One of the benefits of being an artist and part of the active process of actually creating in a pool of peers is you will find that the same spirit that travels through you is evident in others. When we were part of artist collectives in Brooklyn in the early 2000’s we would see that artists frequently manifested ideas and techniques that paralleled – without consulting one another. It was uncanny. Chalk it up to the idea that everyone drinks from the same stream of creativity that flows past us all the time.
Buff Diss uses masking tape to make incredible Street Art installations that interact with the built environment. Separate and apart of him Brooklyn Street Artist Aakash Nihalani does something quite similar on the streets. While we have worked with Aakash – he was in our Street Crush show in ’09 – we never met Buff Diss. Wouldn’t it be cool if they were on a double bill together?
Titi Freak from São Paulo via Japan has created a unique voice in Street Art in the last decade. A perfect East-West mashup of all the things you kids love… fashion, pop, illustration, commix, graff, and color. He’s got a new print coming out Feb 24 with OneThirty3 and we have a sneak peak here.
Don’t Forget LIVE Chat on Brooklynite Monday Night
You can chat with Martyn Reed of Nuart LIVE when you log in and see the WORLD DEBUT of the film this Monday the 31st. It’s free and you might win a copy of the film. More HERE
Ever Wonder Why You Are Nervous All the Time?
Swearword Alert! Hilarious spoof on the predilictions of those cable news stations that tell you it’s ALL EMERGENCY ALL THE TIME!
New Yorkers woke up today to find our city covered in snow again – this has been happening a lot, people. No schools, no buses and most certainly scarce taxis to get to places. By midday we are certain things will be back to normal but for the early risers it was a bit difficult to navigate the streets and get to work. Maybe it’s better to stay in bed. We took some images of what we saw in the morning to share with you. Enjoy them!
We’re really happy to see that this project is finished and congratulate Martyn Reed for finishing his film “Eloquent Vandals”, made during the NuArt Festival in Stavanger, Norway. You can congratulate Martyn LIVE when you log in to chat with him and see the WORLD DEBUT of the film next Monday the 31st.
Shot and directed by Martin Hawkes, the film features work and interviews with Street Artists like Blek Le Rat, Graffiti Research Lab, Dface, Herakut, Nick Walker, Know Hope, Jimmy Cauty, Chris Stain, Wordtomother, Sten & Lex, Dotmasters, Zeus (UK) and Dolk & Pøbel.
Win a FREE Copy! To celebrate the World Premier, BSA is hosting a trivia game and giveaway of copies of the film and other NuArt goodies the day after the show — Feb 1.
* first image of post is a still featuring work by Blek Le Rat in “Eloquent Vandals” courtesy of Nuart/Saft films.
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Eloquent Vandals
Running time : 27 mins
Shot on location during Norway’s Nuart Festival in 2008, Eloquent Vandals
features candid interviews and work from some of the worlds leading street
artists including Blek Le Rat, Graffiti Research Lab, Dface, Herakut, Nick
Walker, Know Hope, Jimmy Cauty, Chris Stain, Wordtomother, Sten & Lex,
Dotmasters, Dolk & Pøbel.
Shot and Directed by Martin Hawkes
Produced by Nuart/Saft films
Banksy goes to Hollywood or will he? Now that the world famous British Street Artist has been nominated for best documentary for his film “Exit Through The Gift Shop” the rumour mill will continue churning fast and furious about whether or not he will attend the Academy Awards ceremony to be held on Sunday February 27 at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, CA.
