Land art can be so satisfying sometimes because you merely need nature to be your willing collaborator and your idea can take flight. It’s the sensation of serendipity when you first made a cape for yourself merely by wrapping your blanket over your shoulders. One minute ago it was a blanket. Suddenly, you may fly. That’s how I discovered that I was actually Batman.
The Italian land artist Alberonero says that he discovered this project October 2nd only by totally immersing himself in his environment here in Central Italy’s Vallo di Nera area. He says he is interpreting the natural elements also as moments – necessarily so because the world is in constant motion, despite the static state in which we may imagine it to be.
The temporary environmental installation that he conceives of here is called Monte Immagine, and he says that it “consists of five installations within a single clearing made up of natural materials found in the local woods – such as tree trunks and branches – resins and colored fabrics that interpenetrate with the physical and atmospheric elements of the surrounding landscape. All the works use trees as pillars: raw materials that, in each installation, experience the site through different suggestions.”
With this spirit of interaction, with this willingness of your observatory powers, everything becomes an actor, and something that can be acted upon. With the participation of clouds, of breezes, one is more aware of fragility.
He speaks of the natural actors as “apparitions that temporarily inhabit the area before their dialogue with nature gets absorbed by the atmospheric agents.”
Steering away from potentially inflammatory political content or street beef of the past on this high-profile wall with a New York street art/graffiti history, the current occupants of the Houston Bowery Wall are more focused on allegory, and community. Featuring a fleet of volunteers and a mural full of history and aspiration, Raul Ayala thinks of this wall as a teachable moment. The artist employed many of the 21 days that this mural took to complete to do just that: teach.
With ten talented young artists/activists from the locally-based Groundswell NYC community organization, Ayala planned and painted various phases of the mural together while under the gaze of curious New Yorkers who paraded by hour after hour while the artists painted. Included in that team were Gabriela Balderas, Charlize Beltre, Brandon Bendter, Junior Steven Clavijo, Jennifer Contreras, Maria Belen Flores, Hafsa Habib, Cipta Hussain, Karina Linares and Gabriel Pala.
Ayala describes the piece as “opening a portal,” and you quickly realize that it is a portal of the mind to imagination and inspiration. “For me, building imagination and sharing knowledge alongside a younger generation of artists is a great manifestation of the fruits of this shift,” he says. “With this mural, we are also bringing inter-generational participation into a future that honors our past while actively creating a different path of existence.”
BSA talked to Raul about the mural and his experience painting it. Below is the interview:
BSA: At both ends of the mural you have depicted two masked characters. One on the left is wearing what seems to be an Aztec mask with the skyline of Manhattan in the background as he pulls down a monument. The one on the right is a black man at the moment when he is either about to put an African mask on or at the moment when he’s taking it off. Could you please describe the significance of both characters and how they relate to each other in the mural?
RA: Masks have always been a part of culture and are the recipients of many powerful archetypes; they are a space of connection to different realms of existence. In recent times, due to the pandemic, the mask has become necessary protective gear and is part of the current cultural landscape. With the masks depicted in the mural, I wanted to drive the conversation towards a more ample understanding of the mask as it relates to specific cultural heritages. Black, brown and indigenous solidarity is a constant effort in my practice. I strive to practice solidarity in the themes I paint and also in the way a lot of my murals are made. I think of mural-making as a learning space, where I get to have conversations with my peers and my students. African and Indigenous (Wirarika/Huichol) inspired masks have a lot in common, as one of the proposals for the idea of “opening portals” that is the overarching theme of the mural.
There is
also a symbolic connection. In the Andes, where I come from, the Jaguar is a
very powerful spirit animal related to water. The Black Panther as a representation
of Black Power has a lot of cultural relevance as well and I wanted to hint to
those connections. Many passersby have referenced one of the masked people as
Chadwick Boseman. Even though it was not necessarily my intention, I love that people
-especially younger generations- read that on the mural.
BSA: There’s a skeleton with his arm around a skull character in a suit holding what seems to be a scepter. What are these two doing in the mural and who are they?
