All posts tagged: Poland

Social Isolation, Isaac Cordal, and Neighbors (Sasiedzi) in Łódź

July 1, 2015 Artists

Brussels-based Spanish sculptor and street artist / public artist Isaac Cordal has just completed another poignant installation that speaks volumes to viewers, if they look up from their phones as they walk past.

His sad little men are customarily detached from a sense of hope, now stranded out on verandas that are attached to a bland, beige stucco wall. Many are mounted together at once, yet the effect is one of isolation, individuals banished to a vast disconnect.

Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

“SĄSIEDZI” means “neighbors” in Polish, a name he chose for this installation for the, Łódź 4 Culture Festival in June. “Many years ago, I imagined a party full of people, where no one communicated with each other,” Isaac says as he relates that dream to the very genuine experience of riding a train today, or taking an elevator, or, yes, going to a party.

Those small niceties that strangers once exchanged in hallways or at the doctors office or at bus stops now evaporated – first by the Millenials who proudly taught everyone how to not make eye contact or say hello and to simply pound on keypads with thumbs, now it is a behavior embraced by all other age groups in every imaginable setting.

Do you know any of your neighbors? Why bother? Suurreeously. Like, why?

Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

Cordal says his new installation isn’t just about our broken social fabric or our relationships with people – it is also about its additional extended impact; like disconnecting from daily physical life as if it pales in comparison to the digital experience.

“The installation is a reflection on our relationship with the outdoors due to the use of new technologies,’ he says. “The new modern outdoors is linked more with virtual spaces than with their physical counterparts. Never before have we been so connected yet at the same time been so isolated.”

Totes babe, BRB.

Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

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BSA’s Piece on “Submerged Motherlands” Acclaimed for Year

January 3, 2015 Artists

BSA with Swoon at Brooklyn Museum Sited by Huff Post Editors as Proud Moment of 2014

We’re very pleased and thankful to be included in this short list chosen by the editors of Huffington Post Arts & Culture as a story they are most proud of publishing last year.

In her introduction to the list, editor Katherine Brooks writes:

“It turns out, 365 days is hard to summarize in anything but a laundry list of seemingly disparate phenomena, filled with the good — woman-centric street art, rising Detroit art scenes, spotlights on unseen American art– and the bad less than good — holiday butt plugs, punching bags by Monet, Koonsmania. But, as a New Year dawns, we found ourselves just wanting to focus on the things that made us beam with pride in 2014. So we made a list of those things, a list of the pieces we’re proud of.”

Describing why we thought this was an important story for us we wrote:

“We loved a lot of stories this year, but this hometown Brooklyn one about a street artist with humanity mounting her first solo major museum exhibition was a special turning point — and an astounding success. For us street art is a conversation, a continuum of expression, and Swoon is always a part of it. From following her street career to her transition to international fame to witnessing this exhibition coming to fruition in person in the months leading up to the Brooklyn Museum show, it is easy to understand why Swoon still remains a crucial part of the amazing street art scene and continues to set a standard.”

-Jaime Rojo & Steven Harrington, HuffPost Arts&Culture bloggers and co-founders of Brooklyn Street Art

In fact, we wrote 48 articles that were published on the Huffington Post in 2014, and as a collection we hope they further elucidate the vast and meaningful impact that the Street Art / graffiti / urban art movement continues to have on our culture, our public space, and our arts institutions.

Together that collection of articles published by BSA on Huffpost in ’14 spanned the globe including stories from Malaysia, Poland, Spain, France, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, New York, Arizona, The Navajo Nation, Philadelphia, Sweden, Istanbul, New Jersey, Lisbon, The Gambia, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Rome, India, Italy, Delhi (India), Montreal, San Francisco, London, Coachella, Chicago, Kabul (Afghanistan), and Kiev (Ukraine).

Here on BSA we published another 320 postings (more or less).

