All posts tagged: The Yok & Sheryo

The Yok & Sheryo: “Yeahnahnesia” A Mystical Land and Guide

October 26, 2023 Art Book Review, Artists, Street Art Book Review

In the realm where imagination dances with audacity, Yok & Sheryo, the dynamic duo hailing from the crossroads of New York, Australia, and Asia, have conjured up a whimsical masterpiece, aptly titled “Yeahnahnesia.” Published in collaboration with the Art Gallery Western Australia, this book is a memoir and fantasy of creativity and storytelling that makes a reader question the boundaries of reality and fiction.

The Yok & Sheryo: *Yeahnahnesia A Mystical Land Somewhere In The Indian Ocean*. Vol 1. Published by Yok & Sheryo and The Art Gallery of Western Australia. 2566 AP / 2023.

Picture a tropical paradise, a place Google Maps forgot, where mythology, deities, philosophies, and unusual creatures roam freely. Yeahnahnesia, the brainchild of these intrepid artists, is a fictional island brimming with tales so rich that your skateboarding dreams will tip their hats in admiration. The burning questions of its existence and location will keep you up at night until you surrender to the allure of this enigmatic and chill place.

As you delve into the book’s 120 pages, you’ll be transported into an alternate dimension where art intertwines with narrative, and history plays a sly game of make-believe. The “Temple of Frivolous Wishes” at AGWA, Art Gallery Western Australia, Perth, is a mere glimpse of their artistic prowess. Bound in fabric with gold foil accents, this bound edition of 800 is a treasure.

They talk about creating and inventing belief systems based in fictional folklore, complete with talismans and totems, and temples. “It was just so fun.” Yok describes the show and the book preparations, “We’re creating these temples out of mostly plaster so people with have this feeling of a lost artifact created out of sandstone, which was inspired from our travels,” he says in a video about the project. “The color scheme for the show, Yeahnahnesia was based on the folklore that we’d written for the island, which is rich in iron ore. So that brings the red out. But there’s also a story based on the 12 dragons….”

Yok & Sheryo’s escapades have led them from the crazed and colorful streets of New York to the hidden gems of Yeahnahnesia. They’ve absorbed cultures, painted murals, and surfed waves, all culminating in their artistic vision of this exotic island. They’ve unearthed cultural artifacts, shared stories, and created a simultaneously fantastic and familiar world.

“Yeahnahnesia is a tropical island with the best lifestyle you could ever want or wish for,” explains Sheryo. “We spent three months in Australia working on the show, and we took over a warehouse. Yeah, it was the first time we got to make a lot of 3-D sculptures. You just get in a meditative mode, especially when I roll sausage rolls, and then you just wanna roll as many as possible in the shortest time possible.”

Their playful, freewheeling work has earned them a unique spot in the art world, where walls, galleries, and corporate giants have all been inspired by their creativity and its eclectic route to truth. “Yeahnahnesia” is more than just a book; it’s a portal to a place that blurs the lines between reality and imagination, a testament to the audacious spirit of Yok & Sheryo. A guidebook to the journey, you can let your mind wander through the lush landscapes and vibrant cultures of Yeahnahnesia, where the surf is perfect, the beers are cold, and peace, love, and relaxation are the day’s mantras.

Also included in this book are photos from their recent show featuring the “Temple of Frivolous Wishes” at AGWA, Art Gallery Western Australia, Perth.

Edition of 800, 17cm x 24.5cm, 120 pages
120gsm paper, fabric bound book with gold foil
Co-published with Art Gallery Western Australia and supported by Dept. of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries Australia
Designed by Michael Norman, edited by Isobel Wise

See our article about the exhibition here: “Yeahnahnesia,” “The Temple of Frivolous Wishes,” and Yok & Sheryo in Perth

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.29.18

July 29, 2018 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring 1UP Crew, Amanda Browder, Antennae, City Kitty, Dirt Worship, Dragon76, Jason Naylor, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Makatron, Sheyro, The Yok, and Trap.