RA: The whole mural is an allegory of our current times. For me, part of the work that needs to happen is to address systemic oppression and white supremacy as prevalent forces that are endangering our relationships to each other, to our ancestry, and to the natural world. The two characters represent these forces. There are also a lot of symbols relating to these structural powers: There is a big fish eating small fish and an Icarus falling, both as cautionary tales of a late capitalist society and its extractive, individualistic strategies.
BSA: Can you talk about the women that are making a quilt? Who are they? What do they represent? Why are they making a quilt?
RA: Textile arts at large, including practices like Quilting Bees have been spaces not only of resistance and resilience but also spaces to pass on knowledge between generations. I wanted to depict a pluricultural, multigenerational circle of women. I believe these are great examples of the kind of relationships that will sustain and create health in these times. Additionally, the designs are another type of “portal.” They are traditional symbols in different cultures; the women in the back are creating a “tree of life,” a traditional African American quilting design. The women at the fore are holding a Chakana, which is a very important symbol of the Andean cosmogony.
The central character is dressed in a Whipala, an emblem that represents indigenous peoples from the Andes. The animals that are coming out of the designs (with the exception of the hummingbird, which is a migratory bird) were part of the ecosystem of that very location before colonization. I took the information from the Welikia Project, a map that overlays the city with the ecosystem of Mahannata before 1609. I would also like to acknowledge that my partner Fernanda Espinosa, an oral historian and cultural organizer has been a great help in imagining this side of the piece, and with who I often collaborate.
BSA: The flowers on the mural are very similar to the Moon flowers one sees in NYC in full bloom at night during the summer. Are these Moon Flowers?
RA: It is great to hear all the different readings the public has. In the end, it is about what people take and interpret themselves, I love that the flowers can also be Moon Flowers. I wanted to bring the idea of passing on traditional knowledge through generations. The plant depicted is Guanto, a plant that has been used as medicine in the Americas for millennia.
BSA: The female character holding a seed or a seedling. Can you talk about her and the seed she is holding?
RA: This is another allegorical character that is both using plants as medicine and holding the seed as a symbol. For me, it talks about the idea of the future. The title of the piece is “To Open A Portal,” this seed may be seen as a sort of key to that portal; a key that requires sustained care so the fruits of the labor can be enjoyed in a possible future.
In Kichwa, one of the indigenous languages of the Andes, we can say that we are living through a Warmi (female) Pacha (time/space) Kuti (shift). These seeds also represent that Warmi Pachakuti. In a way, this speculative approach to the future that has a strong female character at the center is an homage to Octavia Butler’s oeuvre. The figure above is also a historical character, Harriet Tubman. These are proposals to enter a new monumental landscape, not necessarily to depict one main person, but the sets of relationships and changes they have created through their actions.
BSA: How
was your experience painting in such a prominent spot with so much noise and
traffic?
RA: I really enjoy working in public space! The conversations that I witnessed and that the mural and activity sparked were very interesting. A lot of people told me that they see themselves in the characters and that was one of the biggest compliments I have received. There were also some people triggered by what was perceived as an attack on “white culture.” For me to question white supremacy and celebrate protests in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic, allow us to place this shift in the context of History. When monuments are brought down, a sort of portal to a different reality is being created. I see this seemingly aggressive act also as an opportunity to manifest different futures: when a symbol that stands for the values of civilization is put into question, domination and power imbalances are being contested too. This portal allows us to walk through the pain and find futures where we consider the way in which we are not only connected but also dependent on each other.
BSA: Your assistants were also your students. Where do you teach?
RA: While I am a visual artist, teaching has always been an important part of my practice and one that I center often. I started first teaching art in a project I started in detention centers in Quito many years ago. Since then, I have taught with multiple projects and organizations. With Groundswell, I have had the pleasure to teach for about 7 years. This project was in collaboration with them and it really was the only way it made sense for me to do this wall. I have been witnessing the growth of these young artists for some time now and I feel very proud of them and what we have done together. My responsibility as an artist is also to educate the younger generations of artists of color.
Director Colin M. Day is probably having a riotous one right now because his new film debuts on Rolling Stone today; as The Art of Protest takes you through a landscape of dissent and resistance and guerilla-style art installation.
