Some updates from from Swoon’s Swimming Cities of Serenissima project.
The team posted this facebook update earlier today: “We’re En Route! Never seen such a clear blue like the blue of the adriatic and the phosphorescent algae that sparkles in the dark black of the night”
Just found these photos yesterday:
And finally, the team has posted an update today of their journey so far, which can be read on their blog.
Photos by Tod Seelie and via Sucka Pants
This is not cool. A nice piece in Bristol by some guys called Cheo and 3Dom got buffed by the council. Happens all the time right? Well this particular piece had been painted with permission, and the council knew that.
At leasts the artists got back at the council in their own special way. Check out these photos of before the buff, after the buffing, and after the artists found out about it (click on the images for a larger size)
(that sign reads “Council Vandalism: Mural removed illegally by the Bristol City Council”)
Hopefully, the council will learn from this and be more careful in the future, but I doubt it.
Via Bristol Graffiti
Without TAKI 183, we probably wouldn’t have graffiti as we know it. He was the first tagger to leave his own neighborhood, and the New York Times article about him spawned an epidemic of tagging. Eventually, those tags became graffiti, but TAKI disappeared, only being occassionaly spotted in graffiti documentaries. He essentially gave up on tagging when he go too old for it.
But now the legendary TAKI 183 is back. His first ever commercial works have just gone for sale on his new website, taki183.net, and it looks like he is trying to get back into the graffiti scene.
This is not some guy taking the piss like Tox was with his prints. It might be a guy trying to cash in on his fame, but who cares? TAKI 183 is a legend and he has every right. I’ve bought one of these prints, because I think they are extremely important to the history of graffiti.
So essentially, today is a good day, an awesome day, for graffiti and street art.
Via I Love Graffiti
Looks like the Swimming Cities of Serenissima has finally left Slovenia and started on the way to Venice. Swoon’s latest boat project is her 3rd, and the first outside of the United States. The homemade boats will carry a team of artists to Venice just in time for the Biennale (and if the timing works out, I’ll be there to see them arrive).
More at Juxtapoz
The Daily Mail seems to be grasping at straws with this latest attempt to discover Banksy’s identity. In an article from yesterday’s edition, The Daily Mail tried to once again prove they were correct last year when they announced Banksy’s identity is “Robin Gunningham” by saying that a recent stencil may be a self-portrait by Banksy.
As the photographer, unusualimage, notes in the title of his photo though, this stencil was almost certainly not done by Banksy. This rat motif has been abandoned by Banksy for a while not, and this exact stencil has been used before (with different images on the rat’s sign) by the Not Banksy group. So who know, maybe the Daily Mail got it right when they identified Banksy, but this definitely isn’t the “self-portrait” they claim it could be.
Inkfetish has recently made some updates to his website, and as I think Inkfetish tends to do some very interesting and different work that brightens up the London scene, I suggest you check it out. Okay so this is actually like a week old, but it’s new-ish, and Inkfetish still does nice work.
For those who don’t know Inkfetish, here’s a piece he recently did outside of Cargo.
This article from the Mail on Sunday is hilarious. It seems that a film-maker tricked Joan Collins into hosting a dinner party for an actor claiming to be Banksy, and she fell for it. Here’s a snippet of the article:
To Joan Collins it must have seemed an unexpected honour too good to refuse – the chance to meet the world-famous, and notoriously secretive, graffiti artist Banksy.
Not surprisingly, she readily accepted the invitation to host a dinner party for the mysterious artist in a grand country home, with other excited celebrities in attendance to share the unique experience.
But The Mail on Sunday has discovered that the entire story was an elaborate hoax, designed to dupe the Dynasty actress – and the rest of the world.
In reality, the ‘Banksy’ who Miss Collins spent five hours entertaining was actor Bryan Lawrence – whose career includes bit parts in The Bill and adverts for the Corby Trouser Press – not the controversial guerrilla artist famed for his stencilled, anarchist graffiti works that can sell for up to £250,000.
When we told Miss Collins of the scam, she admitted she had been completely taken in.
Asked if she knew that the person she believed to be Banksy was, in fact, an actor, she said: ‘I didn’t. I thought it was [Banksy]. I certainly thought it was. Am I surprised? Well, I still think it might be him.’
The bizarre plot was dreamt up by former Tory adviser Ivan Massow, a colourful character who made and lost a fortune selling insurance to gay men, and a familiar face on the London social scene, who has known Miss Collins for 20 years.
He filmed the charade in the hope of hoodwinking a TV broadcaster into buying the footage, promoting it as the first time Banksy had revealed himself on camera.
All I can say is that I would really like to see this footage.
Recently the Pest Control website (the official organization for authenticating Banksy’s work) was updated and the below message was put on their “What is Pest Control?” page. Note the “sales” section:
So that’s new. Pest Control is now the only organization selling original Banksy work on the primary market. I guess Banksy has finally left Lazarides behind (and possibly POW as well, but that makes no sense). Rumors have been swirling for the longest time that Banksy would be leaving Lazarides, but they usually involved Banksy being picked up by larger contemporary galleries like Gagosian or Opera.
This show goes to show how powerful an individual can be in today’s society even without a large organization to back them up. We’ve seen this sort of self-management in music, with Nine Inch Nails ditching their record label and doing fine, and we’ve already seen it in art with Damien Hirst’s auction. Now Banksy’s giving it a try as well.
Last weekend, 120 illegal street advertisements throughout New York City were covered up by art. The whole project was orchestrated by Jordan Seiler at Public Ad Campaign. He got a large group of artists and volunteers to cover a few of the many illegal outdoor advertisements on New York streets first with a layer of white, and then with artwork. Participating artists included Rachel Lowing and Gaia, Tristan Eaton, Ji Lee (of The Bubble Project), Enjoy Banking, Peru Ana Ana Peru, and many many more. Unfortunately, Jake Dobkin reports that all of these interventions seem to have been taken down (of course, I suppose that was sort of the point. At least it gets rid of the illegal ads. The Capital G project worked the same way. A week later, not only was Captial G gone, but so were those flyposted ads.). Here are a few images that have been popping up online:
More photos after the jump… Continue reading “New York Street Advertising Takeover”
Just got an email this morning about an amazingly cool project that has been going on for the past few years in Berlin. Papergirl distributes packages of art on the street once a year. Sort of like Adam Neate, but Papergirl is open to any artists who send in work, and the art is passed out by bike, sort of kids on a newspaper route. Each package contains a number of works by different artists, so each recipient gets a unique combination of artwork. Check out a video from last year’s Papergirl:
Summer is fast approaching, so the Papergirl team is once again looking for artists to send in work. Last year, a number of artists from across the world participated including Various & Gould and Cake.
Details and PR spiel after the jump…
Continue reading “Papergirl Project Open Call”
