Last June, the first edition of MURAL festival took place on boulevard Saint-Laurent, in the heart of Montreal. Beside this official and stunning event (covered here, here and here), a group of women street artists created a non-event, called Off-MuralES, all based on illegal artistic actions. The collective was created by Lilyluciole, Zola, Stela, Wall of femmes, Harpy and Camille Larrivée, and joined by 52HZ and Zuzu. When I asked Lilyluciole to explain me the logic of this Off, this is what she told me:
“Regarding Off-muralES, it is composed only of women street artists. However, the initial motivations for participating in this group are different for each of us. We share the same values: anti-racism, anti-corporatism and feminism. I think we all try to assert our presence as women artists in the streets of Montreal while remaining as independent as possible. Regarding illegal street art, yes we claim this expression over all. In addition, the Off-muralES was created in reaction to MURAL Festival to offer an alternative vision of street art closest to social realities in which most of us live.”
Here are some illegal street art works from some of the collective’s members, Lilyluciole, Stela, 52Hz and Zola. You can now follow their work and action here.
A note from the editor: This is a guest post by Dave Nolionsinengland of Shoreditch Street Art Tours. Few people know London’s street art and graffiti better than Dave, so I’m glad he’s offered to let us in on Jonesy. – RJ Rushmore
The single artist no one has ever heard of who most thrills guests on the Shoreditch Street Art Tours is Jonesy from East London.
Jonesy is not just about the good idea, it’s the good ideology, for he is committed to raising the alarm over the harm we do to our planet and our children’s future in our extraction of energy.
What really gets chins bouncing off the pavement is Jonesy’s execution, he commonly works in cast bronze with a level of detail, colour and beauty that is awe-inspiring.
The first Jonesy we see is the 2012 “Grieving Oil”, a stunning two coloured casting of a beaked bird mounted on top of a redundant sign post. However, there is often debate over whether this is a bird as it appears to have a mane and Jonesy sometimes uses mythological creatures to make his point.
Then come a series of small bronze dishes whose mounting on the walls at around chest height indicates supreme confidence in the strength of his adhesive, more than one visitor would have tried to pry the casting off the wall if there was any suggestion of weakness.
Jonesy’s sculptural enterprises don’t end with the fancy bronze, a few weeks ago off the beaten track on a tour we found a series of silvery figures cast into the ends of a partially demolished wall.
It looks like he made a mould and slapped some plaster onto the bricks, formed some gargoyle faces with the moulds then painted the end result silver. So long as artists are prepared to do this kind of installation, street art lives!
Jonesy also places original paintings on very heavy stock paper on the streets, again bleakly depicting the environmental Armageddon awaiting the environment.
This kind of work done with purpose, beauty and given to the people without seeking the permission of any property owners embodies the glorious spirit of raw and wild street art.
November, 2011- Dscreet, Adam, add their art to the original piece by El flyer, Simo, Produkt, Leeny, Other, Labrona, Gawd, Giver, Nixon.
When I started to hunt Montreal illegal street art, it appeared to me that a city is not static as usual people can think it. When you look closer, you can observe the walls change by the art that sticks on them. I was able to see the evolution of the streets and in the same time I saw ordinary places becoming amazing spots. When an artist, or a group of artists take over a wall, a door, and make it themselves, they give a soul to the city. Below you will see the transformation of some pieces whether completed or fixed. Interestingly, from a collective action or an individual one, it results that the urban environment is likely to be changed and magnified. The walls are for everyone but some of them exclusively belong to some artists. Hope they stay like this!
Editor’s note: I’m excited to have this guest post by Dave Nolionsinengland. Dave is a photographer, blogger, tour guide and one of my favorite street art people in London. – RJ
Street art is at its best when it is unexpected, uncurated and just there for the hell of it, no commercial agenda at all. London is currently blessed with the ultimate in ephemeral street art courtesy of Francisco de Pajaro, it’s rubbish, literally. A collection of bin bags, some discarded cardboard boxes or other dumped detritus, a wash of paint and marker pen and trash is transformed into street art. This is “Art Is Trash” by Francisco.
We chanced across “Art Is Trash” at work in Shoreditch last Sunday, un-fazed by the scrutiny of visitors and photography workshop camera fiddlers alike. The Art Is Trash figures look a bit worried, intimidated, perhaps scared of our hostility towards them. de Pajaro’s figures humanise the trash. We despise the rubbish we create, we can’t get rid of it quick enough so his figures draw attention to our relationship with the final step in the life cycle of consumer products. At the same time Francisco is directing our attention to the disposability of art, literally all art is doomed, it IS trash.
