For a considerable time now at BSA we’ve been discussing with authors, artists, academics, writers, historians, political scientists, sociologists, criminologists the topics of Street Art, graffiti, Urban Art, public art, and the milieu. Often considered is whether a piece or action is illegal, legal, activist, aesthetic, mark-making, territory-marking, interventionist. With few exceptions, there are often exceptions when it comes to labeling works and the artists who make them.
Perhaps with more emphasis than it merits, we regularly note that no point on our individual or societal timeline is static. The state of art and creative expression in the public sphere is one of continuous evolution along the continuum. From Villeglé and his ripping back of layers of street posters that revealed the colorful strata of public communications like a social scientist to Add Fuels’ surreal ripping back of the skin of buildings to reveal a decorative Trompe-l’œil Portuguese tiling, art of the streets has infinite through-lines that defy our ability to label them.
But we try.
Invariably, it pisses someone off. For the record, we’re okay with that.
“Street Art” the term has had a number of definitions in common usage since at least the 1970s (probably earlier) that include things like handcrafts, jewelry, even the current ballyhoo, the mural. Today, because we’re all so much more enlightened and street-wise, we are convinced that no credible scholar of academia or the street would include a mural in the definition of Street Art, which must be illegal and (most likely) installed on-the-fly.
Recently Raphael Schacter made a claim to renaming a family of practices that moves beyond the confused state of labeling we are in to something with more clarity called “Intermural Art”. He says with his signature humor and cadence that “Street Art is a Period. Period.” – and that very soon, if not already, we are moving beyond that period.
Aside from the association that “intermural” has with both murals and with boys and girls playing dodge-ball in the school gymnasium (sorry that’s intramural), it somehow doesn’t capture a post Street Art period that is expanding to include so many practices and practitioners that it is altering things its path. But we get the point. Wait, did we just say “post Street Art”?
That’s what Martyn Reed at Nuart would like us to consider as a term that describes what he is illustrating with the curated installations this year for the festival in Norway. With a number of leaders of thought and letters doing some heavy lifting of street art antecedence and corollaries (and beer steins) at this annual festival over the last few years, it is with some careful consideration that he chooses his artists, and his terminology.
According to the show description ‘Post-Street Art’, an inside exhibition that opened last Saturday and continues through October 16, is an expression that “has been adopted to describe artworks, artists and events that are “informed by” and “aware of” the strategies, forms and themes explored by Street Art but which couldn’t rightly be regarded as ‘Street Art’ or ‘Street Artists’ per se. The term could also be used to describe a new breed of studio practice-based street artist, whose interest in and knowledge of the contemporary art world often far supplants that of an engagement with the street.”
Yes and yes. Additionally, we have heard this studio-originated practice that is informed by street practice described as Urban Contemporary or more simply Urban Art. You may also wonder how the label intersects with Post Modern and Post-Graffiti, if at all. We will not turn over these little monsters to look at their stomachs just now. Instead, let’s see these new exclusive photos from Ian Cox and Tor Ståle Moen of some of the new installations at ‘Post-Street Art’ at Nuart 2016.
Participating artists include: Add Fuel (PT), Axel Void (ES), Eron (IT), Evol (DE), Fintan Magee (AU), Henrik Uldalen (NO), Hyuro (AR), Jaune (BE), Jeff Gillette (US), KennardPhillipps (UK), MTO (FR), Nipper (NO), Robert Montgomery (UK) and SpY (ES)
For the ninth straight year, BSA brings Nuart to our readers – artists, academics, collectors, instructors, curators, fanboys /girls, photographers, organizers, all. Not sure who else has been covering this international Street-Art themed indoor/outdoor festival and forum as early and continuously as we have, but we’re happy to say that this Norwegian pocket of public art continues to hold its own among a suddenly bloated field of new festivals and events globally.
Many of the new murals and installations are complete or nearing completion, the panels and presentations at NUART PLUS are just ending, the new Nuart Gallery has opened with sales of Jeff Gillette’s new print and other fine art works, and the barbs and laughs of Fight Night has already begun to recede in the blurry haze.
Tonight the opening of Tou Scene unveils the new works by invited artists and participants of Nuart 2016 to celebrate their work and contributions to the conversations on the street and chart many of their routes into the fields of contemporary art and academia – or at least getting them more hits on social media.
Here are a few of the artists at work whom we haven’t gotten to in previous posts this week.
The Spanish artist SPY returns for a second facade this year at Nuart, this one playing off of its particular physical proximity to a reflective surface. Without saying so, it says that the ongoing examination and experimentation of public dialog with art and artists is very much in play today.
