The sheer number of painted basketball courts that we see in the last two years makes us think there may be an evolving new category of art practice somewhere between street art, land art, billboard takeovers, and municipal public art. Clearly, a coffee table book will arrive here shortly.
Today we have a new project in “Valco San Paolo” by Greg Jager. The press release describes the design challenges of creating something for a population that lives on a tract of land that is “not a real neighborhood, not a suburb, not even a victim of that phenomenon that some have called beautification.”
Nonetheless, we soldier on. The artist says the result here is “Tiber Courtyard, a hybrid intervention between art and design curated by Michele Trimarchi that investigates the theme of coexistence in the public space.” Thusly, it is appropriate for “a territory made up of contradictions, multitudes, and balances.”
Tiber Courtyard is part of Cantieri San Paolo, a project of the Municipality VIII of Rome Capital with the support of the Lazio Region and produced by the cultural association Dominio Pubblico.
As Lleida has discovered, the murals that we place in public these days can have a contemporary finish that is professional. Perhaps that is why this Catalonian city in Spain has begun in the historic center of this city, a storied place that is documented back to the Bronz Age. Here the traditions of past artisans are revered, studied and emulated – with the new vocabularies still determining the tenor.
Today we share a few of the new walls at the Lleida Pot Fest, a collection of the new generation of mainly figurative painters who go large scale and then go home.
Hooray Hooray, first of May!” chanted your cousin Felix, “outdoor fucking starts today!”
You both broke out in peals of laughter while your mom was walking out from the kitchen with a basket of garlic bread for your Saturday night spaghetti dinner. “What did you just say??”
It’s hard to believe it’s May already, and the smell of lilacs and aerosol paint and pot smoke is in the air in New York again. Ahhhhhhh. Duck between the skateboards and the hellions delivering Chinese on electric bikes, and you’ll see the chess players are setting up again in the park.
For the 12th week in a row, the President of the United States hasn’t tweeted something glorifying violence or attacking faith in public institutions, and people are beginning to mention the “H” word in reference to the rate of Covid-19 vaccinations in New York.
Keep squeezing your silver and keep your eyes open and don’t get hit by any NFTs. They seem to be dropping everywhere
So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring: 2 Much, Andrea Carlson, Banksy, Bastard Bot, Bueno, Free Britney, Homsick, Marcos De La Fuente, Myles, Posterboy, Resop, Same PPP, Tom Bob, Vanessa Alvarez, WGE, and ZigZag.
“This project represents an innovative attempt to solve one of the biggest problems when exhibiting street art,” says Berlin-based street artist Vermibus, “- the lack of its original context.”
True, something about our previous curated exhibitions of street art – even our current show of Martha Cooper’s photography work at Urban Nation Museum here – loses the feeling of the street once it enters the museum doors.
“I truly believe this way of experiencing and conserving Street Art will be the inevitable future.”
Vermibus
Perhaps the advent of 360° audiovisual experiences with illegal artworks in their original locations, complete with sound and movement, will finally bridge that space between the viewer and the art. By donning VR goggles, which can vary in price from $20 for a Google Cardboard to $800 for an HTC Vive, a Vermibus ad takeover can be experienced now as a full train-station immersion, if you will.
For those art collectors who have been buying NFTs these last few months since public knowledge finally caught up to the concept of art on the blockchain, Vermibus is now offering four brand new hi-res experiences in Berlin’s U-Bahn. He likes to call this subway station futuristic and brutalist, and what better aesthetic to view the harshly beautiful pieces he installed at station U-Bhf. Schloßstraße? The campaign lasted about 5 days before being replaced by advertising.
Still, it was enough for Vermibus and Experience Designer Juanca Cardell to create new 360° records of the installations and encode them on the Ethereum blockchain. Launched through V’s wallet, he’s calling them his “U SCHLOßSTRAßE” Collection.
Explaining the work and his excitement to Brooklyn Street Art, Vermibus says, “I truly believe this way of experiencing and conserving Street Art will be the inevitable future.”
See FULL GLOSSARY of Blockchain terminology at end of article.
Use your mouse or pad when viewing the videos to get the 360 effect. If you happen to own a pair of VR glasses you’ll be able to get the immersive virtual reality effect when watching the videos.
The collection is available for purchase from Opensea’s Vermibus profile. All NFTs are launched through Vermibus’ wallet.
An NFT (Non-fungible token) are types of digital assets that are intended to represent ownership of something that is unique and scarce. These tokens are validated by third parties through the blockchain and can be traced back to the original creator, thus certifying their authenticity.
