All posts tagged: Brooklyn Street Art

JR on Houston Wall, at PACE Gallery, on Cover of Time Magazine with “Guns In America”

JR on Houston Wall, at PACE Gallery, on Cover of Time Magazine with “Guns In America”

October 27, 2018

On a day in the United States with yet another mass shooting, this one at a synagogue in Pittsburg, JR has introduced a new massive artwork that talks about guns in America, a seemingly intractable, unsolvable issue that makes the country rank as one of the most violent year after year.

JR x Time “Guns In America”. Pace Prints. New York City. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“It’s a metaphor of what’s happening in the US,” says photographer, filmmaker, Street Artist, and social commentator JR, who has just installed a new mural on the Houston Wall in New York City on a sunny Friday where hundreds of curious New Yorkers stop and examine the new artwork while heavy trucks, honking cars, and periodic police and fire alarms whiz by.

The night before at Pace Gallery in Chelsea the conservatively stylish French art phenom hosted an unveiling of the same image, rather a composited video of 245 separately shot moving images, projected across a huge wall in the space for guests to contemplate. A masterstroke of art and sociology, “The Gun Chronicles: A Story of America” presents opinions and perspectives from Americans across the range – hunters, victims, law officers, medical professionals, religious leaders, politicians, activists, surviving family members.

JR x Time “Guns In America” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As we gaze at the quietly glowing and slowly moving images, we comment to the artist that it has a strangely calming and hypnotic quality, considering the range of deep feelings and emotions that the topic of gun violence engenders throughout the country, including many of these subjects. He tells us that he didn’t necessarily know the individual stories of everyone he was filming at the time of the sessions, but “I was aware of the emotions that were happening in many of the subjects. They were quite strong.”

By providing this very thorough collection of voices to be heard inside of one project, the artist enables viewers to truly countenance the complexity of a wrenching topic that much of the talking-head media flatly reduce to its simplest polarity. He walks on the sidewalk and rides in the lift carefully scanning the faces of the subjects and talks with the handful of them who have travelled here with him to watch the installation. In a way, JR is doing the job that many have been unsuccessful at; contemplating the vast grey area and finding common ground.

JR x Time “Guns In America”. Pace Prints. New York City. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: When you went into the project did you have one idea of the issue, but after completing it something perhaps changed in your mind about it? Was there something voiced by others that helped you understand how volatile the issue is?
JR: I think that when I got into this project I knew very little about the issue except what I heard in the media and it was really hard for me to understand, being French. To see how little kids could have access to such firearms and to see that such drama can happen across the country. So I really went naively trying to understand from every angle, every perspective, trying to learn from the people’s narrative, from the people’s story, and to hear what they have to say.

And it is interesting because you find a lot of common ground between people. There is fear, fear of the other, what people might say about them or about their beliefs and actually what I realized when you listen to a lot of the stories was that a lot of people would agree on a common ground that certain people should not have access to certain firearms and they would almost all agree to a certain regulation. It’s just that that conversation is not really happening. So I hope that this mural can be one part of starting that conversation between people.

JR x Time “Guns In America”. Houston / Bowery Wall. New York City. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A collaborative project with TIME magazine, the three-page fold out cover of the November 5th edition features a carefully diagrammed listing of all the participants on the reverse side. The website created for the project gives more depth into each individual.

By clicking on the person a visitor to the site will learn their name, age, and position professionally or in life – along with a concise recorded statement from the person. The voices are resolute, halting, tender, defiant, wisened, sobbing, proud.

JR x Time “Guns In America”. Houston / Bowery Wall. New York City. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The editor of the magazine Edward Felsenthal, recalls on the website that the cover of the magazine in June of 1968 also featured a contemporary artist for that time, Roy Lichtenstein, who “marked a series of heart-breaking assassinations” with his artwork on the cover with the title “The Gun in America.”

The artwork now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery and is as relevant 50 years later as the day it was published, with the new pluralic title of “Guns in America” today possibly referring to the measureless proliferance of weapons in the US over the intervening five decades, the $13.5 billion dollar revenue of guns and ammunition sold annually and the 263,223 full-time jobs related to the firearm industry. Guns are America.

“I shoot competitively all over the country… ,” says Rob Vadasz, 44, “a firearm is as engrained in our culture as almost any other part of the American story and it’s not something that can be turned off,” says a stern looking white man with short hair who is listed on the website as an agent for the U.S. Border Patrol in Tampa, Florida.

JR x Time “Guns In America”. Houston / Bowery Wall. New York City. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Amy Dillon, 38

U.S. Marine Corps veteran and firearms instructor / Summerville, South Carolina

“We’ve been afforded certain rights by our constitution..”

Omni Jahwar, 17

High school student / Grand Prairie,Texas

“I go to school fearing that my life may be taken in Pre-Calculus or Astronomy..”

Candace Fleming, 40

Youth mentor and training director, Urban Specialists / Desoto, Texas

“My first encounter with guns was when my father was shot and killed in the head. I was five years old..”

Sung Song, 42

Respiratory therapist and U.S. Army veteran / Dallas, Texas

“My experience in the Army and in the military has helped shaped how I feel and think about the gun control debate..”

Brittany Fairchild, 30

Emergency-room nurse / Dallas, Texas

“I was in charge on the night of the police shootings. It is a very difficult subject to talk about. It’s a night that I will never forget.”

Michael Foreman, 65

Trauma surgeon / Dallas, Texas

“I deal with it professionally, taking care of victims of gunshot violence… I also am what most people would refer to as a “gun nut”.

JR x Time “Guns In America”. Houston / Bowery Wall. New York City. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dianna Muller from Tulsa, Oklahoma stands in front of the JR mural on Houston Street:

“As a woman I really feel like the bottom line is, the gun issue is a woman’s issue, it’s the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter if a 250 pound man is trying to kick in my door and eventually does, I have a way to defend myself. I don’t have to be a victim, and I do not have to get raped, and I do not have to get murdered, I do not have to get beat up. I don’t want that on anybody so I really want everybody to know how to protect themselves”.