London based conceptual wordsmith Robert Montgomery brings a poetic tenor to the Street Art conversation at Nuart with a couple of bus stop takeovers and the façade of new construction. Cryptically chosen passages resonate gently according to your interpretation: “The purpose of art is to touch the hearts of strangers without the trouble of having to meet them,” he has been quoted as saying. Wish we could have been there to hear Carlo McCormick speaking about Montgomery’s work and its relationship to the Situationists.
Rafael Schacter Takes a More Nuanced Approach to the Migration Crisis
Commerce and technology have been eroding traditional constructs of the borders and boundaries, especially in the age of the Internet, satellites, transnational banking and trade agreements that create governing bodies that openly dismiss national sovereignty, integrity, identity, aspirations. Borders and boundaries are contested, guarded, or disregarded at will; open to international capital, porous to immigration, hardened by armies.
Daily they are in the headlines: Trump’s plans to build a wall along the US-Mexican border, Syrian war refugees immigrating across European borders, Israel and Palestine’s ongoing land and settlement disputes, even maritime territorial claims of China and the Phillipines in the South China Sea that were ruled upon yesterday – all reveal clues to our historically complicated relationships and geo-political perspectives.
Art to the rescue!
A current show mounted by primarily urban artists under the direction and curatorial vision of Rafael Schacter in Saint Petersburg, Russia takes on a thin, rich slice of this story; a conceptual examination of borders and boundaries from the perspective of migration. With global forced displacement breaking all records in 2015 at 60 million people according to the UN we clearly need to re-examine these constructs and decide what purpose/ which people borders are serving.
Sorry, we’re using terms interchangeably, which Schacter will correct us on. Toward that end, we are pleased today to present Mr. Schacter, an anthropologist, researcher of street art, author, and lecturer, here on BSA to share observations and experiences from his most recent project, a fascinating show at the Street Art Museum (SAM) called Crossing Borders /Crossing Boundaries. Our thanks to the artists, only a small number of whom we are able to present here, as well as to the museum for sharing their talent and resources. A full list of the participating artists is at the end of the article.
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~ from Rafael Schacter
In May of this year, I spent nearly four weeks in Saint Petersburg curating a large scale exhibition at the Street Art Museum (SAM). The Museum, set in a functioning factory on the edge of the city, is a mammoth site. The first plastics factory in the Soviet Union, the site became partially abandoned in the 1990s after the collapse of communism, and has since been taken over and partly given over to this new museum. Containing huge outdoor and indoor spaces, the museum is truly a dream location to work.
For the summer exhibition this year, we decided to focus on what has been termed the Migration Crisis. Rather than tackling this head on, however, something that I feel can often be crass and exploitative, something that I feel can often be seen to be utilizing peoples’ hardships for artistic ‘gain’, I sought to provide a concept that could explore the theme from a more nuanced angle.
The title of the exhibition, Crossing Borders / Crossing Boundaries, thus attempted to explore the differences between these two terms; words which are often used interchangeably, but are in fact quite distinct.
Utilizing the work of renowned sociologist Richard Sennett, borders were hence posited as zones of high organic interactivity and development, engaged, permeable spaces such as the zones between the land and the sea in which different species thrive, intermix and exchange. In contrast however, boundaries were understood as guarded, impenetrable locations, locations, for example, like the territorial perimeters of creatures such as lions or wolves.
Focusing on these differences, on the fertility and vibrancy of the border compared to the sterility and aridity of the boundary, we then commissioned 20 artists from around the world to produce works on this theme.
Working with artists from a background of street art as well as contemporary art, with video artists and photographers, muralists and artivists, the exhibition is thus truly multi-media and multidisciplinary. I was beyond impressed with the results, all the artists bringing an amazing set of ideas to the table and delivering them in the most fantastic of ways.
We had over 5,000 people come to our launch on May 14th, as well as a huge international conference on the topic of migration taking place in the museum on the same day. Living, working, eating and sleeping in the factory with all of the artists over the entire period of production was tough, to say the least. However the energy was unrelenting, with the artists and the whole team at SAM working without rest to deliver this incredible project.
I’m super proud of what we achieved, to both sensitively and critically explore this theme, to not just provide the traditional liberal consensus positionality but rather to challenge people’s thoughts and ideas on this topic. Who knows what effect it will have, if any. But I hope that the project can push people to think about the topic in a more nuanced rather than binary way.
Following the video are a few of the artists and their work for Crossing Borders / Crossing Boundaries
Printed banner on chimney / Acrylic paint on oil barrels / Basketball hoop and backboard on containers, acrylic paint on asphalt
SpY’s deceptively simple yet conceptually ingenious interventions focus on the upturning of spatial and societal norms. Using irony and humour to create a dialogue with the viewer, SpY attempts to impress multiple readings onto a space, re-presenting it as a “frame of endless possibilities”.
