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SpY Pierces Space: Creates “Barriers” in Ostende, Belgium

January 9, 2021 Artists

Madrid, where street artist SpY is from, is currently covered in its most prodigious snowstorm in years – a feat of nature that takes hold of and transforms our very environment in all dimensions.

When in Oostende, Belgium recently the conceptually minded artist took some of these dimensions in hand as well, blasting 5 high-powered lasers into the sky to transform open air and to create new visual experiences for anyone lucky enough to witness it from great distances and up-close perspectives as well.

SpY. *“Barriers”.* The Crystal Ship By Night Light Festival / All About Things. Ostende, Belgium. (photo © RubenP Bescos)

We are riveted by the idea: That this projected light form is repurposed from its industrial and war applications to be presented for the public simply as an aesthetic entity – with its own deliberate transcendence; claiming space, altering it, commanding it, re-defining sightlines delineating new borders with righteously crimson beams of electromagnetic radiation powered light.

When one considers modern light masters like Dan Flavin, Mary Corse, James Turrell or Olafur Eliasson, you understand instinctively that it is only through accident or alert experimentation that such powerful effects such as these that we can be afforded the opportunity for discovery, and only inquisitive minds like SpY’s would push this idea so far that it becomes a revelation.

BSA Images Of The Week: 04.15.18

April 15, 2018 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. First we have a series of politically themed and powerfully timely images of ICY & SOT installations from their involvement with the third edition of the Crystal Ship Art Festival in Ostend, Belgium. With forced immigration caused by the war industry providing armaments to everyone including your cousin Judy, the even more disgusting flipside of all this is the xenophobic nationalism that is now spreading in various countries, treating refugees and immigrants like crap.

So Icy & Sot give us here the security fences that create prisons for people to keep them inside and out and, perhaps taking a page from Ai WeiWei, a floating vest installation in the local park – complete with the artists in a boat and daffodils on the grassy knolls. Right after that we have another life-vest themed piece, a mural by Gaia entitled “Requiem for Migrants, Requiem for the Liberal Order”.

Thanks to photographer Butterfly for her contributions here.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adam Fujita, Barlo, Gaia, Icy & Sot, Not Art, Sidka Nubian, and the Reading Ninja

Top Image: The Reading Ninja (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot. The Crystal Ship Art Festival 2018. Ostend, Belgium. (photo ©Butterfly)

Icy & Sot. The Crystal Ship Art Festival 2018. Leopold Park. Ostend, Belgium. (photo ©Butterfly)

Gaia. “Requiem for Migrants, Requiem for the Liberal Order”. The Crystal Ship Art Festival 2018. Ostend, Belgium. (photo ©Butterfly)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adam Fujita for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sidka Nubian (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NOT ART (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barlo. “The Pet of the Archeologist” HK Walls 2018. Hong Kong. (photo © Barlo)

Untitled. Spring 2018. NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A ROA Diary Update in Pictures

April 16, 2016 Artists

A ROA update today – with many exclusive photos here for BSA readers with personal pictures taken and selected by the artist himself.

The Belgian Street Artist, whom we long ago christened as an “Urban Naturalist”, has quite defined the category. He’s well traveled and well regarded. He can’t seem to stand still; Borders for him are an imaginary nuisance – or at least he would love them to be. By his own admission he is most at ease while up high on a boom lift battling a wall, or making friends with it.

ROA. BukRuk. Bangkok, Thailand. 2015 (photo © ROA)

From highly commercial and corporate sponsored events to respected grassroots driven or socio-politically rooted organizations with whom he works, ROA brings the animal world into the conversation, sometimes tragically and other times comically. In an inter-connected view of the world and its various natural systems we somehow blind ourselves to our neighbors in the animal category. ROA makes sure that their voices are being considered in enormous and more subtle ways, giving them center stage and first billing.

Here are new pieces from Hawaii, New Jersey, Tahiti, Copenhagen, Italy, Denmark, Coney Island, Australia, Puerto Rico, Arkansas, Harlem (NYC), Bangkok, Dubai, and Belgium. Our sincere thanks to ROA for bringing us on this massive and glorious tour with him so far.

