All posts tagged: Jaime Rojo

Fun Friday 03.30.12

March 30, 2012 Artists, Gallery, Opening

1. Wooly Bully! (VIDEO)
2. “International Woman” at The Warrington Museum (UK)
3. “While Supplies Last” at Pawn Works (Chicago)
4. Crossing Borders at MSA Gallery (Paris)
5. Isaac Cordal “Waiting for Climate Change” at Beaufort 04 (Flemish Coast, Belgium)
6. HOW & NOSM show you HOW they made “Reflections” (VIDEO)
7. Kid Zoom Crashes Cars (VIDEO)

WOOLY BULLY! Straight from the Desert Island – Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs!

Let’s see if you can shake it as fast as the back-up dancer lady in this video!

“International Woman” at The Warrington Museum (UK)

“International Woman” the new group show at The Warrington Museum and Gallery in Warrington, UK is open to the general public with a lineup of brilliantly talented women artists from around the world including many Street Artists: Catalina Estrada, Cheryl Dunn, Elizabeth Mcgrath, Faith 47, Hera, Kukula, Mel Kadel, Miss Van, Pam Glew, Sarah Joncas, Stella Im Hultberg, Swoon, Tara Mcpherson and Xue Wang. With so much female talent under one roof this promises to be one hot and interesting show not to miss, Miss!

Faith 47. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mel Kadel (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“While Supplies Last” at Pawn Works (Chicago)

The Pawn Works Gallery in Chicago new show “While Supplies Last” opens this Saturday. For this show the space would be transformed into a site specific retail environment where you’d be able to purchase items from books to art from a list of artists that include: Shawnimals, Skewville, Kosbe, 5003, Ader, Amuse 126, Snacki, JC Rivera, Montgomery Perry Smith, Left Handed Wave, Max Kauffman, Nice-One, Swiv, and Jon Burgerman.

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Crossing Borders at MSA Gallery (Paris)

MSA Gallery new group show “Crossing Borders” opens this Saturday in Paris, France and arttists including are: DAL, David Walker, Stinkfish, Faith47, David Shillinglaw, Martin Whatson, Klone, Snik, Otto Schade, Ben Slow, Joseph Loughborough, Inkie and Banksy:

Stinkfish (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David Shillinglaw (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Isaac Cordal “Waiting for Climate Change” at Beaufort 04 (Flemish Coast, Belgium)

Sculptor and conceptual artist Isaac Cordal is doing a series of outdoor installations From March 31st to September 30th, 2012 in 30 Locations spread across 9 coastal municipalities throughout the Flemish coast as part of Beaufort 04.

Mr. Cordal’s army of little cement characters are sure to stop you on your heels if you see them that is. His commentary on social issues runs deep and wide always with a humorous touch and an impeccable sense of placement:

For further information regarding this event click here.

HOW & NOSM show you HOW they made “Reflections” (VIDEO)

A custom installation by How & Nosm just finished at the new show opening next week in the Bronx called “This Side of Paradise”. See BSA coverage of the show and more photos of How & Nosm’s installation along with Crash and Daze HERE.>>“Poorhouse for the Rich” Revitalized By The Arts

Kid Zoom Crashes Cars (VIDEO)

The other Australian bad boy Kid Zoom made a video of himself building a house and crashing some cars. We have video to prove it:

OLEK Queen of Crocheted Expressionism – With Balloons

March 29, 2012 Artists, Gallery, Manhattan, NYC

Crochet and knitting used to be for girls only. They would learn how to knit early in their training for their married life. Some girls were trained at finishing school while others learned it in an arts and crafts class. Often the trades you learned were split by gender – Mr. Arbunk, the Shop teacher, was teaching the boys how to make bird houses or hammered metal ashtrays while across the hall Miss Fortune, the Home Economics teacher, was showing the girls how to calculate the amount of dry pasta per person to put into the pot. Meanwhile your friends, who were skipping school, were at home calculating how much pot per person to put into the brownie mix.

These days crochet and knitting is no longer for girls only and is out for all to enjoy and there are actual knitting and crochet classes and clubs for the D.I.Y. generation. Just take the L train on an average Wednesday and you’ll see one or two young pretty boys and girls busy with their needles or hooks and their Ipods.