JR x Time “Guns In America”. Houston / Bowery Wall. New York City. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR x Time “Guns In America”. Houston / Bowery Wall. New York City. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR x Time “Guns In America”. Houston / Bowery Wall. New York City. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lauren Hartnett of Staten Island, New York stands in front of the JR mural on Houston Street:

“As an advocate for the second amendment it gives me a different perspective on a lot of other issues that have been brought up and are a high topic of discussion. One of those being feminism and women empowerment, and in my opinion nothing is more empowering, or nothing screams feminism like a woman being capable and able to take care of herself and protect herself and her family”.

JR x Time “Guns In America”. Houston / Bowery Wall. New York City. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Antong Lucky from Dallas, Texas stands in front of the JR mural on Houston Street:

“Once I got out of prison I began a war to end the cycle of gangs and guns in our community. I wanted people to understand that we got a lot of stuff in common than we do against each other and that we needed to work together. A lot of times in this culture you can never find the common thread, the common cause because we are so busy screaming our point and trying to be right. I wanted to make sure that for me and for my kind in order to be able to find the right solutions you have to be able to listen, you have to be able to talk and you have to be able to find a common ground and agree on a common ground.”

JR x Time “Guns In America”. Houston / Bowery Wall. New York City. The team who helped JR installed the mural on the wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR x Time “Guns In America”. Houston / Bowery Wall. New York City. JR shown here with Jessica Goldman Srebnick of Goldman Global Arts and owner of the Houston Wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR x Time “Guns In America”. Houston / Bowery Wall. New York City. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

For more on this project and to know about each of the subjects featured on the photograph and to listen to each of their stories and opinions on the issue click on the link below:

http://time.com/guns-in-america/

 

 

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BSA Film Friday: 10.26.18

BSA Film Friday: 10.26.18

October 26, 2018

bsa-film-friday-JAN-2015

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

Now screening :
1. One Minute of Dance Per Day : Nadia Vadori-Gauthier
2. Nina Chanel Abney Talks About New Work with Pace Prints
3. Color Trips – Austria

bsa-film-friday-special-feature

BSA Special Feature: One Minute of Dance Per Day : Nadia Vadori-Gauthier

“And lost be the day to us in which a measure hath not been danced.”
~ from Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra

Every day since the shootings of artists and journalists at the Charlie Hebdo offices on January 14, 2015, dancer Nadia Vadori-Gauthier has made sure to dance for a minute or more. It sounds like a good idea.

“Without editing or effects, in the place and state of mind I find myself that day, with no special technique, staging, clothing, or makeup, nothing but what is there,” she says on her website.

“I dance inside or outside, in public or private places, alone or with others, strangers or people I know, sometimes friends.

I dance as protesters demonstrate, to effect a living poetry, to act through sensitivity against the violence of certain aspects of the world.

This is the solution I found: an action to my own measure, a concrete, repeated action that may redraw lines, disrupt the design, shake up the norms.”

Here she is in Paris on Esperance Street in front of a mural by Street Artist Seth.

Nina Chanel Abney Talks About New Work with Pace Prints

Opening last night at Pace Prints, artists Nina Chanel Abney talks about her work, her colors, characters, content, and the experience of making her first body of prints. She says she’s hooked, and with the large-scale unique prints she creates in the printshop with a great team, you can see why.

Color Trips – Austria

First of all, how did all of this beauty occur this summer and why don’t we live in Austria? Secondly, how is it possible that a town is so small that the train literally has one car? And how does it have big graffiti burners on it? This is the most clean, wild, classic graffiti porn with a good beat that we’ve seen in a while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Winston Tseng: Street Provocateur Brings “Trash” Campaign to NYC

Winston Tseng: Street Provocateur Brings “Trash” Campaign to NYC

October 25, 2018 ,

“At the end of the day when one is towing the line of being provocative,” says Street Artist Winston Tseng, “you may cross that line in some people’s mind but I think if one is not trying to find that line then the work is not going to make any impact.”

Winston Tseng has probably been crossing that line, pissing off some people and making others laugh for a few years now. He appears to consider it an honor, and possibly a responsibility. Relatively new on the Street Art scene the commercial artist and art director has also created his 2-D characters on canvasses and skate decks that depict the abridged characteristics of a typecast to play with the emotions and opinions of passersby.

Winston Tseng (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Perhaps it is all part of a tide of the reductivist cartoonish images that are flying at you from corporate cable and corporate mainstream and corporate candidates, but you may begin to wonder if simplifying and vilifying is the result or the cause of the polarization. And as Street Art continues to reflect us back to ourselves, the satirists are quick and blunt as well. Otherwise, how could they hope to get our attention?

The stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce outraged people in the 1960s with his provocations that melded satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity – even earning him arrest for obscenity. Street Artist Ron English engorged Ronald McDonald on billboard takeovers to target obesity and fast food, Jon Feckner illustrated structural racism by labeling institutional neglect of certain neighborhoods in the 70s and 80s, and politicians are routinely turned into pigs and other animals on stencils, stickers and aerosol paintings for effect.

Satire, provocative or relatively benign, can be expressed as a caricature that exaggerates qualities as grotesque; a critique with a biting jab. You will see it played out in Tseng’s other works – an iPhone chatting, Starbucks swilling white Millennial plays into stereotypes of a privileged verbally-challenged belly-gazing consumer class. An Asian woman in traditional dress waves a hand fan of dollars that confirm her drive for wealth. A fake ad for “Christian Mingle” features an older priest reciting a Madonna lyric to a younger one with an excited gaze that calls to mind the multiple Catholic pedophile scandals in the news.

In one collection of canvasses that Tseng created for the gallery, simplified elements of typical archetypes of modern men are featured in profile – a Hasidic Jew with pais, an Arab with beard and keffiyeh, a US soldier with camo helmet, a bearded hipster wannabe with truckers cap – but each is coupled and holding one another’s face and looking into the eyes of the other. The series of pairings challenges preconceptions about masculinity, religion, societal roles, human costumery and what close physical proximity may imply.