We thank you for allowing us to share these inspirational and educational stories with you and we are honored to be able to continue the conversation with artists, art fans, collectors, curators, academics, gallerists, museums, and arts institutions. Our passion for Street Art and related movements is only superceded by our love for the creative spirit, and we are happy whenever we encounter it.

Our published articles on HuffPost in 2014, beginning with the most recent:

The 2014 BSA Year in Images (VIDEO)

‘Urban Xchange: Crossing Over,’ A New Festival in Penang, Malaysia

5 Street Art Styles Meet On A 30-Meter Diptych In Łódź, Poland

As Street Art Turns to Public Art in Barcelona

Icy & Sot On A European Street Art Tour

31 Days of Mystery: The “Banksy Does New York” Documentary

Photojournalists Are ‘Dysturbing’ Passersby On NYC Streets

Pejac: homenaje impresionista a Monet en un barco

Exploring The Freewill Gallery In New York’s Military Bunker On The Beach

Painting the Desert: Urban Artists in the Navajo Nation

Monet Rising: Spanish Street Artist Pejac’s Impressionist Tribute on a Ship

YO Banksy! A Year Since “Better Out Than In”

Philadelphia Mural Arts, A Golden Age

Sweden Starts “No Limit” Mural Festival in Borås

NUART 2014 Roundup: Activism, Muralism, Graffiti and Aesthetics

Shepard Fairey And The Future In New York’s Little Italy

In Istanbul: The “Language Of The Wall,” Street Art, and Graffiti

Graffiti and Street Art Lock Up “21st Precinct” in New York

A New Muralism Growing: Spotlight On Jersey City And “Savage Habbit”

Kashink Uses Hairy Four-Eyed Men to Examine Gender Assumptions

Exploring Lisbon As A Street Art Tourist

Bien Urbain 2014 in Besançon, France

A Layered History Of 5 Pointz Currently On View

ROA Photo Diary: Taking a Wild Kingdom to Global Streets

‘Welling Court’ 2014, A Grassroots Mural Event Turns 5 in Queens

Montreal Arts Festival Keeps The Quality for Year Two

Another Man’s Treasure: ‘Art Is Trash’ Creates On The Street

India’s First Street Art Fest and the Largest Gandhi Portrait Ever

San Francisco Survey : Street Art and Graffiti

Sixe Paredes ‘Futurismo Ancestral’ Opens at Somerset House in London

‘Coachella Walls’: Date Farmers Raise Profile of ‘Anonymous Worker’

Kara Walker And Her Sugar Sphinx At The Old Domino Factory

Jaime Rojo and His Glimmering Series ‘The Last Picture’

‘The Wack Donald’s Project’ And Mr OneTeas

El Sol 25, An Original Mix Master And Street Collagist

‘Swoon: Submerged Motherlands,’ A Tree Grows in the Brooklyn Museum

Judith Supine: Unmasked Bridge Climber, Gender Bending and Art

Shok-1 Street Art X-Rays Reveal A Unique Hand At The Can

A Chicago Humorist Named ‘Dont Fret’ Cracks Up The Street

Abandoned Graffiti-Covered New Jersey : NSFW

How & Nosm’s Red, Hot, Scorching Monoprints Unveiled

Kabul to Brooklyn, Street Art and Graffiti as Common Ground

Tagging Somebody’s Painting: Two Walls Interrupted

The Power of Color Via Street Art, Graffiti and Murals

A ‘New Ukraine’ Sculpture In Kiev By Street Artist Roti

Box Trucks as Rolling Graffiti Marquees

A Sudden Secret Street Art House Party in Manhattan

REVS Is The Iron Man In New York Graffiti

Marek Szymanski and dalEAST : 14 From 2014

December 24, 2014 Artists

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Happy Holidays to all of you charming and sparkling BSA readers!
It’s been a raucous sleigh ride with you and we thank everyone most sincerely for your support and participation this year. A sort of tradition for us at the end of this December we are marking the year with “14 from 2014”. We asked photographers and curators from various perspectives of street culture to share a gem with all of us that means something to them. Join us as we collectively say goodbye and thank you to ’14.