Olek and David Peterson “Synthetic Nature” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Maybe that is why the last decade has sprouted knitted art in new ways, and in recent years a handful of Street Artists have been using crochet and knitting as the the medium for their art. Two of the most prominent names, Olek and Knitta Please! have been industrious on the streets of New York, leaving large and small pieces, frequently full of color, their implicit humor lightening our heavy daily routines.

Olek favors covering practical objects that you use on a daily basis such as bikes or shopping carts or baby strollers. She also likes to make big statements by taking over large iconic monuments and giving them a poppy camouflage coat, literally covering entire sculptures with her art, like the cube at Union Square or the bull at Wall Street.

Olek and David Peterson “Synthetic Nature” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Currently Olek is teaming up with sculptor David Peterson for a new show at the Krause Gallery on the Lower East Side entitled “Synthetic Nature“. Mr. Peterson created a series of boxes/machines to simulate synthesizers and Olek, using balloons this time instead of yarn, interprets the movement of the sound that might emanate from those boxes. The entire installation is a cacophonic celebration, a sort of kinectic African folk expressionism in neonic color and neo-punk energy.

Speaking of music, if you put Olek’s pieces on and dance you’ll be transformed. In recent exhibitions, Olek has costumed actual people onto the street – 3-D installations with an organic rhythm and movement – balloons and mutlti-colored tentacles bobbing from her form fitting sculpture skins. The movement might recall for some the 1990s nihlist costume rockers Slipknot, minus the Aryan overtones and extended middle finger. It’s conceivable, even knittable, that this kind of handmade expression could take hold of the popular imagination and spread through the streets of Occupy Nation, given the enthusiasm of this professor.

Olek and David Peterson “Synthetic Nature” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Synthetic Nature” By Ian Sklarsky

“Synthetic Nature” is currently on view at the Krause Gallery in Manhattan. For further information regarding this show click here.

“Poorhouse for the Rich” Revitalized By The Arts

March 28, 2012 Artists, Bronx, Events, Features, NYC, Opening

A block-long limestone mansion originally built as a welfare hotel for the retiring rich invites streetwise Graff artists and others to gild it’s decayed rooms, raising it from pigeon-infested squalor. Call it “This Side of Paradise”

Enter a discussion about the impact of the modern Street Art movement and someone will inveigh with swollen gravitas that Street Art has the power to “activate” or “re-vitalize” a previously moribund space, to bring it to life. Aside from sounding like part of the gentrification process, the “activate” argument is meant to tip on its head the impulse of simple-minded dullards who opine that Street Art and it’s cousin graffiti are pure social disease and degrading to the foundations of city life.

How and Nosm “Reflections” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Opening in April in the Bronx a similarly anti-intuitive project invites artists of the street to create new life in a decaying mansion and the looking-glass contradictions are as rich as those of the benefactor for whom the aged home is named. The Andrew Freedman Home, with it’s Italian Renaissance details and stepped back grandeur along the Grand Concourse and a mile south of Yankee Stadium, acquired its landmark status in 1984 – the same year it breathed it’s final breath as a retirement home for the rich who had fallen on hard times.

When the building’s namesake, a New York millionaire businessman and colleague of the corrupt Tammany Hall, died as a confirmed bachelor in 1915, he wanted to make sure the money he left would keep the wealthy feeling wealthy after falling in the poorhouse. He simply didn’t want his peers to suffer no matter their financial plight so his wealth commissioned this mammoth home with roughly twice the space of the White House to give these deserved folk a good life in their later years, with servants. Beginning in the Roaring Twenties and over the next six decades, with hallways as long as 22 Town Cars, the ground-bound ship liner swam with former Cunard attendants serving the mostly white seniors as they dined in red and black Chinoiserie style, thumbed books in the library, played sport in the billiard room, and bobbed in the grand ballroom.

How and Nosm “Reflections” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I think that you cannot help but be struck by the bizarre nature of the enterprise because it was class solidarity. He was less concerned with the indigent poor than protecting his own class who had fallen on hard times,” exclaims Manon Slome as she frames the ridiculous circumstances that kept “members” well heeled into their twilight.

