Before there were drones, there were bees. They are far more sophisticated still when it comes to their subtleties of collecting pollen on their furry bodies, flying on translucent panels through the heavy sticky air.
Here in Stornara, Italy, artist Bastardia is thinking of their bodies positively charged with static electricity, nervously excited as they plunder the petals, ready to attract the fine powder dust shaken loose from the flower, alight on the music meanderings of summer.
The artist invites us into this delicate world, imagining further the relationship of the bees and the flowers, playing to one another, with one another, their minds drunk with love.
“Instead of cooperation, we have divisions among countries,” reports Alaniz from here in Stornara, Italy. “There are people that still now think the virus is not real.”
Alaniz & Federica in collaboration with Stra Murals Crew. Stornara, Italy. (photo courtesy of the artist)
Alarming and true, anti-intellectualism
has expanded to new heights during this pandemic – likely resulting in people
getting sick and/or dying who didn’t really need to. If it’s any consolation to
you, dear reader, history tells us that there were anti-mask
naysayers during other mass illnesses too – standing firmly in opposition to
public health directives because of feared encroachment on civil liberties, or simply
because Jesus told them. Ah well.
The Argentinian born nomadic painter Alaniz says that his new figurative mural with his “new family” in Stonara is a collaboration with his love Federica – and it took 10 days to complete. It features a beleaguered turning figure wearing a facemask, but its final face is macabre, frightening. The presentation is confused, perhaps because of the sun-drenched and cheerfully eye-popping palette.
Detail from a new mural by Alaniz in collaboration with Stra Murals Crew. Stornara, Italy. (photo courtesy of the artist)
Overhead is a dove flying with a hypodermic need in its beak, perhaps the elusive vaccine meant to inoculate people against Covid-19. Or, possibly it is carrying a 5G microchip shot from the Bill Gates foundation that will communicate your thoughts to any nearby Alexa speaker. Hard to tell.
“After 10 days of work we present this wall as a representation of the mixed feelings that this lockdown generated in most of us,” says Alanis. “This has been a unique situation that has affected everybody’s lives and that has shown the failures of our actual society.”
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