Happily Ever After, 1-4 (2015) (© Winston Tseng)

Making fun has gotten many a Court Jester punched verbally and literally and yet everyone realizes that the truer elements of the roast are what had helped both the joke and the fist land.

Recently a poster from the street that we published on Instagram garnered praise and repudiation by commenters who didn’t like the depiction of newsreader/actor Sean Hannity extending his tongue in a fellated manner toward the waistline of a man with a long red tie.

Winston Tseng (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The responses ranged from anger that it appeared to demean homosexuals, to critiquing the artists skills at political activism.

“Stop making homosexuality a punchline,” said @mollykathleenv. “How is ‘sucking dick’ activism? It’s blatant #HOMOPHOBIA you are posting under the guise of activism,” wrote @kingsquirrel.

One commenter even questioned who should be allowed criticize the street work. “It would’ve been really chill if all the straight people tapped out of this discussion. This is not for you to weigh in on tbh,” said @sameshit.

But @jeffserenius simply couldn’t stomach the image. “This is in very poor taste. Regardless of your political views. I will be unscribing after this post and will now be looking for another vendor for my photography needs … very disappointed in this.”  We were, of course, devastated.

Winston Tseng (photo © Jaime Rojo)

His newest pieces on the street are pasted on garbage cans and feature people in red caps identified with the “Make America Great” slogan that Trump supporters are known to sport. In recent years using the word ‘trash’ has gone from campy to outright degradation and classicism, but the artist says he’s just venting his personal frustration at “thoughts and ideologies”, rather than actual people.

The male in a muscle t-shirt has a confederate flag tattooed in a heart shape on his bicep and is sipping from a Chic-fil-A cup, while the woman is holding a Bible under her arm. Both are stereotyped images of so-called “Trump Voters” that play dangerously into the urge to simplify or brand an entire group of people in a denigrating way. Then again, humor and insult are often found to coexist in satire. The new pieces instantly caught Manhattanite’s attention and cell phones popped out to capture the image.

Winston Tseng (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We asked Tseng about the Hannity poster and the new MAGA pieces and what his work on the street is about.

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk to us about the poster from a few weeks ago depicting Trump standing while TV personality Sean Hannity is on his knees in front of him with his face at Trump’s crotch level? It was controversial. Some people from the gay community saw it as a homophobic and other people from the gay community as well didn’t see it that way. What was your intention?
Winston Tseng: Certainly it wasn’t my intention to convey a homophobic message or ideas. But I do understand why some people would interpret it that way. For me the idea was to portray an inappropriate relationship between the subjects. On the street, with this medium, people only have a very short attention span so I was trying to make an impact and get that attention. I chose the act depicted in the poster as the most impactful. Some people saw it the way I meant it to be seen and some people saw it differently. At the end of the day when one is towing the line of being provocative, you may cross that line in some people’s mind but I think if one is not trying to find that line then the work is not going to make any impact.

Winston Tseng (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: So that brings us to the new series you just created and installed: Your subjects are white people only and you are calling them ‘trash’.
WT: I wouldn’t say its meant to represent all caucasians but certainly they are meant to portray a certain demographic. In this case a segment of white people that I personally believe the posters accurately reflect. The statistics are there that a lot of Trump supporters who wear the MAGA hats come from red states, from the south, and are Christian Evangelicals. Those are the concepts that I included on these posters. I didn’t make that up. I’m just reflecting something that is a quantifiable fact.

BSA: Are these posters a direct critique on Trump’s policies and ideologies?
WT: Yes. But I feel like criticizing Trump, because he kind of doesn’t seem to really believe strongly in any ideologies or policy, is not the source of the issue in my mind. The source of the issue is the segment of America who supports him and authorizes him to make the decisions that he makes. I’m not sure if he believes strongly in them or if he is just pandering and just wants to win a popularity contest amongst certain demographics. I think that there’s a lot of anti-Trump art work out there, but taking a step back one realizes that he is not doing this on his own and the same goes with the policies he announces where he just tells people what they want to hear.

Winston Tseng (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: Do you think that his aim is to distract the public from more serious issues?
WT: I don’t think he is distracting away from serious issues, but rather he brings into focus other serious issues that a certain segment of the population, myself included, don’t agree with him on. I think he’s reflecting a lot of hate and ideologies that exist in the population. That’s what I’m trying to get out with this series. Put the focus a little bit less on him being the creator of all of this but rather on his supporters who share the same beliefs and those beliefs that get reflected through him.

BSA: Do you think his supporters weren’t aware of how they felt or when he came out they felt that they had permission to air their beliefs in public?
WT: I think it’s probably the latter. I’m certainly not an expert on this. I know as much as any other American does in public. But yes, I don’t think he created these beliefs but people were harboring these thoughts and feelings. We are just in a time period now where is more acceptable to express those thoughts and ideologies more openly.

BSA: What was your goal when you were creating these series?
WT: It’s always just a personal expression. I’m not one to think that I’m going to change anyone’s mind by doing this. There’s a bit of humor in it and I’m hoping that people are entertained by it. I think that the majority of New Yorkers would probably agree with that just based on the statistics of liberals versus conservatives in New York. So it’s personal expression. It is the entertaining factor. It is sort of a stress relief for me, just to get it out there.

Winston Tseng (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Winston Tseng (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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“Ex Animo”, Eight Years of Poetry by Faith Forty Seven

“Ex Animo”, Eight Years of Poetry by Faith Forty Seven

October 24, 2018

Worn workers, wild beasts, a bloom in the rubble.

Prayers of supplication and longing, racing teams of stallions and master felines of fury, the exhausted figure of a dream barely still illuminated, a wistful stage in the plundered urban landscape, or a plundered life.

