I’ve been waiting for awhile for a graffiti/street art anthology that features the work of two of my favorite artists: Native & ZenTwo. I’ve met up with them in Paris and have seen their work on city walls and on paper and on canvas in their working space in Belleville. I discovered ARABIC GRAFFITI (From Here to Fame Publishing, 2011) in MoMA’s bookshop yesterday, skimmed it, immediately read the section featuring Native and ZenTwo and just finished reading (not skimming!) the entire book. The astounding images generated by the fusion of Arabic calligraphy and Western graffiti first came to my attention via A1one’s tehranwalls.blogspot a number of years ago, and I’m disappointed that he, along with the other writers getting up in the streets of Tehran, are not included. I did, though, gain invaluable insights into the visuals and the rich social and political implications of the writings on the walls of such places as Bahrain, Beirut and Gaza.
All images courtesy From Here to Fame Publishing