Slome is President and Chief Curator of No Longer Empty, a contemporary public art organization that takes empty buildings that are often in disrepair and revitalizes them with site-responsive contemporary art exhibitions. Together with the Mid Bronx Senior Citizens Council, the non-profit that has owned the 117,000 square foot complex since 1984, No Longer Empty is curating a 32 artist show that for two months will offer curious visitors the first peek at the decrepitude that is slowly being enlivened. Since bidding farewell to their last upper crust in the early 1980s, the crusty decay of walls and ceilings has been curling and peeling and dropping to the floor. With artists interpreting the history and memories of the place along with their own take on the economics involved, the results are definitely site specific.

How and Nosm “Reflections” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As she talks about the new show “This Side of Paradise,” Jeanette Puryear, Executive Director of Mid Bronx Senior Citizens Council, reflects on how she used to watch the games and social activities in the grassy gardens of the home from the other side. “We began across the street when the council started in 1973. I came aboard as a staff person in ’77 and I used to look down on the parties that they had on the lawn here. I just thought it was a wonderful building.”

Discussing the selection of No Longer Empty (NLE) as partner to the arts community and curator of the new show, Puryear feels like it is a natural accord. “The idea, our collaboration, really came about when I met Manon and she talked about NLE’s interest in revitalizing communities and it really fit very much with our mission of comprehensive community revitalization.”

Justen Ladda. “Like Money, Like Water”. Eventually this installation in progress would be black lit. The blue tape affixed to the walls is to economize and will not be a part of the installation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daze (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This may come as news to some that graffiti kings like Crash and Daze were called upon to do community revitalization in the same borough where leaders once reviled their painting style. With a few heavyweight street art and graffiti names bringing these rooms to life, it’s interesting to see their role as one of contributing in a positive way here where the emergence of a global “Wildstyle” graffiti first blossomed while entire neighborhoods burned.

“At the same time in the late 70s and early 80s when this home’s original purpose was failing you had the rise of Bronx graffiti,” says curator Keith Schweitzer, who introduced Crash, Daze and Tats Cru alumni How & Nosm to Slome, each taking one of the rooms and bringing it to life. Schweitzer sees many parallels in this Bronx tale as he reflects on the role of the artist rising from the ashes of the burned-out neighborhoods then and an art show in the decay of this home now. “At that time you had things like Fashion Moda in the Bronx, which sort of incorporated graffiti into a contemporary art exhibition and these conceptual spaces that Street Artists and Graffiti artists participated in. And it all happened at the same time.”

Daze (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Slone brings the stories full circle as she excitedly relates the multiple arts and education projects currently afoot in the home, including many with a social mission of building community and connections within it. “When we started selecting and inviting the artists, we steeped them in the history of the home. The goal was really to create a fusion of the history of the home and the nature of the history of the Grand Concourse and the present day realities of the Bronx. And that fusion was really the creative springboard, if you like, for most of installations in the exhibition.”

Whatever role you assign the artist in this clubby home of decay, the experience of discovering these complete room installations is at times reflective, sometimes illuminative, and often revitalizing to the spirit. It will depend on the definition of paradise.

Crash “Connections” 2012. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Scherezaede Garcia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cheryl Pope “Then and There” Installation in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adam Parker Smith. “I Lost All My Money In The Great Depression And All I Got Was This Room”, 2012. Installation in progress in collaboration with Wave Hill. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Pigeons took over while most of the house remained close and unused. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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This Side of Paradise will open on April 04 at 6:00 pm. For further details about this exhibition click here.

With special thanks to President and Chief Curator Manon Slome and Curator Keith Schweitzer of No Longer Empty for their generous access to the installations in progress. To learn more about No Longer Empty click here.

BSA would also like to extend our gratitude to Jeanette Puryear, Executive Director of Mid-Bronx Council for taking time to answer our questions. To learn more about Mid-Bronx Council click here.

Rusted Metal: Canvas and Collaborator on the Streets

March 27, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street

Street Art is ephemeral. That, for the most part is true. Unless we consider the role that the Internet plays in the way most people experience it. Then it doesn’t seem ephemeral at all.

