All posts tagged: #blacklivesmatter

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.21.20

June 21, 2020 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week and welcome to summer in NYC here on its 2nd day. Also Happy Father’s Day in the US.

Juneteenth. White Fragility. Defund the Police. How to Be an Antiracist. All of these new terms and phrases erupting on the main stage of the public lexicon today speak to a fundamental disgust with the system that’s been in effect. As uncomfortable as it may be, our better selves know that the conversations and changes that have started are vitally necessary to have if we ever want to move forward as a society.

Right now in New York people are marching, protesting, drinking on the street, setting off fireworks, and holding doors open for one another with a new sensitivity thanks to internal bruising. We also see people disregarding safety precautions in the spread of Covid-19, and honking their car horns more often.

All of this is against a backdrop of Americans being unceremoniously slid into poverty and unheard of unemployment, with nary a mention in the national media and near silence from both national parties. It’s good to know that the LGBTQ can’t get fired for being LGBTQ, and children of undocumented immigrants born here will be protected under DACA. Unfortunately there are no jobs!

But on the streets, the messages and the energy and the defiance and determination and the comedy are all there, running on the hot pavement.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Almost Over Keep Smiling, Cash4, Chris Tuorto, C0rn Queen, Crisp, KAWS, Menacersa, Nico, Skewville, Smells, and Tag Street Art.

Chris Tuorto #blacklivesmatter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

#TAG in Tel-Aviv. #blacklivesmatter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mena-Ceresa. #blacklivesmatter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Almost Over Keep Smiling (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. June 2020. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jim Prigoff / BLM – Dispatch From Oakland

June 17, 2020 Artists

“In some 50 years of documenting public art, I have never seen such an outpouring of political images as I have personally witnessed in the streets of San Francisco, Oakland and Sacramento, ” photographer and historian Jim Prigoff tells us. He’s been hitting the streets in the last week and feeling the rage and defiance of the protestors as well as the artists who are pouring themselves out onto colorful walls.

Dered WRK. Oakland, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

He tells us that he has watched as tens of thousands of people continue to demonstrate every day. “Much of it is related to the murder of George Floyd,” he says, “and all that it portends relating to race relations and specifically the phrase that sums it all up is ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’.”

Limited in his personal mobility to shooting from his car window, Mr. Prigoff has an eagle’s eye when it comes to catching the good stuff and we are honored that he shares what he has found here with BSA readers. He says that he would like to disseminate his shots “in any way that helps to call attention to the continuing injustice and the absolute necessity for dramatic change.”

Unidentified artist. Oakland, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Unidentified artists. Oakland, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Girl Mobb. Oakland, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

AKUT / Join His CALL FOR ACTION

June 15, 2020 Artists

CALL FOR ACTION: PARTICIPATE IN A NEW VIDEO PROJECT

Today we’re lending a hand to Street Artist and fine artist AKUT, who is using his name and privilege to organize a new video project that he hopes will continue the momentum against racism that is currently marching through many of the world’s streets.

Let’s ask all the questions about how a racists system is formed and if our actions or inactions and attitudes contribute to it knowingly or unknowingly. In the end, we’re all responsible.

“Use the power of your voice, show your face to be an ally in this movement against racism,” says AKUT in his new appeal for participants for his next video project.

“Be an amplifier for those who haven’t been heard for too long or have been shut down by officials and politics every time this ugly ball of violence gets another disturbing kick and rolls even faster.”

“I aim to use my abilities to participate in this worldwide movement, to stand in for humanity, equality, and to keep this fight a VISIBLE one as long as it takes. Again, the time for change is NOW!”

A Message from AKUT

I need you to help me creating another strong sign of solidarity with the whole act against racism. If you want to participate in a new video project, please send an email to:

BLM@AKUT1.COM
SUBJECT: BLM IN YOUR CITY/COUNTRY
UNTIL WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17TH.

All you need is a black and white printer, a camera (smartphone is sufficient), and the confidence to eventually make this change happen, step by step, together.

Thank you a lot in advance!

