Category: Photos

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Hanksy’s (bowel) movement trolls Trump

Hanksy outside of a polling place in South Carolina. Photo courtesy of Hanksy.
Hanksy outside of a polling place in South Carolina. Photo courtesy of Hanksy.

Today is the South Carolina Republican primary. So, of course, the political activist wing of the street art community is out in full force tackling the tough issues. Just kidding. But Hanksy and his Dump Across America team are driving across South Carolina trolling Trump and his fans with a suite of signs, banners, buttons, silly jumpsuits.

The Dump Across America Team on the road. Photo courtesy of Hanksy.
The Dump Across America Team on the road. Photo courtesy of Hanksy.

Dump Across America is a self-described “grassroots (bowel) movement.” According to Hanksy, “At this juncture, we have no other motives that fall outside of our ‘anybody but Trump’ approach. He’s a xenophobic reality TV star who is overly concerned with building a wall of mythical proportions. It’s not politics, it’s common sense.” Fair enough. Dump Across America may be the least controversial political movement in American history. Any yet… Trump is actually leading in the polls in South Carolina.

Hanksy in South Carolina. Photo courtesy of Hanksy.
Hanksy in South Carolina. Photo courtesy of Hanksy.

In addition to placing the anti-Trump lawn signs, Dump Across America attended two Trump rallies in South Carolina. They were spit at, threatened, and even kicked out of a rally in Myrtle Beach in the middle of The Donald’s speech. One particularly memorable rally interaction: according to Hanksy, “One woman pointed out her belief that wealth equaled intelligence, and the fact that we aren’t billionaires meant we were dumb f*cks.”

To catch the most up-to-date Dump Across America antics, follow Hanksynyc on Snapchat. To join the movement yourself, download Hanksy’s artwork from the Dump Across America website.

Photos courtesy of Hanksy

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The evolution of Philadelphia’s Northeast Rail Corridor

psychylustro by Katharina Grosse. Photo by Steve Weinik.
psychylustro by Katharina Grosse. Photo by Steve Weinik.

In the spring of 2014, the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program installed psychylustro, a multi-site artwork by Katharina Grosse, across sections of the Northeast Rail Corridor in Philadelphia. Grosse treated walls, warehouses, and even trees as her canvas. psychylustro‘s bold colors and brush strokes certainly changed the scenery for Amtrak commuters, and Hyperallergic described the work as “a mysterious, puzzling, and surprising presence.” But psychylustro was also an intervention at a site usually controlled by graffiti writers.

There was graffiti along the rail corridor before Mural Arts and Grosse got to work, and it’s no secret that psychylustro was tagged and bombed. For six months, Mural Arts regularly revisited the walls to apply fresh coats of neon paint. And then… they stopped, leaving psychylustro to the elements, the writers, and the buff.

The installation of Katharina Grosse's psychylustro. Photo by Steve Weinik.
The installation of Katharina Grosse’s psychylustro. Photo by Steve Weinik.

Although psychylustro did cover notable graffiti (including works by Retna, Nekst, Skrew, Curve, and Ntel), it also presented an opportunity: Before installation began, Mural Arts invited Martha Cooper to document the graffiti at the sites where psychylustro was going to be. And recently, a little over a year after Mural Arts stopped maintaining psychylustro, they sent photographer Steve Weinik to revisit the installation. The result is a likely unparalleled documentation of graffiti along the Philadelphia section of the Northeast Rail Corridor in 2014 and 2015.

One nice perk of working at Mural Arts is that I have access to those photos. Since I’m about to leave Mural Arts for New York City, it seems like the perfect time to show the evolution of the psychylustro walls, from the graffiti captured by Martha through to how they look today. The photo captions are incomplete, but hopefully useful nonetheless (thanks to NTEL and Air Rat for help with captions). Enjoy!

Sever, Skrew, Cense, Retna, and more. April 2014. Photo by Martha Cooper.
Sever, Skrew, Cense, Retna, and more. April 2014. Photo by Martha Cooper.

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Reviving an old favorite with “Dump Trump”

Photo by Herman Yung.
Photo by Herman Yung.

It should come as no surprise that anti-Trump street art and graffiti has begun to spring up. Hanksy got in on the game early with this mural from last summer. Now, the writers are chiming in with a huge DUMP TRUMP piece right next to Trump Place in Manhattan.

According to Gawker, the piece was painted by members of the TFS crew. What a lot of people seem to have missed so far is that this piece references the iconic DUMP KOCH train painted in 1982 by SPIN TFS in respond to New York Mayor Ed Koch’s war on graffiti. Here’s that train:

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Photo by Martha Cooper.

If you look closely next to the D in DUMP TRUMP, there’s a little message:

Photo by Herman Yung.
(cropped) Photo by Herman Yung.

So, whether or not the piece was painted by members of TFS, at least they gave it the green light.

What a beautiful way to update a classic! Who’s feeling inspired?

Photos by Herman Yung/Doobybrain.com and Martha Cooper

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600 climate change ad takeovers blanket Paris

Paul Insect
Paul Insect

This past Friday in Paris, over 600 posters by more than 80 artists and designers were installed in bus shelters managed by JCDecaux. The posters were installed on the occasion of the COP21 conference on climate change, which starts today. Participants in the campaign include Barnbrook, Bill Posters, Fra.Biancoshock, Jon Burgerman, Listen04, Paul Insect, Revolt Design, Stanley Donwood, Unga, and many more.

Seeing as JCDecaux is an official sponsor of the COP21 conference, it makes sense that they would open up their bus shelters to messages about climate change. Of course, that’s not what happened. This was an unauthorized action, a mass ad-takeover organized by Brandalism, who say that the posters “highlight the links between advertising, consumerism, fossil fuel dependency and climate change.”