Amanda Browder (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jason Naylor (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dragon76 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dragon76 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1UP Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Antennae (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Trap (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentied artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Makatron for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Yok & Sheryo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dirt Worship (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklyn, NY. July 2018 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Film Friday 07.27.18

July 27, 2018 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. Yok & Sheryo: Mumbai “Varuna Vessel”
2. Mr. June Paints in June
3. Concreto #4 , Fortaleza, Brazil
4. Doug Gillen takes on Email Art Scams

BSA Special Feature: Yok & Sheryo: Mumbai “Varuna Vessel”

The Street Art duo of Sheryo and Yok plumb the depths of the urban environment in their travels, getting to know a culture and the people there – a full immersion practice that helps them conceptualize and fashion street murals, gallery shows and exhibitions that utilize the traditions, lore, language, and even the skills of local tradespeople.

This week we have a travelogue to the Sassoon docks in Mumbai where they collaborate with fisherman and women friends, fabricators and textile designers in the street, on a boat, and ultimately in an exhibition called “Varuna Vessel”. Extra points awarded here for the soundtrack, dropped on you in typical S&Y style like a needle on a record, no fade, all funk.

Mr. June Paints in June

Last month Mr. June was in Greensboro, North Carolina to paint a 45 meter diameter water tank roof. In the southern heat for 13 days painting? Give it up for Mr. June, who calls this job for a water resources facility his ode to the beauty of water.

Concreto #4 , Fortaleza, Brazil

Before the 5th Concreto Festival kicks into motion this November it’s good to look at the final video they made from the last one.

The brainchild of artist and organizer Narcélio Grud, the festival is in partnership with an urban art school that provides students with a theoretical background and support for intellectual experimentation with this kind of art in the streets that melts barriers.

Doug Gillen takes on Email Art Scams

As if it isn’t already challenging enough to be an artist – for the 99% without who are decidedly stressed for time, money, and a publicist. No matter, there are still lowlifes who will try to scam you bro/sis. Occasionally right through your inbox!

Public Security Officer Gillen introduces this underworld of squirrelly types who will try to persuade you into giving over your money to them for massaging your ego. We know that may sound appealing to some of you but in this case the only stripper involved is you, sexy.

BSA Film Friday: 05.25.18

May 25, 2018 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. Street Vendors in Abidjan with YZ Yseult Digan
2. The Yok & Sheryo: Public Silo Trail. Albany, Australia
3. “Chile Estyle.” Trailer
4. Faith XLVII Talks About Her Installation for “Beyond The Streets”

BSA Special Feature: Street Vendors in Abidjan. YZ Yseult Digan

“I pay attention to the intensity of the gaze and the posture, so the passerby is challenged and seeks to question the project.”

A sociological experiment and intervention on the streets by the French Street Artist YZ takes place in Abidjan and camera work in the crowds allows you to appreciate the action on the street. A city of 4.7 million people and the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire, the city has a lively culture of street vending that is unregulated and often populated by children.

YZ speaks with the folks she meets who are vending, who she refers to as “girls” although many are women. Her goal is to better understand them, she says, and to create a Street Art campaign of their portraits.

“I realized that their situation was very different from the men. So I wanted to know more about them. So I started the project ‘Street Vendors’,” she says.

The Yok & Sheryo: Public Silo Trail. Albany, Australia

The Yok & Sheryo brought a clever creature across an enormous four tower wall in Albany, Australia as part of a public art program funded by private interests like BHP, the Anglo-Australian multinational mining, metals and petroleum company. The Public Silo Trail is bringing artists like HENSE from the US and Phlegm from the UK to paint Artworks on grain silos, transformer boxes and all sorts of unexpected infrastructure to connect a series of regional towns.

“Chile Estyle.” Trailer

“Every social movement creates a cultural response,” says an organizer from the late 1960s who helps us trace the origins of Chilean Street Art and graffiti to the murals that became a crucial part of public discourse here. “We painted all of Chile for the Allende election campaign.” The trailer for the upcoming movie now in post production features a highlight of INTI and many open discussions of the evolution of graffiti and muralism simultaneously, eventually leading to the fascination for murals that currently reigns.

Faith XLVII Talks About Her Installation for “Beyond The Streets”

Faith leads you to the abandoned spaces and investigations of lives and stories that she often conducts when looking for the ideal places to make her art. “There is almost a holy, sacred feeling in that silence,” she says as she traverses places and stories and brings them together for an alter of sorts in the new exhibition now in Los Angeles called “Beyond the Streets.”

