When I originally approached Droid 907 about his latest zine, Sex or Suicide (Either Way You’re Fucked), it was described as simultaneously the most honest book about graffiti and a collection of lies. This inability to distinguish which stories are strange enough to be true or perhaps so outlandish that they must be fabricated heightens the experience. From tomes written on a buffed square of an abandoned facade to gritty, type-written pages, Droid explores the limits of his medium, in both graffiti and storytelling. Through these pages, the often enigmatic but ever present force of New York graffiti slowly peels back the layers behind his “Droid” persona, or perhaps adds more if the stories are in fact fabricated. With 40 pages of travels, redacted locations, and a cover silkscreened by Bushwick Print Lab, S.o.S. is Droid’s most visceral text to date.

Following a few month span in the artist’s nomadic lifestyle, readers are placed in media res, with no prior knowledge of the author’s relationships with those he encounters. You are suddenly left on the side of the tracks with no contextualization, in an anarchistic manner that mirror’s the text’s aesthetics. To help illuminate the backstories of a few of these individuals, as well as his own artistic practice in creating Sex or Suicide, Vandalog conducted a brief interview with Droid.

Read the rest of this article »

Pinched this post from Invurt, an absolute MUST see documentary on Melbourne’s graffiti and street art culture. From our awesome train graffiti to street art and gallery art; this documentary gives a great insight into the city I love and the amazing graffiti and street art that I’ve loved since I 1st got on a train as a kid. The movie features friends, favourite artists and familiar places so that makes it even more special.

From Invurt: “Created by Alex MacBeth and Miriam Hison, the documentary ‘Charts the development of the Melbourne street art scene,’ Children of the Iron Snake looks at the last thirty years and tracks the journey of graffiti from railway junctions at night to festivals, abandoned factories, rooftops, drains and galleries. Comprising interviews with over 15 artists, as well as criminologists, anti-graffiti activists, and politicians, the film offers a in-depth look at one of the biggest art movements of our time.”

Pretty much the most amateur thing you can do if you want to wheatpaste a giant poster is to print it out on a bunch of 8.5″ x 11″ sheets and paste them up in a grid. It’s gonna be complicated and probably look terrible. Unless you are part of the Italian street art duo sz zs. They make that 8.5″ 11″ grid work work amazingly well by playing with the possibilities it provides. I’m not artist, but I must say, in my experience as an observer, playing with the constraints you are given rather than staying within them or foolishly trying to ignore them is a one very important secret to successful artwork.

sz zs have been getting up in Venice for a little under a year, and I very much look forward to seeing where they take their project next.

Photos by sz zs

OBEY THE GIANT, the long-awaited short film by Julian Marshall, is now streaming for free online. The film tells the story of Shepard Fairey‘s first billboard takeover, which he did for an assignment while he was at the Rhode Island School of Design. This is not a documentary with grainy footage from 20 years ago. It is a biopic staring Josh Wills as the college-aged Shepard Fairey. Such a cool project. A must-watch for fans (and also probably haters) of Shepard Fairey. I’m glad to be able to share OBEY THE GIANT with you here:

OBEY THE GIANT – The Story of Shepard Fairey from Julian Marshall on Vimeo.

Photo courtesy of OBEY THE GIANT

Click to view large

It’s damn near impossible to get a sense of a city’s street art or graffiti from a handful of shots, but Henrik Haven has gone above and beyond with this set of photos of graffiti in Copenhagen. We’ll be posting the photos in four parts over the next few days. Rather than mention some artists in the photos and neglect others, I’m just going to leave the photos without artist credits. Read the names if you’re interested in who painted what.

Click to view large

Read the rest of this article »

KATSU at Eyebeam for F.A.T. Gold

KATSU, one of my favorite writers of all time, has had quite a week. I was just going to throw these things in the weekend link-o-rama because other blogs have covered the events so well, but then stories about KATSU just kept piling up. So, here they are:

• Need a bit of a refresher on the awesomeness of KATSU? Brooklyn Street Art has you covered.
• KATSU has a series of 3 prints available this week at 1xRun. They have almost sold out already. Personally, I picked up the black on black version.
• KATSU is part of F.A.T. Lab, and they have a show (F.A.T. Gold) on right now at Eyebeam in NYC. This evening from 5-7pm, KATSU and Mike Baca aka 2ESAE will be in conversation live online. That event should be streaming here and will presumably be available to watch at a later date as well.
• It seems that KATSU’s most noticeable contribution so far to F.A.T. Gold has been to paint the outside of Eyebeam with a fire extinguisher, as pictured above. As it turns out, those things are hard to control when it’s windy. Some of the paint got onto the gallery next door, Paula Cooper Gallery. Paula Cooper is not happy about that. For the rest of us, there’s a hilarious video to watch of a Paula Cooper Gallery employee trying to figure out what’s going on with all the gold paint flying everywhere.
• KATSU is also using launching a new postering campaign on the street this week called Status Update. The posters feature Facebook’s Marc Zuckerberg, but with a black eye and chipped tooth. KATSU emailed with Gizmodo about the project.