This is what she does to you. As Faith IXVII leaves her stolen stanza, her massive mural in washed hues, her tributes to a moment lost in a city that would leave you to die if it had its way, she makes you make poetry.

“Artists are driven to leave a mark, something that will tell their story, or the story of their time,” writes Jacqueline Flint when speaking of the South African artists installation work. Whether stories she has found, constructed, or caught in the ether as they drift by, Faith has left many tales for you to unpack in cities from Wuhan, China to Chinatown in New York City to Goa, India and Portland, Washington.

In EX ANIMO you can see where she’s been waving to you from, even as you passed by, or beneath.

Published by Drago and edited by Roger Gastman, the handsome volume captures the opus works and gallery installations and hidden gems on temporary construction walls and pillars holding the highway, all part of the modern vocabulary of Street Artists who weave themselves into the fabric of the megapolis. But there is much more if you care to see it.

“Anyone can make art in the streets but a rare few create socially impactful content, and there is no denying that Faith’s work has transformed perspectives among her global audience,” writes Kristin Farr in her essay, and it is true that the width of a mind and heart can be pushed a little further with these hard won truths.

“A language of empathy borne in a scream of rage, hurled like a Molotov cocktail but given the wings of metaphor and the grace of allegory,” writes Carlo McCormick in the introduction,”Faith’s work on the streets commands all the monumentality of public art yet whispers its deepest secrets in the hushed tones of prisoners and stowaways, travelers whose journeys demark the limits and possibilities of no where else to go.”

Whether it is the rhythm of the lunar cycle or the steady, now racing, beating of blood through hearts and lungs, its a meditative measure of Faith that appears on our streets pointing to our folly and our burning fire within. Often it is a poem that rises inside.

Faith XLVII. “EX ANIMO’ THE WORK OF FAITH FORTY SEVEN/ 2010-2018. Drago Publishing. Rome, Italy, 2018

 

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UPEA Finland 2018, A Cross Country Installation of Quality Murals

UPEA Finland 2018, A Cross Country Installation of Quality Murals

October 23, 2018

UPEART 2018 in Finland took place during the month of September including 20 international and local artists in 12 different cities across the country.

Case Maclaim. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Espoo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Today we give you a recap of some favorite scenes from the festival across many cities of Finland thanks to the vision and organizing of Jorgos Fanaris and his team who collectively direct the festival from their headquarters in a post-industrial neighborhood of Helsinki. While there is a proud graff scene and history here, and the city has areas like the Pasila Street Art District, the capital is usually known as a sparkling international city of islands and a peninsula by the Gulf of Finland facing Tallinn, Estonia across the bay.

Proudly humble, elegant and rationally romantic, the city is flanked on all sides by arts and culture, low and high, with historical art institutions like the National Museum as well as the more contemporary Kiasma and cross disciplinary Kunsthalle Helsinki. A deeper rooted cultural history is also apparent in the traditional wooden architecture, the influence of its neighbors Sweden and Russia, and its ability even today to evolve with the most modern of global design practice.

Case Maclaim. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Espoo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For urban explorers like ourselves who wander the margins and explore the forgotten, neglected parts of the metropolis, it was a bit of a shock to see 8 charming Finnish cities and towns in only a few days – interspersed with millions of birch tree forests and sweeping vistas of farmland, with Russia visible at one point just across a canal.

We drove from uncongested towns surrounded by woodlands like Joensuu and Hyvinkää to midsized cities like Tampere and Espoo, using a stick shift Volkswagen and minding the speed cameras on a smooth and well maintained system of roads and highways. Usually we’re looking out for rats and broken glass and homeless drug users, not slow-moving farming tractors and wily-eyed moose who may cross your path.

Case Maclaim. UPEArt Finland 2018. Espoo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

But the murals! Choosing from among some of the most accomplished painters and planners of design in the current international scene, Fanaris relies on his own history with graffiti, hip hop, and perhaps the Finnish National Opera when selecting participants to invite.

The quality is high in many instances throughout the mural program and municipalities are gifted with some works may prove timeless – until they fade. Perhaps more decorative than transgressive as a whole, these are public works made in collaboration with local tastes. Some meanings are buried beneath layers, others more obvious and on the surface. An unrealized irony of many “legit” mural programs like this one is many of these artists used to do the illegal stuff too.

As UPEART travels and evolves it will be interesting to see how it changes. Fanaris tells us that the future will include installations, sculpture, even performance as the festival becomes more integrated with communities. With a solid foundation of curation on a massive country-wide scale in these first three years, we look forward to see where UPEART moves next.

Mantra. UPEArt Finland 2018. Hyvinkää, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“When I was a child I was not curious about painting,” Mantra says, “I was more curious about what I could find in the garden so that’s why I spent a lot of time studying these insects and these animals.” Later he shows us images of butterflies and other winged creatures rendered in high fidelity inside decaying factory rooms, including a large dead bird lying on its side. “I painted this because I had seen a dead bird in the garden only a week before.”

Read more: Mantra in Hyvinkää for UPEART Festival 2018 Finland – Dispatch 5

Mantra. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Hyvinkää, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Mantra)

Mantra. UPEArt Finland 2018. Hyvinkää, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Mantra)

Sainer. UPEArt Finland 2018. Helsinki, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I think my work is changing recently,” he says. “I have liked to do plainer paintings – like small landscapes . I’m not really into the characters that much in the same way that I was. When I do paint characters they are in the shadow. I like the idea of making portraits where the portrait is not the most important part of the painting.”

BSA: That’s so anti-intuitive – because normally that would be the center focal point, right?

Sainer: Yes – even here the portrait is central but I am trying to play all around it just to hide it. It’s just one of the ideas that I am trying to work with these days.

Read more from our interview with Sainer here.

Sainer. UPEArt Finland 2018. Helsinki, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Waone. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Kotka, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ukrainian artist Waone, of Interesni Kazki titled his mural “Spirit of Antique Book”.

