpretation, and in this way I suppose they should be particularly wise.

BSA: Mysticism is referenced in the geometric patterns you combine with your portraits, as well as the inclusion of a third eye or entire third visage. Are your parents bankers or hippies?
PO: The parents of Pyramid oracle are neither bankers nor hippies, but are the ancient mysteries and their architecture. Through the examination and re-purposing of archaic patterns, we are creating the new mythology for our current pilgrimage.

We are the parents of the future!!! lol

BSA: When a person is describing your work to their Aunt Marlene, which three adjectives are going to help her appreciate it better?
PO: Recently was hash tagging a piece with the word #kingdom, and #kingdomhall popped up. After using this tag, a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses started to comment on the picture of 5 crowned kings skulls roped together into an ornamental trophy: “It is a shame that sick Satanic so called art is shown on a site with such name bringing SHAME! Satan go away from us. Praise Jehowa!”

Hopefully not everyone’s Aunt is so easily terrorized by the images created for Pyramid Oracle. Even if they are seemingly dark eccentric representations, they stem from the root of all other ancient knowledge…

BSA: Is the street a place for finished work always, or is it also a laboratory?
PO: The street is both gallery and laboratory. Its obvious that a finished image will find its way to be displayed on the street. But its interesting how a painting grows into itself when it is made for this purpose. Since the canvas is not limited by size or shape, the possibilities are the ones to experiment with. Unfortunately this is often limited by how efficiently something can be installed in a timely fashion. And the amount of work one is willing to invest in something that is all too often destroyed faster than it was created. Most importantly the street provides a place to purge ideas and thus continue to create new things. This has always been a huge motivating factor and a valuable reason to put up work.

New SWOON Storytelling on Battered Brooklyn Walls

October 26, 2015 Artists

Like leaves scattered into the street by a gust of wind, new large wheat-pasted linotype prints have appeared across some fatigued facades in post-industrial Brooklyn this autumn. Hand cut and painstakingly spot colored, you may recognize a familiar face or two among them as these characters and their stories have appeared on walls previously, eventually faded, decayed, and dissipating, leaving no trace but possibly in your memory.

Swoon followers will recognize folks like Kathryn G, a neighbor of hers in Braddock, PA, as well as Edline, a girl she met in Haiti who participated in a community art program there. Brand new on the scene appears a portrait of George, whom Swoon says through social media is one of the guys she worked with in the Philadelphia Mural Arts Guild Program and with whom she bonded after sharing stories of their similar backgrounds. Whether you know these stories or not, the work stands on its own, until it disappears.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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