With special thanks to Chop ’em Down Films.

BSA “Images Of The Year” for 2017 (VIDEO)

December 15, 2017 Artists

Of the thousands of images he took this year in places like New York, Berlin, Scotland, Hong Kong, Sweden, French Polynesia, Barcelona, and Mexico City, photographer Jaime Rojo found that Street Art and graffiti are more alive than every before. From aerosol to brush to wheat-paste to sculpture and installations, the individual acts of art on the street can be uniquely powerful – even if you don’t personally know where or who it is coming from. As you look at the faces and expressions it is significant to see a sense of unrest, anger, fear. We also see hope and determination.

Every Sunday on BrooklynStreetArt.com, we present “Images Of The Week”, our weekly interview with the street. Primarily New York based, BSA interviewed, shot, and displayed images from Street Artists from more than 100 cities over the last year, making the site a truly global resource for artists, fans, collectors, gallerists, museums, curators, academics, and others in the creative ecosystem. We are proud of the help we have given and thankful to the community for what you give back to us and we hope you enjoy this collection – some of the best from 2017.

Brooklyn Street Art 2017 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo includes the following artists;

Artists included in the video are: Suitswon, Curiot, Okuda, Astro, Sixe Paredes, Felipe Pantone, Hot Tea, Add Fuel, Hosh, Miss Van, Paola Delfin, Pantonio, Base23, R1, Jaune, Revok, Nick Walker, 1UP Crew, SotenOne, Phat1, Rime MSK, Martin Whatson, Alanis, Smells, UFO907, Kai, Tuts, Rambo, Martha Cooper, Lee Quinoes, Buster, Adam Fujita, Dirty Bandits, American Puppet, Disordered, Watchavato, Shepard Fairey, David Kramer, Yoko Ono, Dave The Chimp, Icy & Sot, Damien Mitchell, Molly Crabapple, Jerkface, Isaac Cordal, SacSix, Raf Urban, ATM Street Art, Stray Ones, Sony Sundancer, ROA, Telmo & Miel, Alexis Diaz, Space Invader, Nasca, BK Foxx, BordaloII, The Yok & Sheryo, Arty & Chikle, Daniel Buchsbaum, RIS Crew, Pichi & Avo, Lonac, Size Two, Cleon Peterson, Miquel Wert, Pyramid Oracle, Axe Colours, Swoon, Outings Project, Various & Gould, Alina Kiliwa, Tatiana Fazalalizadeh, Herakut, Jamal Shabaz, Seth, Vhils, KWets1, FinDac, Vinz Feel Free, Milamores & El Flaco, Alice Pasquini, Os Gemeos, Pixel Pancho, Kano Kid, Gutti Barrios, 3 x 3 x 3, Anonymouse, NeSpoon, Trashbird, M-city, ZoerOne, James Bullowgh, and 2501.

Cover image of Suits Won piece with Manhattan in the background, photo by Jaime Rojo.

BSA Film Friday 04.07.17

April 7, 2017 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. The Haus – Lunatix Dance
2. Mobilize Walls (Against the Trump Wall)
3. The Yok & Sheryo: The Golden Triangle
4. Pixel Pancho in Hong Kong for HKwalls 2017 via BrooklynStreetArt.com

BSA Special Feature: The Haus – Lunatix Dance

From the moment it opened on April 1st, the Haus was a hit! In fact BSA was there in February for a full tour while still in development in Berlin, nearly dancing ourselves through all five floors of this former bank with full scale installations in places that once held offices, conference rooms, employee coffee lounges.

By inviting Creative Director/dancer Serdar Bogatin and the film crew “Shuto Crew” into the space with members of the Lunatix Dance Production troupe, these spaces and art environments come completely alive, invoking stories and dramas – clearly making the spaces into elaborate set-design pieces.

https://www.facebook.com/thehausberlin/videos/1856489607897317

Mobilize Walls (Against the Trump Wall)

Joereal Elliot explains that his new idea is for “A de-centralized network for artists to submit their work so we can scale all of our artwork together as an expression against the proposed wall.” The wall, of course, is the proposed wall that would be built between the US and Mexico, with the purpose of keeping people out of the county, at least those with brown skin. So far Canada has thus far not proposed a wall to prevent the US escapees who are looking for health care and maple syrup.