They can simply be certificates of authenticity themselves or contain images, music, videos or other files, depending on the platform and language used.
Blockchain is a system of recording information that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack or cheat the system. A blockchain is essentially a digital chain of transactions that is dupli- cated and distributed throughout the network of blockchain computer systems. Each block on the chain contains a number of transactions, and each time a new transaction occurs on the block- chain, a record of that transaction is added to each participant’s chain.
A smart contract is a computer program or transaction protocol whose purpose is to automatically execute, control or document legally relevant events and actions according to the terms of a con- tract or agreement.
Immersion into virtual reality (VR) is a perception of being physically present in a non-physical world. The perception is created by surrounding the user of the VR system in images, sound or other stimuli that provide an engrossing total environment.
Virtual Reality (VR) is the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment. Unlike traditional user interfaces, VR places the user inside an experience. Instead of viewing a screen in front of them, users are immersed and able to interact with 3D worlds.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. REFLECTIONS: Guido Van Helten and The Wellington Dam Mural 2. Mear One in Los Angeles via Bird Man 3. Telmo Miel: Tunnel Vision in Brussels
BSA Special Feature: REFLECTIONS: Guido Van Helten and The Wellington Dam Mural
A trip today to Wellington Dam, a jewel in the national park in Southwest Australia, only a couple of hours from Perth. Queensland Artist Guido van Helten took care to study the history and people from the dam area to understand their connection to it better – and in the process, it found a more profound connection to the water by some of the people who have lived there for many years.
“It’s just weird to feel like you’re this ‘issue’ in society and that the world is divided with how much they should care about you or how much they should listen to you or should be concerned with issues around your life. It’s weird to be like a battleground,” says co-director and subject Kwesi Thomas says in the opening of the film.
Using a bespoke swing stage, the artist painted the 8000 square meter mural with the help of serious engineering talents from the dam authority, who moved him 30 times to paint in enormous strips of texture and memories.
“I was basically painting while it was moving up and down, up and down,” he says. Part of The Collie Mural Trail that consists of 40 murals throughout the town, Guido says that “Reflections” is inspired by local stories and photographs. In addition to the sheer size and impact of its focus, the video also tells a rather moving story.
Behind the scenes: The making of the Wellington Dam Mural by Guido Van Helten
Mear One in Los Angeles via Bird Man
The Melrose alleys in LA provide inspiration here in this video shot and directed by Birdman – of the tribute to the Czech painter, illustrator and graphic Alphonse Mucha by graffti/muralist Kalen Ockerman, known as Mear One.
Choosing the goddess Gaia as muse, Mear One talks in his over-narration of what he say as Mucha’s treatement of the feminine and how it was reflected in the beauty of nature, its harmonious design, function and aesthetic. “I always loved how he expressed visually the spiritual and mystical,” he says. The clarity of his focus is apparent here as he pays honor to the artist as well as science, art, and philosophy.
Telmo Miel: Tunnel Visionin Brussels
Here is a tunnel in Brussels artists Miel (Amsterdam) and Telmo (Rotterdam) painted a human chain metaphorically connecting the neighborhoods of Machelen and Diegem. The public work is meant perhaps to ease among residents amid news reports of increased vandalism, drug use, and traffic nuisances among some. As in many western countries, it may have something to do with economics, race, and class. Says organizer All About Things, a private gallery-fueled public cultural initiative that has locked in many international street artists to beautify the area, “this mishmash of people indicates that we are stronger together.”
A certain sunkissed and saucy lust is coupled with all manner of vice for the frolicking senior set that is often featured in scenes by the muralist, painter, and illustrator Marina Capdevila from Barcelona.
Born in the mid-1980s, she nonetheless favors wrinkled grandpas who are playing with cigarettes and giggling grandmas who have their eyes on the pool boy, peering at him from under a large bamboo hat and over a frozen margarita.
Here in her hometown of Falset in Spain, her newest festive partiers are celebrating all things wine, as is the practice of this place that hosts one of the more important festivals del vino in the country.
Of course, Covid is ruining this event again this year, but presumably, some people here are tipping a glass of Tinta o Blanco. “It’s a mural that pays homage to the traditional wine fair,” she says, “which this year will not be held, but at least you can enjoy this work.”
“The revolution will be the flowering of humanity as love is the flowering of the heart” Louise Michel, revolutionary, activist, and significant figure of the Paris Commune.
