BSA Film Friday: 01.23.15

BSA Film Friday: 01.23.15

January 23, 2015

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

Now screening :

1. Narcelio Grud Mixes Cement and Sprays It
2. BIKISMO Chrome Dog in Wynwood
3. Horfée on a Roof Top in Paris:
4. Graff ADOR – DOOM – DOOM
5. HEGO: Magnetic Street Art in Sydney

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BSA Special Feature: Narcelio Grud Mixes Cement and Sprays It

Narcelio Grud and “Chaupixo” brings us back into the inventive mind of this experimenter – now hand pumping a slurry of colored concrete over a stencil pattern. The results are solid!

 

BIKISMO Chrome Dog in Wynwood via TOSTFILMS

Yo Dog! Did you catch this big silvery one by Bikismo this year at the Jose De Diego middle school? So fresh, so real!

Check out MTO and “The Wynwood Family” from earlier this week on BSA.

 

Horfée’s Roof Top in Paris:

Graff writer as illustrator using a plain black aerosol spray the way another artist uses brush and ink or marker. It’s a purposeful unveiling of the image on this Parisian rooftop that reveals a slumping pileup of forms and misshapen exasperation that ranks Horfée as one of the best. Check out the nimble can control and ease of line. Oof!

 

Graff ADOR – DOOM – DOOM

Graffitist and prolific illustrator Ador uses the side of this building for a short animation which we cannot understand but may remind you of your childhood if your father was an angry drunk.

 

HEGO: Magnetic Street Art

Some people just have that touch, that magnetism about them. Same goes with art in the streets. Sydney based HEGO shows and tells about his personal street art project that encourages people to pick it up and re-display it somewhere else in the city.

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Fra. Biancoshock Tags “Toy” in Milan

Fra. Biancoshock Tags “Toy” in Milan

January 22, 2015

Maybe it’s just us, but Milan-based Fra. Biancoshock appears to deliberately flummox and beguile with his public interventions and performances: messing with security cameras, staging public funerals for countries with actors and a coffin, installing “flying garbage” bags near sidewalk cafes, providing sheets of bubble wrap for you to pop while waiting for the bus, installing a closed loop red carpet in a public square, and of course painting a large swastika made of Facebook logos.

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Fra Biancoshock. “Pulpits” Italy. January 2015. (photo © courtesy of Fra Biancoshock)

Today we find him openly dissing a graffiti writer’s work with a stencil, violating at least a few street “rules” that would seem to cross most national boundaries as they pertain to the Street Art and graffiti continuum.

  1. he goes directly on top of someone else’s work

  2. he calls them a name that means they have no style and do subpar work, among many additional interpretations

  3. he exacerbates the much discussed beef on the street in many cities between some graffiti writers and Street Artists – by putting a stencil directly on top of an aerosol piece.

Does Fra. Biancoshock have an explanation aside from wanting to get himself into a fight? He presents his action as a sociology experiment whereby he puts a spotlight on subcultural conventions that are being caught in a seachange of definitions, roles, and meaning thanks to a flooding of new participants onto the street – and that dang Internet that continues to rock and re-form so many scenes.

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Fra Biancoshock. “Pulpits” Italy. January 2015. (photo © courtesy of Fra Biancoshock)

“I know that this work can be misunderstood and that many people/artists may get angry about this work and its direct message,” he says. “For me this is just a provocative action which emphasizes that we are currently in a period of confusion between graffiti, stencil, muralism, street art and more. People entering the conversation are making false equations between these disciplines, and there are a lot of uniformed and competitive attitudes coming into play. In my opinion graffiti is graffiti, stencils are stencils and there is not war between methods because they are two different worlds, and graffiti does not belong to the same world as street art so there is no need to equate the two.”

“And now people are loving murals because they are pretty, because they decorate buildings. But most of these people don’t realize that much of today’s mural scene is a consequence of a previous period of graffiti – in fact every stencil or muralist is born thanks to the graffiti world. Ironically, graffiti is not a vogue right now; it’s vandalism, it’s for toys.”

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Fra Biancoshock. “Pulpits” Italy. January 2015. (photo © courtesy of Fra Biancoshock)

While you may agree with many of his points, it is hard to explain how this direct cross-out of another guys work is acceptable. We think he means to capture an attitude that he sees and to critique it – namely he wants to illustrate a false battle that denigrates graffiti writing and elevates Street Art.

And for the record, he says that doesn’t know Falt, the writer he has just gone over.

“So, I want to emphasize my personal apology to Falt for creating this piece without permission…I don’t know Falt. I simply found his piece in an abandoned area and I decided to make my intervention on it. I don’t consider Falt a toy and I don’t consider anyone a toy actually because I think that is not important what the style of letters or the location of the graffiti. I appreciate them all because I think that every graffiti piece is a moment of communication. Excuse me Falt!”

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Fra Biancoshock. “Pulpits” Italy. January 2015. (photo © courtesy of Fra Biancoshock)

 

We hope that clears things up, but it probably doesn’t. Stay tuned to see if Fra. Biancoshock gets his head smacked by a writer who does not care for his conceptual ideation.

 

 

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50 Ways to Map The City, Per Street and Graffiti Artists

January 21, 2015 ,

D.I.Y. Cartography in the Rawest Section of Somerset

Street Art is intrinsically bound with its neighborhood and location in a city. Context and placement are key, establishing its relation to a place. So when a Street Artist is asked to create art about mapping a place, it is fascinating to see how they perceive it and with what manner and medium they present it.

In a new exhibition opening in London this month, the time honored study and practice of cartography ventures into the conceptual as well as the physical, and we find that for many artists the street is as much about poetry and perception as it is about aerosol and wheat-pasted paper.