Łódź, Poland has metamorphosed in the last couple of years to become a destination for large scale murals of high quality by some of the best names on (what has become) an international circuit of Street Art festivals. Today we ask a talented photographer from Łódź, Marek Szymanski, to share his favorite image from the many he shot this year at Urban Forms. Marek chose this piece by DALeast (born in China, lives in Capetown) to share with BSA readers, and gives an idea of what he was thinking when framing the shot.

“A deer in the city, on the empty, concrete wall, it seems to miss it’s natural surrounding, in which it at its best. That’s why I chose to hide the deer in the branches, which give the impression of the forest, creating a place where the animal can hide and feel safety in a more natural environment”.

” Jeleniowi w mieście, na pustej betonowej, surowej ścianie, wydaje się brakować jego naturalnego środowiska, w którym prezentuje się najlepiej. Stąd próba schowania go w gałęziach drzewa, które dają poczucie lasu, które tworzą miejsce w którym zwierze może się schować, w którym czuje się bezpiecznie, tworząc atmosferę naturalności”

~ Marek Szymanski

daL East. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Marek Szymanski)

See more images of this installation from our posting in October: Flora Turns to Fauna as dalEAST is in Łódź, Poland

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5 Styles Meet On a 30 Meter Diptych in Łódź, Poland

December 3, 2014 Artists

Graffitti artists like to talk about styles of their letter-based art form as if they contain individual DNA from the clans that the particular aesthetic, era or technique of rendering originated from. Whether its bubble, old school, wild style, abstract, hardcore, or any number of subgenres, when graff heads get together for one big painting fest the sessions are sometimes referred to as a meeting of styles to denote the differentiation that is evident to insiders and to give the event an air of diplomacy and cross-cultural cooperation on par with the annual G20 meetings.

While many pieces are completed next to one another on a wall, less often will you see a true melding of styles — two or more distinct design schools working in a complimentary and seamless way: such is the nature of diplomacy.

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

When Michał Bieżyński from the Urban Forms mural festival in Łódź, Poland gave two towers to five local guys with a solid graffiti history and professional credibility to work together on a collaborative piece, he had to trust that they could combine their styles and finally strike a balance. Now clearly closer to what is thought of as a Street Art aesthetic, the murals they create blend together into one voice with an harmonious timber.

“We got two massive buildings to paint entirely free hand and we had to build the team and the project so that we would be able to manage such giant spaces,” says artist Robert Proch, also known as TONE, one of the five artists working together. “The Polish scene is quite integrated in some sense,” he explains, “We know each other well simply because we have been doing numerous walls together for years now.”

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

Leaning toward the fantastic and representative, the two mirroring compositions ripple upward from the figurative to the abstract, melting and exchanging shapes and forms that move from organic to rigid and rhythmic. In fact, it was not a completely smooth process to face the huge project wholistically and represent the perspectives of five different artists.

“Despite the long wall paint experience of our group, we found that it wasn’t so easy to integrate,” describes TONE. Ultimately however, cooperation and synergism of styles began to overtake the process and the artists found a way for their styles to act complementarily

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“We have never had a chance to work together in such a configuration,” says TONE, “but our knowledge about each others styles helped us to separate our appropriate roles. We began with a very rough concept for the general idea; make the composition somehow integrated with the landscape of Łódź suburbs.

The building on the left shows residents rushing at sunrise with all their hopes and frustrations. The right one shows the big return and closes the whole scene in a circular manner. Viewed vertically from bottom to top all the human figures become more and more reduced into pure abstract form. As an accent on each wall a bollard-man who appears standing in the crowd.”

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

The resulting diptych is entitled “Recycles” and each of the 33 meter high walls can be seen from a great distance by many of their neighbors. In fact, it was the act of creating distance to look at the big picture that TONE says finally helped the guys work together harmoniously.

