This is sort of like Muto 2.0, but now David Ellis is involved as well. Watch and be amazed by Blu and Ellis’ artwork. It was made inside an abandoned monastery just outside of Grottaglie, Italy during preparations for FAME Festival.
COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.
Well this is now two new Banksy pieces on the street in one week (see: Ikea Punk) (and three in about a month) and the 3rd 4th (UPDATE: Thanks to Mick for sending this image of the piece at the Barely Legal show from 2006) iteration of his “No Ball Games” image.
First there was this piece up for sale at the Dreweatts Urban Art Auction in March. If I remember correctly the piece was for charity and direct from Banksy:
Then there was this piece at Banksy Versus The Bristol Museum. If you look carefully, in some photos of this painting, you can see that Banksy has sprayed over the image of a tv and replaced it with this new sign:
And now with “No Ball Games” on the street (somewhere in London), it is looking great and truly where it belongs. Some pieces work well indoors, some work well outdoors. Banksy knows this. Yesterday’s post about his “Ikea Punk” is a good example of this point.
At Banksy Versus The Bristol Museum, there was a stencil piece of an anarchist being helped by his grandmother who was getting him dressed for a protest, and it was perfect for being inside. With “Ikea Punk”, that is an image (involving a similar character) that only works outside.
“No Ball Games” (IMHO) didn’t work as well indoors because for one thing that green background wasn’t enjoyable to look at, and for another thing that’s just the kind of joke that fits perfectly on a wall somewhere. Not to say this wouldn’t make a nice screen print, but like a sketch by Blu, what you’d really be buying is a nice piece of work and a memory of what the piece looks like outdoors.
Another reason I prefer this image outdoors instead of at Banksy Versus the Bristol Museum is that I’m a fool. When I saw that piece at the Bristol Museum and noticed that it was the same piece that was at Dreweatts but repainted slightly, I got the idea of a tv in my mind, and thought that the “No Ball Games” sign was a flat screen television. The mind plays tricks on us / I’m lazy. And I didn’t think the piece worked as well with a flat screen tv. Clearly though, after thinking about the piece for 2 seconds, you can see that a street sign is being thrown, not a flat screen tv, and the piece outdoors makes that even more clear.
Is this just the start of Banksy’s renewed work in London? Let’s hope so.
One of my favorite songs by AFI is “I Wanna Get A Mohawk” (see video at the end of this post), my favorite stencil from Banksy versus The Bristol Museum was this piece of an “anarchist’s” grandma helping him get dressed for a protest, so I guess it’s not too surprising that Banksy’s latest piece is probably my favorite outdoor piece by him since New Orleans.
This piece is in Brighton Croydon, right near an Ikea store.
Maybe the reason I love this piece so much is because I’m definitely a lot like that faux-punk. I’ve grown up very privileged, I sprayed a crappy stencil at Cans Festival, I’ve gone through phases of extreme left-leaning political outrage, and now I collect street art and I’m taking a gap year to travel (and do other things). If you can’t laugh at yourself, what can you laugh at?
And besides, for a stencil, that’s some real craftsmanship that few other artists even attempt.
That song by AFI:
Some news from the street artists of Brazil:
Last Sunday one of the biggest avenues of São Paulo, Av. 23 de Maio, received the biggest graffiti and street art attack ever. All the action was illegal and was done by 150 artists during the day on 1km of a grey wall. The protest is against the government buff of the Law “CITY CLEAN”. There were artists from all ages and styles, because the most important thing was to paint all of the avenue. You can see amazing graffiti works (character and letters) and works made by artists that were doing their first work. The variety of styles includes pixação, stencils and much more. The action was incredible and the cops arrived there and didn’t know what to do, so they only took 9 graffiti artist (only 3 police cars) to the police department to try to understand what it was that. The authority understood that was an art-manifestation, so the artists could go home. The government is now painting the wall with grey paint as they usually do every week.
Photos by JuGranjeia:
Here’s something from Hera for you to think about:
I’ll be back from FAME Festival on Monday.
PS, I can’t wait to see what Herakut paint for The Thousands.
I don’t want to hype this up too much, but last weekend I had a really enjoyable time at Nuart in Stavanger and I can’t believe there aren’t more tourists flying out to see this festival. Here are a few pics.
This first pic is by me, the rest are by Ian Cox.
And Logan Hicks made this cool time lapse animation of David Choe and DVS painting:
Princess Hijab has been getting around. After a mention on Wooster Collective a few days ago, she’s also done this piece.
Before:
After:
There is definitely something to be said for Princess Hijab’s distinct and provacative style. A critique of Islam, the fashion industry, or a bit of both?
Photos by Antoine Breant
I’m so happy to see how far along this guy has come in such a short period of time. He truly is one of the great artists of our generation and I’m so excited to see where he goes next. Just wish I still had those wheatpastes we pinned to the wall of our first art show back in 2006!
Months late, I’ve finally uploaded all the photos from my 3 week holiday traveling through Europe in June/July to flickr. You can see the full set of street art photos here, but I thought it would be fun to pick out a few highlights.
First, Venice. The Swimming Cities were gone this time I was in Venice, but the Biennale was still on, and Miranada July’s sculptures deserve a mention. Here’s a photo of me with one of July’s sculptures.
And if anybody knows who painted this piece, let me know. It was also in Venice:
But most of the street art I found was in Berlin. Here’s some of that:
So a week or two ago Know Hope says to me that he has a secret project in the works. Something about taking over an abandoned house. Sounded like a great idea, but I wasn’t sure if anything would actually come of it. Turns out, Know Hope and his friends were further along than I realized. The project, now called Kindred Times and Future Goodbyes, was well underway. In fact, it’s going to be opening at a secret location in Tel Aviv on Saturday. This is what street art is about.
KINDRED TIMES AND FUTURE GOODBYES
This Saturday
12.9.2009, 17:30-20:30An Exhibition in abandoned house in the form of a collaborative effort between : Foma <3, Klone, Know Hope, Zero Cents.
This exhibition came to life as a natural extension of the constant collaborative creation of the group.
The location is secret on account of legality issues and therefore will be announced at noon time, on the day of the opening.
The exhibition is located in a derelict building that has been abandoned for many years,and was once used for residence. The building remained texture-ridden and saturated with old memories, memories which the artists translate into present time through their artistic interpretation.
The wall paintings are a new periodic layer of paint that add on to the already existing peeled layers of time. The artists use these longstanding layers, which represent remains of personal stories and traces of memories, absorbing the existing textures and inhabiting the building with their artistic and contemporary interpretation.Although the new layer of paint created for this exhibition is soon to become covered with new layers of a renovated building, it is added to a pool of memories which can’t be evaded and enriches it, when it is bound to be preserved between layers of past and future times.
The location and further details to be announced on www.kindredtimes.blogspot.com
The artists have been prepping the building recently. Here’s a couple pics (plus the Zero Cents piece above is part of the show):