From the moment a piece of Street Art appears, its evolution begins. Transformed by the elements; rain, sun, the rusting and oxidation of metal, the fading of paper. If you become familiar with a piece on the street, you might see it daily on your way to work or school or the laundromat. Over time it matures, evolves, takes on new characteristics, and eventually disappears.

Today we look at metal and it’s collaborative behavior as art material, its personality, its natural qualities. Industrial lots, garbage bins, heavy old gates secured with chains and locks, scrap yards, untreated wood facades – they all provide a myriad of surfaces, textures, shapes that serve as canvas and collaborator. Over time you observe the aging process of a stencil on a metal plate, or a decaying wheat paste peeling off of it or rusting into it, masking it’s shape onto it. The collaboration of materials and elements can be one of the most beautiful experiences one encounters on the streets, even an enduring one.

Here are some pieces on metal for you to enjoy.

Revs (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow Toe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kaws (photo © Jaime Rojo)

C215 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

See One (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Dude Company (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anera (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville (photo © Jaime Rojo)

White Cocoa (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohjColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The 1% (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jolie Routine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Guarding an Oasis in the Desert

March 26, 2012 Arizona, Artists, On the Street

You ever been old? Me either but if I ever get there I hope I can be slim and stately and marching around a water tank, protecting a natural resource that belongs to us and future generations. That would be good and honorable work.

Here are some pics of Jetsonorama’s new work on the reservation. Check out the windmill. Nice!

Jetsonorama “Secody’s Watertank” (photo © Jetsonorama)

Images of the Week 03.25.12

March 25, 2012 Artists, On the Street

Saw my first barefoot hippie walking down 7th Avenue on Friday and it was like spotting a Robin on the lawn in Union Square Park. SPRING! Spring time hit New York like a truckload of thick sweet kisses and homeboys started checking every cute move of all the shorties, who mysteriously also fluffed up all their magnolia pink feathers and almost imperceptibly put a bit more sa into their shay. Don’t ask us what any of that means, except that when the days get all comfy and warm like these, it’s all about the birds and the beeeeeeees, B.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, with some special shots by Jaime Rojo from a secret place in the Bronx as well as some contributions from Lima, Peru by Adolfo Bejar, and in Essen, Germany from Skount. Names this week include DCT, Elliot Tupac, Essam, How & Nosm, EKG, Keith Haring, Mariposa Mentirosa, Radical!, Seth, Skount, V, and Zam. First we start out with some spring flowers by an unknown artist.

Artist Unknown. Street installation to welcome the Spring 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mariposa Mentirosa. Street installation to welcome the Spring 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

EKG…is feeling a bit cocky. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

V (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zam (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Radical! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

#Heros Street Art…Keith Haring. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Essam (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DEKRD (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SKOUNT “The Automata Repairer” Essen, Germany. (photo © Skount)

DCT, SETH and ELLIOT TUPAC. Lima, Peru. (photo © Adolfo Bejar)

Untitled. (photo © Jaime Rojo )

Copenhagen Street Art on Lock Down : Tejn

March 24, 2012 Artists, copenhagen, Denmark, On the Street

Danish Street Artist Tejn does some paste-ups periodically but the thing he is most known for is his welding. Also his “Lock On”, a practice of chaining his welded sculptures to the street with a bicycle lock. In much the same way New York Street Artist REVS has been leaving his welded tags around Brooklyn during the last decade, these Lock On’s and welded fake signs are much less ephemeral than what you may typically associate the term “street art” with.

Tejn (photo © Sandra Hoj)

Photographer and BSA contributor Sandra Hoj reports today of her newest findings on the streets of Copenhagen, where Tejn has been installing new work.

Here Ms. Hoj describes the new works;

“The scrap iron sculpture Lock On’s by Danish street artist Tejn are scattered all over Copenhagen at the moment. Whenever I stop to take a picture of one, someone comes up to me to alert me to another piece. These welded sculptures are made from salvaged iron collected from places like our cultural battlefields Christiania and the empty lot of Jagtvej 69, former location of the Youth House. Tejn welds the iron together and returns it to the streets chained and locked with found bike-locks”

Tejn (photo © Sandra Hoj)

To see more great photos and observations on Sandra Hoj’s site please click here

Fun Friday 03.23.12

March 23, 2012 Artists, Events, Gallery, Opening

Welcome to Friday! You made it! It’s sunny and warm in New York this morning – time to hit the streets and parks and bookstores, before they’re all gone.