This art has a tendency to act like a magnet for other dumped crap, it’s a wonderful metaphor for huge swathes of the gallery world, isn’t it? The trash then gets cleaned up by the bin men pretty quick. de Pajaro is putting his street art out with the bins and it barely lasts a day. That’s perfect street art.
It’s not just anthropomorphization though, we love his bin bag lizard. He also finds cracks in our buildings, little nook and crannies which he fills with stick figures. He doesn’t hang around, he just gets in there and does it.
Ryan Seslow is an artist and professor in New York. I asked him to write this guest post about his experiences bringing street art and graffiti into the college classroom. Hopefully it will help to inspire others to do the same. – RJ
Street Art & Graffiti has entered the college and university level. It was long overdue. At both Long Island University (Post campus) and this coming year at CUNY York College students earn 3 credits towards their degree requirements in the areas of art history, studio art, or as an art elective. “The History & Emergence of Street Art & Graffiti” is the title of the course that I created and began teaching at LIU Post in 2010. One may think that the course would have trouble with enrollment at a University on the North Shore of Long Island, but this is quite the contrary. The course has booked solid every summer since it has been offered. I started teaching at the college level in 2003 simultaneously between 4 colleges and universities here in the NYC area.
Bringing this subject and content to the college level did take some time and convincing, but not with the students, it was more with my peers, administrators and colleagues. Even rallying support and over all approval for a course of such nature took even more time, but here we are 3.5 years strong and only building and expanding. As a graffiti writer, artist putting his works in public spaces, and an art professor, the state accreditation aspect of the course is important to me. There are a few schools and programs out there that offer workshops in both street art and graffiti, and they are fantastic. Being able to earn actual credit towards one’s chosen degree requirements validates the importance of the content itself as an emerging art movement of value contributing to the “art world” in the realm of academia. I’m passionate about graffiti and street art, it is the core of my inspiration as an artist. As an art educator, I feel it is my responsibility to bring that passion into my classroom to share and instill its energy into my students. We just completed one of the most productive, collaborative and energetic classes of my teaching career to date. The course at LIU is a 1-week intensive course. The class is offered in July and runs from 9AM-6PM Monday-Friday.
I carefully curated this course, and have been micro testing and interweaving the content into all of my classes for the last 10 years. Keeping students engaged and excited is a huge part of my teaching strategy, and I’m lucky to have a multidisciplinary studio based workload of courses that I teach. Street art and graffiti are always a topic of interest, whether it’s drawing, painting, sculpture, print-making, graphic design, or art history based courses, my passion for the content, its history, and techniques always comes through. In the classroom, the students will find themselves switching regularly between slide and video based lectures, technical demonstrations, museum and gallery visits, guest artist presentations, and hands on collaborative art making experiences. This results in an over stimulating experience filled with retained use value, plus the generation of several new pieces of both collaborative and individual works. Students create a network of new colleagues in a communal course like this. Having guest artists frequent the courses is of huge importance. All of guests are highly respected in the movements for their prolific styles and commitment to their work. Best part of all, these are warm and open people, their process and love for their craft is transparent. If that is not contagious enough, I don’t know what is. Hearing their unique personal stories inspires motivation beyond one’s expectations. This course has filled to capacity every summer since 2010. I don’t have to convince anyone to take the course, and 90% of the students that do are not street or graffiti artists. People are inspired by the movements of street art and graffiti, and I’m taking about adults older than 20 years of age. This particular class that just ended had an average age range of 28 – 40 plus. Continue reading “Teaching graffiti history and practice”
With just a few days in town left, I decided to make my Thursday a whirlwind tour through Rochester, and now that I am sitting here thinking about it, I have a feeling that Friday will be much of the same.
I started off my day almost exactly like I did on Wednesday, by checking out the progress on the Daleast mural. I was impressed by the progress that I saw but Dal still had a big section of the wall that he needed to bang out. I was told Thursday evening that the wall is complete and that I had to go see the mural in the morning.
Gaia in progress
My travels then brought me all around town, specifically the South Wedge section of Rochester. The South Wedge is where cashril plus, Gaia, Conor Harrington, Freddy Sam, Thievin’ Stephen, Cern, Mike Ming, and Adam Francy all have murals. It was really cool to see cashril plus’ mural being that the dude is still in his mid teens! Look out for this guy as he progresses though life. He has the right genes being that he is Faith47’s son.