Focused primarily on behind-the-scenes antics and laudatory reviews of the in-your-face and theatrical performances of the anonymous Indecline Collective, whose various works have appeared here for over a decade, you’re challenged to separate the constructive from the destructive. To add nuance, as the university types are likely to say today, Day smartly broadens the scope to help put provocative actions of these artist/activists into a greater context of political protest in its myriad creative forms over the last half-century. As usual, history helps us understand this moment, and to seize it.
Offering insights and interviews from activist artists of many stripes and disciplines, including Nadya Tolokonnikova, Jello Biafra, Shepard Fairey, and Igor Vamos of The Yes Men, you’ll quickly understand that the struggle for most of these artists is a principled one, whether articulated in a shocking tenor or a puzzling subversive one. In addition to art on the street from Fairey, it is good to see many artists we have featured here multiple times such as ROA, Bordallo II, Cleon Peterson, Monica Canilao, Blek le Rat, Ron English, and Jesse Hazlip. Each has a distinctly different style, yet a very similar determination to use their art as an extension of speech. In a sea of discord and disinformation, these strident voices come through clearly.
“The days of passively making art for arts’ sake ended a long time ago,” says musician Moby, and the film drives the message home in each one of its 45 minutes.
Directed by Colin M. Day (Saving Banksy), the film premieres on RollingStone.com on Tuesday, October 13th at 9:00am EST.
The Andalusian artist may have begun with graffiti on the street as the century turned but he moved to portraiture, canvasses, and large walls; a spiritual traveler in search of the contemporary. Now he is gently cradling this newer fascination and rather surprisingly setting the public mesa with his decorative vessels, each becoming more ornate.
A trained fine artist at University of Fine Arts in Seville, this Andalusian tells us about his fixation with jugs, pots, and bowls as vehicles and storage.
“Facing these inert objects, meditating on their inherent beauty and spending an eternity devoted to their placid observation, I’m waiting to perceive that meaning that resides in them – as an autonomous way of being.”
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week, where that silence you hear is the controlled collapse of the entire economy. Blink. Notwithstanding the drama that monopolizes the airwaves courtesy our daily-car-crash-in-chief, the breeze lilts and whirls gently downward like a loosened yellowed leaf set free from a tree.
But right now – New York street art is all about the raw nerves that are on display across the culture.
Here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week including Butterfly Mush, De Grupo, Eye Sticker, Hani, Hearts NY, Heck Sign, Kest, Detor, Daie, Ribs, Lexi Bella, My Life in Yello, Reisha Perimutter, Skewville, Sticker Maul, The Art of Willpower, Timmy Ache, and Tito Ferrara.
Modern primitive expressionist Manuel García Fernández AKA ‘El Nolas’ was born in the mid-90s here in Oviedo, Spain. Now his autobiographical mixed-technique perspective is taking over some large public walls here for the Parees Festival 2020, its fourth edition.
It’s good to see a fresh take on the current state of urban interventions; even as it recalls more formal studio practices of contemporary artists that you have seen in the last decades. In retrospect, this is the path that a lot of Street Art has often followed; name checking the past masters in galleries/museums and updating them to this moment on the street.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 1. XENZ – Concrete Jungle 2. Harsa Pati: Parees Fest 2020. Video by Titi Muñoz 3. Manu García ‘El Nolas’: Parees Fest 2020. Video by Titi Muñoz 4. COVITA
BSA Special Feature: XENZ and Hummingbirds in the Concrete Jungle in Oslo
“That’s the ethos of graffiti, I think,” says the British artist Xenz as he talks about his new project in Oslo, “You’ve got to have your own identity and push your own style, really.”
The new video from James Finucane and Street Art Oslo lets the artist speak about his process and his philosophy. He got into graffiti not out of murderous feelings of rebellion, necessarily, but rather an appreciation of possibility, and maybe even an attitude of celebration.
“It was
about decorating these derelict warehouses – making them beautiful.”
“I’m trying to do something that is ironically pretty. Not quite twee,” he says as he answers the unasked questions that hardened graffiti writers may have when a fellow writer diverges from the typical activities that may define the modern archetype of a rebellious vandal who could care less about society.
“A hummingbird flying? – they’re like the most amazing things if you’ve ever seen one. It’s like ‘Let’s do that, instead of writing my name everywhere’,” he says.
