Street photographer Vinny Cornelli joins Brooklyn Street Art today to contribute his voice to the dialogue of the street, in what we hope will be an ongoing conversation.
An enthusiastic traveler and documenter, with his images Vinny reveals an inner world that lies behind the camera; affecting his choices of subjects and how he frames them.
In addition to shooting street art, he specializes in something he calls street layers; those accumulated overlapping stratum of posters and wheatpastes common on abandoned buildings and work-sites, layers of paper torn back to reveal the inside guts of the street and it’s history. Part collage, part archeology, the resulting street layers are finished presentations in his view, as much as they are one more ethereal moment in street history.
This week is the first of a two-part photo essay by Cornelli focusing on one of New York’s more recently famous addresses in street art’s oeuvre. Before it became a celebrated event space, this location was one of the destinations regularly visited by myriad street artists.
As is often the case, it was also an urban scene of neglect and, in Vinny’s eye, beautiful decay. Vinny takes this first opportunity to talk to BSA’s readers in these, some of his first contemplative images of the street early in this decade.
I was a telemarketer for one day when I was eighteen years old. Actually it was half a day. I never came back from lunch.
I bring this horrible memory freshly to mind because I just learned that Mr. Jago and Will Barras, two artists showing new works at FIFTY24SF Gallery in San Francisco, first met each other when they were both working at telemarketing jobs. They both seem like they are unscarred, but sometimes these things are not obvious on the surface.
Walrus TV Artist Feature: Mr. Jago & Will Barras Interview from “The Run Up”
Mr Jago, a pioneer of the doodle, is a founding member of Scrawl Collective and a veteran in the street art movement. Jagos interests in art and design with influences from classic Marvel comics, graffiti and hip-hop culture have help forge his unique freehand style and distinct colour palette. http://www.mrjago.com/
Will Barras
Living and working London, Will Barras is an artist and illustrator best known for his work with the Scrawl Collective, a collaboration of artist’s centered around Bristol, UK. He has been hailed as one of the artists that best represent the skate and snowboard lifestyle. http://willbarras.com/
All that doodling at your telemarketer job could pay off!
“Darling,We’re Leaving!” features new works on display at FIFTY24SF Gallery from November 5 – November 24, 2009.
I was a telemarketer for one day when I was eighteen years old. Actually it was half a day. I never came back from lunch.
We were living through a different recession and I had no practical skills and almost zero job experience and no college education. That’s why I even considered the job – desperation for bar money and phat threads. All I remember was sitting on a folding metal chair inside an O-configuration of folding banquet tables in a room looking down to the street with my black telephone, my phone number list, my order form, and my script.
We were selling tickets for the Shriner Circus and we were supposed to stress what a great philanthropic organization they were and how the kids were just thrilled. I didn’t know what a Shriner was, and I didn’t care either. I tentatively dialed people on my list and had a big lump in my throat and my hands were shaking and I would take the slightest hint of rejection personally, like an anvil had come smashing through the ceiling directly onto my head. So, around the third time someone said “NO”, I was emotionally destroyed and my nerves were numb and scarred for life. Wimp. I know. Things haven’t gotten a whole lot better in the self-confidence area, if you want to know the truth.
Mr. Jago and Will Barrass discuss their original gig. (image courtesy Upper Playground)
I bring this horrible memory freshly to mind because I just learned that Mr. Jago and Will Barras, two artists showing new works at FIFTY24SF Gallery in San Francisco, first met each other when they were both working at telemarketing jobs. They both seem like they are unscarred, but sometimes these things are not obvious on the surface.
Walrus TV Artist Feature: Mr. Jago & Will Barras Interview from “The Run Up”
Mr Jago, a pioneer of the doodle, is a founding member of Scrawl Collective and a veteran in the street art movement. Jagos interests in art and design with influences from classic Marvel comics, graffiti and hip-hop culture have help forge his unique freehand style and distinct colour palette. http://www.mrjago.com/
Will Barras
Living and working London, Will Barras is an artist and illustrator best known for his work with the Scrawl Collective, a collaboration of artist’s centered around Bristol, UK. He has been hailed as one of the artists that best represent the skate and snowboard lifestyle. http://willbarras.com/
“Darling,We’re Leaving!” features new works on display at FIFTY24SF Gallery from November 5 – November 24, 2009.
American jazz saint and snappy dresser Louis “Sachmo” Armstrong is back in New York, courtesy of MBW. Born poor in New Oleans, he ended up in the borough of Queens. (Jaime Rojo)
Transformer viking warrior dude is just so frustrated and verbally constipated that he resorts to giving the finger. (Pimax) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Gimme Shelter (QRST) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Stupendous collage and stencil work. Definitely the Dude Company – but who is the collaborator? (photo Jaime Rojo)
The Dude Company (Detail) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Revs is also doing collaborations more (photo Jaime Rojo)
“Eat Fruit and Die” (Specter) (photo Jaime Rojo)
You must be my Lucky Star (MBW) (photo Jaime Rojo)
A new Marilyn and a Red Velvet Underground banana (Pimax) (photo Jaime Rojo)
From that classic New York underground album referenced above, Femme Fatale
Itinerrance Gallery opened its location in the 13th arrondissement in 2004. Close to the Grande Bibliothèque and to the Frigos, it fits in an urban area that is economically and culturally growing.