1. BOOKLYN in the House (VIDEO)
2. Adam Void “American Dream”
3. La Pandilla and Trek Matthews @ Living Walls Concepts
4. NSM “Justified Scriptures” (San Francisco)
5. Street Artist on the Street – Hugh Leeman (VIDEO)
6. Allan Dalla and Kero – Street Artists in Romania (VIDEO)
7. Slim Shady Mitt Romney (VIDEO)

BOOKLYN IN THE HOUSE

La Shea Delaney and Annabelle Quezada Go Hard on Books

Big Ups to these two serious readers. Read Books Ya’ll.

“(I) read so hard, libraries tryin’ to find me.”

“Animal Farm, Jane Eyre,
Barnes & Noble, FourSquare”

Adam Void Shares His American Dream (Baltimore)

Adam Void has a show called “An American Dream” at the MICA Decker Gallery in Baltimore, opening today. This is the artist’s MFA Thesis show. Congratulations Adam!

At work on an Adam Void piece on a wall in Venice, CA in 2011. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

La Pandilla and Trek Matthews at Living Walls Concepts (Atlanta)

Saturday Living Walls Concepts in Atlanta will be at The Jane with a show featuring new works from Street Artists La Pandilla from Puerto Rico and Trek Matthews from Atlanta in conjunction with their participation in this year’s edition of Living Walls, The City Speaks.

La Pandilla in Miami for Art Basel 2011. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

NSM “Justified Scriptures” (San Francisco)

941 Geary Gallery in San Francisco invites you to the opening reception of an NSM solo show entitled “Justified Scriptures” this Saturday.

(photo courtesy of the gallery)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Street Artist on the Street – Hugh Leeman (VIDEO)

French videographer Clemence Demerliac filmed the San Francisco based Street Artist Hugh Leeman to understand his original thinking and in inventive approach to helping other with his work.

Allan Dalla and Kero – Street Artists in Romania (VIDEO)

Allan Dalla and Kero teamed up with Ion Bardaleanu for their most recent project.

Slim Shady Mitt Romney (VIDEO)

An INGENIOUS compilation of clips to create this parody of Eminem’s “Slim Shady”

Mexico City : A New Surrealist Face for Street Art

March 22, 2012 Artists, Features, Mexico, Mexico City, On the Street

Comic, surrealist, role-playing psychological explorations, with a tip of the hat to Breton, Carrington, and Lucha Libre, among others.

Pixel Pancho (photo © XAM)

Mexico City culture can be as varied and diverse as it is homogeneous, with a respect for tradition and, when it comes to artistic expression, a catalyst for exploration. André Breton is reported to have described Mexico as “the most surrealist country in the world,” where painters like Leonora Carrington and Frida Kahlo unhinged their imaginations from the limitations of the material world. As these new images on the streets of Mexico City taken by Brooklyn architectural street artist XAM show, the love for a psychic automatism continues into the public sphere.

Of course the Mexicans are not strangers to art on the streets; “great Latin American muralists” is a phrase almost synonymous with Mexico and names like Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros coming to mind. Political advocacy and populist criticism of social policy on the walls here is similarly a tradition respected by the culture. Now a century after the revolution and birth of the modern Mexico, the experience of Los Capitalinos, as the residents of Mexico City are called, is affected daily by surrealism, pop culture and global capitalism swimming alongside folk and historical symbology, and a bit of anarchy. It’s all part of one fabric, a rich and varied textile that we export to you here.

Ben Eine (photo © XAM)

Says XAM of his experience, “Barcelona, NYC, Amsterdam, and Paris are all similar in a way when it comes to street art – you can walk around and come across work on the streets fairly easily, but traversing the barrios of Mexico city is much different. I guess in some way you can compare it to San Francisco, Chicago or Los Angeles – there is quality work to be found. The city differs from all mentioned in that it appears to be young when it comes to street art by having a small group of participants.”