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Petro’s sculpture on the left with Gasisus sculpture on the right.  Aryz, Ron English, Malarko, Augustine Kofie, on the background wall. Filippo Minelli on the right wall. “Mapping The City” Somerset House. London, UK. (photo © Rafa Suñen)

“Mapping the City”, now going up at the Somerset House presents the work of 50 artists whose roots lie in creating work for the urban space, one defined by paved streets configured by planners and traversed by citizenry. More than this the artists here broaden the job description of cartographer to one who captures energy, movement, emotion, imagined storylines and life paths.

With ubiquitous smart phones at the ready we increasingly find that mapping the world has become a given, removing some of its mystery. The tracking of GPS is joined by the physically surveying Google machine and countless public/private war/profit apparatus that have been loosed across and above the skin of the globe to trace all roads and streets, quantify topography, measure depths – even gauge the volume of rivers and density of forests.

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Installation process shot. Gasius sculpture on the foreground. Installers working on Petros’ sculpture. Aryz, Ron English, Shepard Fairey, Malarko, Augustine Kofie, Shantell Martin, Husk MitNavn on the background wall. “Mapping The City” Somerset House. London, UK. (photo © courtesy A(by)P)

And then there are the people. “The city is a living entity,” says Rafael Schacter, curator of the show from the arts organization A(by)P, who sees the city as something far more than a clever configuration of lines. “The city changes every day, every hour of the day. It is constantly modifying itself. And it is fully alive in the way it reacts and responds to our actions. It is endlessly fascinating in the same way humans are. They can be exhausting, they can be destructive. But they contain endless possibilities too.”

It’s this same immersion into street life that draws artists to create in public, and knowing how to accept and embrace its evolution is what brings the veterans back. MOMO literally painted many streets in one continuous line that formed the letters of his nom de la rue in a 2006 tag that spread across the bottom of New York’s central island and it is presented as a map in this show.

Brooklyn Street Art: One of the artists in your show, MOMO, created an enormous tag in Manhattan – although it was only legible when the route was retraced upon a map. Is he crazy?
Rafael Schacter: He is crazy. A crazy genius. Although you still can see the marks he made on the streets of Manhattan years after he painted it! He recently re-walked the route and re-mapped the existing line. As I said; Crazy. Genius.

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MOMO “Tag Manhattan” (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

“Retracing the tag line was cool,” MOMO tells us. “What I noticed is how much new sidewalk cement has gone in – a lot of the line was eaten up by that,” he says, observing that a city is anything but static and often regenerative. “It is interesting how quickly a city replaces all of its cells,” he remarks about the ongoing repaving that characterizes the city. Were there more changes MOMO noticed in the 7 years between tagging? Yes. “Other stuff, like all the shiny new developments that are making Manhattan look like a mall.”

While there are some commonalities among the selected artists who are participating in this project, there is quite a variety of approaches to the street, as Schacter invited Street Artists, graffiti artists, public artists, designers, painters, illustrators, and billboard jammers. He says the multiplicity of interpretation was an intentional decision.

“For us, the most important thing was to have the whole range of artists we love and who are producing work in the public sphere included in the exhibition. As such, and as you say, it really is a very wide variety of artists, from graffiti bombers to conceptual artists, from muralists to urban explorers. With all of them, however, the crucial element within their practice is the public sphere, the richness of the city and urban space. This is the line that goes through all of their work, even if they may at first seem widely different.”

 

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 Chu. “Mapping The City” Somerset House. London, UK. (photo © courtesy A(by)P)

Chu, an Argentine Street Artist and muralist whose colorfully painted four paneled abstraction remixes and jumbles the lines and shapes and removes all text, his map is meant to communicate the kinetic nature of street life. “I tried to create a map of Buenos Aires marking my usual movements around the city. I am used to moving around it a lot, from one side to other, and sometimes it is really chaotic and stressful. However it is also really where I get a lot of inspiration.”

A viewer of Chu’s graphic representation may be reminded of map making software and apps – possibly because of his graphic design training and his work as an animation director and illustrator in the digital sphere. He says that his digital art experience has grafted onto his vision of the physical street, “especially because I am working with layers and some of my choices of shapes come from that experience.”

Even as a painter, you can see the influence of the digital design world in Chu’s map. He says that when he thinks of city streets, he does see in his mind an aerial view of them from up above, but there is much more.

“My artwork for the exhibition is a kind of aerial abstract view of the city,” says Chu, “When trying to understand the city street more mentally, I believe today, it is something more complex than it was before. It is like some kind of constellation or hypertext thing that grows up in all directions, with axis and tons of layers.”

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CHU “Buenos Aires” (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

Housed in a section of Somerset House that has been closed off from the public for 150 years, the new exhibit is also its first and most visitors will never have hiked through the still unpolished space. It seems like the perfectly shabby cream-colored raw environment that graff writers and Street Artists might feel comfortable making art for. “It’s in the process of happening,” says Schacter as the team moves around him and up ladders to place the maps and straddle patches of exposed wall. According to Rafael, even the ceilings of the 18th century rooms are being restored to their original splendor, “with Yak Hair in the plaster!”

Brooklyn Street Art: Will people need to follow a map to find this show in the new wing of the Somerset House?
Rafael Schacter: Ha! Kind of. Our space hasn’t currently even got a name as it’s so new – and so old at the same time. We’re going to make big wooden arrows to make it clear but we kind of hope people get lost too, and then eventually find us!