After a quick lunch it was back into the abandoned subway tunnel to try to catch Roa finishing his North American Skunk. While I was unsuccessful in this venture, I was able to catch some graffiti legends rocking a sick piece. Daze, Binho, and Pose2 rocked a sick wall towards of the end of the natural light in the tunnel; the burner, if you will, is a sick blend of old school letters and characters, my favorite!
Pose2 in progressPose2 and BinhoPose2, Binho and Daze
Wise2 from Kenya then came down and rocked a throwie as I called it. His combination of stencils and freehand spray painting brought his African mask to life in under an hour!
Another highlight was getting to see local FUA Krew member Cruk rock a sick burner. I am much better versed in the “Street Art” game so whenever I can get a writer to teach me more about graffiti and train painting culture I am always excited. Cruk spent about a day on his burner, which includes found object that are sprayed and then used as part of the installation. While he may not be an official part of the Wall\Therapy team it is easy to see that the locals are pretty down with the cause.
Cruk
After a quick run to check out the finished Freddy Sam mural, it was off the see LNY as he continued on his wall. Lunar New Year was in the zone when I showed up and I didn’t want to distract the man.
LNY in progressLNY in progress
Martha Cooper then me if I’d been to Ever’s wall, and it was at this point which I realized that I had not seen it yet! My timing could not have been better. He had about 30 minutes of work left and I was able to spend that time on the lift with him as he finished a few details on the wall.
Ever in progress
The mural is beautiful and kind of trippy, and if you know anything about me you would know that I dig on that combination. The wall itself is very wide and for someone with only an iPhone and an almost nice camera it was fairly difficult to shoot. Hope you like my picstitch!
After visiting Ever’s wall it was off for another night of dinner, drinking, and dancing. This time it included a late night bonfire with local artists, score!
I woke up on Day 3 feeling good, I had just been published in my two favorite blogs, I got a good night’s sleep, and I was preparing for a day of driving around the city of Rochester!
My first stop was to check on the progress of the Dal wall. Daleast had certainly progressed but he still had much work to do. I hung for a little but figured I would come back when he is done so I can get some good shots for the people.
My next spot was the Rochester Public Market, which serves as the headquarters for Wall\Therapy. Here I was able to capture some really sweet Instagram videos of Dal and Faith’s walls from past Wall\Therapies. Both of their old walls are easily 100 feet long and could only be captured by stop motion video.
Freedom
From there it was on to the abandoned subway tunnel in downtown Rochester, which of course is within walking distance of my hotel! I had already figured out that Rochester is a pretty special place, but if there is one significantly more amazing spot in town it has to be the abandoned subway tunnel. The first thing I noticed when entering the space was that getting in was easy as all hell. You often hear about cool spots that require a bit of ninja skills or at least some huevos to get in to, however, this entrance was a downward sloping inclined plane, my favorite!
FreedomHow and Nosm tag
The first Wall\Therapy piece I noticed was from the artist Freedom, a large piece of Bazooka bubble gum. The entire area is covered in burners, tags, rollers, and pieces, but the cartoonish yet realistic approach to the fake advertisement of gum really made the piece stand out. After entering the tunnel you are greeted by graffiti as far as the eyes can see, it is truly an amazing sight.
Roa in progress
The reason I was traveling into the tunnel was because I was told that Roa was in there doing a semi-legal piece, turns out I was a bit wrong, he was indeed there but he had permission to paint in the tunnel. The rest of my afternoon consisted of watching Roa paint his North American Squirrel as well as seeing him execute the highest roller piece I have ever seen. The piece is not done yet, Roa plans on adding some “funk” coming out of the skunk’s rear end today, should be pretty sweet. Also, thanks for the signed can dude!
Roa in progressRoa in progressRoa
After the sun went down it was off to the Yard’s building for another artists’ dinner. Again everything was great! Dancing on the fire escape with LNY, Roa, Labrona, and Martha Cooper may be a memory I’ll never forget.
Chris Stain in progress
Before bed I took one last ride over to Chris Stain’s wall, which since last night had been painted and painted over by the artist. Chris said he got half way through the first mural, posted yesterday, and realized he didn’t like it. I think I have to agree with Chris and say that I prefer the new wall as well. Here is a shot of it in progress, a final shot should be easy to get since @LeeHalfPenny had to leave in the morning. More from the Roc tomorrow!
I was told yesterday by local superhero @MagnusApollo that the government of Rochester truly believes that its community really loves driving everywhere. While the locals might protest to this idea and insist they would prefer a more congruent and efficient system of transportation, I just ignore everyone and walk. I began yesterday by not heeding my own advice, and taking a “quick jaunt” over to Faith47’s amazing new mural in downtown Rochester.
