Today‘s Banksy for Better Out Than In was a pretty impressive production, a roving truck featuring what appear to be a combination of animatronic and human-controlled animal puppets. Good stuff.
And for our + 5, there’s work by Buildmore, Nether, edit: London Kaye (thanks to Daniel in the comments) and three two unknown artists:
Photos by Damon Landry, duncan c, The Integer Club and allan molho
Last month, just before Banksy teased Better Out Than In on his site, I tweeted that maybe Banksy should make more gifs (he’s made one in the past) because they are “Public art you can’t really steal.” Today, Banksy did something similar and posted a video titled Rebel rocket attack to YouTube. The video is part of Better Out Than In. Check it out:
Although there is of course Exit Through The Gift Shop and Banksy has participated in short films about his work (and it’s fair to assume that this one had his blessing), this is the first time I can think of where Banksy has really posted any video art in the same vein as his street art. Someone please correct me if I’m mistaken about that.
Greg at Melrose&Fairfax wonders, “Sure, [sic] its entertaining, but how does this online video fit into the theme for this show, Better Out Than In?” But what Greg seems to be missing is that the internet is a public space now. So much street art and art in general is made to be seen online be the same public that’s supposed to be seeing street art on the street. Besides, this video is still “out” in the sense that it has been published online, to be seen for free by anyone with the capabilities to visit YouTube, rather than made for a gallery where an art dealer might screen the piece and then sell it to private collectors in DVD format as an edition of 10. This video may not be on a wall, but it’s definitely more out than in. In that same post on M&F Greg also asked, “Why not do some street projecting of the video onto a wall in New York to keep it outdoors?” But nearly half a million people have seen this video less than 24 hours after it was first published. Why do a street projection for a few hundred people? The only advantages I can see to that over posting the video to YouTube are are the randomness of the physical crowd and the shock of a video projection suddenly starting up (and on a silly technical level, keeps the show “on the streets of New York”). Valuable advantages, but YouTube still seems a better route and not out of line with the theme of the show.
Another cool thing about this video is that we actually get to see stats. Normally it’s impossible to say how many people have seen a given work by Banksy. The answer with this one: A lot. But I guess that’s no surprise.
There are at least two questions that the production of this video raises: 1. Was it legal to use Dumbo in the video, and if not, what might happen here? 2. What does it mean that Banksy used audio footage from what appears to be a real video of a rebel in Syria shooting down a helicopter with a rocket in his video (thanks to Felim McMahon on YouTube for catching that)?
As for Dumbo, I’m no lawyer but American courts have generally determined that fair use exists in cases of parody, but not satire. Since in Rebel rocket attack Banksy uses Dumbo as in a larger satire and not to parody the character of Dumbo, it seems unlikely that a fair use defense would fly in (an American) court. So, if Disney cares about this and Banksy didn’t license the use of Dumbo in this video, there could be theoretically be legal issues here, though I doubt it will come to that. Just something to keep in mind, though I only bring it up because I’m a nerd about our messed-up copyright system.
The second question is particularly tricky. Today, half a million-ish people chuckled while listening to audio of a someone being killed. And hopefully, after they laughed, they paused a moment to think about the stupidity of war. I’m not sure what it means, but surely it means something that Banksy appropriated some of that audio from somewhere other than a Hollywood movie.
My initial reaction to discovering the audio source was “Wow, that’s terrible that Banksy used that audio,” but I don’t think it’s so simple. The audio was already out there, as was the original video, so why shouldn’t he use audio that already exists? Banksy didn’t tell anyone to shoot down a helicopter? Still, perhaps it’s disrespectful to the dead, even if they were soldiers in a brutal regime. Before today, I sure hadn’t seen that original video, but now I have. Banksy’s video has more than 10x the views of the video that he got the audio from. Maybe this knowledge makes the video more meaningful. Like I said, I’m still processing this information. It’s something to think about, and I would love to read your thoughts in the comments.
PS, there’s no Banksy + 5 today because I felt like I would have covered this piece on Vandalog even if I weren’t doing the Banksy + 5 series, plus it’s a video so that slightly complicates the Banksy + 5 theme.
Sorry this post is so late. I’ve had an injured hand, so typing has been a pain, literally… Here’s my round up for August. I’m calling this month the Video Edition, cos I don’t think I can recall a month where so many awesome videos came out… Here we go…
To start off check out this great video from Jack Douglas. Jack is a talented Melbourne street artist and tattooist; this video shows some of his street and tattoo work. His characters are always awesome.
Another rad video featuring local writer BOLTS smashing some walls across Melbourne with his always super tight style.
Do you know what a “bogan” is? It’s an Australian colloquialism, this video from Melbourne writer AEON (created alongside VNA magazine) gives you a perfect explanation of the Aussie Bogan, lost in London.
LINZ from Queensland visited Melbourne and painted this great piece. LINZ also talks about his time as a writer and how things have changed so much over the years.
This video from Spacerunner is definitely my favourite video for the month. SIMR and Rides showing us how it’s done painting one of Melbourne’s trains in the dark of the night.
Check out this video featuring interviews with Rone, Sandra Powell and Andrew King discussing their views on street art in galleries and the streets and the general attitude towards the art recently in Melbourne.
Rone was in Portland Oregon recently for Forrest for the Trees festival.
A new video from LUSH.
And finally Reka painted this epic 8 story wall in Copenhagen.