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Detail of Gasius sculpture on the foreground. LA artist Cali Thornhill De Witt displays his flag pieces in the background. “Mapping The City” Somerset House. London, UK. (photo © Rafa Suñen)

Brooklyn Street Art: Not all participants strictly adhered to the realm of cartography in the conception or execution of their map. Brad Downey appears to have drawn a face. Imagine what you would have gotten if this was a show about clouds.
Rafael Schacter: You’re right – the responses to our call for work has been super super varied. But that’s exactly what we wanted – that variety of work. We didn’t want just one understanding of the call, which was simply “map your space”.  Brad’s work is about finding visuals within maps, whilst others have tried to find maps within visuals! It is all simply about a different appreciation of space from the one we see in the top down, topographic, scientific standard.

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Brad Downey. Face (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

The Brooklyn Street Artist Swoon contributed one of her iconic images of a woman whose entire form is filled with what appears to be kutis and stilt houses along winding streets from top to bottom. Based on the Thai capital Bangkok, it is an example of the inner world Swoon is known for creating, reflective of a character’s history.

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Installation process shot. Swoon. “Mapping The City” Somerset House. London, UK. (photo © courtesy A(by)P)

Brooklyn Street Art: It is always interesting to see a Swoon portrait that contains the city and the streets within the body of the subject, isn’t it?
Rafael Schacter: There’s a great quote from Swoon about her work being about the desire to more carefully examine the “relationship of people to their built environment”. Her work here is a prime example of this, a work in which the body and the city become inexorably intertwined – the experience, as she says, “of becoming part of the fabric of the city” visually mapped out.

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Installation process shot. Chu, Isaurao Huizar, Swoon and Mike Ballard. “Mapping The City” Somerset House. London, UK. (photo © courtesy A(by)P)

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk about the film/s you have discovered and will be showing that fall in with the theme of map-making?
Rafael Schacter: The films we’re going to be showing are by a filmmaker named Marc Isaacs. They’re both set in London, both exploring the lives of “ordinary” Londoners. It is a very bottom-up, grass roots understanding of people’s lives.  That is exactly what we’re looking to do in the show – to explore the subjective and the hidden nature of the city.

Brooklyn Street Art: Who will be doing an artist talk about the project?
Rafael Schacter: We’re really excited about this. Our artist talk will be featuring Eltono, Filippo Minelli and Caleb Neelon. Again, a real diversity of artists and a diversity of backgrounds. Each of them have a great understanding of the public sphere and we’re excited to see what they will present.

Brooklyn Street Art: Given worldwide mapping and its ubiquity on devices we must ask this: In the future, will it be possible to get lost?
Rafael Schacter: I hope so! As the artist Itso said, and I paraphrase, true places can never be mapped.

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Installation process shot. El Tono working on his sculpture. “Mapping The City” Somerset House. London, UK. (photo © courtesy A(by)P)

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El Tono. “Mapping The City” Somerset House. London, UK. (photo © Rafa Suñen)

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Installation process shot. Herbert Baglione on the right. El Tono on the left with EGS on the background room. “Mapping The City” Somerset House. London, UK. (photo © courtesy A(by)P)

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Installation process shot. Remed. “Mapping The City” Somerset House. London, UK. (photo © courtesy A(by)P)

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Installation process shot. Sixe Paredes on the left. Filippo Minelli on Center. Remed and OX on the right background room. “Mapping The City” Somerset House. London, UK. (photo © courtesy A(by)P)

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Installation process shot. Detail of Filippo Minelli’s map. “Mapping The City” Somerset House. London, UK. (photo © courtesy A(by)P)

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Sixe Paredes with Detail of Filippo Minelli’s map. “Mapping The City” Somerset House. London, UK. (photo © Rafa Suñen)

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Detail of Cleo Peterson map. “Mapping The City” Somerset House. London, UK. (photo © Rafa Suñen)

 

“Mapping The City” Opens tomorrow for the general public at Somerset House in London, UK. Click HERE for schedule of events, hours, directions and other details.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

108 (Italy) Aryz (Spain)
Augustine Kofie (USA) Boris Tellegen (The Netherlands)
Caleb Neelon (USA) Cali Thornhill Dewitt (USA)
Chu (Argentina) Cleon Peterson (USA)
Daniel K. Sparkes (UK) Egs (Finland)
Ekta [Daniel Götesson] (Sweden) Eltono (France)
Erosie (The Netherlands) Filippo Minelli (Italy)
Gold Peg (UK) Graphic Surgery (The Netherlands)
Herbert Baglione (Brazil) Honet (France)
Horfee (France) HuskMitNavn (Denmark)
Ian Strange [Kid Zoom] (Australia) Interesni Kazki (Ukraine)
Isauro Huizar (Mexico) Isaac Tin Wei Lin (USA)
James Jarvis (UK) Jurne (USA)
Ken Sortais [Cony] (France) Les Frères Ripoulain (France)
Lucas Cantu (Mexico) Lush (Australia)
Malarko (UK) Martin Tibabuzo (Argentina)
Mike Ballard (UK) MOMO (USA)
Nano4814 (Spain) Nug (Sweden)
OX (France) Pablo Limon (Spain)
Petro (UK) Remed (France)
Remio (USA) Roids (UK)
Ron English (USA) Russell Maurice (UK
Shantell Martin (UK) Shepard Fairey (USA)
Sixe Paredes (Spain) Susumu Mukai (Japan)
Swoon (USA) Tim Head (UK)
Vova Vorotniov (Ukraine) Will Sweeney (UK)

 

Mapping the City
22 January – 15 February 2015
Somerset House, New Wing
Admission: Free

Contemporary cartographic art by international street and graffiti artists to be the first exhibition in Somerset House’s recently opened New Wing

 

 

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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 on The Huffington Post

 
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MTO and “The Wynwood Family”

MTO and “The Wynwood Family”

January 20, 2015

Street Artist and muralist MTO spent the entire month of December in Miami. Sounds terrible right? The photo realistic painter also brought his family – or maybe you would say he left them.