Faith47 for Wall\Therapy 2011
Faith47 is a person whom I look up to both artistically and personally. I consider her and her husband DALeast to be close friends and anytime I can get some quality time with their respective brains I dive right in. Faith’s wall came together almost in the blink of an eye, and it is stunning. The wall itself and the bridge above are some of the most beautifully aged textures I have ever seen, and somehow Faith made them even more amazing. Her mural, “sic semper erat, et sic semper erit” or “Thus has it always been, and thus shall it ever be” is a beautiful mural left for the people of Rochester, and based on the number of dramatic 90 degree head turns I saw yesterday I think they like it already.
DALeast for Wall\Therapy 2011
My next move was to go see Faith’s other half DALeast get started on his mural (final shots coming soon). I took the advice of a local who said, “sure you can walk there, it’s pretty close!” It was not pretty close, but hey I can always stand to lose a little off the hammy thighs. When I arrived at Dal’s wall he was just about to start his outline, which was an amazing thing for me to watch. In all the times I have got to hang with Dal I never have gotten to see him paint. I was interested in the process that eventually leads to his amazing 3-D design. Much like a lot of painters, Dal starts with basic lines to get his spacing and placement right. Simplistic, well thought out, and an almost ninja like efficiency define the start of Dal’s murals. Again my presence was not helping the progress of Mr. East’s wall so after getting some much needed life advice and votes of confidence from the man I decided to press on.
Chris Stain in progress
The rest of my day consisted of me being passed around the Wall\Therapy crew like the proverbial doobie. Making friends is one of my specialties and I have met some really great souls already in my two days here. The staffing for this great festival has been super on point, extremely welcoming, and more organized then I could have imagined! Highlights from the afternoon and evening include checking out the progress of Gaia’ mural (pictures coming soon), seeing Adam Francy’s wall, meeting Mr. Prvrt and seeing his two animal murals, getting some stickers tagged for my 228 collections, and of course the soon to be infamous #LiftFlood #LiftProblems surrounding Chris Stain’s mural. Just a piece of advice, if you think you flooded your lift’s engine, make sure you actually have the gas turned on, it really helps starting the engine.
It seems like all of my friends are up in Rochester at the moment for Wall\Therapy, the mural festival organized by the fantastic Dr. Ian Wilson. I was hoping to go up myself, but instead Caroline and I will be going to Living Walls in Atlanta next month. Daniel “Halopigg” Weintraub is at Wall\Therapy, and he’s been kind enough to share some photos and thoughts with us. For more up the the minute updates, you can keep an eye on Daniel’s instagram. – RJ Rushmore
I arrived in Rochester Monday afternoon and it did not take too long for me to find murals from last year’s Wall\Therapy by renowned artists Roa, Herakut, and Faith47. I checked in as quickly as possible and decided to hit the streets. I popped in the homies LNY and Cern’s coordinates and realized that it was going to a lot easier for me to walk to Cern’s wall, and being a man of constant efficiency I decided that was to be my first stop of the week.
Cern in progress
Cern, aka Cernesto, aka CernYMI, aka CernTWD, was just getting started on his mural and my presence did not help the early progress. With some artists I just like to sit and watch but when Cern is painting the undiagnosed ADD just comes out in both of us. We chilled for a bit but I figured I needed to let the man get to work so I hitched a ride from a nice volunteer over the LNY’s mural across town.
It was at this point when I realized I have a car, and I should be driving my own self around! It is just my instincts to put my car away and forget it when I get to an urban environment; just a heads up, there seems to be ample parking in the ROC as they like to call it here.
LNY in progress
LNY, or Lunar New Year, was stationed in a very residential urban community, and his mural reflects that. In the early stages of his mural you can see Corinthian columns “holding up” the windows of the house, along with images of Trayvon Martin, and Frederick Douglass. LNY has a knack for connecting and communicating with his surroundings, with this mural being no exception. I am very excited to see the progress of this wall, especially since the community has shown such an embrace for the work in the short time it has been up. I can’t tell you the number of honks, thumbs up, and shouts I heard yesterday in the hour and a half that I was there. Community improvement though art is what Wall\Therapy is all about and it is really nice to see it in action.
Following LNY’s completion for the night we hitched a ride to dinner where the entire team of “Wall Therapists” convened for a night of food, drinks, and dancing. The project is off to a great start! Hats off to Ian and his team, you’ve already succeeded in my book!
Ricky Lee Gordon aka Freddy Sam in progressMr. PrvrtAdam Francey in progress
