Mausolee is the latest street art/urban exploring combo project to emerge. Like The Underbelly Project or The Ghostvillage Project, Mausolee is the takeover of an abandoned space by graffiti art. Mausolee was put together in an abandoned supermarket outside of Paris by Sowat (of the DMV crew) and Lek, who found the last in the summer of 2011 and have since taken 40 artists to paint there.
This week, Sowat and Lek will be unveiling (through documentation) the space this week in Paris from April 12th-14th.
So I’ve been working a lot lately on Re:Humanities, a symposium of undergraduate work in the digital humanities. It’s taking place next week at Swarthmore College, just outside of Philadelphia. I hope you’ll come check it out if you’re nearby. I’ll be speaking about how the internet has changed street art, and there are a bunch of other great topics up for discussion for anyone interested in the digital humanities. Okay, that’s my personal announcement for the week, now onto the news:
Okay so this video of a piece by Verbo isn’t the best quality, but the piece is pretty awesome and very different from a lot of what is out there. I wish I could have seen the animation in the flesh and I hope he continues to work with this combination of mural and digital projection.
2 Many Printers is a cool little clothing brand with t-shirts by Husk Mit Navn, Ian Stevenson and others.
This mural is probably my absolute favorite piece of public art that I’ve seen related to the Egyptian Revolution.
Glad to see I’m not the only one who thinks Anthony Lister’s “Planet of the Apes” mural was problematic and a disservice to the art community.
This week, there are at least three discussions about street art and graffiti that look worth checking out.
The first two events are in New York at screenings of the film Vigilante Vigilante. VV is a film that I’ve been hoping to see for at least a year. It’s about the people who take graffiti removal into their own hands and paint over graffiti without permission. Here’s the trailer. VV has two screenings in New York this week at the Maysles Cinema: Wednesday and Friday at 7:30pm. After Wednesday’s screening, there will be a discussion with director Max Good, artists ESPO (aka Steve Powers) and Lava 1 & 2. After Friday’s screening, there will be a conversation between Max Good and retired Vandal Squad Cop Steve Mona. Either event should be interesting, but I’ll be at Friday’s screening (although I might have to bail on the discussion in favor of Fountain’s opening party. We’ll see). You can buy tickets for Vigilante Vigilante and read more about the film and the post-screening events online.
The final discussion is on Sunday evening in Atlanta. Living Walls Concepts is bringing Gaia and Nanook, both participants in the Living Walls Conference since its inception, to town to discuss “the impact of mural projects on urban areas” and “the importance of illegal street work and direct action.” Given their years at Living Walls and other mural festivals and Gaia’s experience starting up the brand new mural project Open Walls Baltimore, this should be something pretty special. You can find details of the event here.
This year’s OFFSET conference is less than a month away. OFFSET is a conference in Dublin for creative folks. For this year’s line up, they have some really interesting speakers including Shepard Fairey, FriendsWithYou and Conor Harrington. You can find the full lineup here. The conference takes place March 9th-11th. Tickets are available now for as low as 50 euros for a day pass (if you’re a student).
It almost goes without saying that Martha Cooper has been one of the most important documentarians of graffiti culture for the last few decades. Her urban and hip hop culture photography is iconic. More recently, Martha Cooper has expanded her graffiti documentation to the photography and collection of stickers. Her two latest books, Going Postal and Name Tagging, spotlight sticker art made with postal labels and Hello My Name Is stickers.
I would gladly hop on the next plane and see this exhibit in person, but that was not an option so instead I asked Martha Cooper a few questions.
Caroline: In your book Name Tagging, you explain how you began appreciating stickers after you bought your first digital camera. What was it about the digital medium that initiated this interest in stickers?
Martha Cooper: Pre-digital, I rarely took my heavy, bulky Nikon out unless I was headed for something specific to shoot. It cost about 50 cents for film and processing every time I clicked the shutter. So although I had noticed stickers for years, I hadn’t looked at them closely and hadn’t bothered to shoot many.
My first digital camera was a little Olympus that I could easily carry around with me all the time. It had a very good close-up lens and performed well under low light. Once I had the camera, it didn’t cost any more to keep shooting so I was free to take as many photos as I wanted. Transitioning from analog to digital was a challenge. Shooting stickers was an unstressful way to practice new technology with interesting subject matter.
C: What led to you removing and collecting stickers off the street, rather than just photographing them?
MC: I’ve always been a collector. I like to look at different examples of things. At first after shooting a nice sticker, I printed it and saved it in an album. That began to feel unsatisfactory–I wanted the original. I only shoot and collect hand drawn stickers and this is pretty much the only form of graffiti and street art that can actually be removed from the street. Of course writers have criticized me for this and I know this is a dubious defense, but someday I hope to have a museum sticker exhibit.
It’s another slow week, but things should start to get going again soon. The holidays can’t last forever. Here are bits of news from around the web that didn’t make it into their own post here this week:
I wrote a list (with some help from Caroline Caldwell) for Complex.com of 10 street artists to watch in 2012. Let me know what you think in comments on this post or over on Complex.com.
So now that i am back from Miami and not working 14 hour days, I am back to posting on here. This pr stunt from Art Series Hotels in Australia came in to my inbox and I found it amusing enough to post, despite its blatant ploy to entice guests to the hotel. From 15 December to 15 January hotel guests at The Cullen, The Olsen and The Blackman down under will have the opportunity to steal a Banksy print, No Ball Games. If you manage to successfully steal it while on show at one of the three hotels during the month then it is yours to own. Anyone have any good ideas for this? I’m thinking someone should pull the fire alarm or flash a security guard.
This past Thursday, we came upon Jon Burgerman gracing Artist Alley @ Extra Place off East 1st Street between Bowery and 2nd Ave. with his wonderfully zany characters. Yesterday Tara returned for the artists’ reception, where — she reports — the vibes were as cool as the art. The current artwork remains @ Extra Place through March 18, 2012. Here are some more shots of “Groundbreak” curated by Joyce Manalo of ArtForward & Keith Schweitzer of MaNY Project:
When he wasn’t dodging the rain this morning, the multi-talented Jon Burgerman was outside Extra Place, an alley off Manhattan’s East 1st Street between the Bowery and 2nd Avenue, gracing the sidewalk with his intriguing mix of overlapping comical characters. He was getting ready for the opening of “Groundbreak,” an outdoor exhibit, also featuring the artwork of Abe Lincoln, Jr. and Ellis Gallagher aka Ellis G. Curated by Joyce Manalo and Keith Schweitzer and presented by FABnyc’s ArtUp Program, “Groundbreak” opens with a reception, hosted by Oaxaca Taqueria at 16 Extra Place, this Saturday afternoon at 2pm.
Jon Burgerman, photo by Lois Stavsky
Burgerman's artwork on sidewalk of Extra Place; photo by Damien Kelly
Alone (aka Tanha) reports from Tehran that his city recently hosted its third public street art/graffiti event. While the first two were held in gallery spaces, SPRAY 2011 — presented by KolahStudio and hosted by Adrenaline Extreme Sports — took place outdoors on a 70-meter wall. Alone shared the following video and photos of the successful event:
