I was a little late to do some work for the exhibit, but I got to paint a room at the wonderful Critica Urbana festival when I returned from Madrid. The building that the exhibit is currently being held is a remarkably inspiring squat that has been functioning as a cultural center, bar, workshop and living space. The curators and organizers of the show had one room that had no installations so I decided that I would try to do something in the small bathroom.
Since I had a flight in the morning the next day I started painting at around 10pm and was able to finish at around 7am in time to take a shower and meet up with my dad to visit the Prada museum before going to the airport. The installation that I painted decided itself as the work proceeded in an improvisational fashion since I really didn’t know what I was going to do with the space.
The piece ended up being a warped version of the bear image that I have been working with as of late. It wrapped around three walls, the ceiling and the floor and emanated from a small seat in the opposite corner of the room facing the viewer. The image was abstracted until one sat in the corner and received the proper perspective. A drawing above the sink with the knife and pencil inside its basin, provided a reference of the image when entering the room.
the room prior to the installation
The final product from the seat in the corner of the room.
Thank you to the wonderfully kind and generous people at Critica Urbana. I’m so appreciative of their being down for the last minute arrangements. It was pretty down and dirty
This is pretty exciting. According to nola.com, there is an original Banksy piece on display at the New Orleans Museum of Art. The piece is a canvas with the Nola girl image and pink rain.
Last night I came across a post of Art of The State which sums up a major problem in street art in such a way that I just have to share the entire post. You can read the post, titled “Stop Thief! / the other Banksy show,” over at Art of The State, but for the benefit of Vandalog’s email subscribers who might not want to bother clicking on a link outside of their email client or are reading this on a phone or something, I’ve also reposted the entire article below. Thanks to Steve for letting me repost it (and going to the Banksy show in Covent Garden so that none of the rest of us have to).
Stop Thief! / the other Banksy show
One problem thats come out of the rise in the popularity of street art is that work that used to be left to survive on its own (either ending up being removed by the property owner or gone over with other graffiti – both of which are fine by me) is now having to die a slow, undignified death above someones fireplace. Street art is meant to be on the streets (the clues in the title). ‘Street art’ removed from the streets becomes, well, just ‘art’. I’m not talking about copies of street pieces that are meant to be sold and displayed. I’m talking about the peel off carefully, chisel out of the wall brigade. Case in point this was the scene in Brick Lane this afternoon. Walking around a corner I stumbled on this not too stereotypical street art ‘liberator’ carefully peeling off a fresh paste up. She then proceeded to roll it up, stuff it in a bag and then made her (slightly shaky) getaway in the direction of the 24 hour bagel shop (the best place in London for all your Bagel needs). It’s not exactly a crime but it would be much better if it was left there for others to enjoy.
A bit later on in the afternoon and against my better judgement I had a look at the totally unofficial show of ‘reclaimed’ Banksy work in Covent Garden. Walking up to it and even walking around it you’d be hard pressed to determine that Banksy would have had nothing to do with this show (his verification agency ‘Pest Control’ famously always refuses to authenticate street pieces). Most of the work on display has been lifted off the streets over recent years. Large sections of walls, doors and plaster are amongst the pieces that make up the exhibition. It’s a very soulless look at some of his work with a totally different vibe to the Bristol exhibition. In fact it has no vibe at all. Simple labels next to pieces tell you nothing, not even the city the works have been taken from. Banksy’s street pieces are all about the context of where they are placed and in this empty whitewashed hall they lose an important part of their reasons for existence. I actually thought that Andipa Modern’s recent Banksy show was better than this – it was an unofficial show too but at least the work they had on display at the last one was pretty much exclusively never placed on the street. That’s not meant as an endorsement of Andipa in case you were wondering.
This sign summed up the whole seedy enterprise for me…my advice is don’t buy anything here – it’ll only encourage them to do it again. Don’t bother with this sorry show and get yourself down to Bristol if you can….
ABOVE (interviewed) continues his trip throughout Europe with a stop in Berlin, Germany, making his mark on the Berlin Wall a little over 20 years after Ronald Regan made his historic speech at Brandenburg Gate stating, “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Here are some detailed photos ABOVE’s massive word/play piece and how he marked the anniversary of the bridge to this divide.
Check out the rest of the pics and see the video here.
Hi there, my name is Alison Young, and I write Images to Live By, a blog about street art. I’m also an academic at the University of Melbourne, and I’m in middle of writing a book about street art and street artists in a number of cities around the world. Thanks, RJ, for inviting me to do a guest post for Vandalog.
So I’m based in Melbourne, Australia, where there is a huge and diverse street art scene. RJ suggested that it might be interesting for Vandalog readers if I could write about street art in Australia… There’s way too much to cover in one or two posts, but I can certainly introduce people to some of the most interesting artists here at the moment.
One of these is Meggs. I’ve written a little bit on Images to Live By about Meggs, because there are many resonances between his work and that of the British artist D*Face and the Australian artist now living in New York, Anthony Lister, both of whom may be better known to you than Meggs. All three of those artists are interested in the connections between superheroes, masculinity, money and popular culture, and all three use their media to re-present comic strip figures as being in crisis or under stress (click here if you want to read more about this and here for a link to Meggs’s website for more info about his work).
Up till now, Meggs has probably not been too well known outside Australia, but folks in LA are about to get an opportunity to see his work, in a show entitled ‘Crime and Charity’ at Cerasoli Gallery in Culver City.
Here’s a brief description from the gallery about the show:
“In 2007 Australia’s Victorian State Government passed the ‘Graffiti Prevention Act’. This legislation extended the government’s zero tolerance approach to Graffiti and provided police new authority to search any person, vehicle or object they suspect to possess a graffiti implement, within close proximity of public transport.
Ironically, this legislation was passed while Tourism Victoria was using Graffiti and street art to promote Melbourne Tourism on television and web advertisements. Melbourne’s laneways are a big drawcard for tourism and it is undeniable that the diverse artwork is part of the city’s broader cultural appeal.
Graffiti and street art will never disappear. Despite the State Government’s negativity, there are well documented social contributions and benefits provided by many artists, cultural tourism being one. Unfortunately these are only recognised when it is conveniently leveraged for commercial gain.
‘Crime & Charity’ depicts the frustration Meggs feels in the face of this hypocrisy. The characters depicted in his artwork are hybrids of guilt and innocence, both frustrated and persecuted for being part of a culture that is simultaneously celebrated and condemned.”
The work of Melbourne-based artists Ghostpatrol and Miso is very different from that of Meggs, but just as Meggs’s work has been a huge part of making Melbourne’s street art scene what it is today (Meggs is part of the Everfresh crew, famous for putting up all over the city’s buildings), so has that of Miso and Ghospatrol. These two artists have worked in galleries and on the streets for the last several years. Their work primarily uses the skills of drawing and cutting: they create meticulously drawn figures often reminiscent of childhood fairytales. These are sometimes drawn onto unusual surfaces, like a row of pencils (Ghostpatrol, click on this link and scroll down to see some examples) or painted on to a wall like this:
Miso creates beautiful paste-ups, with intricate cut-out sections, on to a wall or a flat piece of wood. Her work sometimes reminds people of the images made by Swoon and Elbow Toe, but I think there are also really interesting evocations of fin-de-siecle artists like Egon Schiele in the magnificently textured images: have a look at Miso’s website for some images of her work.
Ghostpatrol and Miso work both individually and together, and have made paste-ups from photographs of themselves wearing fox masks to disguise their identities – hundreds of these paste-ups appeared around certain areas of Melbourne for a while, a wonderful expression of the street artist as fox (a creature of cunning and stealth which visits the city at night).
From foxes to bushrangers: one of the most famous figures in Australian history and iconography is the bushranger Ned Kelly, a 19th century outlaw figure hunted and eventually hanged by the Melbourne authorities. The artist Ha Ha (also known as Regan Tamanui) has said, ‘Street artists are the bushrangers of the 21st century’, because of the challenge to authority represented by illicit street art. Ha Ha’s work has been hugely important in defining the nature of street art in Melbourne, especially in the early 2000s, thanks to the prevalence of his stencils all over the city. Check out his website to get a sense of his work. He has a particular fondness for robot figures, but he is also interested in celebrity and notoriety:
In this image you can see a portrait stencilled behind the bars over a section of the wall in this laneway (Hosier Lane). The face is that of Mario Condello, an individual thought to be involved in Melbourne’s gangland wars, and who is represented here by Ha Ha in the same way that he stencilled his famous portrait of that other outlaw, Ned Kelly:
Image taken from Ha Ha's myspace site.
I’ll end by going back to where I started, with Meggs’s show in LA, which draws attention to the paradox of the state government here creating harsh new laws against graffiti and street art at the same time as it seeks to make money out of it by using images of street art in its tourism ads. All of the artists I’ve mentioned risk these penalties every time they put up on the street, as is the case in most countries of course. But as you can see from the way that these Australian artists are representing themselves – as struggling superheroes, as foxes and outlaws – we are being given these fantastic images at a high cost: the weight of illegality upon the artists.