His set of works here follow this method precisely. In particular, his giant work Go Home, at first an apparently aggressive, deeply antagonistic phrase (to put it mildly), plays with the variety of meanings that this expression can contain: the very ability to go home, for example, to return back to the place of one’s family, one’s birth, one’s life, is the very thing that most immigrants desire but simply cannot undertake (whether due to war or famine, economic or ecological pressures). To be able to go home is thus a privilege that not all of us have.
As with his famous method of renegotiating the set rules of sporting activities, provoking, as he says “disorder and chaos through context and content”, SpY’s works do not simply invert or subvert their spaces but playfully distort them. They “misuse” their environments to show the latent possibilities that lie within.
Scaffold, laminate photographic prints, flags, and spray paint and acrylic on containers / Acrylic paint on wall
Fillipo’s installation for Crossing Borders / Crossing Boundaries explores different border zones throughout the globe. From the sea border of North and South Korea to that of Mexico and California; from Morocco and Mauritania to Cambodia and Vietnam; from the invisible border between Northern Mali and the disputed territories of the Azawad; to abandoned NATO bunkers at the Belgian Dutch border, these images present us with some of the most politically fraught locations on the planet which, somehow, contain a strangely alluring beauty. Alongside this, Filippo presents a series of Whatsapp conversations documenting his personal struggle to gain entry into Russia for this exhibition: a series of Kafkaesque scenarios in which he was sent from location to location in a seeming test of his resistance. The installation as a whole can be seen to bring together Filippo’s joint obsession with political, industrial and internet aesthetics.
His mural, A Revolution Nobody Cares About / Nobody Cares About a Revolution speaks, quite loudly, for itself.
Kirill’s work for Crossing Borders / Crossing Boundaries arose through his correspondence with curator Rafael Schacter. Focusing on the barrier of language and the complexity of translation, the work is about the impossibility of understanding and the unwillingness to understand. As KIRILL says “I understood only a small percentage of what we discussed and so decided to make this the heart of the work”. It is thus the borders and boundaries of language that KIRILL takes aim. As he continues “there are two borders of misunderstanding: you see unfamiliar letters and you do not understand everything completely. Signifier and signified become equally incomprehensible. Or even it’s a familiar language, but still it is not clear”. Kirill’s work, although colourful and bright, is in fact the image of alienation. The image of the migratory and the incomprehensible.
Gaia and Mata Ruda have produced a monumental work for Crossing Borders / Crossing Boundaries, a work which functions in the classical tradition of political muralism. Using imagery from the filmmaker Marc Silver and photographers Jonathan Hollingsworth and Alex Kurunis (both of whom show other work within the exhibition itself), Gaia and Ruda present us with an assemblage of figures and artefacts which together convey a dense narrative about contemporary migration. Including individuals and stories from the borders of the USA and Latin America as well as Africa and Europe, the artists also produced a group portrait of three Uzbekistani employees at the factory who work and live in the very site where the mural exists.
The story Gaia and Mata tell is one of inequality and injustice, a story of the imbalance of our contemporary global system. Yet within this it contains hope and strength, the strength of the individuals who strive to fight these inequities on a daily basis.
Nano4814’s half-abstract, half-figurative mural for Crossing Borders / Crossing Boundaries demonstrates the strangely discomforting yet visually arresting style which we can now instantly recognize as his own. Frequently focusing upon the apprehension he has with his own work, Nano’s characters can often be seen to be in states of tension or strain (both literally and metaphorically), an angst reinforced by their compressed captivity within their sites. Moreover, his use of brick-walls, barriers, and wooden shards, symbols that act as leitmotifs throughout his work, play with the idea of boundaries as objects that encourage intrusion and trespass: Like masks, these borders both suggest and occlude a veiled truth, hinting whilst hiding, implying yet escaping. It is thus the very limitation that enables us to venture beyond.
Slides, DIA projector, flags, photographs, socks, coins, drawings in collaboration with Clemens Behr, SPY, Paco, and Fillipo Minelli, computer guts, digital prints, plastic, wood, plexi-glass, mounting hardware, sound installation, radio, headphones, cables, paint, chess set, soviet fabric, and industrial spools.
Double Yippie Hollow Super Power is a joint project between artists Brad Downey from the USA and Igor Ponosov from Russia. Taking inspiration from the parlor game “cadavre exquis” or “exquisite corpse” (a method by which a collection of words or images is collaboratively assembled), the pair have sought to combine the varying national symbols of their home nations into a new, exquisite set of iconic forms. The “unity of the opposites” that they have created – utilizing objects such as flags, coins, and anthems – plays with the sacrality of these national symbols, the almost divine status that they contain. Moreover, it alludes to the strangely intimate relationship that the two countries are entwined in. Whilst apparent opposites, common enemies, both locations create their identity through their connection with the other: the objects Downey and Ponosov have thus created contain both a critical and playful edge. They ridicule the stereotypes of both themselves and each other in the same moment.