“Reading the real book in the age of technology and internet may look rare and a kind of old fashioned, but not for me,” he says. “This mural ‘Spirit of Antique Book’ I dedicated to all book lovers. It represents the wonderful way to escape from ordinary life to extraordinary worlds, and depicts that magic moment when you read the book and lose yourself between the pages.”

BSA: Does it concern you that school children today are becoming unfamiliar with reading traditional books on paper?

Waone: Hmm I didn’t think about books in schools, in Ukraine we still use “normal” books… But I’m sure normal books will become more and more rare. I don’t judge it and I’m not saying that’s good or bad. I just love the book esthetic, a strong symbol of knowledge.”

Waone. UPEArt Finland 2018. Kotka, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Natalia Rak. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Joensuu, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Natalia Rak. UPEArt Finland 2018. Joensuu, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sepe. UPEArt Finland 2018. Jyväskylä, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David De La Mano. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Jyväskylä, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David De La Mano. UPEArt Finland 2018. Jyväskylä, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David De La Mano. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Jyväskylä, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Helen Bur. UPEArt Finland 2018. Kotka, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eero Lampinen. Work in progress. UPEArt Finland 2018. Helsinki, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Of his own work, he says, “It’s like a mix of fantasy with contemporary and realistic elements – kind of magic realism. I like to play around with fashion different types of characters.”

The characters are here in the evolving mural – three figures who are working the runways of the street in distinctly different styles.

“There is a night demon, a rubber-outfit person, and then an older character,” he says, “They are all walking separate ways in the streets – and it plays around with this street.”

Read more with Eero Lampinen here.

Eero Lampinen. UPEArt Finland 2018. Helsinki, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Eero Lampinen)

Pertti Jarla. UPEArt Finland 2018. Tampere, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fabio Petani. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Salo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fabio Petani. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Salo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fabio Petani. UPEArt Finland 2018. Salo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Lisalmi, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm. UPEArt Finland 2018. Lisalmi, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Leon Keer. UPEArt Finland 2018. Salo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Leon Keer. UPEArt Finland 2018. Salo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Robert Proch. Detail. UPEArt Finland 2018. Joensuu, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Robert Proch. UPEArt Finland 2018. Joensuu, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal. UPEArt Finland 2018. Espoo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal made a number of interesting installations in Karakallio in Espoo, including a haunting series of small buildings attached on trees throughout the forest.

Read more about Isaac Cordal at UPEA Art Festival 2018 – Finland. Dispatch 3

Isaac Cordal. UPEArt Finland 2018. Espoo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal. UPEArt Finland 2018. Espoo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal. UPEArt Finland 2018. Espoo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal. UPEArt Finland 2018. Espoo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal. UPEArt Finland 2018. Espoo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal. UPEArt Finland 2018. Espoo, Finland. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

NOTE: No trees were damaged by installing the birdhouse sculptures on them.

All the participating artists on UPEArt 2018 are: Andrew Hem, Case Maclaim, David De La Mano, Eero Lampinen, Fabio Petani, Gummy Gue, Helen Bur, How & Nosm, Isaac Cordal, Jussi Twoseven, Kenor, Leon Keer, Mantra, Natalia Rak, Pertti Jarla, Robert Proch, Sainer, Sepe, Silja Selonen and Waone.

 

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Mr. Fijodor: “Life Below Water” for #Envision2030 in Turin

Mr. Fijodor: “Life Below Water” for #Envision2030 in Turin

October 22, 2018

An appreciable number of Street Artists around the world continue to address climate change with their work, whether small stickers or large murals, often with a focus on the animals that cohabitate with humans. Functioning perhaps as the canary in a coalmine, this rising number or artists and creatives is beginning to sound like a chorus.

Mr. Fijodor. “Life Below Water”. IICerchio E Le Gocce Association. Lavazza, Turin. October 2018. (photo © Livio Ninni)

Today from Turin, Italy, we have this painted whale constructed entirely of garbage from Street Artist Mr. Fjodor. Our oceans are now showing more obvious signs of our reckless behavior, including more obvious examples like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  Additionally, what is showing up in the water you drink?

From surface to seabed the plastics are now floating everywhere in our oceans, and microplastics are now appearing in your food. Even responsible coffee companies are examining their part in polluting the oceans and earth by producing plastic K-cups – reportedly enough K-cups each year that, if strung together, could encircle the earth at the Equator multiple times.

Mr. Fijodor. “Life Below Water”. IICerchio E Le Gocce Association. Lavazza, Turin. October 2018. (photo © Livio Ninni)

17 street artists are realizing public artworks that address the 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development 2030 (#Envision2030), say organizers of this new initiative in Turin, and Mr. Fjodor chose number 14, which examines “Life Below Water” with a focus on sea and its inhabitants. He tells us that Goal No. 14 to him means first prevention of pollutants and then finding ways to significantly decrease every kind of marine pollution.

“I have interpreted the Life Below Water goal using a whale as the main character of my work, being the largest marine mammal but also one of the most vulnerable,” says the artist. “The whale represents the fragility of the marine ecosystem and the careless and shortsighted exploitation made by men”.

Mr. Fijodor. “Life Below Water”. IICerchio E Le Gocce Association. Lavazza, Turin. October 2018. (photo © Livio Ninni)

Mr. Fijodor. “Life Below Water”. IICerchio E Le Gocce Association. Lavazza, Turin. October 2018. (photo © Livio Ninni)

Mr. Fijodor. “Life Below Water”. IICerchio E Le Gocce Association. Lavazza, Turin. October 2018. (photo © Livio Ninni)

Mr. Fijodor. “Life Below Water”. IICerchio E Le Gocce Association. Lavazza, Turin. October 2018. (photo © Livio Ninni)

Mr. Fijodor. “Life Below Water”. IICerchio E Le Gocce Association. Lavazza, Turin. October 2018. (photo © Livio Ninni)

 

WEB SITE: www.mrfijodor.it
FB: www.facebook.com/MrFijodor
INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/mrfijodor

 

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BSA Images Of The Week: 10.21.18

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.21.18

October 21, 2018 ,

BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

Spooky! Days are getting shorter in Brooklyn.