“A team wall requires each painter to make little steps backward to help achieve a general project integrity. Also the rhythm of work with lifts forced us to separate into two groups; the first week was occupied by Chazme, Cekas and Proembrion, and Sepe and Tone joined in for the second week.”

The five artists would also like to give props to the assistants who helped. “We have to mention also our lift-lords: Marek, Mirek and Darek, who struggled during whole process by operating with levels and helpful suggestions and a steady hand. Thank you guys!”

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

FRA Biancoshock Re-Purposes Street Bollard for Pleasure (VIDEO)

November 26, 2014 Artists

Yes you do have a subconscious. It travels with you throughout your adventures in the city.

Often it is evolving and devolving on the path to sexual aspirations, and somehow the shapes and the curves of our built environment all seem to know this, evoking more of those stirrings. Hungry? Thirsty? Perhaps you are thinking of food and drink and suddenly everything reminds you of it. Cities and these inanimate objects are downright carnal, if you think of it. The city itself could alternately bring you to orgasm or help you squeeze fresh oranges. Or both.

Fra. Biancoshock, an experimenting public artist from Italy, discovered recently in Krakow that the decorative crown on those steel bollards that poke straight up from the pavement can also be employed for more pleasurable purposes than directing traffic.

It’s one of those things that makes you say,”why didn’t I think of that?”. Perhaps you did.

Fra Biancoshock begins his installation in Krakow Poland with the help of the municipality… (photo © Fra Biancoshock)

Fra Biancoshock. “Street Squeezer” Krakow, Poland. Nov. 2014. (photo © Fra Biancoshock)

VHILS in Łódź Reveals Ghostly Profile Using Signature Destruction

October 29, 2014 Artists

It isn’t often that Street Artist Vhils aka Alexandre Farto does a profile view and this one gives you the feeling that she is ignoring you, or otherwise engaged. Perhaps the newest wall at Urban Forms in Łódź, Poland is his take on the feeling one gets when his girlfriend is always looking at a screen while he talks to her, meriting only a portion of her full attention.

Marking the end of his three month “Dissection” show at EDP Foundation in his native Portugal, Vhils landed in Poland to create their 34th mural in the series and created this wistful portrait emerging from a distressed wall. Using his signature reductive, destructive method, he reveals something you may not realize was waiting to surface, a ghostly visage which even now is beguiling as you gaze upon it. Perhaps she is remembering something, or calculating, or staring off into nothingness.

VHILS at work on his mural for Urban Forms 2014. c (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

VHILS at work on his mural for Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

VHILS. Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

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Flora Turns to Fauna as dalEAST is in Łódź, Poland

October 16, 2014 Artists

Thinking of going out hiking this weekend to see the fern and the flora and the fauna? Face it, you have to go out of the city to see these things – or at least to Central Park. When was the last time you saw a deer prancing up Flushing Avenue or sifting through vinyl platters at Brooklyn Flea market?

Actually if you were in Łódź right now you would catch dalEAST completing his new deer for Urban Forms 2014, the mural program that has given the city a place of distinction for its quality work installed over a multi-year period. dalEast has again distilled a moment in the imagination where atoms and elements in the ether coalesce and take formation, as these flora actually become fauna before your eyes.

We’re pleased to partner with Urban Forms and photographer Michał Bieżyński to bring BSA readers these exclusive new images of dalEast.

DALeast at work on his mural for Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

DALeast. Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

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MORIK Starts the 2014 Urban Forms Festival in Łódź, Poland

September 22, 2014 Artists

Urban Forms in Łódź, Poland marks year 5 and their 31^st wall for the city with Russia’s Morik and iterative laying that mimics the digital art made by plan and happenstance during the day of a designer. A Street Artist with roots in graffiti, Morik hails from Siberia and has an illustration style encompassing this moments fascination with photo realism and clever hi-def effects – but brought to you by the hand and brush.