Continue reading “Melbourne Monthly Madness – August 2013”
This month, Swampy and ekg both released quite unexpected video pieces on YouTube, and I happened see a relatively new piece by Adam Void aka AVOID pi for the first time (even though it was uploaded in June). What I find so interesting about these three artists making these videos is that all three come from a sort of alternative mark-making tradition that doesn’t fall neatly into street art, hip hop graffiti or that grey area in between street art and graffiti where artists paint logos instead of letters. Although Swampy, ekg and AVOID pi’s outdoor may at first glance appear to fit in with grey area, I think there’s something different about what these three are doing (as well as artists like DROID 907 or stikman) and what artists like Pez or ChrisRWK or members of the now-defunct Burning Candy crew do. There’s nothing wrong with Burning Candy or Pez or ChrisRWK, but this is different. With Swampy, AVOID pi and ekg, there’s a sense that they are drawing from a larger tradition of public mark-making like Situationist graffiti, zine culture, art theory and freight train monikers. And of course, all three have made zines.
These three new videos seem to have been influenced by zines rather than the endless stream of timelapse and interview videos that most street artists and graffiti writers either make themselves or contribute to. The rough cuts remind me of the collages in zines and if the videos were cut into a series of stills, they would seem right at home in a zine (or in ekg’s case, a flipbook/zine).
Even ekg’s video, the most “normal” of the bunch, is not your straight-up animation or timelapse. ekg’s video is a promotional video for his show at Pandemic Gallery (opening in about 1 hour) and a timelapse of sorts, but it still has a video art feel rather than the feel of a slick and perfectly produced promo video developed by someone in charge of PR for the show. And it fits somewhere between animation and timelapse, since it’s a timelapse of a massive artwork coming together, but it’s an animation in that the piece is never really in-progress in the way that a normal timelapse video clearly shows work “half-done” at some point. With ekg, the work is just progressing and each frame of the animation/timelapse could be considered a piece. The video is more an exploration of the format and an artwork than a promotional video for his show. Interestingly, Adam Void’s video has a similar shot to what ekg has done at about the 30-second mark.
Adam Void and Swampy’s videos are surprisingly similar: Both consisting of intentionally low-fi video-diary-like series of clips shot with handheld cameras. Yes, the videos show some graffiti, but they show a lot more than that too. These videos give context to the graffiti that the artists make. They give us a little bit more of a sense of their lives. It’s easy to say “Those guys write graffiti and make zines” and put them in a box, but videos like these complicate their perceived identities.
What is it about these artists that they have all turned to experimenting with video art after becoming known for a particular style of drawn, painted and printed work? Is it just a coincidence, or is there something about ekg, Swampy, Adam Void and possibly other artists doing similar things that draws them to video art? Are YouTube videos like these a logical transition from zines, graffiti or street art? I’m curious what people think. Let me know in the comments.
Photos by RJ Rushmore
This link-o-rama is super helpful for me, because all week I’ve been working on my upcoming ebook instead of blogging. Hopefully the ebook will be out in November… Anyways, links:
Photo by Dani Mozeson
For me, school is back in session. Hopefully everyone else out there is still enjoying the tail end of the summer. Here’s some art to keep your weekend interesting:
Photo by Alex Ellison
Okay, time for me to relax like Elfo’s character. I’ve got one week before senior year begins… But anyway… art:
Photo by Elfo
Caroline and I are headed to Chicago today. We’ll have a few days to explore, so any suggestions are appreciated. Here’s your links:
Photo by pareto8020
Paul Insect and Bast made this video in NYC recently, showing a few pieces they painted collaboratively in New York. Like this recent piece by Paul and Sweet Toof, this piece isn’t quite a straight up timelapse of the pieces coming together and it isn’t quite a straight up stop motion animation like one of Blu’s videos. Instead, there’s a bit of timelapse and a bit of stop motion animation.
I like that each piece Paul Insect and Bast painted together for this project can be looked at on its own as a finished product, and the animation that we see is just a bonus. Animations like Blu’s Muto on the other hand create a lot of “waste” where there’s just a white blob of paint left after the animation progresses.
Here is Paul’s description of their film:
Bast and Pins spend a few days painting and pressing the button on an iphone in New Yorks abandoned buildings, trains lines and bridges to bring a short stop motion film.
Thanks to Home Depot & Lowes DIY Centre for there support. Paint used, Rustoleum & Home Depots $1 spray paint range. iphone 4 for the pictures.
Check it out:
BAST NY and Paul Insect in New York from PAUL INSECT on Vimeo.
Tonight at Brooklyn Street Art‘s movie night at the Living Walls Conference in Atlanta, BSA’s Steve and Jaime showed a bunch of interesting films, but one really stood out for me. I think I saw the first few seconds of this video months ago and wasn’t drawn in, so I ignored it. But, watching the whole thing, I see I clearly made a mistake. Nearly a dozen artists took over this abandoned building in Jaffa, Israel earlier this year and covered it in art. Then, they invited their friends to come and see what they had done. The installation was called Feel in the Cracks. The project reminds me of FAME Festival’s abandoned monastery, where much of the best work of the festival is hidden away, only available for those willing to explore.
I’ve got to hand it to Wonky Monky, Untay, Slamer, Signor Gi, Ross Plazma, Nitzan Mintz, Natalie Mandel, Latzi, Kipi, Dioz and Dede for going out and taking over this building, but then being pretty public about it. Plenty of abandoned buildings get painted, but then to host a public party pointing out that fact seems pretty exciting and ballsy to me. It’s a very loud and very blatant call for people to take space and improve it, whether they have the legal right to do so or not because perhaps there is a morality about the use of space that overrules legality.
Anyway, the video is cool…
Feel in the Cracks from Daniel Wechsler on Vimeo.
