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Belated link-o-rama

RJ — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:29:46 +0000

El Decertor

Thanks to spending the weekend in NYC for Skewville’s show at Factory Fresh (on now and great), I am late with this week’s link-o-rama. Nonetheless, here it is:

When David Choe painted Facebook’s offices back in 2005, he was given two options: He could either take a couple thousand dollars as payment, or stock in the company. He chose the stock. Assuming that Choe has held onto that stock, the New York Times estimates that Choe may be worth $200 millions pretty soon. So of course, Choe ended up on the front page of the NYTimes and is being written about all over the web, but he is also a talented artist. Here’s some of what he painted in Facebook’s offices (he just painted their new offices as well) and here’s what Choe and a few friends got up to in Denver recently.
Eloquent Vandals, a film about the Nuart festival, is now streaming online.
Ron English has two great new sculptures that are well-worth checking out: Fat Tony (the tiger) which will be for sale as a toy and Hulk Obama, which looks like a customization by Ron that may or may not ever be for sale.
Another great wall by Phlegm in Sheffield.
Dabs and Myla have a touching Christmas tradition (now let’s get a fun discussion going in the comments about the ethics/humility of making a video about that tradition).
This collaboration between Reka, Ghostpatrol and TwoOne turned out really nicely.

Photo by El Decertor

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A close look at Artists 4 Israel – part one

RJ — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:00:58 +0000

Temporary mural at Haverford College by Jedi5, Col and Broker. Photo by Broker

Update: Part 2 of this series is now online.

This is the first post in a two-part series on Artists 4 Israel and a series of events they put together, the Defend The Future Tour. This first post is an attempt at giving an account of my personal experiences with Artists 4 Israel and the DTF Tour. There are two primary reasons for this post: A. To give a firsthand account of what it is like to be subject to attempts of manipulation by Artists 4 Israel and B. To acknowledge some of the personal experiences and biases that I am bringing to the table when I write about Artists 4 Israel. This is done in an effort to be honest with Vandalog’s readers. Part 2 of this series, dealing with Artists 4 Israel in a wider context than myself and giving the organization’s take on the DTF Tour, will be published tomorrow. As is always the case on Vandalog, this post is mine and may or may not represent the views of any other Vandalog writers. - RJ Rushmore

On November 17th, the Defend The Future Tour came to Haverford College, spray cans in hand, in what now seems to me to have been an attempt to manipulate students into having a greater hate and fear of the Arab world and a greater love for Israel. This would have been fine, except for the manipulation. I go to Haverford College, so I experienced the DTF Tour myself.

For a few days before the DTF Tour arrived on campus, I’d been seeing flyers around for a “live mural painting and music” event. While it was not immediately apparent what the event was or who was sponsoring it, there were some URLs, QR codes and the email address of a Haverford student. Given my interest in street art and graffiti, I went to one of the URLs listed, www.DTFtour.org, to see what was up. There, I discovered that this mural painting event had a mission statement: “War, racism, poverty, partisan politics and censorship threaten us all. It is not the way of the young. We will change the world. Defend the future!”

“Sounds good to me,” I thought. Those seem like sentiments that most college-aged people would agree with.

The website also cleared up a bit more about the tour. Basically, a group of artists were going around and visiting colleges in the Philadelphia area to paint murals and interact with students. Again, sounds pretty good.

What you’ll also find on DTF’s website is their “Demand The Facts” page. This is where my concerns began. On that page, it finally occurred to me that the DTF Tour might really be an effort in pro-Israel propaganda. And yet, that single page is the only place on the DTF Tour website where I found any mention at all of Israel or evidence of the DTF Tour’s partisan political aims.

By looking on their facebook fan page, I discovered that the DTF Tour might be linked with Artists 4 Israel, a group of pro-Israel street artists and graffiti writers, and the connection was finally confirmed by posts on Artists 4 Israel’s blog that the DTF Tour was an Artists 4 Israel initiative (later, I found a single reference on Haverford’s website that the event was led by Artists 4 Israel). Again, this seemed strange. Why didn’t Artists 4 Israel just come out and talk about their involvement on the DTF website? After all, Artists 4 Israel certainly seems proud of the tour’s stop at Temple University.

Through this article about the DTF Tour’s stop at Temple, their message became a bit more clear: They were trying to spread a message that is “pro-Israel, pro-peace.” Like the DTF Tour’s mission, if that’s what they were really about, I think it’s certainly a message that many people who are middle of the road or even pro-Palestine would agree with. Of course, it’s one of JStreet’s slogans. But after seeing the DTF website, was hard to believe that they were really pro-Israel and pro-peace except perhaps at great expense to the people of Palestine and others in the Middle East.