“The whole project is called ‘The Wynwood Family (2014)’,” he tells us, and in customary MTO fashion he is using his art to put forth his opinion on socio-political matters.

The mother, father, and son are each rendered in stark black, white, and red – each are visually arresting and effective for different reasons.  MTO tells us a little about the background for each of these, and you’ll have to figure out the rest. Suffice to say he’s not throwing compliments around very freely.

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MTO “The Son: No Art For Poor Kids” Wynwood, Miami. December 2014. (photo © MTO)

The son resides on the side of a school just north in the Wynwood District, the well known arts hub that has been visited by international Street Artists over the last decade, primarily during the first few days of December when the Art Basel events are taking place. As has been recounted here and elsewhere, the ironies multiply quickly whenever there is a sudden influx of art, followed by fans, galleries, real estate interests, trendy culture, and brands (not necessarily in that order) in a neighborhood once neglected by the dominant society.

But frankly, talking about gentrification in Wynwood is like discussing Mitt Romney as a viable candidate for president in ’16. It’s a soulless pursuit and you sort of end up where you started, now feeling slightly nauseous.

But if there is more money being generated in a community, that means there must be a larger tax base. So it didn’t make sense when people learned that the local junior high school had cancelled arts and music programming four years in a row.

Wynwood has 100 walls crammed with art but the local kids don’t have art class? Right.

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MTO “The Son: No Art For Poor Kids” Wynwood, Miami. December 2014. (photo © MTO)

That changed this year when a determined visionary principal and a few big supporters created a program called RAW to raise funds and entice artists like MTO and many others to come paint the campus. The campus has been transformed and hopefully so has the arts programming. In this case at least, a wrong is righted. After all, like J.J. Colagrande in the Huffington Post said, “How can the most burgeoning art neighborhood on the planet have public schools that don’t teach art or music?”

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MTO “The Father: La Muerte Del Barrio” Wynwood, Miami. December 2014. (photo © MTO)

The Father is a little harder to locate on a dead end street on North Miami Avenue but from the first impression you register a biting critique of hipster fashion and the art of Shepard Fairey.  With a name like “La Muerte del Barrio,” this mural is taking a position on the gentrification of “Little San Juan”, as the Wynwood District was once called.

A moustachioed hipster skeleton holds his OBEY coffee and retro film camera in his lumberjack plaid while a corporate branded wall drips down over the graffiti work below. MTO uses the mural to point fingers at who he thinks is responsible for wrecking a culture with the subtlety of a WWF wrestler, but at least you don’t have to wonder what he’s getting at.  Away from the central commercial hub, this mural may last longer than if it was across from “Wynwood Walls” but we’re guessing that the buff clock is ticking on this acidic slam.

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MTO “The Father: La Muerte Del Barrio” Wynwood, Miami. December 2014. (photo © MTO)

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MTO “The Father: La Muerte Del Barrio” Wynwood, Miami. December 2014. (photo © MTO)

And finally, mom.

The mother is a foxy babe and if you are wondering what she is doing, MTO has entitled this bikinied death Barbie “Selfie … Oh Wynwood Selfie …”

“It’s another perspective on the same topic as the other murals,” he says, and you might guess that it is not meant to complement the swarming beauties who teeter on stilletos after dark at art openings with little dogs on their arms. It may be about class, or behavior, or the fact that many in attendance at these hyped up events during Art Basel seem to care more about getting a good shot of themselves than appreciating the art they are celebrating.

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MTO “The Mother: Selfie… Oh Wynwood Selfie”. Wynwood, Miami. December 2014. (photo © MTO)

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MTO “The Mother: Selfie… Oh Wynwood Selfie”. Wynwood, Miami. December 2014. (photo © MTO)

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MTO “The Mother: Selfie… Oh Wynwood Selfie”. Wynwood, Miami. December 2014. (photo © MTO)

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MTO “The Mother: Selfie… Oh Wynwood Selfie”. Wynwood, Miami. December 2014. (photo © MTO)

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MTO “The Mother: Selfie… Oh Wynwood Selfie”. Wynwood, Miami. December 2014. (photo © MTO)

MTO would like to note that the graffiti around “Father” was done by MEKS, INK187 and DEST (the color children) and the graffiti background of “Mother” was improvised by G3, MTO, Abe and his sons.

He would also like to extend his thanks to Robert, Leza, Ron, Taissia, and Guillaume for their help, support, and inspiration.

 

The Wynwood Family (2014)

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MTO: The Wynwood Family”. Wynwood, Miami. December, 2014. (photo © MTO)

 

 

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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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GAIA and #iftheygunnedmedown in Atlanta on MLK Jr. Day

GAIA and #iftheygunnedmedown in Atlanta on MLK Jr. Day

January 19, 2015

As the U.S. reflects on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today we also acknowledge that his work, and our work, is not done.

This past year has brought more people into the streets to demonstrate across America than in many years, and the signs and slogans can in many cases be interchanged for those used by civil rights marchers half a century earlier.

In multiple cities across the country thousands of citizens have demonstrated on streets, roads, avenues, highways, intersections. They have made signs and chanted and marched multiple days and nights against injustice and many more have tweeted, facebooked, tumbled and texted – originally it was related to police brutality specifically but more largely we have seen an overall critique of a system still corroded and undermined by our history and legacy of racism.

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Gaia at work on his new mural for the Center for Civil and Human Rights. Atlanta, Georgia. (photo © Brandon English)

From our jails to our boardrooms to our schools and universities to our media outlets to our halls of government, a system of inequality continues, supported by our own ignorance and our failure to learn and heal that legacy of racism. Every day we see a black president thwarted and insulted and disrespected – not for political motivations simply, but so obviously just because of his race. The level of disrespect for the highest office in government has been unprecendented, debasing us all, even though a majority elected and re-elected President Obama.