2016, Korean ink on wall / Found objects, cement, and acrylic paint on wooden palletes
Jazoo Yang’s Dots series originates from her work in her native Korea, in particular within areas of the city going through the process of redevelopment. Using traditional Korean ink, and solely using her thumbprint (a marking used as a signature on important documents), Yang’s work sought to bring focus on the increasing amount of “redevelopment refugees” in the city
For Crossing Borders / Crossing Boundaries, Yang has expanded her Dots Series to incorporate the issue of refugees and migrants in Europe and further beyond. Working mainly on her own but also with immigrant workers from the factory itself, Yang discusses their stories, their histories, their existence with these individuals as they mark the wall together. These imprints act as a record of this moment whilst remaining entirely silent.
In Yang’s Painting Block Works, this theme of memory and regeneration continues. Exploring the violent so central to the contemporary city, Yang wants to ask how much we perceive our lives and make independent decisions within these oppressive environments. She aims to bring these problems to the surface through rebuilding them with the materials we so readily abandon, in Korea using objects from deserted houses and buildings, here in Russia using the detritus and ephemera of the factory itself.
The Final Frontier (Space) / Our House (In the Middle of the Street)
Laminate doors, wooden pallets, wooden battons, hinges, and acrylic paint / Acrylic and spray paint on wall
Mimicking and playing with their settings through a process of transformative deconstruction, Clemens Behr’s geometric shapes and abstract forms come to distort the viewers’ perspective, merging two and three dimensional spaces in a single plane.
His installation for Crossing Borders / Crossing Boundaries acts as what he terms a “social maze”. Utilising one of the most classic example of borders/boundaries, the common doorway, the work explores the potentially empowering or inhibiting abilities of these structures: as one door opens, another closes, enabling some and disabling others in the same moment. As a participatory sculpture, its visual possibilities become endless. However conceptually it demonstrates how every decision we take effects those around us. Like many of Behr’s installations, this work was produced with what was at hand, in this case the products and detritus of the factory site itself.
Behr’s mural tackles another question however. Playing with the shadows and design of the adjacent fence, with the actuality of space (and time) versus the potentiality of painting, he questions the boundaries of art itself: Can it go beyond reflection to truly generate the new?
Acrylic paint on wall / Barbed wire, steel poles, metal fence, laminate warning signs
Eltono’s mural is a reaction to the absurd rationality of national boundaries. As opposed to the natural flow of borders (as can be seen in perhaps the world’s only natural country, Chile), the carving up of the planet’s boundaries happens at right angles: diagonal, horizontal, and vertical lines cutting up the planet into a perfectly linear patchwork.
As such, Eltono has created his own world map using a generative art technique; using a basic randomizer to choose a digit between 1 and 7, the numbers which emerge then come to define both the color of the country and its borders, indicating the direction that each color, and each boundary will thus take.
Unlike his mural, for his fence installation, Eltono presents us with the opposite of the rationality as seen within maps. Rather, he displays a perfectly irrational object, an upside-down fence. For Eltono, however, the inversion of the fence makes it something lighter, not an object that prevents our movement, but a compact object that can be upended “as if the wind had blown it upside down”. As he continues, “it’s not a massive obstacle anymore. A fence that can be flipped is a territory that can be freed.”
Merijn’s mural has a simple, yet vitally important message. His five globes show us the development from a basic binary of black and white to a densely colored, intricate, heterogeneous space. The final image thus shows us a planet in which, as Merijn says, “everything harmonizes. All the colors are there together and they all work and flow seamlessly with each other. Of course borders exist in many ways, but if we take it a step further and forget about the rules and just go with our feeling this is what I think can be understood as the ideal. That we should not be limited by the rationality of borders. Probably a bit of a cliché. But that’s how I see it and feel it”.
SUPERPROJECT, a two-man design operation spearheaded by visual artist Jasper Niens and industrial designer Thijs Ewalts, focus on computational design and digital fabrication, embracing art, architecture, engineering and technology. For Crossing Borders / Crossing Boundaries, they have created Four Zero, a space within a space, a location only accessible through four, tunnel-like entrances. Due to the curvature of the entrances, the visitor is not immediately sure where they will end up. As such, the work is about revealing and concealing, possibility and difficulty; once people enter the space they can either feel locked up and exposed or protected and safe within its embrace.