I Love Graffiti reports that Iz The Wiz, one of the legendary graffiti writers featured in both the film Style Wars and the book Subway Art, has passed away. Snort This says that Iz died on the 17th of June of a heart attack. You can’t help but admire this guy. He wrote until the day he died.
It seems that a number of street artists have taken to referencing Damien Hirst’s spot paintings in their work. These are just three examples.
Paintings by Beejoir. Photo by nolionsinengland
Painting by Banksy (and Hirst). Photo by Sabeth718Painting by Blek le Rat. Photo by WallKandy
The other night, a friend of mine was trying to argue that of these Blek’s painting is most the important street art piece about Hirst, closely followed by Beejoir’s series, followed by Banksy’s. His argument is that Blek and Beejoir did their paintings long before Banksy did his, and so the Hirst reference is old hat now. In addition, this friend sees this as just another time that Banksy has made a stencil that Blek did better and way before Banksy.
If I had to order those three pieces in terms of importance, I would actually go in the exact opposite order as my friend.
Blek le Rat’s piece, especially when thinking about Hirst, is almost inconsequential. As Blek explained this piece to me, it’s about how it is time for conceptual art to step aside and how it is street art’s turn to be important in the larger art world. Makes sense, but then it’s not really about Hirst. Hirst is just used as a reference point. He’s the best known conceptual artist, so naturally Blek includes Hirst in his piece declaring the death of conceptual art, but only so that people understand better what Blek is painting about. Also, Blek’s piece just didn’t get the attention that the work by either Beejoir or Banksy got. It was a one time image, and not a particularly well known piece in that show (his 2008 solo with Black Rat Press). Beejoir turned his spots into a recognizable series just as Hirst did, and Banksy’s is in his Bristol Museum where it is hidden among other paintings by famous painters. I think what Blek has to say is important, but just not that important in terms of Hirst specifically and Hirst’s spots.
Beejoir’s series of spot paintings really said something that everybody else was thinking about conceptual art and Hirst in particular: “Hey, I could do that!” Also, it’s a great party trick. Hang one of those painting on your wall and see who spots what’s wrong with it. They were a series, so lots of people know about them, which adds to the work’s importance. And also, the work directly targets Hirst.
And then there is Banksy’s piece. It is done on an actual original Hirst spot painting. That, to me, puts it miles above the others. Banksy has said flat out “This ‘art,’ if it is art and not just wallpaper, is no more important than mine. If my work gets painted over, then Hirst should have the same privilege.” To me, that’s a much more important message than either Blek le Rat or Beejoir’s piece (plus, I think that Beejoir’s point is contained within Banksy’s painting as well since many art collectors might say “Hey. Anybody could do that and it’s not proper art!” about stencils and simple graffiti).
What do other people think, and do you know any other street artists who have been referencing Hirst and conceptual art in their work (this is another fav of mine)?
I recently had a chance to visit the Venice Biennale, and guess what my favorite work there was: The Swimming Cities of Serenissima. This incarnation of The Swimming Cities is Swoon’s third rafting project. In 2006 and 2007, the Miss Rockaway Armada floated down the Mississippi River. Last summer, The Swimming Cities of The Switchback Sea floated the Hudson River. And now the three rafts taking part in The Swimming Cities of Serenissima are docked in Venice.
My dad and I arrived in Venice on Saturday the 6th of June. After eating some lunch (amazingly good pizza), we went to the Arsenale, one of the two main exhibition areas for the Biennale. We got about half way through it that day, and not too much caught my eye. I mean, who really cares about a room full of walking canes?
That evening, we took at water bus to the island of Certosa. That’s where Swoon’s rafts are docked. The rafts and a crew of about 30 artists and performers made it all the way from Slovenia over the course of about 2 weeks.
There was no mistaking these rafts. As soon as we saw the dock, my dad and I could tell that we were in the right place. They look like beautiful floating shanty towns. We took some photos while it was still light, then headed onto the island where Dark Dark Dark (official band of trip) were preparing to play a short set before the main performance.
Dark Dark Dark is the perfect band for this project. I’d only heard their songs on myspace and was pretty intrigued, but the set they played was shockingly good and set the mood perfectly for what we were about to see on the boats, which we headed back to when Dark Dark Dark had finished playing.
While the rest of the crew was eating their dinner. Nona, a member of Dark Dark Dark, let us on board one of the boats and have a look around. Ol’ Hickory, the boat that Swoon and her team built in Slovenia from scraps they found there, was full of weird little things that they crew had found over the last few weeks of building and floating. The attention to detail isn’t immediately evident. There are little designs and papercuts that can’t be seen except if you are standing at one or two specific points on the raft. There’s even one of Swoon’s original linoleum blocks. We were booted off the boat after a few minutes when the crew started to prepare for that night’s performance and we found spots on the dock to watch from.