MORIK at work on his inaugural mural for Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

MORIK. Detail. Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

MORIK. Inaugural mural for Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

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www.urbanforms.org

www.facebook.com/urbanforms

www.vimeo.com/urbanforms

www.instagram.com/urbanforms

www.youtube.com/user/UrbanFormsFoundation

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Sweden Starts “No Limit” Mural Festival in Borås

September 17, 2014 Artists

It isn’t just Nuart any more.

Scandinavia is taking their mural festivals seriously thanks to buoyant economies, arts programming support, and a growing global appreciation for art in the streets in general. Included in the list of recent festivals are Denmark’s Galore (Copenhagen) and We Aart (Aalborg) and Sweden’s Artscape (Malmö) as well as the more graffiti-inflected Örebro, Helsinki’s Arabia and of course the one-kilometer long graffiti/Street Art slaughter that accompanies the mammoth music festival Roskilde.

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ECB. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

This month humbly began No Limit in the small city of Borås, Sweden, and artist / curator Shai Dahan hopes to enliven the daily views for this population of 66,000 with his curated collection of international artists from street / graffiti / fine art backgrounds.

An artist and entrepreneur who moved here from New York three and a half years ago, Dahan has been rallying local building owners and government institutions to aid in his idea of mounting a show on walls in the city that emulates the success of such festivals elsewhere.

Isaac Cordal. The small scale installations by the Spanish artist provide a welcome answer to the ever more massive tendencies of wall installations in mural programs. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

“I’ve been on quite a journey and accomplishing this project has been something I have been working on personally for over a year,” he says. With participation and funding from the city of Borås, No Limit this month invited and hosted artists from countries such as The Netherlands, Brasil, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain and Sweden and included artists like Natalia Rak, ETAM Cru, Peeta, ECB, The London Police, Kobra, Ollio, Ekta, Carolina Falkholt, Issac Cordal and one of the earliest Street Art stencilists, Blek le Rat.

Isaac Cordal. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

“And best of all, we had no bad weather. The day Natalia landed (she was the first to arrive) the sun came out, and it stayed out until the very last day,” says Dahan of the festival that he deemed “phenomenal” and included guided tours for over 200 people at a time.

“After everyone left, it began raining, ” he smiles.

For countries that have a so-called “zero tolerance” for illegal art or any kind like Sweden, mural festivals like these effectively circumvent the rigid approval process that typically characterizes public art projects and many make inroads into engaging public space with art in a new way that is emblematic of a vibrant global movement. It may be a tenuous line to walk, but more cities seem willing to embrace this swing of the pendulum with art in the streets.

The Brazillian Street Artist named Kobra created a portrait of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist, engineer, industrialist, and inventor of dynamite. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Kobra. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

The London Police began stripping because of the hot sun and of course, Jane Fonda. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

The London Police. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Natalia Rak. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Natalia Rak. Detail. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

The graffiti writing artist from Venice named Peeta basically killed his wall with a signature three dimensional tag that floats off of the wall. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Simple. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Simple)

Ollio. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Carolina Falkholt. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Ekta. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Etam Cru. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Click HERE to learn more about No Limit Borås.

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BSA Images Of The Week: 07.27.14

July 27, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Tragedy is grabbing world headlines again and we can’t help but be swayed by it as the downed passenger aircraft in Ukraine smells of a lawless future and the international community seems rather helpless to address it meaningfully. Simultaneously the Israeli / Palestinian crises flares for the seemingly millionth time along with international opinion, a fire now fed with large helpings of social media oxygen, buffeted by various marches in the actual streets around the world and here in NYC.

Our banner today is a relatively new collage/painting currently on view in the Italian Cultural Institute of New York by the Street Artist BR1, who depicts the strife in somewhat cartoonish exaggerated simplicity, flattening the complexity of history with two dimensional caricature. Comments some made when we ran it a couple of weeks ago for the opening of the show (before the current events had begun) made it clear that even art about the conflict seems radioactive.

Our top image this week is an actual street piece from Icy & Sot and it brought more comments on Instagram than most other photos, so strong are people’s reactions to it. As far as the Ukraine/Russia news, we haven’t seen any Street Art about that – except maybe for that Billi Kid caricature of Putin as a cowboy earlier in the year but you couldn’t really say it is directly related.