TWE Crew and Black Lines movement in association with Art Azoi. Square Henri Karcher, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoi)
Montmartre, Belleville, and all those poor neighborhoods in the 11th, 18th, 19th and 20th arrondissements all shake with the memory of the Paris Commune as we mark the 150th anniversary this spring of the short-lived self-governance ended by a “Bloody Week.”
To mark those events and the thousands killed when the rich fled, we share with you new public works from artists of the TWE Crew in collaboration with the Black Lines movement – and in association with Art Azoi in the heart of the 20th arrondissement of Paris. A combination of street art, graffiti, mural art, and illustration influences all join forces in black and the bloody red that stood as their flag. Figures depicted may be contemporary or of the period, but their universal plight appears devastatingly on-point.
TWE Crew and Black Lines movement in association with Art Azoi. Square Henri Karcher, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoi)
“Working men’s Paris, with its Commune, will be forever celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new society. Its martyrs are enshrined in the great heart of the working class,” said Karl Marx. Professor John Merriman speaks in his book “Massacre” of that eclectic revolutionary government that held power in Paris across eight weeks between 18 March and 28 May 1871 and says that the crushing of the poor who were unable to escape the city sadly anticipated the horror shows that would follow in the 20th Century.
In other words, they were killed because they were too poor to get out.
TWE Crew and Black Lines movement in association with Art Azoi. Square Henri Karcher, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoi)
Conversely, in many ways, the Commune created a template as well for social and political justice movements that would come – proposing in their city council such things as economic laws, workers rights, separation of church and state, abolishing the death penalty and mandatory conscription, and labor’s self-management. From these brutal times and events, you may wish to salvage many of those radical ideas – the only spoils of victory, if you will.
TWE Crew and Black Lines movement in association with Art Azoi. Square Henri Karcher, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoi)
But even today, a century and a half later, conversations about how to remember the Commune are divisive.
“It was a populist movement. And in the current state of France and the world – when in Paris we have the yellow vests and in Washington they’re storming the Capitol – I do not think we should be celebrating people who burned down our city hall.”
Participating artists are @lasktwecrew, @kwim__t.w.e, @kracotwecrew and @al_zoyer of the @blacklinescommunity
TWE Crew and Black Lines movement in association with Art Azoi. Square Henri Karcher, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoi)TWE Crew and Black Lines movement in association with Art Azoi. Square Henri Karcher, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoi)TWE Crew and Black Lines movement in association with Art Azoi. Square Henri Karcher, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoi)TWE Crew and Black Lines movement in association with Art Azoi. Square Henri Karcher, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoi)TWE Crew and Black Lines movement in association with Art Azoi. Square Henri Karcher, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoi)TWE Crew and Black Lines movement in association with Art Azoi. Square Henri Karcher, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoi)TWE Crew and Black Lines movement in association with Art Azoi. Square Henri Karcher, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoi)
Shots today from last month’s Shepard Fairey “Future Mosaic” at Dubai’s Opera Gallery. With works on canvas, paper, wood, and metal, as well as examples of iconic images and repeated motifs from the breadth of his art and design history, Fairey was very much present for his first solo show here. In a grueling schedule of just 9 days he also managed to install two huge murals facing a skate park in a commercial district of the city, the d3 (Dubai Design District).
Shepard Fairey. “Future Mosaic”. Dubai. UAE. March 2021. (Photo: Courtesy ObeyGiant.com / Photographer Jon Furlong)
Rise Above Peace Dove and Rise Above Peace Fingers incorporate what appears as a richer vibrant palette and pulsing graphic interplay than previously, perhaps due to more dense hues and the fact that his core crew of Dan Flores, Luka Densmore, and Rob Zagula were on hand along with Jon and Marwan offering additional help. Staying clear of strident language or slogans, the new works are largely representational and universal in themes of “justice, peace and human rights.”
Shepard Fairey with the dream team ready to work. “Future Mosaic”. Dubai. UAE. March 2021. (Photo: Courtesy ObeyGiant.com / Photographer Jon Furlong)
Fairey withstood criticism on social media for even working in the region, it would appear, let alone lending his name to an effort that they saw as hypocritical in light of his previous vocal stances on human rights, for example.
He took to Instagram to address his critics, “I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but it’s not a perfect place, but perfection does not exist and certainly not in the US. However, without this experience, I would not have been able to engage in robust discussions with the great people I met in Dubai. There’s nothing more relevant to my inside-outside strategy than traveling there and doing public art conveying harmony and positivity.”
