Over the summer, Rochester, NY was treated to a few new murals by street artists from South Africa. Ian Wilson, founder of The Synthesis Collaborative, brought those artists to Rochester and organized a series of walls with Dal, Faith47, Freddy Sam and Mak1One and as well as Rochester-based artists. The project, Visual Intervention, tried to bring the simple message of “believe” to Rochester in an effort to improve the community. This video tells that story:
Because it’s been a crazy/confusing/disappointing week, in so many ways…
That’s by Mobstr, who has just relaunched his website and put out a print.
Swoon and Olek were interviewed by PBS for the video found below. It’s quick, but good and covers the most recent major projects from each artist. Olek’s interview definitely gave me a lot more faith in her work. There have been jokes made about how perhaps Olek’s success relies on her good looks (yes, I realize that’s not the most politically correct joke to make, but it’s a joke that gets made), but I agree wholeheartedly with Olek’s thoughts about how good art is both conceptual and graphically interesting. This isn’t to say that I’m suddenly a fan of that show where she redid a bunch of famous street art in crochet form, but my opinion of Olek has definitely improved after this video.
As for PBS, their tips are the end are a bit flawed:
Photo by See-ming Lee
This week it seems like I’ve been appearing elsewhere on the web as much as here on the blog. I’ve been more active than usual on Vandalog’s tumblr, which I’ve finally getting a feel for; I was interviewed by Brian Sherwin over at FineArtViews; and I wrote a post for my friend at Hyperallergic about advertisers utilizing the style of Liu Bolin to sell stuff. Here’s what didn’t make it to Vandalog:
Photo by Sam3
Eyez on the Job…in these Modern Times! is a video of Peat Wollaeger putting up a stencil. So you’re probably thinking, “Oh great, another pointless time lapse of street art that probably should have just been shared as a quick photo on twitter, but instead I have to wait 2 minutes to see this finished product while the artist tries to look all cool and rebellious when the whole thing is actually sponsored by a major shoe manufacturer.” Luckily, Peat has a sense of humor, and that’s not what this video is like at all. Instead, it’s Peat’s humorous view of what it’s like to be “a professional street artist” today.
Eyez on the Job…in these Modern Times! from Peat Wollaeger on Vimeo.
Photo courtesy of Peat Wollaeger
The other day, I mentioned that WK Interact was collaborating with New York firefighters on a mural in Brooklyn. The Project Brave mural has been installed at 149 Kent Ave and North 5th St in Brooklyn and is scheduled to stay through October 11th. Matthew Kraus made this video of the mural:
WK Interact. Project Brave. 2011. from Matthew Kraus on Vimeo.
Matthew also has an extensive set of photos of the mural on his flickr.
Photo by Matthew Kraus
This documentary about street art in Buenos Aires, Argentina gives a great sense of the scene, the people and the culture that make up their street art community. It includes interviews with a number of Argentinian artists, including Jaz and Ever. I liked the video, but if that description doesn’t sound like your thing, just skip ahead to 10 minutes in, because the story of José Carlos Martinat Mendoza’s time in Argentina is one that you definitely have to hear.
Paredes Robadas from Ian Moubayed on Vimeo.
Photo by Other
First week of school down. Just a boatload more to go. Here’s what I’ve been checking out to procrastinate doing homework:
Photo by unusualimage
Thanks to SheOne (via Hurt You Bad) for sharing this video where Chaz Bojorquez is interviewed at MOCA as he prepares his part of Art in the Streets.
Chaz Bojorquez: les lettres de noblesse de Los… by Mediapart
So the other night I finally got around to watching Channel 4’s Graffiti Wars, otherwise known as “The documentary about ROBBO.” I have some mixed feelings about it, and obviously want to tread lightly talking about it with ROBBO’s condition (He is currently in a coma), but feel that RJ and I should at least attempt to address the pseudo-documentary.
For those who haven’t seen it yet, and you can over here on 4od online in the UK, the hour long special focuses on UK graffiti writer ROBBO and his ongoing turf war with Banksy. Vandalog has covered the “graffiti war” since the beginning, but pretty much Banksy covered a ROBBO piece along the Camden canal that had been there since the 1980’s and in retaliation ROBBO began writing graff again and he and his team would vandalize Banksy works.
My main issue with the documentary is not the extreme sympathy and bias that Channel 4 shows towards ROBBO throughout or the lack of interviews from street artists (not just all the graff writers that spoke on camera), but actually this alleged success story for ROBBO of him on the brink of becoming a fine artist.
I went back to Pure Evil yesterday (who is featured in the film for hosting ROBBO’s first solo show) to look at some of the unsold works. He has put them on display in the basement, so if you have a chance do go check them out. In all honesty, however, the work is not that great. Now we all know there is a lot of shit out there that people praise, but from a strictly artistic perspective, in my opinion the work is sub-par that was shown in the gallery. He is a graff writer and does amazing graff works, but his gallery work doesn’t reflect that wild style. The film focuses on ROBBO’s dreams of becoming a fine artist in his own right and that is is the crux of my issues. He is not a fine artist and he just used the feud between him and Banksy to make some money. He hadn’t been working for years, but all of a sudden, he used the notoriety of Banksy to get noticed and maneuver his way into the gallery system. Plenty of artists take advantage of publicity to sell art (Eine…), but eventually the work has to stand on its own. ROBBO’s does not. ROBBO might be a “king”, but he is not a great artist.
I am sure people have other views on this, but the documentary could have been more well-rounded and unbiased. It is a tragedy what happened to ROBBO, and my thoughts are prayers go out to his family and friends. If you want to help support ROBBO, there is a fundraiser/art auction taking place next month at Cargo.
Photos courtesy of Channel 4