Here’s a video of the action:

And of course, more posters:

Fra.Biancoshok
Fra.Biancoshok
Barnbrook
Barnbrook

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In Paris, Andreco illustrates the science of climate change

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Detail of CLIMATE01 by Andreco

Andreco completed a beautiful mural in Paris in the run up to the COP21 conference on climate change, which starts next week. Painted on a wall outside of the Richomme Primary School, the mural depicts the water cycle and the carbon cycle. Andreco has definitely given a major upgrade to the whiteboard doodles that high school Environmental Science teacher used to draw. He calls the piece CLIMATE01.

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Labrona’s roots: Trains, back alleys, and friends

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Labrona and Mathieu Connery.

It’s hard to not come back to Labrona‘s art. Not only because he is one of my favorite street artists ever, but also because he is one of those who continues to create the same way he has created since the beginning, year after year, for him, on the streets, on trains, with his friends. He continues to work and keeps up his generosity, without paying mind to changes that have disrupted the street art movement lately. For this, he should have the respect of all. Most importantly, he cherishes time spent creating with friends, because to create in the streets is also for him a real opportunity to share a good time with good friends. All the following pieces were done during last summer and fall, in Montreal and Toronto by Labrona with Troy Lovegates, Gawd, Monosourcil, Kim, Kat, Produkt and Mathieu Connery.

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Street art tackles the crisis for migrants

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A still from DE-FENCE. Image courtesy of DE-FENCE.

Earlier this week, two very different pieces of street art landed in my inbox within half an hour of each other. That’s not so strange. Plenty of people send me photos and videos every day. What was strange is that both pieces aim to shed light on the crisis facing the thousands upon thousands of people in the midst of international migration, and that both pieces were installed without authorization.

The first piece is by two of my favorite artists: John Fekner and Fra.Biancoshock. “Family Portrait ” (Displaced And On The Run…) is the first time these two artists have collaborated. Fekner comes from the first generation of contemporary street artists, putting up his first stencil in 1968. Biancoshock is a young Italian street artist making some of the most exciting interventions in public space today.

"Family Portrait " (Displaced And On The Run…)
“Family Portrait ” (Displaced And On The Run…). Photo courtesy of Fra.Biancoshock.

Fekner and Biancoshock have intentionally avoided saying where Family Portrait is located, but they do have a bit to say about why they did it:

Drawing on the spirit seen in Dorothea Lange’s photographic portrait documentation of rural poor families and migratory farm workers during the Great Depression, the artists’ intent is to create an empathetic reflection of the plight of the migrant; an intimate portrait of a family “left hung out to dry” and on the run.

While Fekner and Biancoshock’s intervention is quiet and meditative, a group of artists and activists in the Czech Republic have responded to the plight of the migrant with a very different energy.

A still from DE-FENCE. Image courtesy of DE-FENCE.
A still from DE-FENCE. Image courtesy of DE-FENCE.

The DE-FENCE collective has made their presence felt at detention center (a former prison) in the Czech village of Drahonice. The detention center currently houses refugees that were caught by the Czech authorities. The refugees are incarcerated indefinitely and watched over by up to 100 guards, and each refugee is charged $275 a month for the privilege. On September 28th, Czech Statehood Day, DE-FENCE visited the detention center, which they compare to a concentration camp. DE-FENCE brought with them a can of paint and some bolt cutters. Here’s what happened:

Now, the heart-shaped section of fencing that they cut out of the detention center is going to be auctioned off, with all profits going towards “grassroots refugee aid activities.” The starting price is 10,000 euros. If you’re interested in buying the object, contact de-fence@riseup.net.

The DE-FENCE object. Image courtesy of DE-FENCE.
The DE-FENCE object. Image courtesy of DE-FENCE.

PS, in case you missed it, Banksy also recycled materials from Dismaland for use in the camps in Calais, and then someone stole the sign.

Photos courtesy of Fra.Biancoshock and DE-FENCE

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Tour in the Bay with Troy Lovegates

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Zio Zegler. San Francisco, SoMa.

“Travel broadens the mind.” Well I really hope that’s true! I had the chance to spend a few days in the Bay area, which gave me another opportunity to continue my favorite activity: urban exploration. As a European, it’s a bit risky to show my own vision of America’s urban environment, and express feelings that could be misunderstood. This time, I had the chance to be guided through San Francisco and Oakland by one of the most talented Canadian street artists, Troy Lovegates, based in San Francisco for the last 2 years, and so have my point of view challenged by an insider of the Bay Area art scene. We left SF for Oakland, went through West Oakland, playground of graffiti writers, reached downtown, with its big murals, passed by Athen B. gallery (where Lovegates was showing in a collaborative group exhibition with Zio Zegler, Jaz and EverSiempre), and ended up in Chinatown. I unfortunately do not have photos of Lovegates’ pieces, as his street art pieces are usually buffed or cleaned super fast. And he still has not had the opportunity to legally paint a wall in the Bay area. But he does not despair! Lovegates had to wait years before getting a wall in Montreal, and finally managed to paint 2 murals very late after he left Montreal for Toronto…

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Cannon Dill. Oakland.

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#PICOFTHEDAY

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Because it’s 1am and I’ve spent the better part of my night scheduling tweets and Facebook posts, I thought I’d just very quickly share this latest piece by Fra.Biancoshock. It’s called #PICOFTHEDAY. Seems appropriate. It can be found somewhere on the streets of Lithuania. And also on the internet, which is all that really matters, right?

Photo by Fra.Biancoshock