Shepard Fairey. “Rise Above Peace Fingers”. Dubai. UAE. March 2021. (Photo: Courtesy ObeyGiant.com / Photographer Jon Furlong)
Elsewhere in another post, he wrote, “It is very important for me to do public art when I travel because it engages people outside of the art world, but it is not easy to secure public walls in Dubai.”
The opportunity to show and share and sell your art is something we want for any artist. In the case of Fairey, judgment metrics would need to include his two decades of generous acts promoting and supporting all manner of environmental, social justice, and civic participation efforts. We’ll confidently observe that year after year, his impact can far outstrip the average street artist and certainly most art collectors by miles. We dare say he’s unmatched. Let that be your goal.
Shepard Fairey. “Rise Above Peace Fingers”. Dubai. UAE. March 2021. (Photo: Courtesy ObeyGiant.com / Photographer Jon Furlong)
“The show was massive, with 159 works that utilized the gallery space with a rhythm of scale and concentration,” he says. “My art practice focuses on the work’s cumulative effect, both visually and conceptually, so I was pleased with the final result.”
Shepard Fairey. “Future Mosaic”. Dubai. UAE. March 2021. (Photo: Courtesy ObeyGiant.com / Photographer Jon Furlong) Shepard Fairey. Skectch for “Rise Above Peace Fingers”. Dubai. UAE. March 2021. (Photo: Courtesy ObeyGiant.com / Photographer Jon Furlong) Shepard Fairey. “Rise Above Peace Fingers”. Dubai. UAE. March 2021. (Photo: Courtesy ObeyGiant.com / Photographer Jon Furlong) Shepard Fairey. “Rise Above Peace Fingers”. Dubai. UAE. March 2021. (Photo: Courtesy ObeyGiant.com / Photographer Jon Furlong) Shepard Fairey. “Rise Above Peace Fingers”. Dubai. UAE. March 2021. (Photo: Courtesy ObeyGiant.com / Photographer Jon Furlong) Shepard Fairey. “Rise Above Peace Fingers”. Dubai. UAE. March 2021. (Photo: Courtesy ObeyGiant.com / Photographer Jon Furlong) Shepard Fairey. “Rise Above Peace Fingers”. Dubai. UAE. March 2021. (Photo: Courtesy ObeyGiant.com / Photographer Jon Furlong) Shepard Fairey. “Rise Above Peace Dove”. Dubai. UAE. March 2021. (Photo: Courtesy ObeyGiant.com / Photographer Jon Furlong) Shepard Fairey. “Rise Above Peace Dove”. Dubai. UAE. March 2021. (Photo: Courtesy ObeyGiant.com / Photographer Jon Furlong) Shepard Fairey. “Rise Above Peace Dove”. Dubai. UAE. March 2021. (Photo: Courtesy ObeyGiant.com / Photographer Jon Furlong) Shepard Fairey. “Rise Above Peace Fingers”. Dubai. UAE. March 2021. (Photo: Courtesy ObeyGiant.com / Photographer Jon Furlong)
Everywhere you look today it seems like there is a storm of papers and forms for you to complete – you may even feel like this Surinamese ballerina dancing in a whirlwind of official documents in Leidseplein, Amsterdam.
The topic drives this new mural by JDL, who chose a ballerina because she observed how few persons of color make it into the arts as well, and she wonders about those same prejudices at work in other forms of bureaucracy.
“The Netherlands has come a long way, but there is still a lot of work to do,” she says. “This piece is a small reminder and dedication to keep dancing in bureaucracy. With awareness comes change, and by constantly addressing the issue we will collectively walk towards a brighter, more equal future.”
This project was realized with the contributions of: Yourban2030, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Airlite, Won Yip and Humberto Tan.
This week we wandered off the streets onto the train tracks to catch some graff in the wild. As we did we thought about photographer Jim Prigoff and how he told us that he relied upon the “graffiti gods” to lead him in the right direction to catch photographs. He was so right when he shared that jewel – an adviso to follow one’s intuition and trust your instincts. It was during this same adventure on the tracks that we learned of Jim’s passing, which was a very sad addendum to the exploration, at first. Then we realized that Jim is now one of those “graffiti gods” and he will lead us to find the next piece, burner, paste-up, sticker, poetry on the street.
May Jim and his instincts always be with us.
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
– Mae West
Take it from Brooklyn’s own Mae West to give us the dry-eyed wit that pushes us further forward, boldly and without reservation.