1001th Island: The Most Sustainable Island in Archipelago
2015/2016. Video, trash, fishing net and wood
Tita Salina’s 1001st Island is a work exploring the changing borders and boundaries of Jakarta. A city which is currently sinking between 2.9 and 6.7 inches per year, and which exists mainly below sea level, Jakarta is currently undertaking a huge land reclamation and producing a 32 kilometer sea wall to try and protect its boundaries, a project that will construct 17 new islands and take an estimated 30 years to complete. The installation presented here, a reproduction of an artificial island built by Salina and local fisherman using marine debris and litter, aims to highlight the negative impacts of the project, in particular the fact that the city refuses to fix the causes of its problems — namely, excessive groundwater extraction and inefficient waste management. Salina thus connects the reclamation and land issue with the human waste that plagues the ocean and the future of the traditional fishermen who live and work within this now perilous space.
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ARTISTS Crossing Borders / Crossing Boundaries.
Alex Kurunis, Brad Downey, Igor Posonov, Clemens Behr, El Tono, Filippo Minelli, Gaia, Mata Ruda, James Bridle, Superproject ( Jasper Niens & Thijs Ewalts, Jazoo Yang, Jonathan Hollingworth, Kirill KTO, Martha Atienza, Merijn Hos, Nano4814, Rob Pinney, SpY, Tita Salina
Velasquez, the painter of the Spanish Golden Age died here. Along with the mannerist paintings of El Greco, the extravagant baroque of the Flemish Rubens, and the romantic Goya, one can see Velasquez’ works here at the wealthy and famous El Museo Del Prado of Madrid.
Also, we cannot forget the Bosch exhibit opening here at the end of the month. In fact there are two dozen or so world-class museums hosting vast collections of historical and contemporary art all around this capital of Spain.
Naturally, their influences are also felt on the streets of the city, but you’ll need to veer away from the scrubbed-clean tourist areas and glide beyond the high-end boutiques to get this story. Behold Borondo! Suso! Spy!
The Tetuan neighborhood has been attracting an impressive list of local and international artists to its dilapidated walls and rough streets, now home to many immigrants from South America and Sub-Sahara Africa. It is the sort of environment that artists seek for experimentation and creativity and a rather instant audience. Paintings, illustrations, sculptural installations large and small. Sometimes they are finished works, often they appear as studies.
This same storyline is repeated throughout the great metropolis in areas that are neglected, abandoned or otherwise overlooked. There are no luxury brands nor Disneyfied aspects or over attentive security to deal with here, this hotbed of creativity. Compared to the general ticket price of 14 Euro at Del Prado, admission to the street show is quite reasonable, and you may even meet the artist.
The images below sent to us by BSA contributor Lluis Olive Bulbena are culled from Tetuan and La Tabacalera for this Madrid Diary.
Here it is! Our 2014 wrap up featuring favorite images of the year by Brooklyn Street Art’s Jaime Rojo.
Before our video roundup below here is the Street Art photographer’s favorite of the year: Ask Jaime Rojo, our illustrious editor of photography at BrooklynStreetArt.com , who takes thousands of photographs each year, to respond to a simple question: What was your favorite photo of the year?
For 2014 he has swift response: “The Kara Walker.” Not the art, but the artist posed before her art.
It was an impromptu portrait that he took with his iPhone when the artist unveiled her enormous sculpture at a small gathering of neighborhood locals and former workers of the Domino Sugar Factory, informal enough that Rojo didn’t even have his professional camera with him. Aside from aesthetics for him it was the fact that the artist herself was so approachable and agreed to pose for him briefly, even allowing him to direct her just a bit to get the shot, that made an imprint on his mind and heart.
Of course the sculpture is gone and so is the building that was housing it for that matter – the large-scale public project presented by Creative Time was occupying this space as the last act before its destruction. The artist herself has probably moved on to her next kick-ass project after thousands of people stood in long lines along Kent Avenue in Brooklyn to see her astounding indictment-tribute-bereavement-celebration in a hulking warehouse through May and June.
But the photo remains.
And Rojo feels very lucky to have been able to seize that quintessential New York moment: the artist in silhouette before her own image, her own work, her own outward expression of an inner world.
And our holiday gift to you for five years running, here is the brand new video of favorite images of graffiti and Street Art by Brooklyn Street Art’s editor of photography, Jaime Rojo.
Of a few thousand these 129 shots fly smoothly by as a visual survey; a cross section of graffiti, street art, and the resurgence of mural art that continues to take hold. As usual, all manner of art-making is on display as you wander your city’s streets. Also as usual, we prefer the autonomous free-range unsolicited, unsanctioned type of Street Art because that’s what got us hooked as artists, and ultimately, it is the only truly uncensored stuff that has a free spirit and can hold a mirror up to us. But you have to hand it to the muralists – whether “permissioned” or outright commissioned, some people are challenging themselves creatively and still taking risks.
