Category: Videos

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Best of: John Fekner

One of my favorite artists, and maybe the most under-appreciated artist from the first wave of street art, is John Fekner. These 10 artworks are some of favorites from Fekner and his collaborator Don Leicht. They were made between 1980 and 1993.

Fekner is probably best-known for the the text he stencils outdoors in New York City:

Leicht and Fekner always seem to be making art far ahead of their time. Here are a few examples:

Fekner was reusing found paintings in the 1980's

Reminds me of a certain Banksy from earlier this year in Detroit, except much better
John Fekner and Don Leicht in 1982. Photo © Peter Bellamy 1982
Fekner and Leicht made this in 1993

And finally, Fekner has also made video art and music. Here a video from 1981 called Toxic Wastes From A To Z:

Photos courtesy of John Fekner

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Holiday link-o-rama

WK Interact in Paris

Here’s what went on while I’ve been spending time with family, which I hope is what lots of you have been doing this week as well:

Photo by WK Interact

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Artists protest Smithsonian for censoring art

For a more detailed background to this story, check out these posts on Hyperallergic.

Recently, a video, Fire in my belly, by David Wojnarowicz was removed from an exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in DC after the religious right got upset about the content of the video. The video is about the death of a lover who died of complications resulting from AIDS. The particularly “offensive” footage is few seconds of ants crawling over a statue of Jesus on the cross, but it’s also been suggested that the objections to the piece stem from anti-gay sentiments. Whatever the exact reason, the censorship is some right-wing bullshit that shouldn’t be tolerated by the artistic community.

How this story sort of relates to street art is this: On Saturday, two artists went to the National Portrait Gallery and began playing Fire in my belly over an iPad outside the exhibit. This video shows what happened:

Check out Hyperallergic for more on this protest art.

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The Woodpile Collective

Recently made aware of their existence, The Woodpile Collective, is a Canadian based artist group that works with wood (obviously) to create gallery and public street works. Embracing the idea of the temporary, natural materials and collage, the group’s work walks the line of of pop and dada-esque art with a modern twist. Below is a mini-doc about the collective and their work.

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Mentalgassi Does Some Good in London

German street art collective Mentalgassi teamed up with Amnesty International. The outdoor pieces will be entitled “Making the Invisible Visible,” which highlight the controversial death row sentence of Troy Davis. He has been on death row for 19 years, despite serious doubts about his original conviction. From head on the piece can only be seen as bars, but from a “new angle” the viewer can make out Davis’ face. There is also a video of Mentalgassi making the piece that is a really interesting accompaniment to the photographs.


All photos courtesy of Brothers and Sisters

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David Choe in Japan

It’s no secret Vandalog are big fans of David Choe. I love seeing his gallery work up close and was more than excited to see his work in the Leake Street Tunnel before the Hells Half Acre Show put on by Lazarides. Never stopping for a rest, Choe has a new print out on sale through Trapeze Editions. The print is entitled Tokyo Girl and was only on sale in Japan, but now it can be ordered stateside in two sizes. The larger one (44 x 44) is an edition of five, while the smaller (17 x 17) is an edition of 76 (at a much more affordable price tag).

I also thought I would post a mini-documentary of Choe’s time in Japan at Parco Factory with James Jean at the “Secret Space.” The video was posted back in October but I haven’t seen it yet, so I thought I would share it with you guys. It’s pretty funny. I am still wondering when the larger Choe documentary will be released on DVD, if ever. Soon hopefully.

Video found courtesy of Nuart. Photo courtesy of Trapeze Editions

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Underdog Teaser Videos

Vandalog was sent over some pretty cool videos hyping the new Underdog show in Lisbon, Portugal opening Friday. Featuring primarily Portuguese artists, the goal of the project is to raise awareness of street art in Portugal.

Leading the show is the young whirlwind artist, Vhils, who created this trailer for the show in conjunction with Orelha Negra.

Vhils x Orelha Negra Colab from Vhils on Vimeo.

The other is a video promoting the rebellious nature of the show representing the Maismenos project.

± TO PROTEST AND TO SUBVERT ± teaser video UNDERDOGS from PlusqueMinusque on Vimeo.

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Blu Makes a Movie

Coming Soon…. to a DVD near you…

Many of Blu’s time lapse videos, mural paintings and short animations will be combined into a feature length film called Blu 2010. As much as I like the idea of something like this, I don’t really understand the reasoning behind it since Blu’s work is all viral (and free) anyway. I’m sure some of the never before seen footage may be cool, but I think it is a bit of an easy way to cash in. To be fair though, I have watched his work multiple times and do enjoy it, so I don’t think the concept is a completely terrible idea. I just have mixed feelings about the whole thing…

For your enjoyment, however, are two of my favorite videos by Blu. The first is “Big Bang Big Boom” which attempts to trace the evolution of the world. The second is Blu’s collaboration with David Ellis at 2009’s Fame Festival in Italy, entitled “Combo.”