As a side note to all denier and conspiracy myths sympathetic, to the people, who have never been affected by racism, but keep on pointing out that all lives matter or saying this is not their problem:

I don’t say ONLY black lives matter. I was lucky so far to never have been under pressure because of anything that defines me by nature. I don’t take this for granted. You shouldn’t either. It should be everybody’s duty to make this world a worth one, to live in, with equality, freedom, and solidarity as a common basement.

It’s ridiculous and frustrating that one has to explicitly say that every life matters in order to not be attacked when standing up for others. There shouldn’t be any doubt about the value of lives, no matter the color of skin, gender, religion, social-economic or geographical background. In times when a specific group of human beings needs as much support as possible to be seen and heard, it should be a no-brainer to everyone, that this particular group needs to be underlined specifically in the public debate. Don’t mix this up or compare it to any other issue this world is facing. There’re for sure too many things not right on this planet, but we cannot act on all issues at the same time. This movement is against every act of alleged superiority over presumed minorities, against group-related misanthropy. This is against racism. – AKUT

All the best from Berlin
Falk aka AKUT

The Black Wall Movement / Barcelona Artists Fight Racism

June 13, 2020 Artists

Under the initiative of Barcelona based street artist, Xupet Negre, around 15 artists responded to an invitation to participate in the project #theblackwallmovement at Parc De 3 Xemeneies in Barcelona.

Police brutality is not a foreign concept in Barcelona and the images coming out from the United States have hit a nerve within the creative community of this Catalan Metropolis, we are told, and the artists here decided to show their support for the protest against racism in Barcelona by painting these walls.

Photographer and frequent BSA contributor Lluis Olive shared his photos of the project with us.

Art by an anonymous artist. Photo by an anonymous photographer.

The anonymous artist(s) who painted the mural above, titled “Here the police also kill” decided to paint the names of a number of the immigrants killed by the police in Barcelona since the ’90s. An individual who happened to be on the scene where the mural was painted and wishes to remain anonymous related the what unfolded once the police got wind of the mural:

“Here the police also kill…and censor!

Yesterday I visited Parc De 3 Xemeneies in Barcelona to support #theblackwallsmovement event organized by Xupete Negre. I wasn’t there as an artist, but rather in support of my fellow artists who were participating and painting in the event.

What caught my attention was a mural where a crew of anonymous artists decided that rather than paint images on the wall they wrote a list of the names of immigrants assassinated by the police in Barcelona from the ’90s to the present time. Shortly after the mural was completed a police squad arrived. The officers wanted to know the name of the artist(s) who painted the mural so they could charge the artist(s) of defamation and demanded that the mural be painted over.

The artists who were present at the time refused to name names and refused to paint over the mural. The following day the portion of the mural that reads: “Here the police also kills” was painted over. I find it abhorrent that crimes that took place are being censured and that the collective memory of said crimes is being erased.

Never mind that the event in question was to fight racism and police brutality and to denounce the murder of George Floyd in The United States.

“This is the end of pretty pictures,” wrote the artists at the end of the mural. “-by anonymous.

Raul De Dios, Kram, Zosen, Eledu and Kader. (photo © Lluis Olive)

Maga / Megui, Miriam Diaz, El Craneo, Camil. (photo © Lluis Olive)

Miriam Diaz, El Craneo, Camil. (photo © Lluis Olive)

Klover, SM172, ISA Rabassa, Gayoncerose, Gerardo. (photo © Lluis Olive)

*These two murals are not part of the event listed above and were painted a different location in Barcelona.

BSA Images Of The Week 06.07.20 / Dispatch From Isolation # 77

June 7, 2020 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week.

The revolution has begun.

When a socio-political-economic nexus is forged with such historically contentious factors, it only takes a spark. If you are wondering who will win, merely look at history, as past is prologue. Sorry, we won’t be spoilers.

Historically sky-high unemployment in an economy headed for depression, a somnolent political-corporate class standing listlessly by to watch as you are lowered deep into the well, an unprecedented heist of the US cupboard in broad daylight, the flames of social inequity fanned by a muscular and shiny fascism. What’s not to like?

In one irony (among many) New York City is opening tomorrow. Except for the curfew at 8pm. It’s also boarding up. Just as graffiti and street art were effectively scrubbed from Manhattan, the city offers artists and poets thousands and thousands of brand new plywood canvasses. It’s a jubilee!