Once again these artists gave us impetus to continue doing what we are doing and above all made us love this city even more and the art and the artists who produce it. We hope you dig it too.
Brooklyn Street Art 2014 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo includes the following artists;
2Face, Aakash Nihalani, Adam Fujita, Adnate, Amanda Marie, Andreco, Anthony Lister, Arnaud Montagard, Art is Trash, Ben Eine, Bikismo, Blek Le Rat, Bly, Cake, Caratoes, Case Maclaim, Chris Stain, Cleon Peterson, Clet, Clint Mario, Col Wallnuts, Conor Harrington, Cost, Crummy Gummy, Dain, Dal East, Damien Mitchell, Damon, Dan Witz, Dasic, Don’t Fret, Dot Dot Dot, Eelco Virus, EKG, El Sol 25, Elbow Toe, Etam Cru, Ewok, Faring Purth, Gilf!, Hama Woods, Hellbent, Hiss, Hitnes, HOTTEA, Icy & Sot, Jana & JS, Jason Coatney, Jef Aerosol, Jilly Ballistic, Joe Iurato, JR, Judith Supine, Kaff Eine, Kashink, Krakenkhan, Kuma, Li Hill, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Mais Menos, Mark Samsonovich, Martha Cooper, Maya Hayuk, Miss Me, Mover, Mr. Prvrt, Mr. Toll, Myth, Nenao, Nick Walker, Olek, Paper Skaters, Patty Smith, Pixel Pancho, Poster Boy, Pyramid Oracle, QRST, Rubin 415, Sampsa, Sean 9 Lugo, Sebs, Sego, Seher One, Sexer, Skewville, SmitheOne, Sober, Sonni, Specter, SpY, Square, Stay Fly, Stik, Stikki Peaches, Stikman, Swil, Swoon, Texas, Tilt, Tracy168, Trashbird, Vexta, Vinz, Willow, Wolfe Works, Wolftits, X-O, Zed1.
The Norwegian mural festival named Nuart took place last week with a marked tilt toward the conceptual and the interventionist, a direct debate about the relevance of activism amidst a rising tide of sanctioned murals, and Tilt leading us down a path toward traditional graffiti.
Ironically graffiti seemed a rather tame topic for once.
“Urban interventionism is about not only making social commentary through artistic expression, but actually intervening in a public and social space in a poetic, unexpected or provocative way,” said architect and organizer Nicola Markhus when speaking to the local Stavangernews. Markhus may have been thinking about the Portuguese artist ±Maismenos±, who constructed a miniature oil tanker platform from found objects and installed it temporarily atop a sculpture honoring canning workers in Lervig Courtyard, by way of contrasting the past with the present.
Or maybe she was thinking about the Madrid-based SpY, who painted a massive red-lettered “ERROR” on two sides of a brutal block long building in decay down by the waterside, an ironic judgment on the eyesores of unfortunate urban decay. Among the contextual social commentary as well were the oil-dripping sentiments of geologist/artist Andreco, who regaled the façade of a classic Norwegian building with his geometric interpretation of rocks found poking up from the soil, and the three dimensional mural of homeless people by Brooklyn-based Iranian brothers Icy & Sot only three blocks from an outdoor encampment of homeless travelers whom some locals call gypsies.
Such is one of the traditions of Street Art: social and political commentary that some call activism because of its advocacy, or at least its stubborn acknowledgement of imperfections in the human condition. This year’s Nuart fosters the spirit and intellectual pursuit associated with academic examination and in doing so again separates itself from the growing number of Street Art festivals who implicitly or explicitly censor the choices of the invited due to commercial or political pressures. Even during the painting this year there were conversations among artists about a high profile festival underway elsewhere that had just dis-invited certain Street Artists because of their “political” work in the past.
As if to drive the point home, New York street and multimedia artist John Fekner, who created hundreds of environmental, social, political and conceptual works consisting of stenciled words in NYC beginning in the 1970s that highlighted failed urban planning and public policy, was invited to reprise his classic text based “False Promises” stencil here. The choice of Fekner was perhaps atypical and one that could be overlooked if Nuart founder Martyn Reed didn’t decide to champion the artists work in his mini-retrospective indoors.
And need we mention that his indoor installation space for Saturday’s gallery opening was shared by Fra.Biancoshock’s instantly controversial merging of the nazi flag with the Facebook logo? Moments after we posted an early image of the installation in progress, cheers and condemnation populated our social media feeds – a happy discord that Nuart isn’t traditionally spooked by.
“This is a representation of two different iconic movements; the Nazis and the Facebook age,” says the Milan based Fra.Biancoshock who specializes in street interventions, not Street Art, per se. “I wanted to unite the two concepts in a unique logo as a way of describing two different ways to have control of the masses in two different ages. It is a provocative representation that is meant to say, ‘Imagine if these two things had met in the same period,’ ” he explains of the illuminated wheel of instantly recognizable letter f’s popping from a four alarm red background at the temporary gallery show in “tunnels” at Tou Scene.