With this pall of strife filling screens and streets right now its no wonder the one image below of Ewok’s wall full of discontented people was shared so many times on our FB Fan Page this week. “Hey these grumpy faces make me happy,” said one commenter.

So anyway, here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Art is Trash, Atom, BustArt, Cold World, E.L.K., Ewok, False, GG, Gualicho, Icy & Sot, Kuma, Myth, Osch, Otto Schade, Post No Selfie, QRST, Sean9Lugo, Sebs, Sexer, Topaz, UFO907, Unvale, Wing, and Zaria.

Sexer is thinking perhaps you have to hit people over the head with love. At The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gualicho from Buenos Aires likes to merge organic with mechanic, natural with industrial, offering cross sections and diagrams from his imagination. This abstraction of a fish and water is in downtown Warsaw, Poland. (photo © Gualicho)

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Street Poet Opiemme Honors Nobel Laureate in Poland

July 21, 2014 Artists

Italian text worker Opiemme just finished this ode to letters, words, and poetry in Gdansk, Poland for the Monumental Art Festival. A lover of the language, the muralist and public artist hopes to garner attention for the written word.

“I hope to spread poetry and create curiosity, to push people towards reading,” he says as he describes this new 10 story wall that is partitioned into outer space, the sky and the earth. “Like the energy of the sun, the letters radiate, transmitting in different languages knowledge, legends, and customs. They give “color” to our communications like light gives color to things.”

The mural is intended to honor the Polish poet and Nobel Prize winner in literature Wislawa Szymborska, and it includes a passage from his work,“… Truth, do not pay me too much attention. Solemnity, be magnanimous toward me …” from Under a Certain Little Star.

The nearer the words fall to earth, the more he hopes he will capture the interest of young readers. He says the words are simply sliding down the streaming drips of colors made from pouring bottles of paints. Using the eye candy as a seductive player, he says, the piece “is designed to attract the attention of adults and children in order to bring them closer to poetry”.

Click HERE to learn more about Monumental Art.

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Street Artist Olek Goes To Jail in Poland

January 18, 2014 Artists

Street Artist Olek went to jail this week. We’re pleased to report that she made quick friends and crocheted a 65 foot long wall hanging.

“Pocaluj Przyszlosc” (Kiss the Future) is inscribed in a handwritten style crochet font across the corridor banner that leads the inmates to the outside world, should they ever be granted freedom again. “Inmates also pass it when they first enter the cold confines of their brick environment, picking their mattresses and clothes from the jail’s stockroom,” she says as she describes the prison in Katowice, Poland that she visited for a few days this week.

An artist who relishes collaboration as much as the solo aspect of creation, Olek took this project into the prison as a way to share her work and to further examine freedom, a concept she has been giving much thought to over the last year.

Under house arrest herself in London as 2013 began, Olek’s own freedom was curtailed for a few months after a bar skirmish where a drunk fella, she quotes the judge as saying, “called her a whore, prostitute and slut.” The judge had recounted Olek’s reaction at her sentencing to home curfew the previous November, “she dumped the content of her glass over his head”.

Completing her sentence just a year ago, freedom has been on her mind ever since.

“No one knows what freedoms means until it is taken away,” she says, “I started 2013 with one foot in and the other out,” she observes of the experience that frankly pushed her spirit to very low depths, “That was the moment I pulled myself from the bottom,” she says, “but not everyone has this kind of strength.”

As she moved into 2014 Olek marked her experiences with a street installation in Vancouver in a neighborhood that has largely been abandoned by city planners and where many people who have lost hope languish on the sidewalks, sometimes turning to prostitution or the drug trade to get their basic needs met, or to just get awy. On a grey cold rainsoaked December 31st a multicolored crocheted piece rose on the street with her message “kiss the future” in what she describes as a “5 block of hell in Vancouver.”