The winds of change are blowing, but few can discern the direction they’ll go in the upcoming elections as the city is going full tilt into fall and a twisted neoliberalism grinds us to into a frenzy of automated stock trading and market swings that make you nauseous, ever higher rents and food costs, forever-stalled wages, food banks that serve 1.5 million hungry New Yorkers annually and yet a brisk business at Tiffany’s…

— and there are delays on the 1,2,3,4,5,6,N,R,Q,M,L,G,E,F,J,W, and Z subway lines. Every day.

There is word that attendance at the upcoming Village Halloween Parade may be down this year because it’s a daily freakshow at the White House so the novelty is worn thin. Zombie here. Zombie there. Zombie everywhere.

So here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Al Diaz, BB Bastidas, Bob Floss, Captain Eyeliner, Danielle Mastrion, Groose Ling, Invader, Just Paint, Kenor, Lil’ Kool, Michel Velt, Pop Artoons, Sara Erenthal, Sean9Lugo, Subway Doodle, The Postman Art and Vanessa Powers.

Top Image: Girl, I got an attitude. Bowie flips in this intensely colorwashed wheatpaste by The Postman Art (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sean9Lugo. Detail. For Just Paint. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sean9Lugo for Just Paint. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Subway Doodle for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Al Diaz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thank you Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vanessa Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Space Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Michel Velt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lil’ Kool (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lil’ Kool (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Groose Ling (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Captain Eyeliner (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kenor (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidientified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BB Bastidas for The Lisa Project NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Danielle Mastrion (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pop Artoons (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sara Erenthal. Bob Floss forcing himself on Ms. Erenthal (as in forced collaboration). (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC. October 2018 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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Nevercrew Destroys Natural Wonder in New Zealand

Nevercrew Destroys Natural Wonder in New Zealand

October 20, 2018

“Disposing machine n°2”

Because there is still an ongoing environmental crisis in our oceans and because sea mammals do not have Instagram accounts (flippers are too clumsy for those little texting buttons), we are here again with you to discuss a new mural by Nevercrew painting in Gisborne, New Zealand.

Nevercrew. “Disposing machine n°2”. Seawalls Tairāwhiti project by PangeaSeed Foundation. Gisborne, New Zeland. (photo courtesy of Nevercrew)

“Human habits and politics are modifying the natural balance, sometimes in direct and visible ways, sometimes in more underhanded and indirect ways,” say the art duo Christian Rebecchi about Pablo Togni,“and sea mammals are powerlessly suffering this imposition that’s embodied in the increasing of temperatures, water pollution, interferences in their habitat, swings in the ecosystems, hunting, and more.”

Created with the Pangeaseed Foundation, the Hawaii-based not-for-profit, public art program that has created nearly 300 murals with 200 international artists in 14 countries to bring to the streets a message about ocean conservation, this whale is part of the Nevercrew vocabulary.

Nevercrew. “Disposing machine n°2”. Seawalls Tairāwhiti project by PangeaSeed Foundation. Gisborne, New Zeland. (photo courtesy of Nevercrew)

Impressive in scale, volume, and texture, the artists find new and inventive ways to permute the natural iconographic image of this massive sea creature and virtually modernize it in our minds, honoring it and elevating it to even greater relevance for a contemporary audience that is fluent in aesthetics.

By turning this god-like animal into mere elements of mechanics or body parts exposes our dim-witted appreciation for something that should instead inspire awe.How does that saying go? “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”

Nevercrew. “Disposing machine n°2”. Seawalls Tairāwhiti project by PangeaSeed Foundation. Gisborne, New Zeland. (photo courtesy of Nevercrew)

“A vision of this phenomenon, a perception of the overall issue and actual and future damage, seems hard to experience in a tangible way,” they say. “This has to pass again from human interpretation and understanding.”

“There’s a urge then to acknowledge that humankind is part of a balance together with the rest of the elements that compose Planet Earth”

Nevercrew. “Disposing machine n°2”. Seawalls Tairāwhiti project by PangeaSeed Foundation. Gisborne, New Zeland. (photo courtesy of Nevercrew)

Nevercrew. “Disposing machine n°2”. Seawalls Tairāwhiti project by PangeaSeed Foundation. Gisborne, New Zeland. (photo courtesy of Nevercrew)

Nevercrew. “Disposing machine n°2”. Seawalls Tairāwhiti project by PangeaSeed Foundation. Gisborne, New Zeland. (photo courtesy of Nevercrew)

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BSA Film Friday: 10.19.18

BSA Film Friday: 10.19.18

October 19, 2018

bsa-film-friday-JAN-2015

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

Now screening :
1. Shredding the Girl and Balloon – The Director’s Cut
2. JKS Crew in Italy & France
3. Vigilante Vigilante: The Battle For Expression / Trailer
4. The Hut – A Partial X / Felipe Pantone

bsa-film-friday-special-feature

BSA Special Feature: Shredding the Girl and Balloon – The Director’s Cut

By the way, this is not the first Street Artist to shred art in public with a home-made apparatus. Check out BSA Film Friday in April of 2014 for a stunning example of slicing public advertisements with Bandes de Pub.

We start our weekly selection with the followup release that takes hold of the narrative of the moments leading up to this month’s Banksy auction and self-destruction at Sotheby’s.

In it you hear the auctioneer chit-chatting beforehand saying things like “It’s a fun auction, you know. Everyone’s got a chance.” And by ‘everyone’ he means…everyone here in this room and on the 30 phones who are also bidding.

In other revelations this week, the Financial Times is reporting that the original artwork contained a “dedication reading ‘Thanks Jo’, which art market experts said could be a reference to Banksy’s long-time publicist, Jo Brooks.” Not so fast there Mr. Brillianteen. Perhaps Banksy is just a Jimi Hendrix fan (Hey Joe) or it was a gift to rapper Fat Joe (I’m Not a Player I Just Crush Alot) (RIP). Joe the Lion? Smokin’ Joe?