This, no doubt, presents Mr. Banksy with an existential conundrum: His anonymity, as it is, is clearly half of his identity; His fans and critics fill in the blanks with their own projections about a mythical creature; his personality occupying an anti-establishment court jester sort of space in the public mind. If half of his passionately guarded identity is replaced with a closer to real one, will his public stock go up? His wit certainly would be a benefit when giving a speech in front of an auditorium packed with golden heroes of the silver screen; The conundrum is not unlike that of a superhero, or super anti-hero in this case. One might consult with Superman, Batman and Spider man as they too have been presented with a similar fork on the road in their travels
Of course he could always ask Mr. Brainwash to be his stand in, walk the red carpet for him and (gasp!) accept the award on his behalf should he be the night’s recipient of such prestigious recognition. No longer his understudy, and having “mastered” the art of Banksy’s style and pretty much everything else, Mr. Brainwash would no doubt most graciously oblige.
Betting has begun in earnest about his chances to win the golden statuette.
To learn more about the Academy Awards visit their official site at: http://oscar.go.com/
“Space Invaders” at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra is open for one more month as it presents a survey of the vigorous homegrown and international street art movement that has developed over the past ten years in the Pacific Rim. Home to well known and upcoming street artists like Anthony Lister, MISO, Kid Zoom and Creepy, Australia contributes a distinctive voice to a developing school and vocabulary.
With this show the National Gallery joined the ever expanding list of major art institutions recognizing and meditating on the importance and influence of Street Art as an art form and art movement. Once again the public is involved in the conversation about what Street Art is and where is it going- through the protected confines and altering prism of a formal art institution.
Below an excerpt from the Gallery’s web site:
“Drawn entirely from the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, the first Australian institution to have collected this type of work, Space invaders: Australian . street . stencils . posters . paste-ups . zines . stickers surveys the past 10 years of Australian street art. Featuring 150 works by over 40 Australian artists, this exhibition celebrates the energy of street-based creativity and recognises street stencils, posters, paste-ups, zines and stickers as comprising a recent chapter in the development of Australian prints and drawings..
Space invaders looks at artists and their iconic street-based works at the point of their transition from the ephemeral to the collectable and from the street to the gallery”
HaHa “Ned’s Head Triptych” (detail) (courtesy National Gallery of Australia)
The current show name borrows from the French street artist, who borrowed from the video game.
Lister “Mr. Sinister” 2010 (detail) (courtesy National Gallery of Australia)
Jumbo “X-Ray Man-machine” (detail) (courtesy National Gallery of Australia)
National Gallery of Australia
GPO Box 1150
Canberra ACT 2601
AUSTRALIA
Space Invaders features stencils, posters, paste-ups, zines and stickers and will run until February 27 2011. If you are in the area and would like to visit the Gallery below is a list of upcoming events related to the show and the participating artists:
This Thursday (Jan 27) there is an artist talk with Mini Graff as she talks about her work featured in the exhibition.
This Saturday (Jan 29) there is a vinyl sticker printing workshop for teens
Print your own vinyl stickers with Sydney street artist Mini Graff. Translate your ideas onto vinyl stickers using screenprinting techniques. Please note that this program is at Megalo Print Studio + Gallery in Watson.
Sunday (Feb 6) there will be a screening of BOMB IT (DVD, 2007, not rated, 93 mins)
An explosive documentary about graffiti, the controversial art form shaping international youth culture today. By award-winning director Jon Reiss.
Participating artists for “Space Invaders” include:
Tonight it will be 7 degrees farenheit in Brooklyn, and the wind will blow down the East River to the Verrazano, around Coney Island and the Rockaways in a bashing fashion. New York City in January can be an inhospitable and unfriendly city, especially if you are a new arrival. “Where are all the people?” New Yorkers, all clad in blacks and grays pile out from the subway tunnels in droves and scurry fast down the sidewalk, like ants whose mound has been disturbed. The puffy fashions often mute gender, causing a great many otherwise fashionable or sexy dudes and dudettes to look like large tubers. Outside is a place to pass through as you stomp toward your dwelling without looking around or upward. Exhausted by layers of fabrics and zippers and buttons and laces and pulling on, over, and off – dropping bags and backpacks, the peeling off wet socks and salty boots are the final salvo before collapse. Depressed yet?