But just last week the Miami police department was revealed to be using actual photographs of black men for sniper training practice. A blind spot in our own consciousness that is obvious when revealed, but it’s more often a case of a thousand tiny little cuts that keeps a people down, or at least permanently on the defensive. Of course we can do better.

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Gaia at work on his new mural for the Center for Civil and Human Rights. Atlanta, Georgia. (photo © Brandon English)

When it comes to media depictions of people and races, it’s these subtleties that might not be quickly evident until someone culls together many examples so you can see a pattern. In a recent and effective hashtag project that spurred a website by the same name #iftheygunnedmedown questions and examines the bias of new outlets that convict  or exonerate a person by the selective use of images alone.  If it’s a white guy, then it’s his high school graduation day pic. If it’s a black guy, the photo is from the drunken crazy party afterward.

Street Artist and contemporary muralist Gaia picked up the thread of that discussion and created this new mural from photos posted by people on social media for #iftheygunnedmedown. Each of the dual natures presented give cues that are picked up on by a viewer and used to interpret physical and character traits and a variety of assumptions about the person. Gaia points to the project’s founder, CJ Lawrence, as the original inspiration for the project and quotes him saying, “… I set out to indict the media for its role in how we, as Black people, are portrayed after we are killed”.

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Gaia at work on his new mural for the Center for Civil and Human Rights. Atlanta, Georgia. (photo © Brandon English)

The newly completed mural is at the Center for Human Rights in Atlanta and it uses images of Instagrammers whose handles are @bbuckson93 , @cruelyear , @qdotjones and @fullblowndork. As you scan across the handpainted reproductions of personal and family images, obseerve your own perceptions about the person in the frame.

The portraits rise above and are demarcated by symbols and metaphors of the ruins of Persepolis. Of the relevance of the ruins to the project Gaia explains, “The centerpiece is the Cylinder of Cyrus, which is considered by some as the first universal charter on human rights.” The cuneiform inscribed clay cylinder from 6th century BC may not have the impact that an Instragram re-painting does to the average visitor, but it does ground the message in the realization that the march toward rights for all has been very long and there has been much progress – and that there is a long way to go yet.

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Gaia at work on his new mural for the Center for Civil and Human Rights. Atlanta, Georgia. (photo © Marcus Lamar)

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Gaia at work on his new mural for the Center for Civil and Human Rights. Atlanta, Georgia. (photo © Marcus Lamar)

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Young visitors show up to give Gaia props on his new mural for the Center for Civil and Human Rights. Atlanta, Georgia. (photo © Marcus Lamar)

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Gaia. Center for Civil and Human Rights. Atlanta, Georgia. (photo © Gaia)

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Gaia. Center for Civil and Human Rights. Atlanta, Georgia. (photo © Gaia)

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Gaia. Center for Civil and Human Rights. Atlanta, Georgia. (photo © Gaia)

 

For more information please follow CJ Lawrence @cj_musick_lawya and Gaia @gaiastreetart

 

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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 Images Of The Week: 01.18.15

BSA Images Of The Week: 01.18.15

January 18, 2015 ,

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Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Bifido, Caserta, Dylan Egon, Gaia, Gurld Master, Hunt, Joe Iurato, IMNOPI, Nando Zeve, Rubin 415, and Sean9Lugo.

Top Image >> Oil portraits, botanicals, layers in Photoshop, and thee. Gaia for Savage Habbit. Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gaia for Savage Habbit. Detail. Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gaia for Savage Habbit. Detail. Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gaia for Savage Habbit. Detail. Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nando Zeve (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Bifido. Caserta, Italy. January 2015. (photo © Bifido)

“This is my new wall in Caserta,” says Bifido.

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Rubin415 and Joe Iurato for Savage Habbit. Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rubin415 and Joe Iurato for Savage Habbit. MWAH ha ha ha ha ah ah ha ha haaaaa. Detail. Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rubin415 and Joe Iurato for Savage Habbit. Detail. Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rubin415 and Joe Iurato for Savage Habbit. Detail. Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rubin415. Savage Habbit. Detail. Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hunt. Looks like SOMEONE has a bit of a Christ complex. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dylan Egon makes Mickey an easy target. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gurld Master (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown. Okay, so I just got my hair did. What’s next? How shall I prepare? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Williamsburg Bridge. Brooklyn, NY. December, 2014. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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Community Murals and the Violent History of Comuna 13 in Medellin

Community Murals and the Violent History of Comuna 13 in Medellin

January 17, 2015
Despite the rise of the so-called Street Art scene of the last couple of decades, the more familiar form of this kind of expression for most people is the community mural. This outward expression of a neighborhood or cities aspirations and history can have an important impact on the residents, fostering a sense of shared culture and values and, in the case of memorial walls, grief. This winter author, street art fan, and occasional BSA contributor Yoav Litvin travelled to Medellin, Colombia, where he toured a neighborhood traumatized by crime and saw how murals by local artists and government-sponsored paint can affect every day life in a community.
 
by Yoav Litvin

San Javier, aka “Comuna 13”, is considered the most dangerous, crime-ridden district in Medellín, the second largest city in Colombia. It has been plagued by violence at the hands of drug cartels, local gangs, guerillas and paramilitary groups all of whom seek control of its strategic location as a crossroads of illegal goods coming into and out of Medellín, and thus Colombia as a whole. In 2010, the neighborhood saw 162 murders for every 100,000 people, an astonishing 10 percent of all homicides in the city.

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Comuna 13. Medellin, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

Traveling through Medellín, I was intrigued to hear from a local art lover of a street art and graffiti project at Comuna 13 aimed at bringing art, education and peace to this embattled community. Using art as an instrument for the promotion of peace has a bloody history in Comuna 13, where 10 hip-hop artists were murdered as they tried to endorse an end to violence.