JKS Crew in Italy & France

Okay class, who wants to tell us what they did on their summer vacation?

Looks like JKS Crew were on spraycation this summer in Italy and France. The jazz bassy groove that accompanies the scenes in this video make us pine for those dreamy days of July and August already, and its only mid-October.

Vigilante Vigilante: The Battle For Expression / Trailer

Who owns public space? The oligarchs, yes, but after them?

You do!

Who should paint it?

When graffiti writers and Street Artists take it over with acts of transgressive painting one may expect that the next step is probably the buff, unless you living are in an aesthetic lawlessness like Berlin, or Athens, or 2000s Detroit.  It is infrequent that one may countenance the self-appointed citizen buffer, but they exist in many a neighborhood. A combination of ornery rebel and a justice-minded citizen; This is the vehement, street cleaning vigilante.

If you were writing a bespectacled urban guidebook about characters found on city streets you may advise, “Think twice before crossing this curiously civic interbreed, broken windows can be sharp.”

 

The Hut – A Partial X / Felipe Pantone

A Liberian surfer camp that just happens to capture the artworks of some of the biggest names in Street Art? Organizers say that its to reduce the stigma that surrounds the country that was hurt so badly by ebola a few years ago. Perhaps that what has drawn artists like Faile, Conor Harrington, 1010, Martin Whatson, Marke Jenkins, Herakut, Ted Pim, Sandra Chevrier, Ben Eine, and Seth Globepainter here to create new works here.  Today we see works by Felipe Pantone, JR, and Slinkachu.

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Bifido Photo-Mythology at “FART” Festival in Cerignola, Italy

Bifido Photo-Mythology at “FART” Festival in Cerignola, Italy

October 18, 2018

FART Fatti Urbani is a two day festival (Oct 6&7) in the Municipality of Cerignola in the south of Italy (population 58,534)  that holds as its central hub an interest in Street Art and Urban Culture. In this context Street Art is primarily a reference to mural art, rather than the practice of unsanctioned art-making that the term originates from.

Bifido. “Too many kids finding rain in the dust“. Fart festival. Cerignola, Italy. October 2018. (photo courtesy of Bifido)

The weekend features artist workshops for youth on the themes of digital art, scenography, illustration, photography and there are exhibitions, talks, screenings and participatory art projects for children. Central to the events is the installation of murals in three neighborhoods of Torricelli, the San Samuele district, and the downtown.

Italian Street Artist Bifido staged one of his theatrical photoshoots with two young actors to create this metaphor for strife in the metaphysical sense, a battle perhaps between good and evil. Organizers say that public art events like this provide impetus for a social gathering around artist expression and ideas, catalyzing discussion and appreciation for art and culture. We particularly like the description on the itinerary under “Social Lunch”, which roughly translated, says “to counter the weariness, the alienation of modern life and lunches of solitude, Saturday we all eat together. Everyone brings something, we sit at the table”.

Bifido. “Too many kids finding rain in the dust“. Fart festival. Cerignola, Italy. October 2018. (photo courtesy of Bifido)

Bifido’s piece has garnered a lot of attention, and a public festival like this appears to engage people just at a historical time when the “alienation of modern life”, at least in the so-called developed societies, is at its highest in decades.

The artist tells us that the wall is in a peripheral and notoriously dangerous neighborhood. “That kind of dormitory neighborhood where you can only find concrete and desperation,” he says. “I called my mural: ‘Too many kids finding rain in the dust’ .”

Bifido. “Too many kids finding rain in the dust“. Fart festival. Cerignola, Italy. October 2018. (photo courtesy of Bifido)

The Instagram page of the AAD , the architectural design firm sponsoring some of the events, reflects their impression of the effect of art performed in public like this, “It was an incredible experience – it introduced us to a community that wants novelty and beauty. The work of @bifidoart has been adopted and taken to heart by the entire district as a symbol of a good omen for the not too distant future. The wonder is in everyone’s eyes, whatever their path of life.”

Fantastic? In many ways. A difficult name of a festival for English speakers to deal with? No doubt.

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Virtually Damaged : Shepard Fairey in New York to Launch VR/AR Exhibition App

Virtually Damaged : Shepard Fairey in New York to Launch VR/AR Exhibition App

October 17, 2018 ,

“This is the first time that it is been done in alignment with what I’m truly trying to do as an artist,” Shepard Fairey says about this new venture into virtual/augmented reality being unveiled this week in New York, and on a phone near you.

Shepard Fairey. “Damaged” VR/AR Immersive Experience. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A stunning realization of the experience that a visitor would have had at his “Damaged” exhibition a year ago in his hometown of Los Angeles, the freshly released app is the product of millions of incremental images taken in 360 degrees that enable you to tour the show – even though it was dismantled a while ago.

“It was by far my biggest exhibition – bigger than “May Day” at Deitch Projects, bigger than the project I did in Dumbo and in New York with Jonathan Levine,” Fairey says of the exhaustive solo show of 230 pieces that opened to 21,000 people who had waited in 5-block long lines to get into the industrial warehouse. The new app designed by VRt Ventures captures each of those pieces in high definition of course, along with the more environmental experiential elements that the exhibition featured in the multi-faceted real life show.

Shepard Fairey. Screenview at “Damaged” a VR/AR Immersive Experience. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

“I had the newsstand, billboard, murals, sculptures, the printing press, and the whole print studio,” Shepard says, “That was really probably the greatest thing about that space was that it was this hybrid – a street gallery feeling because it was this kind of industrial warehouse – and we built these white walls as well. It had all the corrugated metal and you could see all these beams and we set up this print shop in there so I feel like it really balanced the best of both worlds in terms of the presentation of the work.”