With referential street art exhibitions to its credit – such as Berlin based Evol & Pisa73 in 2008, YZ Open Your Eyes, Marko 93, Seize Happy Wallmaker and recently the Franco-Austrian Jana & Js – and an exceptionnal space – 130 meters square, 7 meters high, and rough concrete walls – Itinerrance Gallery has got everything to succeed and become a must-see place in Paris.
Partnering with Samantha Longhi of Stencil History X for its programming, Itinerrance Gallery is now positioned in the field of street art exclusively and stencil art in particular. Chic’n’stencil opens the 2009-2010 new season that will see the international passage of major artists such as Belgian Roa, American Logan Hicks, Italian Sten & Lex, Polish M-City, or French C215, who toured the world, both in the streets and in galleries.
Groupshow November 5, – December 5, 2009 Opening November 5 from 6 pm
Far from the 80’s, stencil art is now various. Chic that is so late 2000’s distinguishes the artists featured in this exhibition. Elegant and glamorous like Zalez and Tian, delicacy in the Japan world of Stew, and the mystery of the Betty Baron‘s wheatpastings combine aesthetics with architectural lines of the Polish duo Monstfur and with the gentle poetry of based Vancouver Indigo.
Galerie Itinerrance 7 bis rue René Goscinny – Paris 13e + 33 (0)1 53 79 16 62 Opening hours Wed-Sat 2-7 pm
Dan Witz, one of the most prolific NY street artists with work dating
back to the 1970s will be debuting new work throughout the Carmichael
Gallery. The exhibition “Dark Doings” will have an opening reception
Thursday November 5 from 7-10 PM.
Some Brooklyn kids (ages 4-54) are “getting their HOWWEEN on” starting tonight even though the All Hallows Eve is not until tomorrow. In fact morning rush hour today featured more freaks than usual on the train, so I’m guessing there are a lot of office parties this afternoon. This weekend the streets are going to be crammed with Ghosts, Witches, Shreks, Wild Things, Sexy Nurses, Tea Baggers, Chewbaccas, Balloon Boys, and drag queen Ann Coulters.
My buddy Justin, who’s actually a fashion photographer and cashier at a 99 cent store is re-cycling his Lumberjack/World Wresting Foundation Fan costume from last year and adding a Pabst Blue Ribbon can for a Crunchy Hipster costume – I think the camo-cap will be totally awesome!
The New York City local Office of Homeland Insecurity has put of these helpful safety guidelines for Trick-Or-Treaters this year, and as a public service we are posting them here.
Cover your entire costume with bright orange reflective tape for safety purposes. Cars should be able to see you before they even take their exit off the BQE.
Submerge your entire costume in a bathtub of flame-retardant before putting on.
Throw all treats directly in the garbage cans on the corner provided by NYC Sanitation. You never know if they’ve been tampered with. When you return home you can eat the treats you bought in an approved chain drugstore.
Do not cross any streets. Drivers are very dangerous.
Walk in groups of 10 or more, all of you armed.
Illuminate your entrance with klieg lights for the safety of your guests.
Instead of dangerous candles in your jack-o-lantern, why not try klieg lights?
Plan your trick-or-treating trip in advance and create a map and exact schedule. Then deliver it to your local police precinct and review it with an officer who will be on duty during that time.
Avoid people in costumes. You don’t know who they are.
Be Safe and Have Fun!
Here’s an Indian “Thriller” to Get You In the Mood.
Enjoy this Halloween Weekend, there are only a couple more before the Earth is consumed in fire, locusts, and swine flu.
Last week we told you about the work of Mundano, a Brazilian street artist who recently was in a show in Brooklyn.
We were so enamored with the idea of another BKLYN, as cheesy as that may sound to you, that we wanted to know more about our cousin on the Tropic of Capricorn. So we started asking Mundano what it’s like there, how’s it similar, how’s it different, and what about the street art there.
This week Mundano comes back to talk to us about his neighborhood in the largest city in Brazil, São Paulo. Before he get’s going lemme tell you that according to my very professional online research — NYC sold São Paulo some old trolley cars in the 1930’s for the city’s rail system. And guess what name was emblazoned across the front of the front car? Brooklyn. So people started calling the neighborhood at the end of the trolley line by that name! I don’t know how accurate this is, but it sounds good.
And now, onto our guest to talk about similarities and differences between the two BK’s.
Sit down and get ready for some skooling! Oh, you already are sitting down.
Below is Mundano’s article about Brooklin & Brooklyn;
The Brazilian Brooklin was named after the American Brooklyn but ours is spelled with an “i”. The neighborhood here is mostly residential, but in the last 10 years the area has grown really fast, and now it’s also got a big financial center with high modern office buildings.
A view of the Brooklin favela in the foreground in the shadow of the skyscrapers next door. (image Mundano)
One signal of this fast growth is that the goverment is kicking our favela (slum) that was here before to another place. Basically they are trying to “clean up” the area – as if moving the poorest people to a different area was a real solution to the problem.