Determined to see the project for myself, I sought a local guide who would agree to take me there. I was surprised to discover that there was a company that organizes tours of Comuna 13 and the next morning at 10 a.m. I met Juan Manuel, a friendly local resident who is bilingual and co-founder of “Discover Medellín”.

For a couple of hours we walked together through the streets of Comuna 13, taking in all the beautiful art that is part of the “Medellín is painted for life” project. Throughout the tour the very knowledgeable Juan educated me on the local government’s efforts to revitalize the community at San Javier, including the installation of an escalator system aimed at helping residents get to and from work, free house paint for residents in a variety of colors and investment in the construction of nearby libraries that would cater to the communities largely younger population, steering them away from crime. According to Juan, these investments have led to a dramatic reduction in violence and a transformation of Comuna 13.

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Chota. Medellin, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

I had the opportunity to ask Juan Manuel about these changes at Comuna 13 with a focus on the role of street art:

YL: What is the role of art in Comuna 13?
JM: Art serves multiple purposes. It allows local artists to share their passion for art with the local community. It’s a positive influence for younger troubled kids who have limited opportunities in Colombia. Many are discriminated against solely because of the notorious barrio they live in. The public art also serves as a historical record with many of the murals documenting Medellín’s violent past. Recently, several home-owners along the tour have approached me with an invitation to paint a mural on their walls to help improve the reputation of their community.

YL: How has the government promoted the art and artists in Medellín?
JM: The local government has been actively involved in the recruitment of artists to paint murals in Comuna 13 as well as various other locations across the city. The legal walls have been a big hit with local artists who are eager to create and share their passion with the rest of the city. The local government continues to actively search for new areas throughout the city for displaying public art. In addition, the local government has sponsored artists by providing them with the monetary funds to complete various projects throughout the city.

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Artist Unknon. Medellin, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

YL: Do you believe the art has a positive role in affecting crime levels in Medellín? How?
JM: Yes. Walking tours like this would not be possible without the drastic changes in the community.  A few years ago, violence was a daily occurrence in the community. But after the local government invested millions of dollars in paint for local residents and allowed local artists to paint murals throughout Comuna 13, safety in the area has greatly improved. These acts have given many long-term residents faith in local politicians who risked political backlash. Locals now see more and more interest in their community from the government, businesses, residents from other parts of Medellín and a few foreigners like you who are eager to explore the transformation of Comuna 13.

YL: What are your plans for the future?
JM: Together with my partner Arthur, we are currently in the process of securing funding for an art project in Comuna 13. The goal is to invite artists from around the world to paint inspirational art projects aimed at promoting the community.

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Paola Delfin. Medellin, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

After our tour I returned to my hostel and told my hostess of my experience. She was horrified to learn that I visited Comuna 13 and told me that the only reason I was left unharmed was because I had the obvious look of a foreigner: “Me and my friends never go there. If you look local or Latino in general, you are stopped, questioned, or worse… They are always suspicious of young men who may be from a rival gang.” she said.

Most of the street art and graffiti in Comuna 13 was made by kids or young people that received graffiti classes in Casa Kolacho or Casa Morada, by social entities which work with young people in some parts of this big infamously violent community.

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Senor OK . Grena Cru. Medellin, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

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REK. Medellin, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

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Bomba . Kone. Medellin, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

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El Pole. Medellin, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

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DEXS. Medellin, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

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Javid Jah. Medellin, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

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Kone . AXND. Medellin, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

 

Our thanks to Yoav for his contribution and for sharing his trip and observations with BSA readers.

 

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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: 01.16.15

BSA Film Friday: 01.16.15

January 16, 2015

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

Now screening :

1. Paulo Ito and a Neighborhood Mural in Brazil
2. Sesame Street X Hot Tea
3. Sten & Lex: Shanghai 2014
4. The London Police: Miami Art Basel 2014
5. Pow Wow! Hawaii – Martha Cooper

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BSA Special Feature: Paulo Ito and a Neighborhood Mural in Brazil

“It’s about the early sexualization of children in the culture today,” says muralist Paulo Ito as he tells you about his new mural on this small neighborhood wall. Sampa Graffiti helps to lay the groundwork for this artist to tell his story, and we get to accompany him on this very personal mission. It is the simple storytelling that allows you to understand the evolution of an artists practice from youth to middle age, the moment when you find your style and are no longer in doubt about where your voice is.

From an art-making perspective, we learn so much from watching his method of illustration with the cans, how he handles the caps, how he renders in a style and technique that one may quickly associate with a Brazilian aesthetic.  Make sure you watch the version with the translation!

 

Sesame Street X Hot Tea

Well, you knew it was going to happen sooner or later didn’t you?

Don’t be so bitter – that’s your homeboy Grover helping out with the yarnbomb! And Hot Tea gives him a hug when he gets all tied up.

SUUUUUUUNNY DAYS! Everythings AAAAAAYYY OOOOOKAAAY!

 

Sten & Lex: Shanghai 2014

And just to get that sweetness out of your mouth….and just to perplex you further but in the opposite monochromatic psychedelic geometric way, Sten and Lex just went to Shanghai and ripped a new giant wall that will leave you scratching your head. But they like it that way.

The London Police: Miami Art Basel 2014

Here’s a nice commercial gig the LP chaps got in Miami at Villa Bagatelle last month. This one was actually in South Beach, but unlike the description in the video, it wasn’t the first. So crisp, so nice, so fresh nonetheless.

Pow Wow! Hawaii – Martha Cooper

What can we say about Martha besides we love her. This video captures her in her natural state without the hype.

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A Preview Of “Mapping The City” at Somerset House (LONDON)

A Preview Of “Mapping The City” at Somerset House (LONDON)

January 15, 2015

Until you get lost in a city, you really do not know its true nature. And possibly your own.