Last night in a Manhattan popup pre-opening show on the Bowery Mr. Fairey and his wife Amanda made the rounds with guests in goggles to tour the exhibition where it exists now – as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). Billed as a “VR/AR immersive experience”, the open bar and crunchy hip-hop/punk medley pumping loudly across the speakers may have impaired our abilities to pan and click inside the virtual world frankly. But we could easily see how a quieter home environment, or even a subway ride, would make it easier to listen to Fairey’s narrated portions and to appreciate the navigation around the space. So we downloaded the app for phone exploration later.

Shepard Fairey. “Wrong Path”. Detail of vinyl print for Damaged a VR/AR Immersive Experience. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“The accessibility of the art is so much more in your hands and really, truly it is like being in the space,” says Ms. Fairey as she compares the new virtual experience to the original. “It was a giant warehouse and an amazing exhibition of his work – It’s like you are in it, I mean. Oh my god. It revives the moment for us.”

As an activist on the street, and later in galleries and museums, Fairey has always communicated clearly and in detail about the inspirational factors and contextual circumstances that are foundational to his work – whether in canvasses for private homes or prints for t-shirts or in the many stickers, stencils and hurried wheat pastes he’s left on walls in the middle of the night. So it’s no surprise that the works in the virtual “Damaged” are augmented with his voice describing the works and what he was thinking about when making them.

Shepard Fairey. “Bias By Numbers”. Detail of vinyl print for Damaged a VR/AR Immersive Experience. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

He imagines what it would be like for him to experience this with other artists as well.

“For me to hear Warhol giving a tour through the Factory – or any number of artists – explaining first hand rather than learning about the show through all of these people who may or may not be credible to be saying what they are saying,” he remarks. “When I think about how valuable it would’ve been for me; I like to hear things from the artist if it is possible. I did 100 minutes of narration on this. I usually write about all of the pieces that I create, about what’s happening in current events that are relevant to the work as well as the general principles of the work. So the VRt team went through all of the pieces in the show and found additional text to supplement my audio narration.”

Shepard Fairey. Screenview at “Damaged” a VR/AR Immersive Experience. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

BSA: So do you think that this experience with this app and the way that people experience the exhibition when they cannot be there physically will be a good tool, not just for you but for a lot of artists to spread their message?

Shepard Fairey: Yeah I definitely do. Of course I think it’s always most important for people if they came to see the work in person. But when you think about the high percentage of people that basically are sort of scrolling through a slideshow of static images and that’s the best they’re going to get, this technology is really important for the future of art. Not just for artists but for museums that spend a huge amounts of money on an exhibition and it comes down after a finite amount of time, you can see this being more important especially as the technology improves.

To capture “Damaged”, the exhibit was scanned with lasers–generating an exact replica of the exhibit.

These guys from VRt, you know they spent a lot of money to be ahead of the curve on this. Very used the highest technology to laser-map the entire space. You can go up to the pieces and see the textures. You can walk around the printing press. It’s really impressive. As this technology comes down in price it is going to democratize all kinds of experiences even more so I’m glad that maybe I can provide a little example a case study of how beautiful this technology is.

Shepard Fairey. “Wrong Path”. Detail of vinyl print for Damaged a VR/AR Immersive Experience. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey. “Drink Crude Oil”. Detail of vinyl print for Damaged a VR/AR Immersive Experience. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

From left to right: Stan Sudol, Shepard Fairey, Evan Pricco, Steven P. Harrington and Carlo McCormick at the VIP launching of “Damaged” VR/AR Immersive Experience. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

To celebrate the launch of the “DAMAGED” mobile App, VRt Ventures, Shepard Fairey, Juxtapoz Magazine and ABSTRKT NYC host a pop-up will be open to the public from 10/17 – 10/21 at 136 Bowery in New York City from 10am – 6pm where fans can come check out the experience, make sure to follow @JuxtapozMag @ObeyGiant @VRtVentures on social media for more information.

The “DAMAGED” mobile App is available for download via the iOS App Store and Google Play store for Android, on Oculus, Samsung Gear and Steam in VR.

For more information, please visit VRtVentures.art

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Bisual’s Trippy Interlude with Drug Culture in Barcelona

Bisual’s Trippy Interlude with Drug Culture in Barcelona

October 16, 2018

BISUAL’s post-human sallow skinned characters are laboratory inventions that contain elements of animal, chemical, organic, electronic, psychedelic – minus the superpowers or sleekness of your typical cyborg. They also like to smoke something now and then while gazing at phones in a cartoon dystopia, a handful of helpers to mellow the menacing low-level paranoia.

The illustrator and painter has a history with graffiti as well, which may explain his ease creating casually comic surrealities on large walls in public space, like this new one in Barcelona.

Bisual. Contorno Urbano Foundation / 12 + 1 Project. Barcelona. Ocotober 2018. (photo © Clara Antón)

The mural features leaves of the Acanthus mollis, a common and invasive species of plant, creeping up onto the street, blended with “geometric architectonic elements” he says. The pinkish protagonist may be pausing on his way to an errand at the liquor store, or he may just be waiting for his man, €26 euros in his hand. Certainly those psycheldelio creatures from the organic wild who are slithering with wide eyes slowly up to him are attentive to his actions, perhaps listening to his words. Not that he should be concerned of course.

Bisual. Contorno Urbano Foundation / 12 + 1 Project. Barcelona. Ocotober 2018. (photo © Clara Antón)

Bisual. Contorno Urbano Foundation / 12 + 1 Project. Barcelona. Ocotober 2018. (photo © Clara Antón)

Bisual. Detail. Contorno Urbano Foundation / 12 + 1 Project. Barcelona. Ocotober 2018. (photo © Clara Antón)

Bisual. Contorno Urbano Foundation / 12 + 1 Project. Barcelona. Ocotober 2018. (photo © Clara Antón)

Images from Bisual’s Instagram (© Jay Bisual)

Bisual’s wall is sponsored by the Contorno Urban0 12 + 1 Project, a community powered initiative to bring artists to walls in Barcelona.

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