Photo by Dani Mozeson

Vandalog is proud to announce the latest product in The Vandalog Shop and our second product in the shop by a Vandalog contributing writer. Tag Happy, Rx Uppers is an edition of sculptures by Caroline Caldwell. These relabeled spray cans include veiled references to key people and places in the history of graffiti. How many can you spot?

Tag Happy, Rx Uppers comes in black or pink versions, each an edition of 10 which are signed and numbered on the underside of the sculpture. When shipped within the continental United States, Tag Happy, Rx Uppers will arrive as a full can of real spray paint. For all other orders, the cans will be emptied and a small hole will be put in the bottom of the piece. Tag Happy, Rx Uppers are available now at $22 for one black or pink sculpture, or $40 for a matching set of black and pink pieces. Each sculpture also comes with a set of handwritten instructions.

I’ve had an early version of the Tag Happy, Rx Uppers sitting on my shelf for the last year alongside sculptures by artists including Faile, Sweet Toof, and Skewville, and it more than holds its own against those classics. Caroline’s sense of style is perfectly encapsulated in these pieces, and they’re a friendly reminder for the vandal in all of us.

Starting today, you can find Tag Happy, Rx Uppers in The Vandalog Shop.

Photos by Caroline Caldwell

Wooster Collective announced tonight that they have been and will continue to be working with Art.com to solve a very frustrating problem that many street artists face: Photographers will take pictures of street art and graffiti and then license those images to online and physical shops around the world so that they can be printed onto t-shirts, canvases, posters, bags, clocks, and other knick knacks. The street artists and graffiti writers get no money from the sale of these photographs. While I’m not a big fan of our current copyright laws and I’d rather they be much more lax, this is pretty clearly a case where the morally right thing to do would be to pay the artists whenever possible.

Art.com is a major online seller of these offending photographs. According to Marc and Sara Schiller of Wooster Collective and at the couple’s urging, Art.com “has agreed to remove every photograph of street art in which the artist who’s work is in the photograph is not being compensated, and does not want photographs of their street work to be sold in this manner.”

As for how things will work under this new arrangement, the Schillers write:

While we’re still working out the details, in the coming weeks we will be working with Art.com to help identify the artists who’s work is being featured in over 600 street art photographs currently being sold on the site. If the artist wishes to have the photograph removed, Art.com has agreed to remove it. If the artist wishes to replace the existing unauthorized photograph with a new photograph or image that they own themselves, we will be assisting the artist in putting a licensing agreement in place for their work to be sold on the site.

This is exciting news for street artists and graffiti writers everywhere. It doesn’t solve the problem entirely since Art.com is not the only company currently selling street artists’ work in this manner, but it is a step in the right direction. The exact copyright issues could be debated in court, but Art.com has done the right thing in offering artists the opportunity to control their work if they wish to do so.

This all came about because the Schillers and Evan Pricco (Editor-in-Chief of Juxtapoz) will be having a public conversation this coming Thursday evening in NYC at an event sponsored by Art.com.

Read more about Art.com’s new policy and the upcoming conversation between Marc, Sara, and Evan over at Wooster Collective.

Photo by canonsnapper

Dabs Myla at Metro Gallery – Photo by Dean Sunshine

Here’s some of the amazing stuff that happened in Melbourne last month. I’m sorry it’s so late – I am already working on the March post. Damn I am proud to post about my home town. So much goodness every month. Enjoy!

Read the rest of this article »

The SwanLion Upon Africa

Gaia was in Newcastle, UK last month for some murals organized by Unit44. I’ve got photos of the wall here, but I think the video Gaia made with Unit44 is even more interesting. In it, he speaks about the challenges of being a muralist/street artist trying to do more than just impose advertising (aka street art) onto communities. I don’t agree with everything he says, but he makes some very valuable and interesting points.

The Sheep Above Byker Wall

Photos by David Bilbrough