In case it is not already evident, I have to acknowledge that my own views are largely sympathetic to the Palestinian people and in favor of a two-state solution.

With only a few days before the DTF Tour was due to arrive at Haverford, a Palestinian friend of mine and I decided that the thing to do might be to hold a similar art-making event right next to the DTF Tour simultaneously, so Besan Radwan and I got planning. Our event would be pro-people, pro-peace. Rather than being divisive and partisan, we thought we would try to bring people together through art.

Of course, if we were wrong about the DTF Tour, we did not want to potentially take away from a valuable event. So I met with Seth Kennedy. Kennedy is a classmate of mine, the president of the Haverford Israel Coalition and the man who arranged for the DTF Tour to come to campus after he heard that they were looking to visit Haverford. Kennedy did not believe that the event would be particularly partisan or political. I had my doubts, so Radwan and I decided that we would speak with the organizer of the DTF Tour while they were setting up and decide then how to proceed. Essentially, it came down to asking the group to include the phrase “pro-Palestine” or “pro-people” on their mural if it was going to say “pro-Israel, pro-peace” like the mural at Temple. We felt that, if the event were truly an effort at ending partisan politics, it should address more than one group of people involved in the conflict that the tour appeared to be at least partially about.

Around 11:30am on the 17th, I saw the DTF Tour setting up. They had erected a temporary wooden wall to paint on. I spoke with Seth Wolfson, the ~~Chief Visionary Officer~~ Vice President of Artists 4 Israel. He expertly calmed my fears about the event and convinced me that the event and the mural would be multi-cultural. Additionally, he agreed not to put the phrase “Pro-Israel, pro-peace” on the mural. In fact, the idea for the mural was to show a Hasidic Jewish man and an Arab man smoking a hookah together. Frankly, I was blown away. I was not expecting that, but it was certainly a pleasant surprise. Radwan and I both decided that our event was not a necessary addition to the day, so we left and went to class with the expectation of returning later to see how things were progressing.

I got back to the event around 2:40pm to see that Wolfson had, in my opinion, misled me. While the mural itself seemed fine and more-or-less in line with what Wolfson had described earlier, the Artists 4 Israel side of the DTF Tour had reared it’s ugly head. After I left, postcard-sized handouts were brought out. I grabbed one of the last of them and it quickly became apparent how, even when their murals might sometimes look nice and appear to be embracing of all cultures, the DTF Tour was not an event with goals in all at line with its stated mission. Here’s the flyer:

Well the front side seems fine...

But then there's all of this

So much for being an all-inclusive event. My reaction to this flyer was one of disgust and disappointment, as well as fear that Haverford students had been receiving these flyers throughout the day. Immediately, I could tell that even some of my friends who are, for lack of a more nuanced label, pro-Israel would take issue with at least the rhetoric of the flyers for being counterproductive to dialog and reasoned debate. In tomorrow’s post, I’ll go into more detail about each section on the back side of the flyer, but even if the flyer is 100% accurate, it shows clearly that the DTF Tour’s propaganda strategy is not one of working towards diversity and a peaceful coexistence or against fanaticism and partisan politics.

As soon as I brought the content of the flyers to the attention of Kennedy, who was in charge of restocking the table with flyers and other DTF Tour materials, he also grew concerned and decided to not put out any more of the flyers.

By that evening, news of the DTF Tour’s event had spread throughout campus. After a half dozen students, plus myself and Kennedy, had posted comments about the event on an online forum for Haverford students, another student and a co-head of End of the Land: An Israel-Palestine Discussion Group arranged for people to meet up the next day to discuss their concerns about the DTF Tour in the flesh. That student, Aaron Madow, leads End of the Land with Radwan. They formed the group in an effort to find common ground between students on different sides of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Frankly, I feel that the DTF Tour’s visit to Haverford damaged the community. Luckily, students came together to heal those wounds.

Rather than accept the DTF Tour strategy, Haverford students realized that the best thing to do was to meet in person and be respectful with one another. Although Kennedy could not make it to the meeting and students cycled in and out as time permitted, the discussion consistently had more than half a dozen participants during the hour that I spent there. While we did not solve any of the world’s great problems in that time, I feel that the meeting worked wonderfully as an opportunity to exchange ideas in a respectful manner among people who have fundamental disagreements with each other about (primarily) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For me, it was an opportunity to get to know people whom I otherwise might not have met and to get to see a different side of some of my friends.