(image Mundano)
The similarities between both of the BKs are that they both have a river and a great bridge that goes across it and both have a great deal of street art.
The bridge called Ponte Octavio Frias de Oliveira in Sao Paulo
The differences of the street art scene here and there is that here we have the “pixaçao” which is really aggressive and fast writing, so the population started to see graffiti as a solution for that. photo credit: Brocco Lee
Here is a picture with a style of graffiti called “Pixação”
Because of that you can get authorized walls to paint on. Also, here we use much more housepaint than spray, because of the expensive price of a spray can.
Other thing is that here we have different references of culture so in a neighborhood like Brooklin you can see a great variety of grafitti styles, but here the “street law” is don’t paint over another graffiti or pixação.
This is an example of conversations on the street between graff writers in Brooklyn (image Mundano)
On the other hand, the NY Brooklyn has a lot of things that we don’t see here, like lots of tags and bombs on cars, the interaction between the artists on the streets.
Skewville makes a commentary on a piece by Elbow Toe (photo Jaime Rojo)
Also there are a lot of paste-ups and 3-D installations in Brooklyn. That is rare here.
And here Mundano speaks about his video:
This is my first timelapse video and the idea started in a bar table with some friends one day before the action. I really like how it came out because its possible to see the entire process and also the people walking there, the cars and all.
I painted the lips with a big brush and housepaint and all the rest was painted with spray paint. The gate is near by the end of the Av. Paulista, the most well known avenue of São Paulo. I´m really happy that my creature is still there watching the people and the problems of the city, and also turning the streets more colorful!
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Thank you to Mundano for taking the time and making the effort to educate his Brooklyn peeps about his neighborhood called Brooklin. A special thank you to his girlfriend Camila, who helped with the text translation, and who also appears in the video.
Graff Artist Saber used his talents to make a 30 second message using the American Flag and a few cans of spray to weigh in on the abysmal state of health care in one of the world’s richest countries.
Street artists are often in tune with the subterraneal rhythms of the city, its people, the movements: the psyche. Their affinity for the wild unscripted truths that pop up asymmetrically as a normal course of everyday working in the streets makes them better positioned to divine the messages.
Can I help you with something? (image WK Interact)
WK Interact’s new show “How To Blow Yourself Up” addresses the unspoken fear always lurking in our unspoken New York day; dark wire fears strummed by Orange Alerts a few years ago, the smell of acrid smoke in the subway, the installation of thousands of cameras all over Manhattan, and “entertainment” like “2012”, a disaster film based on end-time prophecies of ancient religions where the world suffers cataclysmically.
If only WK was trying to calm your fear.
Hey dudes, is this what you mean by Half-Pipe? (image WK Interact)
Maybe, instead, he is merely calling the bluff of the fatalists by wrapping it around a copper coil of twisted irony. Maybe he is giving you the means of your own self-destruction so you will feel self-empowered! It’s so hard to tell.
The show opening November 7th at Subliminal Projects gallery in L.A. turns friendly accessible objects you might associate with fun into blunt devices of nihilistic doom. It used to be fun when you saw this stuff on “Mission Impossible”, but when you personally see a skateboard equipped with what appears to be a pipe bomb, your blood can turn cold.
He knows that.
He’s added a dash of color to his typical black and white, but it’s not for whimsy. Think of police tape, hazmat suits, 9-Mile Point blinking red alarm lights. Cheery.
WK helped BSA understand more about his new show:
WK takes a moment to reflect on destruction. (image Adam Wallacavage)
Brooklyn Street Art: First, about the name of the show…How alarming! Are you encouraging people to self-detonate? WK Interactive: We are all wired with our very own internal detonators. The artificial devices, which I provide, are to encourage individuals who find themselves applicable to the scenarios to reflect on their state of affairs, which may bring them to the point of pressing the buttons.
Brooklyn Street Art: As a New Yorker, it is very thoughtful of you to create explosive devices for people who are the move! WK Interactive: They are also figurative symbols of age, authority or subjection and social position.
Objects on the way to LA for an explosive show (image WK Interact)
Brooklyn Street Art: Lets see now, you have skateboards, bicycles; do you have a nice exploding car? Those are always popular. WK Interactive: The goal was to keep it economically viable.
Brooklyn Street Art: Some of these pieces look tempting to touch, but I’m afraid my hand might blow off. WK Interactive: By all means – touch………
Pop a wheelie! (image WK Interact)
Brooklyn Street Art: On the streets of New York, you use almost exclusively black and white. Do you feel more colorful behind closed doors? WK Interactive: The colors used are all primary and ironically relevant in conveying the importance of the objects in the pieces, for example Police Blue and Dynamite Red.
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Oh, the guy’s a real cut-up! The more you try to nail him down, the better he is at evading you. So maybe we should just embrace the chaos, and realize WK is only reflecting back to us what we already knew.
SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS Presents How To Blow Yourself Up
New Works by WK Interact
November 7 – December 5, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 7, 8 p.m. – 11 p.m.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