Only at the moment of realization that you really have lost your way, your bearings, your inner compass, however temporarily, do you get a genuine sense of a place and your place in it.  What are these buildings, who are these people, what is that smell, why is that horn honking, is there a bathroom nearby, do I have any money, what do I do? Perhaps even “who am I?”.  No, you’re too confident and self assured for that.

 

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MOMO “Tag Manhattan” (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

We’ve trekked through New York City thousands of miles by now, worn out many shoes, taken countless wrong turns, and been lost numerous times. It’s part of the adventure really. Especially in the 80s when it was all new to us; cacophonic and crazy and perplexing, unnerving, and seemingly neverending. Now, even with GPS on the phone it is completely possible to get lost.  And if you are not lost, you know it is your responsibility to keep your eyes open for someone who is.  It’ll happen.

This week we’re excited for London folks who get to look at a map, fifty of them actually. Curated by Rafael Schacter and his collaborative arts organization named A(by)P, Mapping the City is an ingenious little bit of inspiration and conceptualizing of our sense of place.

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Augustine Kofie “Overcast Angeles” (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

Who are these maps created by? Street Artists of course, as well as others from the graffiti art scene.

And these wildcats have taken many liberties with the assignment of “please make a map”. So many in fact that some of these maps would get you lost even further if you were to consult them. But there is plenty to be learned from them nonetheless. These maps may provide valuable insights into the highways and byways of some of these artist’s brains, now that you think of it, you beguiling detective.

The inaugural exhibition opens the New Wing of Somerset House – a wing that has been closed to the public for a century and a half, or roughly the time you have to wait for a cable repair person to come to your apartment. Rafael and his team are busy installing maps right now for the January 22nd opening, and we will have great “install” images and an interview with him next week for you to enjoy. But for right now, have a look at these examples of cartographic excellence from an international array of established and emerging artists for Mapping the City.

(full list of artists at the end of this posting)

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CHU “Buenos Aires” (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

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Will Sweeney “Cabott Square” (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

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Brad Downey. Face (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

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Caleb Neelon “Pickerville” (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

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Shepard Fairey “Berlin Tower” (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

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Jurne “Covalence” (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

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Mike Ballard “The Ultra Poet” (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

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Goldpeg “London is Burning” (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

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Cleon Peterson “The Return” (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

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Aryz “Map” (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

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OX “Paris” (photo © courtesy of A(by)P)

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

108 (Italy) Aryz (Spain)
Augustine Kofie (USA) Boris Tellegen (The Netherlands)
Caleb Neelon (USA) Cali Thornhill Dewitt (USA)
Chu (Argentina) Cleon Peterson (USA)
Daniel K. Sparkes (UK) Egs (Finland)
Ekta [Daniel Götesson] (Sweden) Eltono (France)
Erosie (The Netherlands) Filippo Minelli (Italy)
Gold Peg (UK) Graphic Surgery (The Netherlands)
Herbert Baglione (Brazil) Honet (France)
Horfee (France) HuskMitNavn (Denmark)
Ian Strange [Kid Zoom] (Australia) Interesni Kazki (Ukraine)
Isauro Huizar (Mexico) Isaac Tin Wei Lin (USA)
James Jarvis (UK) Jurne (USA)
Ken Sortais [Cony] (France) Les Frères Ripoulain (France)
Lucas Cantu (Mexico) Lush (Australia)
Malarko (UK) Martin Tibabuzo (Argentina)
Mike Ballard (UK) MOMO (USA)
Nano4814 (Spain) Nug (Sweden)
OX (France) Pablo Limon (Spain)
Petro (UK) Remed (France)
Remio (USA) Roids (UK)
Ron English (USA) Russell Maurice (UK
Shantell Martin (UK) Shepard Fairey (USA)
Sixe Paredes (Spain) Susumu Mukai (Japan)
Swoon (USA) Tim Head (UK)
Vova Vorotniov (Ukraine) Will Sweeney (UK)

 

Mapping the City
22 January – 15 February 2015
Somerset House, New Wing
Admission: Free

Contemporary cartographic art by international street and graffiti artists to be the first exhibition in Somerset House’s recently opened New Wing

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YZ and Her “Amazone” Women Warriors on Senegalese Walls

YZ and Her “Amazone” Women Warriors on Senegalese Walls

January 14, 2015

According to historical accounts of the First Franco-Dahomean War, in the 1890s it was the highly trained military women who were chopping off the heads of the French.  Sometimes while they slept.

French Street Artist YZ Yseult has begun her own campaign to pay tribute to the fierce female fighters of the 19th Century West African country of Dahomey, who are more commonly referred to as Amazons. A startling narrative of female power not often heard today for some, but as YZ is researching her own history as a descendent from slaves, her portraits reflect a personal impetus to tell these stories with a new force.  She has named this series of strong warriors on the street “Amazone”.

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YZ “Amazone” Senegal. West Africa (photo © YZ)

Back in her former Senegal now to do research for the project, she says there are many female figures who we may not know of in current times, but who may provide crucial inspiration, possibly bolstering the confidence of women in 2015 to advocate for their positions and opinions. “I want to show warriors from ancient times; revolutionists, anti-colonialists, intellectual women who have written the story of Africa. We need figures to be proud of our roots, to keep fighting for our rights, and to write the story of tomorrow.”

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YZ “Amazone” Senegal. West Africa (photo © YZ)

Wheat pasted on walls in a few cities on the west coast of Senegal, south of Dakar, these proud figures project images of strength and determination even when placed on the corrugated metal of small humble structures. “Many times these small handmade metal shops are owned by women for selling breakfast or bread,” she says of the hut-like edifices. “While doing research on women in Africa, I have been compiling a photographic archive,” she says.