The flip side of this is that a lot of Street Artists are working in their kitchen/toolshed/studio right now and really putting a lot of effort into it – some are even stockpiling like squirrels for spring. If it is sunny for a minute in the afternoon, and you can peer over your scarf on the icy snow piled sidewalks of Brooklyn for a second you’ll see there is some new Street Art here and there. There is one reason to go outside and it’s encouraging to see that some street artists that call New York their home have been getting up despite the elements. It’s not really surprising to find that Street Artists are a scrappy lot; it kind of goes with the territory. Nonetheless it can bring a smile to your frozen face. Happy Winter.
And now our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring AVOne, AWR, BAST, DAIN, General Howe, Jim Darling, Katsu, Nasa, Nohj Coley, Rae, Skewville, Sofia Maldonado, Surge, and the Witness
Sadly, Swiss film maker Joachim Levy says he was left off the credits in the movie and should have been included, according to a New York Times piece by Melena Ryzik, “A few minutes of “Life Remote Control” and some footage from Mr. Guetta and Mr. Levy appear in “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” which subsequently became the story of how Mr. Guetta was transformed, with Banksy’s prodding, from a chronicler of street art into an artist himself”. He’s protesting bitterly about his exclusion from the credits, and the cash cow the movie is turning into, we might add.
For all we know this is just one of the many marketing plots that Banksy or Banksy’s camp have concocted to create extra buzz for the film in the hopes that it would get nominated by the Academy. What with the many interviews (via email) that the normally invisible Banksy has granted? So far the strategy appears to be working as the film did get a nomination this week from the BAFTA people (the British version of the Oscars) for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer.
And finally, we won’t get to find out his true identity now that Ebay has taken down the auction that had 38 bidders up to almost a million bucks. The prize? A scrap of paper with his alleged real name. Sorry kids, no Banksy or Santa Clause information will be revealed. Luckily you can still bid on a chunk of concrete with a rat stencil sprayed on it.
Tomorrow on Ebay, to more robust bidding I expect, I will be auctioning my electric bill from December. As a bonus you’ll see the price of a weekly Metrocard and a cellphone shot of my granny’s teeth in a glass.
What are we to think? Is Banksy behind this “auction”? For sure he knows his own identity, or does he? And why would this be on Ebay? – Shouldn’t it be on Sotheby’s or Christie’s?
In the next “‘Breathless Banksy Update” we’ll talk about who we think should design his full length burka-style hoodie to attend the Academy Awards ceremony should he be so lucky as to snag a nomination. If he is reading this, as we know he most certainly is, we urgently implore him to start looking for a designer PRONTO.
In the midst of all the speculation about Banksy’s identity, perhaps the elephant is on the screen in your living room.
Remember Eli Cook? He’s the BSA reader who had a wish last month to finish a painting?
Well, he finished it and sent us the picture so we thought we’d share it with you. It’s a way to honor the creative spirit in all of us, and to honor Eli’s grand dad.
Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring CBS Cru, Ryan McGinness, Kopye, Gaia, M-City, Wing, UR New York, Sonni, Tati, Nekst, Sera, Tizie, Wing and Clown Soldier.
Street Artist NohJColey travelled to Texas for a few weeks to visit friends and put up these new portraits in the studios of a de facto music factory. The former meat packing plant is abuzz with activity day and night with up-and-coming entrepreneurs of all stripes pounding out the beats, doing fashion shoots, making videos, mixing music, and a little bit of partying to ease the stress of all that work. NohJ slept on couches for a few weeks and hung out with many unknowns on the hip-hop tip, and a few bigger names too. He also spent long stretches of time killing large walls in these artists studios with his very distinctive illustration style of portraiture. Not surprisingly, the theme of music runs through them.