“I was hosted by both MUMUTT Arte and Museo del Juguete Antiguo Mexico, who are both responsible for providing concrete canvases in Mexico City for artist such as ROA, M-City, Pixel Pancho, and fresh stuff from the locals like Saner, Sego and the MOZ crew. Mexico City DF has the most museums in the world and MUMUTT and Museo del Juguete are largely responsible for adding street art to the vast archive of amazing work. They escorted me around to locations they provided for the above artists – It is evident that everyone brought their A-game. The weathered concrete walls made wonderful surfaces for imagery such as Dronz & Koko’s character, offering hallucinatory candy at the toy museum to Ben Eine’s work that speaks about class issues on a worksite for a future mall.”

Ben Eine (photo © XAM)

Pixel Pancho (photo © XAM)

SBTG. The artist worked on this piece on commission to promote an event sponsored by a shoe company. We like the placement. (photo © XAM)

Click on the links below to read our previous stories of MAMUTT Arte and MUJAM and to learn more about their work in Mexico City:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/2011/09/20/m-city-in-m-city-polish-stencillist-in-mexico/

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/2011/05/07/video-premiere-broken-crow-in-mexico/

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/2011/03/04/broken-crow-a-mexican-travelog/

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/2011/03/09/broken-crow-a-mexican-travelog-part-ii/

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/2011/02/05/roas-magic-naturalism-street-arts-wild-kingdom-in-mexico/

Swoon In Kenya: The Equality Effect and “160 Girls”

March 21, 2012 Artists

Fighting a War on Girls

Abuse of a child is against the law worldwide. Unless international laws are enforced, it makes no difference.

Brooklyn based Street Artist Swoon is lending her name and her talent to a legal organization which seeks justice for women and girls who have been raped and otherwise abused.

The fine artist whose work has appeared in the street, galleries, and museums over the last decade recently visited eastern Kenya with Mike Snelle, Director of London’s Black Rat Projects, to participate in planning discussions for a project they will be doing this year in partnership with Equality Effect. The international organization of lawyers works to protect children and women around the world in conjunction with rescue centers, as well as to ensure that their rights are respected.

While in Kenya, Swoon lead a series of art workshops at a rescue center for girls between ages 4 and 16 years. These girls are part of project called “160 Girls” and its purpose is to take the Kenyan government to court and cause it to enforce existing international laws to hold perpetrators of violence accountable for their actions. Seeking justice and empowerment for girls and women, the campaign and association rely on contributions to assure that these girls see their day in court. Swoon intends to lend her name and efforts to raise funds and awareness throughout this year with plans for an auction and a special piece she is creating about the girls.

Aside from laying plans for the program Swoon participated and taught a workshop on making colorful masks and head dresses with some of the girls in the center. The power of creativity in healing cannot be doubted, and participants reported how much fun it was to create their art project. Hopefully this workshop and others like it will continue to help the girls feel empowered and to gain self-confidence through having an outlet of creative expression.

Swoon with Fiona Sampson, The Executive Director of Equality Effect and a girl with a new mask she created. (photo © Patrick Njeru Njagi)

Below are some photos of the workshops and the outstanding results of the students creativity. Please note: BSA has blurred some of the girls’ faces to protect their identities.

We talked with Mike Snelle to learn more about the organization and his involvement with Swoon.

Brooklyn Street Art: How did you first learn of Equality Effect and why is their work important?
Mike Snelle: Fiona Sampson, who runs Equality Effect came into the gallery one day and she sent me an email afterwards. Her email address is @theequalityeffect, which seemed to be an interesting address so I looked up what they did. Reading their website I knew what they were doing was really important so I reached out to see if there was any way we could help.

I also thought that Swoon might be interested too. The Equality Effect are basically a human rights charity who are looking to use the law to protect and enforce people’s human rights. International human rights laws already exist to protect the vulnerable but are often not enforced. What the Equality Effect do is take on governments on the behalf of the people whose human rights are being violated. I think this is part of what is necessary to affect deep lasting change.

Brooklyn Street Art: What role do you find galleries and artists can play in helping an organization like this to reach its goals?

Mike Snelle: I feel like this is a conversation I have been having with artists like Swoon and Matt Small for several years; How to be an artist, or for that matter a gallery, and to contribute to the wider world and not stay within the limited confines of the art world. The art world is a funny isolated place and it feels important to reach outside of its boundaries to connect with people who are affecting change in the real world. For me it’s about how to represent artists, do shows and sell works but not wake up with that empty sensation that you could be doing more with your life. It’s about using the skills and contacts you have from the art world and then diverting those resources in a different direction.