So New York graffiti and street art continues to run apace – from Red Hook to Ridgewood to Williamsburg to Chelsea in Manhattan – we are dumb-founded by the new work that is covering Gotham. It is also notable the preponderance of LETTER-based street art and graffiti there is everywhere. Letters and their deconstruction, reconstruction, re-imagining have always been a part of the graff tradition of course, but it looks like many artists are talking at you from the wall right now.
So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring: 2 Much, Adam Fujita, Al Diaz, Aneko, Healer, Jeff Roseking, Jet, Jowl, Lunge Box, Mega, Panic, RAKN, Riisa Boogie, Sac Six, Seo, Timmy Ache, UFO 907, and Wokem.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. BATTLEGROUND. A short film by Mark Bone and Kwesi Thomas 2. RIPDMX Via @NYCGRAFF.HEAD 3. Gigantic Graffiti by Ellr and Khol, via Montana Colors
BSA Special Feature: BATTLEGROUND. A short film by Mark Bone and Kwesi Thomas
“It’s just weird to feel like you’re this ‘issue’ in society and that the world is divided with how much they should care about you or how much they should listen to you or should be concerned with issues around your life. It’s weird to be like a battleground,” says co-director and subject Kwesi Thomas says in the opening of the film.
A film purely of this moment, Battleground treads on soil that has been contaminated for centuries, the current inhabitants the inheritors of a heritage of racism. This week’s conviction of a white officer for killing a black civilian was only fraught with tension because the system doesn’t guarantee it and because it’s an exception rather than a rule.
“I wanted to make the film because I wanted to change that for other people.”
Born from conversations that followed the death of George Floyd, Kwesi Thomas & Mark Bone break silences, make themselves vulnerable, continue this painful conversation that is necessary for change.
BATTLEGROUND. A short film by Mark Bone and Kwesi Thomas
#RIPDMX Via @NYCGRAFF.HEAD
A tribute of wholecars to rapper DMX needs only the soundtrack of the steel wheels screeching on the rails.
Gigantic Graffiti by Ellr and Khol
“A small piece may look good in a picture but to look good in reality it needs to have size.”
50 meters should be sufficient for this new piece by Swedish writers Koll and Ellr. Montana Colors, who sponsored the wall, says the two are “drawing influence from some of the more sophisticated trends of Scandinavia and New York.”
Land artist, street artist, and scientist Andreco has given the Earth a gift of trees to celebrate Earth Day.
Andreco. Aula Verde. Earth Day 2021. Rome, Italy. (photo courtesy of the artist)
Together with citizens, environmentalists and researchers, he’s created a work of Land Art here in Rome, and he calls the project Aula Verde.
“The work is alive, and over the years it will take shape and as it grows it will return innumerable benefits to the territory,” Andreco says, “currently it is studied by the researchers who are involved in the project, both for the purification of the water and the redevelopment of the surrounding greenery.”
Andreco. Aula Verde. Earth Day 2021. Rome, Italy. (photo courtesy of the artist)
A more positive approach to community involvement in actively helping the air, soil, and water is hard to imagine, but Andreco never ceases to amaze with demonstrations like these; a parade of people of all ages marching to a field to plant trees together.
The name Aula Verde comes from the shape of the work, he says, “made up of poplar and willow trees, Polulus Alba and Salix Alba, arranged on two large concentric centres with a diameter of forty metres that forms a sort of Green Pantheon which can be accessed freely.”
Andreco. Aula Verde. Earth Day 2021. Rome, Italy. (photo courtesy of the artist)
Aula Verde is part of FLUMEN, a movement of climate actions for rivers and parks in Rome, and a project intersecting art and science conceived by the artist Andreco and organised by the cultural association Climate Art Project. A multifaceted initiative, FLUMEN includes the environmental monitoring of the waters and the ecosystems of the two rivers of Rome, the Tiber and the Aniene, as well as workshops, performances, exhibitions and tree plantings.
SEE VIDEO BELOW
Andreco. Aula Verde. Earth Day 2021. Rome, Italy. (photo courtesy of the artist)Andreco. Aula Verde. Earth Day 2021. Rome, Italy. (photo courtesy of the artist)Andreco. Aula Verde. Earth Day 2021. Rome, Italy. (photo courtesy of the artist)Andreco. Aula Verde. Earth Day 2021. Rome, Italy. (photo courtesy of the artist)Andreco. Aula Verde. Earth Day 2021. Rome, Italy. (photo courtesy of the artist)Andreco. Aula Verde. Earth Day 2021. Rome, Italy. (photo courtesy of the artist)Andreco. Aula Verde. Earth Day 2021. Rome, Italy. (photo courtesy of the artist)
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