So the sentiment is in alignment with how he describes a new public project with concrete columns in a margin of activity that most don’t consider a destination, only a through-point. Xenz says he chose a theme of nature reasserting itself to overtake the industry of humans. We all know that in the end, its nature will win, long after we destroy ourselves.
And did he like the experience of bringing his inside work outside? “It was a pleasure really – to have the opportunity to do what you do, there.”
XENZ – Concrete Jungle
Harsa Pati: Parees Fest 2020. Video by Titi Muñoz
Manu García ‘El Nolas’: Parees Fest 2020. Video by Titi Muñoz
COVITA
With apologies to Evita; HUMOR OR IN THIS CASE SATIRE OFTEN IS THE BEST ANTIDOTE…
With a mural that she says is inspired by traditional Asturian tales Arantxa Recio Parra employs additive and reductive 2-D shape painting strategies in public space. With painting technique that may recall crisp illustration and advertising styles of the 1950s and 60s, her new work stretches buoyantly along this long expanse in Oviedo, a town in northwest Spain between the Cantabrian Mountains and the Bay of Biscay.
Almost paper cut outs in appearance, these bright forms imply both space and spatial relationships, re-drawing a public street and your relationship to it.
Born in Zaragoza the multidisciplinary artist joins the Parees festival this year with her style that is commercially popular at the moment; bright, simplified, and just quirky enough to capture the publics’attention. The past few years her illustrative style has landed her on walls in Mexico, Argentina, Italy, Austria, Scotland, and Croatia.
A valiant and revolutionary woman and winner of the Nadal Prize for literature in 1952, Delores Medio gets new life here at the 2020 Parees mural festival. Painted by artist Lidia Cao, the character of the writer comes through, a veiled portrait of her personality, her intensity.
Fully booked and fully celebrated, the weekend long celebration of the Martha Cooper career retrospective opened with great success and great reviews as it has been heavily covered by media in print, online, and radio. Because of Covid restrictions the museum can only accommodate a certain number of guests at a time but so far all tickets have been claimed each day. Please be sure if you are going to grab a free ticket online at Urban Nations’ website.
We wish to extend a heartfelt thank you to photographer and BSA collaborator Nika Kramer for sharing her photos with us.
His years of eclecticism are melting now into digitally influenced abstraction on Grip Face’s new mural in Palma de Mallorca’s Pont d’Inca neighborhood in the Balearic Islands.
Grip Face. “Les Obstacles génerationnels”. Palma De Mallorca, Spain. (photo courtesy of the artist)
With this pastiche of modern impressions, Grip Face finds a common aesthetic; one that rises from his own histories in skateboarding, graffiti, and street art to evolve this new entry into something he calls his Obstacles Series. This mural in particular is entitled “Les Obstacles génerationnels” (Generational Obstacles). Oh yes, you’ve heard of those.
The artist says he’s not feeling
very optimistic about the future at the moment and that his attitude has crept
into his new mural, where Grip Face generates a visual dialogue about the future.
Perhaps he will feel more optimistic once all the parts of this puzzle come together.
Grip Face. “Les Obstacles génerationnels”. Palma De Mallorca, Spain. (photo courtesy of the artist)Grip Face. “Les Obstacles génerationnels”. Palma De Mallorca, Spain. (photo courtesy of the artist)
And the
newsreaders are revving you up for the big election, right? Which millionaire
will you vote for to save us? Meanwhile,
millions are already suffering without jobs, without food, without sleep.
Meanwhile in beautiful New York we are seeing splendid new art on the streets, skooling us again as we go back to school. We’re particularly interested in a trend toward using recycled products in the making of art. Welcome to October; and Mercury is still in retrograde for about 4 weeks so hang on brothers and sisters. It’s gonna be bumpy.!
Here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week including Blaze, Catch a Fire, CRKSHNK, David Barthold, De Grupo, Downtown DaVinci, Eye Sticker, J131, Rae, and Stikman.
RAE constructed this site-specific piece on the street by molding plastic supermarket bags into the desired design and using staples to keep them in place. Each panel was individually created to fit the existing panels on the existing door. That’s why we are calling it site-specific. We know that placement is a key element of any successful street art piece.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