It’s particularly rewarding to work with artists because they can offer an on-the-ground experience, as well as help in raising awareness. This is an uplifting, creative, joyful experience for the kids. Following this there is a fundraising element. In this case an auction with the first work being a portrait of one of the girls made by Swoon.

Brooklyn Street Art: What was your experience like during your time with the workshops at the rescue centre?

Mike Snelle: I am still processing it a bit. It was simultaneously hard and joyful. You are working with twenty-five children between five and sixteen, all of whom are engaging, fun, creative human beings doing something fun and joyful. At the same time each of them has a difficult and traumatic story. It’s an intense experience.

There were some really amazing people there and I guess that most of all I feel like I learned about a kind of compassion that some people have which is enduring and powerful and that somehow doesn’t exhaust the person who has it. And something about how the most effective change is possible by listening to people on the ground who understand the community they are from in a way that’s impossible to do from the outside where you can only impose a preconceived idea of what is needed in a way that is inevitably inaccurate. I think this is what the Equality effect do really well – partner with people on the ground and listen to what they need.

It was also important for me watching Swoon and Dana and Paulie-Anne and seeing that the more “present” you can be and more open you are, the easier you can create genuine human connections. And you know, kids have an amazing resilience, and the joy they get from making things is the same joy that I recognise from my own children. It was a lot, this trip. I think I’m still learning from it. We saw a hospital there that had been built but didn’t have any equipment in yet. They had raised the money for the building but not for anything else. Asking about it we were told that if you believe in something, and just start it, then other people believe too and it will come to be. This seems like a thing. I’m rambling. It was a little overwhelming.

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The Equality Effect is a non-profit organization that uses international human rights law to improve the lives of women and girls.

New Documentary on LUDO in the Streets of Paris

March 20, 2012 Artists

The daily barrage of images and messages you see and hear merge together into a sort of white noise, a sort of mottled grey blue red yellow green purple black white noise. You will be lobbied today in the public sphere.

We have become inured to it, yet it persists. No matter how much you think that you have placed the ads into a peripheral role, they will still enter your consciousness there, in your periphery.

When Street Artist Ludo replaces bus shelter and billboard ads with his art, it is an attempted end run, a short circuiting of the commercialization of public space. In a subtle way that doesn’t jar you out of the subconscious messaging milieu, LUDO’s crisp tech-bio splicing of natural and man-made merely redirects your attention to a parallel track that leads back to you.

In this brand new video LUDO allows you into his studio to see how he makes his work and to tag along as he replaces a few selected commercial messages in the ubiquitous ad stream with his own ads that re-engineer common perception. It is interesting to see how simple it is to re-brand our environment, and LUDO is glad that director Laurie Grossett has recorded the process with Defense Dafficher. “It’s the first time I worked with a production company, a real director,” he says about the new mini-documentary, “It was a long process but I think they did a nice job.”

LUDO’s commentary has also been translated to English by Daily Motion so click “subtitles” to turn it on and understand the artist. Even without the words, the visuals communicate effectively. That’s the point.

LUDO in Paris, by Defense Dafficher, directed by Laurie Grosset

LUDO / PARIS by DEFENSE_DAFFICHER

Hush in Australia: A New Figure on the Street

March 19, 2012 Artists, Australia, On the Street

Street Artist Hush is in Melbourne, Australia this week getting some work up on the street and preparing for a new show at Metro Gallery. A mixologist who borrows widely from graff, fine, and folk art traditions, the guy has many interests and continues to explore techniques of art making, sharing what he has learned as he goes.

The new collection of work will be wide and deep, including large paintings, one-off screen prints on paper, wood cuts (linotypes), 3-D plastic drawings, and sketches that give viewers a better understanding of his working practice and technique.

Here are a few stylish shots on the street of his newest work by Cleo le Vel. The overall shape may remind you of Russian Matryoshka dolls, but the countenance on this figure is smokey as she is surrounded by decorative motifs and graffiti tags.

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