Over the next few days, I had a number of informal conversations with students about the DTF Tour. While these students and I would often disagree about certain specifics, every student I spoke with wanted to engage in a respectful discussion. In this way, I suppose it can be said that the DTF Tour had a positive impact at Haverford. By its destructive force, the DTF Tour forced Haverford students to address some of the issues that the tour seemed to attempt at bringing up, but the students did so in a respectful manner. In fact, even though Kennedy was a classmate of mine last semester, it was not until this controversy that we ever had a conversation. Now, even though I disagree with him on some of the issues surrounding the DTF Tour and certainly on issues regarding Israel, I consider him a friend who I’ve never had anything but pleasant interactions with.

Once I decided to write this series of posts, I spoke more formally with some Haverford students about their experiences at DTF Tour and had a chance to speak with Craig Dershowitz, the founder of Artists 4 Israel. What I learned will be addressed tomorrow in part-two of this series.

Photo by Broker and scans of Artists 4 Israel/DTF Tour material by RJ Rushmore

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Update: Banksy Stolen in Melbourne

Stephanie — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:35:37 +0000

Remember when I posted a little while ago about the StealBanksy pr sunt in Melbourne? Well someone actually managed to steal it and not in a very creative way either. Posing from as a staff member from the Art Series Hotel (the hotel owners behind the gag) agency, Maura Tuohy stole No Ball Games out of The Blackman Hotel.

Apparently, the agency got so much press for this they are doing it all over again (for a final time supposedly) with Banksy’s Pulp Fiction until January 15th. Rememebr if you want to try your hand at stealing this piece you have to a guest at the hotel. Of course that’s the catch. There is always a catch.

Photo courtesy of Art Series Hotel

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Weekend link-o-rama

RJ — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:31:44 +0000

Sorry in Philadelphia

Just a heads up in case you don’t like murals, unless I get really into procrastination through blogging (which isn’t unlikely), the blog will probably continue to be pretty Miami-centric for the next week or so as I’m bogged down in finals. Now that you’ve got fair warning for that, here’s what I’ve missed covering over the last two weeks in art:

Rowdy and Run both have updated websites.
Arrested Motion’s show in Hong Kong looks great (you can guess who has the best photos).
Some people destroyed a legal and commissioned piece by Olek in Poland, but rather than charge them with vandalism or something like that and give them a fine, Olek requested that the men crochet some scarves for the homeless. Good move.
Gotta love this abstract piece in Hollywood that’s been made out of colored tape.
Here’s a video interview with Zevs without a mask and saying his name (it’s Aguirre Schwarz). It’s in French though, so if anyone wants to offer up a translation of the interesting bits…
Always a busy man, Lister has show on in Melbourne, Australia.
The car company Fiat settled a potential lawsuit with NYC’s TATS Crew after the company used one of TATS Crew’s murals in an advertisement. If you’re interested in the issue of copyright concerning public art, here’s one place to start.

Photo by Caroline Caldwell

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Banksy news update

RJ — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 06:50:58 +0000

Photo by S.Butterfly

We’ve got a few bits of Banksy-related news to share, so it’s all being lumped together here:

It looks like there will be a new Banksy print ~~this Christmas~~ March 2012 from Pictures on Walls (no surprise). The print will be based on this gorilla image, which was recently buffed accidentally. Even Pictures on Walls’ description of the print in a bit tongue-in-cheek about the recycling of this older image into a print with different glittery color options.
A number of people have emailed me after seeing this Banksy installation (photo by Just) at Pictures on Walls’ winter group show (which Just has plenty more photos of) because it looks a bit like this sculpture by Giles Walker and Peter Dunne from a couple of years ago. Personally, I prefer Dunne and Walker’s piece, but I don’t think the pieces are too similar for comfort. Could Banksy have seem the work by Dunne and Walker and been inspired partially by that? Definitely. But it’s not just an outright copy, and I’m often hesitant to say that any Banksy idea has been outright stolen from another artist, since most of his ideas rely on pretty simple themes and symbols, so it’s likely that others have tried similar things before whether Banksy knew about it or not.
It now seems unlikely that we will ever get confirmation from Banksy’s website that the piece pictured at the top of this post and covered on Vandalog last month is a Banksy. Foreignstudents.com happened to catch some photos of the work being put up. No faces of the artist or his crew, but the site did get images of a scaffolding being put up that covered the work while it was being done, and they say a man posing as a security guard stayed at the scaffolding for some of the time that it was up. So if this wasn’t Banksy’s work, someone may still come forward claiming responsibility. I’m confident however that this was the work of Banksy, so given these photos and any more that might be out there, taking responsibility seems risky for his anonymity.

Photo by S.Butterfly

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L’Atlas solo show preview

caroline — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:01:26 +0000

Last week Graffuturism posted a preview of L’Atlas‘s upcoming solo show at the David Bloch Gallery in France. The show’s name, Morphologie, is perhaps a hint that L’Atlas has strayed from his signature style to try something a bit different.