“Obviously the story of the Nazis is very dramatic and heavy and Facebook is only social media but for me if it is not used in the right way it could result in some serious damage; in the areas of privacy, in having control (of people). So I wanted to make this interpretation of our contemporary situation of a certain totalitarianism in our communications today.”
Comparatively the graffiti writer on display this year is a relative lightweight! Toulous-based Tilt actually created one of the more visually compelling installations (and an instant hit) at the indoor gallery of Tou Scene entitled “Panic Bathroom”, which consists of a tiled men’s restroom evenly split between YMCA and CBGB. The untouched half is pristine and gleaming white while its brother across the line is slaughtered floor to ceiling by pugilistic color, swollen bubbles and drippy tags; all just out of reach of the velvet rope that holds guests back.
For the Norwegian born Street Artist named Strøk, Nuart this year is as much about aesthetics and the beauty of the moment as it is the intellectualizing that was on display here during the pub debate and two days of presentations for Nuart PLUS, organized by Eirik Sjåholm Knudsen. He shows us his rendering of figures casting long shadows across the wall on his glossy tablet and he talks about composition, negative space, and the serendipity of catching figures in motion.
“I like watching people running around and seeing these movements, these frozen moments when they are heading somewhere but you don’t know exactly where – like a moment when time has frozen,” he says. “It’s a snapshot and you just happened to be there.”
Fortunately for many Nuart still knows how to produce a memorable shot of art in the public sphere, and we have some here for you to enjoy.
Beautiful weather here in Stavanger this week – perfect for riding bike all over to find artists walls and check out some hidden spots under bridges and abandoned lots. On a side note, this hotel has a gymnasium so you can keep in shape during your visit – which seems rather superfluous considering right behind the hotel the houses are built on a hill at a 70 degree angle! Just getting around town on this bicycle you will lose 7 pounds in a week. Then the Norwegian beer will add it back on.
Tou Scene, the former beer factory now music and art venue officially opens tonight for the public to hear your favorite electronic music performer like Juan Maclean or Tôg or Hubbabubbaklubb and to of course see the installations by many of the artists invited to Nuart 2014. The morning edition of the Stavanger Aftenblad has arrived and they like the Brooklyn based Street Art brothers Icy and Sot piece for the cover of the Lokal & Kultur section understandably – but you know that the FraBiancoshok Facebook flag piece is going to raise eyebrows across social media with its references to, well, you take a look here below. We are fortunate to have interviewed the artist as he was setting this up so look forward to those comments in a coming post. Okay, gotta run and get ready for Day 2 of Nuart Plus and Icy and Sot teaching local youth how to cut stencils!
Hands up, the new sheriffs of Culver City saw you lustily ruffling those pages with your flirting fingers!
Opening Saturday night, “Booked” at Carmichael Gallery
An unusual confluence of art and artists and the books that love them, this show satisfies your yearning for adventure and mystery, and more conventional pursuits like oggling and drooling. The art of reading tactile 3-D books has not completely been supplanted by glowing rectangles that are poked and prodded – much like the art of photography and painting, we were all silly to think they ever could have been replaced.
Dave Kinsey (Image Courtesy of Carmichael Gallery)
There’s nothing like pouring over a big fat book, page after page, staring and stalling, drifting and imagining expansive vistas on an overstuffed couch on a Sunday afternoon, or even Saturday night after many cocktails at a kitchen table, bleary and carnivorous for images.
But I gush.
Martha Cooper (Image Courtesy of Carmichael Gallery)
If Street Art has stars (an idea anathema to many), this event will bring many under one roof:
Aiko, Dan Baldwin, Banksy, Beejoir, Blek le Rat, Boxi, Bumblebee, C215, Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper, D*Face, Brad Downey, Eine, Ericailcane, Escif, Faile, Shepard Fairey, Stelios Faitakis, Gaia, Hush, Mark Jenkins, Dave Kinsey, Know Hope, Labrona, Anthony Lister, Lucy McLauchlan, Aakash Nihalani, Walter Nomura (a.k.a. Tinho), Other, Steve Powers (a.k.a. ESPO), Lucas Price (a.k.a. Cyclops), Retna, Saber, Sam3, Sixeart, Slinkachu, SpY, Judith Supine, Titi Freak, Nick Walker, Dan Witz and WK Interact
Anthony Lister (Image Courtesy of Carmichael Gallery)
With a large selection of books and magazines from: Drago, Gingko Press, Murphy Design, Prestel, Rojo, SCB Distributors, Studiocromie, Very Nearly Almost, Zupi and more.