Here in prison, she created the piece and translated the sentiment with the help of people who live there. “I taught the women how to crochet and the men installed the frame for my crocheted piece. It was truly a collaborative effort,” she says of the new work in this public prison.

“The beauty of public art is that it can speak, inspire and change anyone, even those not educated in art. Prison is definitely a public space. The inmates can’t come and see my art on the street, so I came to them with my colors and brightness.”

Another crochet banner that she installed the previous week on the street in New York’s Little Italy had recently been stolen. The still unsolved theft of that one, which also carried a message about freedom, was still a source of sadness and anger so here in jail Olek celebrated the fact that this installation was likely to be more secure.

“The best way to insure that your work won’t be stolen is to install it inside a prison, ” she says hopefully, although most people familiar with the penal system might amend that statement. But yes, the new collaborative piece will bring a dynamic and colorful element to an otherwise restricted body and mind space.

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Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

Isaac Cordal. “Sasiedzi” 4 Culture Festival. Lodz, Poland. June 2015. (photo © Isaac Cordal)

BSA with Swoon at Brooklyn Museum Sited by Huff Post Editors as Proud Moment of 2014

daL East. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Marek Szymanski)

See more images of this installation from our posting in October: Flora Turns to Fauna as dalEAST is in Łódź, Poland

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

Fra Biancoshock begins his installation in Krakow Poland with the help of the municipality… (photo © Fra Biancoshock)

Fra Biancoshock. “Street Squeezer” Krakow, Poland. Nov. 2014. (photo © Fra Biancoshock)

Fra Biancoshock. “Street Squeezer” Krakow, Poland. Nov. 2014. (photo © Fra Biancoshock)

VHILS at work on his mural for Urban Forms 2014. c (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

VHILS at work on his mural for Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

VHILS at work on his mural for Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

VHILS. Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

VHILS. Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

DALeast at work on his mural for Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

DALeast at work on his mural for Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

DALeast. Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

DALeast. Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

DALeast. Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

MORIK at work on his inaugural mural for Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

MORIK at work on his inaugural mural for Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

MORIK at work on his inaugural mural for Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

MORIK. Detail. Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

MORIK. Inaugural mural for Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

MORIK. Inaugural mural for Urban Forms 2014. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

ECB. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Isaac Cordal. The small scale installations by the Spanish artist provide a welcome answer to the ever more massive tendencies of wall installations in mural programs. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Isaac Cordal. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

The Brazillian Street Artist named Kobra created a portrait of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist, engineer, industrialist, and inventor of dynamite. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Kobra. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

The London Police began stripping because of the hot sun and of course, Jane Fonda. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

The London Police. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Natalia Rak. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Natalia Rak. Detail. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

The graffiti writing artist from Venice named Peeta basically killed his wall with a signature three dimensional tag that floats off of the wall. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Simple. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Simple)

Ollio. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Carolina Falkholt. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Ekta. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Etam Cru. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Top Image >> Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

EWOK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Atom (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kuma . False (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sebs (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BustArt, Zaria and Osch AKA Otto Schade . Detail. New collaboration in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. (photo © Bustart)

BustArt, Zaria and Osch AKA Otto Schade . New collaboration in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. (photo © Bustart)

E.L.K. for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The housing boom, now broke. Unvale. Bethlehem, PA (photo © Unvale)

Wing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Art Is Trash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sexer is thinking perhaps you have to hit people over the head with love. At The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Post No Selfie (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cold World (and Chena, Lily, and Yusef as well). Not sure what this is about. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UFO907 traced over UFO907 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Topaz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gualicho from Buenos Aires likes to merge organic with mechanic, natural with industrial, offering cross sections and diagrams from his imagination. This abstraction of a fish and water is in downtown Warsaw, Poland. (photo © Gualicho)

Gualicho for Monumental Arts. Gdansk, Poland. (photo © Gualicho)

GG spearing dinner for a nice fish barbecue. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. East River, NYC. July 2014 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Opiemme. Detail. Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opiemme)