Swoon’s boat projects have always had a performance aspect, and Venice was no different. Instead of a stage, the show would be performed from the boats, with every single crew member having a role, and instead of seats for the audience, we stood on the dock. The three rafts were all docked right next to each other, and a crowd packed the dock in front of them.
The performance isn’t easy to explain, and there will hopefully be a video of the entire thing at some point so here’s a few photos and a short clip. I will say that Dark Dark Dark (plus crew member Harrison) provide a soundtrack to the show and it takes places across all three rafts. And it is absolutely amazingly beautiful, interesting, and at times funny.
After the show, we stood around for a while talking to the crew and even got the chance to meet Swoon. The we took Stinky, their fishing boat, back to Venice because the water buses weren’t running that late. On the way back, we met a few of the other audience members who had come to Venice to see the show. They were friends of Swoon’s from New York (including the model for this piece), and that seemed pretty typical of the crowd there. That realization about the audience and the fact that they arrived for the Biennale made me think the entire thing was a bit contrived and less organic than the last few boat trips, but nonetheless, it was an amazing journey that the crew were on.
On Sunday, my dad and I once again explored some of the main exhibits at the Biennale, but none compared the last night’s performance (except maybe the sculptures by Miranda July)
Then around 5:30 I checked twitter and saw that the Swimming Cities rafts were at the Arsenale. We got over there as quickly as possible, but it was too late. The exhibit space was closed and they wouldn’t let us to the dock. We wouldn’t have been able to see the rafts anyway because, as Mike and Sarah from Black Rat Press soon told us (they had ridden over to the Arsenale on the rafts), somebody had started shouting at them and cut the ropes tying the rafts to the dock, so they had headed back for Certosa.
Later that night, a large group of us went to Certosa for another performance by the Swimming Cities crew. It was another mesmerizing show, followed by chats with the crew.
Probably most interesting to this blog, I spoke with Imminent Disaster about her upcoming shows at Irvine Contemporary with Swoon, Gaia, Dalek and others (Martin Irvine was there with us enjoying the performance as well) and Ad Hoc Art with Gaia. I’ve had a number of people mention to me how much they loved her work at The Carmichael Gallery recently and I think she’s definitely an artist to keep an eye on.
Then, Mike, Sarah and I all took a midnight ride back to Venice on Ol’ Hickory. It was a completely mind-blowing experience. This raft SHOULD NOT FLOAT, but it does. Before we left the dock, our captain, Greg, said, “Now, this is the most people we’ve ever had on this raft at once, but don’t worry. We have enough life vests for everybody, and we should be fine so long as everybody does what I say.” So thanks to Captain Greg for getting us all back to Venice safely.
Here’s a video I took while we were on the raft of Spy, a crew member on Ol’ Hickory, talking about the trip:
And if this story doesn’t give you an idea of what Swoon is like in person, I don’t know what will: There’s a charity project that she and I might be working on together later in the year, but before Venice we’d only discussed it through intermediaries. I’d heard that she was excited about the project, but we hadn’t even discussed exactly what the project would entail. Then, as I’m getting off of Ol’ Hickory I shout “Hey! We need to talk about *****.” Within two minutes, the project is pretty much planned out. It was that easy, because she is just up for helping people.
So yeah. Amazing experience overall. Weekend of my life.
For more on Swoon and The Swimming Cities of Serenissima, check out these great videos and articles:
Everybody’s talking about Banksy‘s new exhibition, Banksy Versus The Bristol Museum, which runs from today until August 31st. I went for the preview last night, and so I thought I’d write a little run-through of the show.
The first thing you see when you walk into the museum is indeed that recreation of Banksy’s Glastonbury Stonehenge, photos of which leaked on Thursday. For me, it was Banksy’s attempt at mocking cliched museum exhibits. At least, that’s what I hope it is meant to be.
The next room is the main hall (or whatever you want to call it) of the museum. As you can see, the centerpiece of this room is a burted out ice cream van with a melted ice cream cone. A bit like the burnt out ice cream van at Cans Festival. Along the sides of the room, where you might expect to see statues of Bristol’s most historic figures, there are sculptures of a woman carrying shopping bags and a Buddha wearing a cast (recreating this stencil). At first glance, some of them, particularly the Buddha and the David (as a suicide bomber) fit in perfectly with the museums regular exhibits. Upon closer inspection of course, the works are classic Banksy. Although I doubt Banksy actually had much to do with making this statues beyond coming up with the idea, they are some of my favorite pieces in the show.