If you had plans you can go ahead and change them, call your friends go and enjoy fine art and the hospitality of Elisa and Seth Carmichel. They’ll quickly have you “Booked”
Carmichael Gallery is proud to present “Booked”, a group exhibition featuring over 35 of the leading figures in contemporary art.
The gallery’s rooms will showcase a wide selection of original works from artists including:
Aiko, Banksy, Beejoir, Blek le Rat, Boxi, Bumblebee, 215, Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper
C, D*Face, Brad Downey, Eine, Ericailcane, Escif, Faile, Shepard Fairey, Stelios Faitakis, Gaia, Hush, Mark Jenkins, Dave Kinsey, Know Hope, Labrona,
Anthony Lister, Lucy McLauchlan, Aakash Nihalani, Walter Nomura (a.k.a. Tinho), Other
Steve Powers (a.k.a. ESPO), Lucas Price (a.k.a. Cyclops), Retna, Saber,
Sam3, Sixeart, Slinkachu, SpY, Judith Supine, Titi Freak, Nick Walker,
Dan Witz, and WK Interact.
Books and magazines will be available from a range of publishers,
including Drago, Gestalten,
Gingko Press, Murphy Design, Prestel, Rojo, SCB Distributors,
Studiocromie, Very Nearly Almost,
Zupi and more.
There will be an opening reception for the exhibition on Saturday,
June 5th from 6 to 8pm. The
gallery will be open for viewing from 12pm that day to coincide with
Culver City Art Walk. The
exhibition will run through July 3rd.
Carmichael Gallery
5795 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
June 5 – July 3, 2010
Additional and/or high resolution preview images available, please do
not hesitate to contact me!
SWIMMING CITIES is a diverse group of artists, builders, and performers who come together each year and embark on a challenging large-scale project. Originally united through the international artist Swoon, the group traces its roots to the DIY raft project on the Mississippi River, the “Miss Rockaway Armada.”
From their press release:
Taking a new waterway each year our projects create a vivid community of artists floating into towns to present an interactive environment which encompasses art, sculpture, music and performance. The uncommon talents of our members interact in an organic design process in a unique form of living art. Our previous projects include THE SWIMMING CITIES OF SWITCHBACK SEA on the Hudson River for Deitch Projects and THE SWIMMING CITIES OF SERENISSIMA across the Adriatic Sea for the Venice Biennale.
Below THE SWIMMING CITIES OF SERENISSIMA at The Grand Canal in Venice.
For Swimming Cities upcoming project, they will construct a fleet of small sculptural river craft at the foothills of the Himalayas, in a cultural exchange with local South Asian artists and artisans. The hand-crafted boats will traverse the Ganges River from Kanpur to the holy city of Varanasi stopping at towns and villages along the way to meet locals and commission crafted embellishments for the boats in the local styles. Upon arrival in Varanasi the boats will merge together into a great floating island stage. In collaboration with local artists and musicians they will produce a performance inspired by their adventure and the immense cultural history of the Ganges.
Street Artist Imminent Disaster will have the piece below up for auction to benefit the “Ocean of Blood” project.
Imminent Disaster. “Curled Web” Image Courtesy of the artist.
Complete list of artists to be included in the auction:
Swoon, Tom Beale, Imminent Disaster, Tod Seelie, Ben Mortimer, Ben Wolf, Ero, Andrew Poneros, Tony Bones, Jeff Stark, Isaac Aden, Ariel Campos, Greg Henderson, Doyle S Huge, Leslie Stern, Lopi LaRoe, Katelan Foisey, Iris Lasson, Spy, Sarah Atler, Matt Curtis, Petric Seeley, Zev David Deans, Elizabeth Bentley, Hannah Mishin, Orien McNeill, Ksenija, Angie Kang, Ben Devoe, Czak Tucker, Heather Jones, Noah Sparks, Porter Fox, Tim Treason, A’yen Tran, Dan Sabau, Virginia Reath, Clair Huntington, Kara Blossom, Martina Mrongovious
SpY is a street artist from Madrid whose started in the 1980’s doing graffiti. Since then he’s been exploring other forms of artistic communication in the street. His work involves appropriating urban elements through transformation or replication, commentary on urban reality, and the interference of its’ communicative codes.
To us, this one looks like a giant tag, rather than street art, per se (whatever that means). But the video is pretty cool.
He calls this “An intervention” by urban artist “SpY”
Filmed, edited by SpY
Music, AKHA 100
Most of his work comes from observing the city and an appreciating its components, not as inert elements but as a palette of materials overflowing with possibilities. Balancing irony and positive humor, he wants his work to cause a smile, incite reflection, and to perhaps even raise consciousness.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