“The first piece I did was done in the place I was sleeping in. It wasn’t about the owner but it was a reflection of him in a way because he literally ran around with his head cut off and he didn’t know what was going on half the time. He was mostly crying about his girlfriend or surfing the net looking at new videos. Supposedly he was a DJ. He had gigs, but no turntables. He was scratcher and mixer,” explains NohJ about this mural going up a staircase.
If you know anything about NohJ, it’s that he is always thinking and observing people. Each piece has a story that is rooted in his imagination as much as his observation of the human condition. His characters are illustrative of greater truths and of their personal idiosyncracies. You can imagine him becoming a literary or screen writer because he knows his subjects inside and out. Psychology, sociology, and popular culture all come to fore, placed with symbolism and gesture into the portrait and into a moment. If NohJ inhabits each fictional character he creates just for a moment, he stays with them for hours, gently observing their motivations and making judgments about their judgment, blending in some social critique.
No. 1
Brooklyn Street Art:What about this dude?
NohJ: These are piano keys, I don’t know if I ever said that.
Brooklyn Street Art:No, I didn’t see that
NohJ: Yeah, they’re supposed to be exiting his chest
Brooklyn Street Art:So does it seem like musical notes coming out of his chest?
NohJ: No, just keys
Brooklyn Street Art:So they’re musical tools with which to create the sound but they don’t necessarily have a sound?
NohJ: I’d say they represent the sound just because those are the keys, you know?
Brooklyn Street Art:Biomorphic, undulating
NohJ: Definitely, contorted, yeah
Brooklyn Street Art:What about these gray lines that go around?
NohJ: That’s the chords
Brooklyn Street Art:He looks kind of constricted by them, his lower torso
NohJ: He’s can’t go anywhere because the line is wrapped. He wants to DJ but he can’t get the turntable, it keeps rocking back and forth. He can’t really see it. The right eye is covered because, you know how there are constantly music videos going – he’s constantly seeing the music video in something. He sees clothes, a phone, somebody’s chain, sneakers. He sees it in a video and thinks he’s gotta buy it.
Brooklyn Street Art:So he’s imprisoned by his consumerist tendencies?
NohJ: Yeah
Brooklyn Street Art:or just his impulses
NohJ: Probably his tendencies though because he’s like being brainwashed.
Brooklyn Street Art:It becomes a tendency after a while
NohJ: He’s like “Oh, it’s a whole lifestyle”, you know
Brooklyn Street Art:“this stuff represents ‘me’”. He doesn’t look like he’s very old.
NohJ: I don’t know – mid twenties, early thirties
Brooklyn Street Art: So what was the reaction of the person who hangs out in this space?
NohJ: He liked it. He didn’t know what it was about. It was about him though.
No. 2
NohJ: This one is about noise levels.
Brooklyn Street Art:She’s plugging her ears too.
NohJ: Even though the sound is coming out of her nose. That’s why I used the pattern- It’s octagons and triangles. I usually use triangles to represent strife, the points!
Brooklyn Street Art:So if we see shapes that are in your work that are circles or are circular, what are those going to represent?
NohJ: I rarely use circles but it probably would mean that you are going through a transition. It might be rough but it’s going to get better. It all depends though cause it all has to do with the number.
Brooklyn Street Art:What’s her name?
NohJ: She doesn’t have a name but this is in a guys studio and when he has the speakers on, this piece makes so much sense to you. Because it’s like all this noise coming from the right side of the house and you are just looking at this woman and she is looking at you and she’s like, “Yeah it’s noisy right?”
Brooklyn Street Art:This pattern also makes me think of some folk art or maybe Native American art.
NohJ: I kind of figured you’d…. I mean, why?
Brooklyn Street Art:Because of the diamond motif repeated. I mean it’s a quadrilateral but it’s squashed. There’s no Native American influence here.
NohJ: Maybe, but if so it subconsciously got in there.
Brooklyn Street Art:I think her name is Consuelo. That’s what I’ve decided. But you don’t have a name for her.