"Here, for the first time, the letters stand out and hug each other and then a third dimension appears" - press release

L’Atlas typically works with black and white in his abstract, geometric typography, which is commonly his own name. At first glance, it looks like he has abandoned these trademarks in his new work. However, his new use of color has worked to encrypt his signature in more complex patterns.

Personally, I think his style works best at its simplest, black and white. I’m a very big fan of L’Atlas, particularly his lettering, so I’m interested in others think of this new direction.

Photos courtesy of Graffuturism

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Daniel Gausman brings his talents to the streets of Brooklyn

loisstavsky — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 15:46:19 +0000

Each time we visit Bushwick, surprises await. It’s always fun to come upon an artist at work, and this time we met one painting on the streets for the first time. Daniel Gausman, who recently made the move from the Midwest to Brooklyn, NY, draws his inspiration from “geometry, quilting and color.” Still in progress, his huge mural on Varet Street is a homage to all three. Seeking larger walls than his local apartment can provide and at home interacting with passersby, Daniel is likely to grace more NYC walls with his talents.

Daniel Gausman @ work on his mural, photo by Lois Stavsky

Close-up of wall in progress, photo by Tara Murray

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Weekend link-o-rama

RJ — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:11:00 +0000

A wall in Munich

Sorry this is coming a day late, but Thanksgiving and related activities took priority. Here’s what I missed posting about this week:

Roa and Resto collaborated on this wall in the Netherlands.
Peter Bengtsen has written some thoughts on a controversial Boris Hoppek product.
Invader has a solo show opening at Lazarides’ The Outsiders next week. It will include Invader-shaped waffles.
Dabs and Myla have designed a toy.
James Marshall aka Dalek recently had a show at Womb Gallery in Oklahoma City. Arrested Motion has photos and there’s a behind-the-scenes video as well.
On December 9th, Mighty Tanaka in Brooklyn has a group show opening with Robots Will Kill and other artists that they crew have selected.

Photo by Luna Park

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Sursystem: An Independent Zine from Colombia, SA Reflects the Beat of the Streets

loisstavsky — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 05:52:26 +0000

As an avid fan of ‘zines and independent publications, I particularly love the ones I come upon on my visits to Colombia, SA. Produced and edited by Marcelo Arroyave, Sursystem is among my favorites. Marcelo. on his recent visit to NYC, explained that Sursystem’s mission is to create and reflect the artistic fusion among distinct cultures, one of the positive effects, he maintains, of globalization. Featured this fall in independent zine festivals in Paris and in Buenos Aires, Sursystem includes many images — and stickers – crafted by artists who also maintain the streets as their canvas. Marcello reports that Sursystem is seeking talent for its upcoming issue. Info follows:

Colombia's Sursystem distributed on the streets of Catalonia, June, 2011

"I love this world," by Angela Rodriguez Aristizabal & "Masters" by Juan Felipe Guirales from Sursystem 4

"And everything is just around the corner," Wizard in Sursystem 5

All images courtesy Marcelo Arroyave

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Weekend link-o-rama

RJ — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 02:42:18 +0000

Keely

This week the Occupy Wall Street live streams have been very effective at distracting me from Vandalog, which I’m not too upset about. The violent and suppressive eviction of Occupy Wall Street is certainly more important that the latest swindle that some art gallery is trying to pull. Nonetheless, I have been paying attention even if I haven’t been writing, so here’s what’s been going on in the street art world this week:

AEC and WAONE aka Interesni Kazki have their first US solo show opening this weekend at Mid-City Arts in LA. Arrested Motion have a preview.
This Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn, Todd James and Steve Powers are showing their work from their installation Street from the Art in the Streets show at MOCA in LA earlier this year. Other members of Powers’ ICY Signs studio will also be showing their work.
Graffiti writer and notorious sticker-er BNE started a foundation for clean water projects earlier this year, and 12oz. Prophet has interviewed him about it. Great to see writers doing such admirable work.
Hope has a flickr stream with photos that graffiti geeks (and I say that in the best possible way) absolutely have to check out.
This show at MK2 Projects includes Shepard Fairey, Matt Small, Aiko and more.
Here’s a new painting by Judith Supine.
C-Monster has photos of two stencils in Tahrir Square.
EVOL is to be the star of this year’s Pictures on Walls holiday extravaganza, and he is already in London putting up some of his signature stencil work.
Swoon musical project in New Orleans, Dithyrambalina, is coming along. Artists involved in the collaborative installation are performing a show called The Music Box on November 19th and December 10th. Here’s a trailer, which includes some of their October 22nd performance. Beautiful work, but I’m sure it’s something that really needs to be seen in person.
Complex has their list of the top 25 Parisian graffiti writers.

Photo by Damonabnormal

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