All posts tagged: Marc Schiller

BSA in Print : “Community Service” – The Art of C215

“On these hard streets a man discarded can’t possibly feel like a citizen of any community. I’ve wandered these streets in my own disconnected delerium and not seen the homeless man lying inside the contorted cardboard box. Layered in sweatshirts and drowsy beneath the roaring traffic on the bridge his eyes flicker above the edge of the box and we are jolted by each others’ suddenness. It’s a split second, and maybe unnerving, but not uncaring. I am, after all, only another man, and here we are on the same street. Given the right chain of events, I could be the one peering out over the tattered edge. Am I changed by this moment? Sometimes I am.” – Steven P. Harrington

So began the introduction by Steven P. Harrington to the book “Community Service”, a monograph of the French Street Artist named C215 that was released last year. It was one of three published works that BSA was honored to write for and provide images for in 2011.

C215 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The multi-layered and luminescent stencil portraits that C215 has created in neighborhoods of cities all over the world have made his work well-known and respected by peers in the Street Art world. For us, his technique and human touch has been so inspiring that it was an automatic response when he asked us to write the introduction and conduct an extensive interview with him for his book.  Along with photographs of his work by Jaime Rojo, the work that C215 considers to be “community service” is captured in print by an international roster of many of today’s top street art photographers.

Together they all tell a story about a moment, this moment on the street with one of the best, and we were proud to be a part of it in 2011.

C215 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Excerpted from the interview for “Community Service”:

Steven P. Harrington: Some people have said that Street Art is transforming contemporary life. Is that one of it’s roles?

C215: I think that an observant person seeing these small works will never return to an ordinary view of the streets. The day you become interested in street art is a kind of point of no return. The German poet Novalis said, “If you look for your favorite color, you will see it everywhere”. I could say the same about graffiti. Street art is changing urban perception for sure, and if you begin to photograph something you have found and show it to someone else, you are so happy to share it.

C215 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steven P. Harrington: When you create portraits of people, often they are people who are in the margins of a society. Can you talk about how you decide which people you will portray in a certain environment?

C215: This is a personal artistic attitude: I try to interact with context, so I place in the streets elements and characters that belong especially to the streets. I like to show things and people that society aims at keeping hidden: homeless, smokers, street kids, etcetera. It is also the result of a certain personal ideology, being socially inadapted myself.

Regarding the pictures I use, it is always a completely subjective choice, based on my own emotions. I’m always expressing my personal feelings through an image everyone can understand. The work has to remain one of self-expression, even when it is also useful for the community. Changing the city by adding color and faces to it is a good compromise.

C215 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

C215 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Community Service” the art of C215, featuring photography by Vitostreet (FR), Chrixcel (FR), RomanyWG (GBR), Luna Park(US), Jaime Rojo (US), Lois Stavsky (US), Jessica Stewart (IT), Vinny Cornelli (US), Elodie Wilhem (CHE), Lionel Belluteau (FR), Unusualimage (GBR), and Gregory J. Smith(BR). With introduction and interview by Steven P. Harrington from Brooklyn Street Art, a preface by Marc & Sara Schiller from Wooster Collective, and Thierry Froger, collector.

Read more

C215: Show Pics of “Community Service”

Stencil Street Artist Hits Both Floors of Parisian Gallery

brooklyn-street-art-C215 in-action-credit-photo Roswitha-Guillemin-gallerie-Itinerrance-web

Last minute touches at “Community Service”. (photo © Roswitha Guillemin courtesy the gallery)

Last Friday C215 played host at Galerie Itinerrance as he debuted many new pieces across various surfaces using the stencil technique he is known for. His addition of color variations over the last year or so has opened a door into more possibilities for dimension and emotion in his portraits. Fans of the monochromatic style he established his name with were pleased to see the black/grey/white stencils also continue to capture his interest.

brooklyn-street-art-Indoor wallpaint_door-web

C215 Photo Courtesy Galerie Itinerrance

brooklyn-street-art-C215_Community Service_courtesy-Galerie Itinerrance-web

C215 Photo Courtesy Galerie Itinerrance

brooklyn-street-art-C215 Community-Service-vue accrochage-1-courtesy Galerie-Itinerrance-web

C215 Photo Courtesy Galerie Itinerrance

brooklyn-street-art-C215 Community-Service-vue accrochage-2-courtesy Galerie-Itinerrance-web

C215 Photo Courtesy Galerie Itinerrance

brooklyn-street-art-C215 Community Service-vue- de-vernissage-courtesy Galerie-Itinerrance-web

C215 Photo Courtesy Galerie Itinerrance

brooklyn-street-art-C215_Opera_courtesy Galerie-Itinerrance-web

C215 Photo Courtesy Galerie Itinerrance

brooklyn-street-art-C215_Renault-en- Amérique-du-Sud_courtesy-Galerie Itinerrance-web

C215 Photo Courtesy Galerie Itinerrance

brooklyn-street-art-C215_Prophet_courtesy Galerie-Itinerrance-web

C215 Photo Courtesy Galerie Itinerrance

The show is accompanying the release of a book of the same name “Community Service”, featuring photography by 12 artists behind the camera, an interview with Steven P. Harrington of Brooklyn Street Art (who also wrote the introduction), and a preface by Marc and Sara Schiller with Thierry Froger.  More on the book and show HERE.

Read more

C215 and “Community Service”

New Show and Book Recognize the Impact of the Global Street Stencil Artist

Jaime Rojo-C215-community-service-SHX-web
Photo © Jaime Rojo

In a very short time C215 has become an important phenomenon in street art around the world. BSA has been among the crowd who have been moved by the feelings that arise with a sudden encounter of his work on the street. What gives his stencil work resonance is the light that emanates from within the people he selects from whatever neighborhood he is in. Paolo M., a photographer who goes by the moniker Unusual Image and is featured in the new collection, remarks on C215’s people, “I think that there is a kind of sense of humanity that illuminates them.” It’s an uncanny ability to summon the spirit of a subject through his deft cutting of stencils, but it’s what he does with regularity.

Further distinguishing the work is the level of detail in these hand-cut pieces, incrementally setting a new standard for stencils and portraiture. Says VitoStreet, another featured photographer who has shot numerous of the pieces in the street, “The most amazing things such as feathers, fur, beard, hair are reproduced brilliantly.” Collectively the steady development of the body of work is blurring the line between fine art and street art.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-C215-copyright-RomanyWG

C215 by photographer RomanyWG

C215
C215 by photographer Jaime Rojo

This Friday in Paris C215 is debuting a new show of studio work on both floors of  Galerie Itinerrance.

C215, “Community Service”
Paper Back / 132 pages / 22 x 22 cm
Critères Editions
Cover by RomanyWG
Available in bookstores in January 2011
A favorite of Street Art photographers around the world, C215 pays tribute to a dozen of them in this collection, which features Vitostreet (FR), Chrixcel (FR), RomanyWG (GBR), Luna Park
(US), Jaime Rojo (US), Lois Stavsky (US), Jessica Stewart (IT), Vinny Cornelli (US),
Elodie Wilhem (CHE), Lionel Belluteau (FR), Unusualimage (GBR), Gregory J. Smith
(BR).
Community Service is introduced by Steven P. Harrington from Brooklyn Street Art, with a preface by
Marc & Sara Schiller from Wooster Collective and Thierry Froger, collector.
The book also features an interview with the artist by Harrington.
Read more