The Yok & Sheryo: The Golden Triangle

Care for some delicious cooked rat? The Yok & Sheryo have just returned to Brooklyn from exploring the East again and bring you this mini- travelogue of their exploits. Here they paint Baan Dam Museum in Chang Rai and a few other random spots in the Golden Triangle. Enjoy the Pink Floyd cover as well.

Pixel Pancho in Hong Kong for HKwalls 2017 via BrooklynStreetArt.com

Starting from the bottom now we’re here. Here’s a small handmade video Jaime made in Hong Kong last week riding the lift with Pancho Pixel to get a nice view of the new wall. It’s funny how the noise of the city gets filtered out when you are in the middle of it, but when you play the video back to yourself in a quiet room you realize how much soundscape you were surrounded by.

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.20.16

March 20, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

The Street Art world was shaken this week by the announcement and group action by BLU and friends in Bologna buffing/chipping away his street pieces in reaction to the opening of a new show there Friday night that contained BLU works done on a derelict building owned by someone else.

The ironies are rampant when a city chases down vandals, sponsors graffiti/street art clean-up programs, and then heralds the exact same works in a formal museum show with good lighting, cocktails, elegant suits, a press conference, and invited guests. Aside from the various contingencies trying to hi-jack these events to put forth other agendas or establish their opinion as sacrosanct, the psychological and philosophical rifts have been self-evident long before this show and this astounding act of self-destruction.

We’re all wondering what is an amenable solution to interests that are by nature in conflict yet are so intertwined as to appear fused, and the list of questions to consider continues to grow. See our questions from a posting earlier in the week HERE. Normally the press ignores these stories which we talk about regularly, but BLU mastered the PR game this week (and you know that serious money is involved) so it was in Le Monde, The Guardian, and ArtNet, among others. See some images from the opening and press conference are here.

Meanwhile the street can’t stop, won’t stop.

Here’s our our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Adam Fu, ATOMS, Butt Sup, El Sol 25, Fish With Braids, KEO Xmen, Knon, London Kaye, Nipper, Persue, Reed B More, Sean9Lugo, Scott Marsh, Self-Indulgence, SGNL, Skewville, Tara McPherson, The Yok & Sheryo and Zola.

Our top image: Reed B More. — Finding this handmade wire mobile hanging from electrical wires somewhere in Brooklyn made us very happy this week because; a. mobiles are cool, b. It’s hand made, one of a kind, and c. artists like Skewville and others were doing them at the turn of this century and we haven’t seen many lately. It is fashionable to bash muralism at the moment for usurping the spirit of Street Art, or some other silliness. It’s mucho mas dopetastic to just do good work and put it out there and let the hackneyed non-debate rage without you. We’re keeping our eyes open for small, often hidden, fresh, well placed, unexpected, unpredictable, original, one of a kind, non-derivative, non-hash-tagged pieces. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye. Here is our guess with this installation. The graff by Knon was already on the wall and she decided to collaborate. What do you think of the results? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zola. An apt street visual representation of the polarity we’re dealing with today. Although there would probably need to be 98 more of the figure on the left to present a more accurate ratio, and 97 of them would be sleeping or watching reality TV and ESPN. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Speaking of celebrity culture, Sydney based muralist Scott Marsh often depicts recognizable music personas like James Brown and Biggie Smalls in his figurative works. This week he completed this intense love scene parody on the street. But this is evidently more than romance, it’s carnal.

“No one can love Kanye quite like Kanye,” says Marsh of the new piece on Zigi’s Wine & Cheese Bar in Teggs Lane, Chippendale. Wonder what music they are listening to?

“I’m a big Kanye fan,” says Marsh. “He’s an incredible artist and a character and I like that. I was contacted by Lush’s manager to help find him a wall in Sydney. He painted a giant Kim Kardashian at the other end. It’s probably the least effort I have put into any mural – I painted it in four hours as a bit of a laugh. The response has been hilarious.”

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