“I’ve been searching for the places that could come into resonance with the subject. I’m looking for locations that communicate the historic perspective of the project as well as those that may draw a parallel with present issues.”

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YZ “Amazone” Senegal. West Africa (photo © YZ)

The campaign is only a few months old, but it is a work in progress and YZ is sure to discover more as she continues to research over the next two, possibly three years. She says she is strongly moved by what she has learned about women who emerged as slaves and from slavery and she feels a connection to that history.

“Many women have fought for their rights and the rights of their people, yet few of them have been recognized for their achievements and many stayed unknown,” she says. “To know where we are going we need to know where we have been, and these stories are important to educate the next generation, especially women.”

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YZ “Amazone” Senegal. West Africa (photo © YZ)

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YZ “Amazone” Senegal. West Africa (photo © YZ)

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YZ “Amazone” Senegal. West Africa (photo © YZ)

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YZ “Amazone” Senegal. West Africa (photo © YZ)

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YZ “Amazone” Senegal. West Africa (photo © YZ)

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YZ “Amazone” Senegal. West Africa (photo © YZ)

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YZ “Amazone” Senegal. West Africa (photo © YZ)

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YZ “Amazone” Senegal. West Africa (photo © YZ)

 

 

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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 on The Huffington Post

 
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D Young V and Eddie Colla in Thailand

D Young V and Eddie Colla in Thailand

January 13, 2015

New images today from Thailand as California artists and frequent collaborators Eddie Colla and D Young V marked the end of ’14.

D Young V creates fearful images of a violent militarized society where people are trapped and distressed, the child-like expressions pinched, the color/bw compositions littered with navigational and directional symbols from software applications, heads swimming in digits, mouths gagged with graphics. Colla’s female figures are rendered perhaps more realistically, but equally spent spiritually, sexually idealized, defiant, and at war.

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Eddie Colla. Thailand. 2014. (photo © Eddie Colla)

In the descriptive text accompanying these images about their year-end excursion and touristing, they paint an apocalyptic scene – references to sex and prostitution and corruption and citywide celebrations at temples as they say they spread their large format wheat-pastes across Bangkok, Pattaya and Koh Samet.  Here are the images they contributed to the Thai streetscape and various abandoned lots. One can only imagine what the children and workers and families walking in these neighborhoods think when they see these images. For their part, the artists returned to their homes and studios in Oakland and San Francisco to create more work.

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Eddie Colla. Thailand. 2014. (photo © Eddie Colla)

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Eddie Colla. Thailand. 2014. (photo © Eddie Colla)

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Eddie Colla. Thailand. 2014. (photo © Eddie Colla)

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Eddie Colla. Thailand. 2014. (photo © Eddie Colla)

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Eddie Colla and we think we can spot a Kora Lee in the background. Thailand. 2014. (photo © Eddie Colla)

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D Young V . Eddie Colla. Thailand. 2014. (photo © Eddie Colla)

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D Young V . Eddie Colla. Thailand. 2014. (photo © Eddie Colla)

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D Young V. Thailand. 2014. (photo © Eddie Colla)

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D Young V. Thailand. 2014. (photo © Eddie Colla)

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D Young V. Thailand. 2014. (photo © Eddie Colla)

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D Young V. Thailand. 2014. (photo © Eddie Colla)

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D Young V. Thailand. 2014. (photo © Eddie Colla)

 

 

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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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Dustin Yellin Suspends Dance in Glass for New NYC Ballet/Art Series

Dustin Yellin Suspends Dance in Glass for New NYC Ballet/Art Series

January 12, 2015

First it was the Street Art duo Faile. Then the photographer/scene maker JR. This spring it’s back to Brooklyn for ballet inspiration and cross-discipline-generation-pollination as Dustin Yellin will bring his sculptural paintings to the New York City Ballet and its Manhattan winter performances.

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We’ve been right behind each one of these choices as a powerful partnership between the D.I.Y. street influenced art scene of New York today and the time honored expression of the ballet art form. This particular pairing isolates a dream most people have when witnessing the power and grace of dance – the ironic desire to suspend the dancers in movement – even if just for a minute – to more fully appreciate them.

With Dustin Yellin you may have that just that sort of opportunity because his detailed imagery and three dimensional collage will be available for anyone to see as he exhibit 15 new works created as part of an ongoing project of large-scale glass and mixed-media sculptures, each weighing more than 3,000 pounds. His multi-dimensional humans, or “psychogeographies”, will map out people in suspended animation.

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“I make window sandwiches,” says Yellin as a simple distillation of his creation method and his project, which will eventually grow to 100 works in the next half-decade. To hear him speak of the layers of complexity captured at once, you hear that it is a way to capture many concepts as well – cellular memory, the atomization of our physicality, the human as the sum of all our experiences and history. Yellin would like to give you an opportunity to see through and within these humans, possibly grasping dreams, aspirations, humanity.

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Starting January 20 the new works will be unveiled and on view throughout the 2015 Winter Season until March 1 – with special hours open to the public (below). As was the case with Faile and JR, 3 selected performances in February are prices within reach of most students and art fans of a number of income levels – and you get to bring something home with you as well.

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Tickets go on sale today, January 12 at noon for the three special art series performances taking place February 12, 19 and 27

Single tickets for the NYCB Art Series performances are priced at $29 and will go on sale at noon on Monday, January 12, at nycballet.com, or by calling 212-496-0600. All audience members attending these three performances will also receive a special limited-edition takeaway created by Dustin Yellin to commemorate the NYCB Art Series collaboration.

NYCB will also host free, open hours for the general public to view the exhibition on the following dates: Thursday, February 12 through Sunday, February 22 – Mondays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon; and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

 

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