NohJ: She’s trying to distance herself from the rest of her body because this over here is her back and the speakers are inbetween, you know?
Brooklyn Street Art:Man! She is really trying to get away!
NohJ: She’s pulling herself apart.
While a portrait may be a symbol of a greater truth, he isn’t going to stand on a soapbox. But if you really want to know and you are listening, he’ll tell you. If not, he won’t worry very much. Amalgams of people he’s met and the person he is, the pieces and their stories have their own logic – part reality and science fiction. Mixing fantasy with reality, sometimes it’s not clear where one ends and the other starts;Just when you think you got the scenario and you think it’s all symbolism and representation, you’ll learn that a character actually does have a piece of jewelry protruding from their head, or a cassette tape flowing out of his mouth and it is not a metaphor after all.
No. 3
Brooklyn Street Art: Tell me about this boy
NohJ: He’s just like a teenager that listens to all this new music that we’ve been talking about. – Like poor quality stuff.
Brooklyn Street Art:He doesn’t think it’s poor quality though.
NohJ: Exactly, that’s the problem. That’s why there are all these tapes flying at him and he’s just covering his ears. He doesn’t want to hear the titles of the good stuff you know? – Whether it’s like Led Zepplin or the Beatles or I don’t know.
Brooklyn Street Art:What does he want to listen to?
NohJ: I don’t know, like Justin Bieber, Souljah Boy, stuff like that.
Brooklyn Street Art:Is this other guy lecturing him?
NohJ: Yeah, definitely. He’s like an older musician, dressed in 70s fashion.
Brooklyn Street Art:He looks like he was on the set of “Sanford and Son”
NohJ: Yeah, definitely. The large oversized collar, open.
Brooklyn Street Art:That looks like a VCR tape
NohJ: It’s a cassette tape.
Brooklyn Street Art:So what do you think this guy has on these cassette tapes?
NohJ: Like Hendrix, the O’Jays
Brooklyn Street Art:Oh yeah, like “Love Train”.
NohJ: …Sonny Rollins… I mean he’s really just telling him about quality stuff, and really where most of the new stuff derives from.
Brooklyn Street Art: This kid looks a little bit mad
NohJ: Yeah he’s super angry, he doesn’t like this
Brooklyn Street Art:But he can’t talk back, that’s why his mouth is closed
NohJ: I think he’s really scared though because he’s like “how are cassette tapes coming out of someone’s mouth?”
Yesterday we showed you an anti-war Street Art piece that partially addressed the war in Afghanistan. Today we tell you about Skateistan, a non-political skateboarding and education program for the youth growing up in this country overrun by war for 9 years. Street Artist Ludo created this fresh piece to raise some cash for Skateistan and all proceeds from the sale of his print benefit their programs. His street work often is a combination of natural beauty and man-made evil – a cautionary tale meant to draw attention to us, the creators of destruction. This piece appears to again pair the beauty of life with the specter of what all war leads to.
Ludo’s piece for Skateistan
Each Ludo piece is unique and hand drawn, a mix of graphite and acrylic on 300 gram water color paper, measuring 32 x 24 cm.
From the Skateistan web site:
“Operating as an independent, neutral, Afghan NGO, the school engages growing numbers of urban and internally-displaced youth in Afghanistan through skateboarding, and provides them with new opportunities in cross-cultural interaction, education, and personal empowerment. Skateistan students come from all of Afghanistan diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. They not only develop skills in skateboarding and skateboarding instruction, but also healthy habits, civic responsibility, information technology, the arts, and languages. “
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
One of the benefits of being an artist and part of the active process of actually creating in a pool of peers is you will find that the same spirit that travels through you is evident in others. When we were part of artist collectives in Brooklyn in the early 2000’s we would see that artists frequently manifested ideas and techniques that paralleled – without consulting one another. It was uncanny. Chalk it up to the idea that everyone drinks from the same stream of creativity that flows past us all the time.