Just not a debt jubilee.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Captain Eyeliner, Niko Alexander, Cadex Herrera, Greta McLain, Xena Goldman, Pablo Helm Hernandez, Dusty Rebel, No Sleep, Pajtim Osmanaj, Russian Doll NYC, and Soul Thundre.

#blacklivesmatter NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

June is Pride Month and photographer Dusty Rebel is marking the occasion with a photo essay “Out In The Streets” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

June is Pride Month and photographer Dusty Rebel is marking the occasion with a photo essay “Out In The Streets” Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The public mural painted by artists Niko Alexander, Cadex Herrera, Greta McLain, Xena Goldman, Pablo Helm Hernandez was projected on a screen Thursday during the entire memorial for George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Pajtim Osmanaj. Revolution is in the air in New York and Paitin Osman adapts Eugène Delacroix and places a medical worker in the role of Marianne in **Liberty Leading the People** (*La Liberté guidant le peuple*
[la libɛʁte ɡidɑ̃ lə pœpl]) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street art doesn’t always have to be illegal, as we know. This textual mark-making leads directly to The White House on 16th Street. With painters hired by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, they didn’t announce it nor explain it until it was obvious. According to Emily Badger (@emilymbadger) on Twitter “When I asked them what they were doing, several city workers casually said ‘just paintin’ the streets,’ as if there were nothing else to say.”

Soul Thundre / Consumer Art (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan. NYC. June 2020 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.14.16

August 14, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 907 Crew, Aneko, Cash4, City Kitty, COST, D7606, Gregos, LMNOPI, Opiemme, Phlegm, Pork, Rambo, Smells, UFO, Vhils, and Vudo Child.

Our top image: “Heading to Coney Island to catch some waves…” This small wheat pasted illustration on a NYC subway platform caught our attention for its composition, wit and well-placed location, so it leads BSA Images Of The Week with it. It is very important to highlight the countless small pieces of art on the street illegally put around the city. Yes, we are in a period of fascination with murals these days, but it’s these small ones that first captured our hearts. Please help ID the artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vudo Child with COST posters on top. Detail. We saw the artist meticulously hand drawing a face on each brick. There are thousands of original pieces on this extensive wall with the abstract piece with black backdrop as the center of the composition. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vhils in Berlin in collaboration with Open Walls Galerie. The lone portrait on a wall is distinguished by its singularity – quite opposite of example from the work above. Vhils destroys to create. He chisels away from the wall do draw his portraits. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.”

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Nestled within the bustling city of Nairobi, Kenya, Kibera is a testament to its inhabitants’ challenges and its collective indomitable …Read More »
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“Idle Time has become that free moment we have between one task and another in the production process. Productive inertia …Read More »
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BLM@AKUT1.COMSUBJECT: BLM IN *YOUR CITY/COUNTRY*UNTIL WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17TH.

Vudo Child with COST posters on top. Detail. We saw the artist meticulously hand drawing a face on each brick. There are thousands of original pieces on this extensive wall with the abstract piece with black backdrop as the center of the composition. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vudo Child. Deatil. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vudo Child. Deatil. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vhils in Berlin in collaboration with Open Walls Galerie. The lone portrait on a wall is distinguished by its singularity – quite opposite of example from the work above. Vhils destroys to create. He chisels away from the wall do draw his portraits. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Two bunnies in love with PORK. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI portrait of a demonstrator from the #blacklivesmatter movement. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gregos (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gregos (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gregos (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UFO, Rambo, Smells, 907 Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cash4, 907 Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phlegm in Berlin for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phlegm in Berlin for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phlegm in Berlin for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phlegm in Berlin for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty . D7606 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David Hollier portrait of Abraham Lincoln using an excerpt from his inaugural address speech. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.”

Opiemme using text from Nirvana’s In Utero album. Tuscany, Italy. July 2016. (photo © Opiemme)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Aneko (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Berlin. July 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BLM@AKUT1.COM
SUBJECT: BLM IN YOUR CITY/COUNTRY
UNTIL WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17TH.