All posts tagged: Thomas McMahan

BSA Film Friday: 05.31.13

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

Now screening: Las Calles Hablan : Street Art in Barcelona, RONZO Goes pre-historic with Skatersaurus, SAMO© by Aaron Rose and Thomas McMahan.

BSA Special Feature:
Las Calles Hablan : Street Art in Barcelona

“Las Calles Hablan is a story about discovering a hidden world, an extraordinary subculture and the struggle between an artistic community painting for freedom of expression and an increasingly restrictive dogmatic government,” says Justin Donlon as he speaks about this hour long documentary he made with Silvia Vidal Muratori and Katrine Knauer.

An educational and unpretentious study of the spectrum of Street Artists and techniques currently at play in Barcelona, the team traces  the scene through personal observations and their network of local and international artists, local gallerists, and their connections globally via the Internet.


The film traces the trajectory from the Street Art/graffiti’s emergence at the end of the 70s following the Franco dictatorship and the rise of international hip-hop culture through the 90s into a sort of freewheeling golden era in the early 2000s. It also explains the current unease with the city, the professionalizing of the artists through a growing gallery practice, and the collaborative initiatives of some community leaders with artists.

Taking a straightforward documentary approach, the motivations and inspirations of current artists on the scene are presented without much of the exaggerated myth-making that more commercial hype vehicles often contain. Included in the examination are how community and local citizens and authorities have taken a constructive role in facilitating space and opportunities for some artists here and elsewhere, while the definition and appetite for illegal work ebbs and flows.

Featured artists:Zosen, Mina Hamada, Kenor, Kram, El Xupet Negre, Debens, Fert, Dase, SM172, Ogoch, Kafre, Aleix Gordo, Meibol, Eledu, C215, H101, Miss Van, Btoy, El Arte Es Basura, Konair, Gola, Vinz.

(Image above a screenshot of Vinz © Las Calles Hablan)

RONZO Goes pre-historic with Skatersaurus

A quickie with RONZO, who quickly demos how his latest charactor, the Skatersaurus, is created and installed.

SAMO© – Jean-Michel Basquiat
By Aaron Rose and Thomas McMahan

An electric train switch clicking and collaged short of distressed city clips paying homage to the free floating and cryptic phraseology of Basquiat as his street writing alter ego SAMO© . This new video directed by Aaron Rose and Thomas McMahan is a thrill cut to a New York graffiti era ever more cast in amber, a choppy popping scratching archival image soaked indictment/celebration of conformist chaotic consumerist culture and the struggle to pay the bills, backed by a mechanical nihlist beat you can pop and lock to while name-dropping like Fab Five Freddy.  Don’t push me cause I’m close to the Vogue.

Music by N.A.S.A. featuring Kool Kojak, Money Mark and Fab Five Freddy
Animations by Maya Erdelyi and Alexis Ross

 

 

 

Read more

BSA Film Friday: 05.24.13

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

Now screening: Alice Pasquini in Italy, Rise and Fall of Street Art in Barcelona, Jaz “Cult to The Character”, and Enzo & Nio in New York.

BSA Special Feature:
Alice Pasquini at Memorie Urbane 2013 in Italy

Rise and Fall of Street Art in Barcelona: Trailer

These folks are raising funds to tell the story of how the Street Art scene in Barcelona has changed radically in the last half dozen years. The city appears to have celebrated the scene for a number of years but is now changing the tune as corporate advertisers pay for the same walls to communicate messages. Some call it a battle for public space. Others throw their hands in the air and call it gentrification.

Help the producers of the “Rise and Fall” documentary meet their goals. Click HERE to help.

Jaz “Cult to The Character” in Vienna

Street Artist/Fine Artist JAZ just completed this new piece in his inimitable style in coordination with his new show  that opened Wednesday in Vienna at Inoperable Gallery

Enzo & Nio in New York

The newest in the series of “Wild in the Streets” by Dega Films is here. They have 5 more days to go to reach their fundraising goal on Kickstarter if you would like to support the work.

Read more