“Thanks Tegen for dancing in front of the Crocodile and Turtle”

BSA Hits The North! – See You Soon in Belfast, Northern Ireland
April 23, 2024
We are excited to announce that BSA will be part of the exhilarating ‘Hit the North’ 2024 festival in Belfast! …Read More »
BSA Images Of The Week: 04.21.24
April 21, 2024
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! “It’s the only time of the year when New York City smells good,” …Read More »
Barcelona Tributes for The Amazing SKE
April 18, 2024
Today, we pay tribute to an iconic figure from the Puerto Rican graffiti scene, Eliezer “SKE” Pagán Torres. Born on …Read More »
Elfo Declares “I’m a Figurative Painter”… and I’m the Queen of England!
April 16, 2024
Elfo, the ever-witty Italian street artist, strikes again with his latest work scrawled across an abandoned building in Italy. Known …Read More »
BSA Images Of The Week: 04.14.24 / “Return2Burn” in Hunts Point, Bronx
April 14, 2024
Welcome to BSA’s Images of the Week. We decided to dedicate this weekly survey to the artists of “Return 2 …Read More »
Martha Cooper and Seth in Kibera. Kenya: Part 2 / “We Are One”
April 11, 2024
Nestled within the bustling city of Nairobi, Kenya, Kibera is a testament to its inhabitants’ challenges and its collective indomitable …Read More »
“Tiempos Muertos”. Idle Time With Isaac Cordal in Madrid
April 9, 2024
“Idle Time has become that free moment we have between one task and another in the production process. Productive inertia …Read More »

Top Image: The Reading Ninja (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot. The Crystal Ship Art Festival 2018. Ostend, Belgium. (photo ©Butterfly)

Icy & Sot. The Crystal Ship Art Festival 2018. Ostend, Belgium. (photo ©Butterfly)

Icy & Sot. The Crystal Ship Art Festival 2018. Ostend, Belgium. (photo ©Butterfly)

Icy & Sot. The Crystal Ship Art Festival 2018. Leopold Park. Ostend, Belgium. (photo ©Butterfly)

Icy & Sot. The Crystal Ship Art Festival 2018. Leopold Park. Ostend, Belgium. (photo ©Butterfly)

Icy & Sot. The Crystal Ship Art Festival 2018. Leopold Park. Ostend, Belgium. (photo ©Butterfly)

Icy & Sot. The Crystal Ship Art Festival 2018. Leopold Park. Ostend, Belgium. (photo ©Butterfly)

Icy & Sot. The Crystal Ship Art Festival 2018. Leopold Park. Ostend, Belgium. (photo ©Butterfly)

Gaia. “Requiem for Migrants, Requiem for the Liberal Order”. The Crystal Ship Art Festival 2018. Ostend, Belgium. (photo ©Butterfly)

Gaia. “Requiem for Migrants, Requiem for the Liberal Order”. The Crystal Ship Art Festival 2018. Ostend, Belgium. (photo ©Butterfly)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adam Fujita for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sidka Nubian (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NOT ART (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barlo. “The Pet of the Archeologist” HK Walls 2018. Hong Kong. (photo © Barlo)

Barlo. “The Pet of the Archeologist” HK Walls 2018. Hong Kong. (photo © Barlo)

Untitled. Spring 2018. NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ROA. BukRuk. Bangkok, Thailand. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Ødense Harbor, Denmark. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Ødense Harbor, Denmark. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Perc Tucker Regional Gallery – Townsville City Counsil. Townsville, Australia. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Perc Tucker Regional Gallery – Townsville City Council. Townsville, Australia. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Perc Tucker Regional Gallery – Townsville City Council. Townsville, Australia. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Jersey City, NJ. Jonathan LeVine Gallery – Mana Contemporary. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Vieques, Puerto Rico. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Vieques, Puerto Rico. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Just Kids Residency. San Juan, Puerto Rico. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Just Kids Residency. San Juan, Puerto Rico. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Just Kids Residency. San Juan, Puerto Rico. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. The Unexpected. Forth Smith, Arkansas. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. The Unexpected. Forth Smith, Arkansas. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Surface with Soren Solkaer. Copenhagen, Denmark. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Monument Art. El Barrio. East Harlem. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Festival ONO’U. Tahiti – Papeete. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Coney Art Walls. Coney Island, Brooklyn. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. POW WOW 15. Hawaii. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Muratista. Sadali – Sardinia, Italy. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Muratista. Sadali – Sardinia, Italy. 2015 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Dubai Walls. Dubai. 2016 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Dubai Walls. Dubai. 2016 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Chrystal Ship Festival. Ostend, Belguim. 2016 (photo © ROA)

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