For a while, Toasters have been painting clever grey silhouetted tags as part of their Bluff Buff series. The tags aren’t likely to be removed themselves because they actually look like the grey blobs of paint that graffiti removal squads put up. Kind of like ESPO’s roll gates. Now, Toasters have changed things a bit to make the work slightly more obvious. Here are some pictures of their new Arrow Bluff Buff pieces:
Photos by Toasters
It’s been a crazy week in London. Moniker and all that. But here’s what has been going on with street art elsewhere:
Photo by unusualimage
With the run-up to Frieze in London and everyone and their mother in town for events, there has been a bit of an explosion of art this week. So, I thought I would do a little round-up of pieces I have come across online since for the next few days all you will hear is “Oh my God! Hell’s Half Acre is Amazing!!” and “Moniker looks so cool!” Sometimes we need a break from that. Ok, well at least I do.
Oh come on, I had to post this one! It is one of my favorites of the new Banksy pieces. Plus, whoever made the Haring sculpture in response is awesome. It is a great addition unlike the graffiti next to it.
On Friday, I was graciously given an early preview of Lazarides highly anticipated new show, Hell’s Half Acre. Taking place at the Old Vic Tunnels by Leake Street, the off-site display hosts new works from heavy hitters Conor Harrington, Vhils, George Osodi, Antony Micallef, Doug Foster, Todd James, Paul Insect, Mark Jenkins, Boogie, Ian Francis, Polly Morgan and Jonathan Yeo.
The team at Laz still had a lot of work to do before the private opening tomorrow, but from what I could tell, this is sure to be one of the most talked about shows for months to come. Loosely basing the concept off Dante’s The Inferno, the works themselves reek of death, destruction, fantasy, and myth. The dark and wet tunnels create an ambiance that not only makes viewers uncomfortable, but forces them to react to the art. I don’t want to give too much away, but all of the work is brand new and most of it was made specifically for the show, especially the large scale installation spaces. At every turn in the tunnel’s maze, there is something new to be discovered, attempting to shock and intrigue viewers.
Here are just some of the pictures I have as well as the Babelgum preview video that is circling the Internet like crazy this weekend.
Photos by Stephanie Keller
Recently I’ve been loving Isaac Cordal‘s Cement Eclipses series. These tiny little sculptures are just the sort of thing that embody what street art is about. Cordal’s sculptures are like little magical gifts to the public that some people will see and love but so many more will ignore. I’m in London right now, which is where he’s been putting these sculptures up, so I’ll be on the look out for some.
Photos by unusualimage and Isaac Cordal
Well it was the first week of midterms for me, so lots of time was spent locking myself in my room, turning off the wifi and just studying. On the plus side, had a great meeting today trying to get some grant money from my college to bring street artists to campus and I took a nap on what might just be the world’s comfiest couch. So here’s what I haven’t had the chance to blog with all that school stuff going on:
Photo by unusualimage
Things have been busy the past few weeks here at Carmichael Gallery – Seth and I have been prepping for Moniker / our trip to London, I’ve been finishing off the next issue of tasj (more about that soon) and Bumblebee has turned one of our back rooms into a full-on studio in preparation for his first solo show, which opens this Saturday at Beyond Eden!
If you live in LA, I hope you can make it to the show. There will be lots of new canvases, mixed media pieces and a big installation on display. He’s worked really hard for it, and it shows. It’s some of his best work yet.
Unurth posted one of Bumblebee’s most recent street pieces, “I’m Not Supposed To Bee Here”, last week; you can see it here. He also did a cool piece last night called “Sleepwalking”, which you can see on tasj.
– Elisa
Photos by Bumblebee
David Choe and his partner DVS have been in London preparing for Hell’s Half Acre, the show we mentioned recently that Lazarides Gallery is putting on in the Leake Street tunnels. They also took some time out to paint a few pieces on the graffiti covered walls of Leake Street.
These are a few of my favorites, but Choe has a bunch more photos on his blog.
Photos by David Choe
Here’s what I missed this week, or where people just wrote things that I couldn’t do or wrote them better than I could:
Photo by Armsrock
I want to look at two very different artists and how they tackle advertising and the media in their art: D*face and Jordan Seiler.
D*face is known for billboard takeovers, messing with pop culture icons, messing with corporate logos and his “d-dog” icon. He’s kind of like Kaws in that D*face inserts himself into pop culture, but D*face’s work is typically subversive or critical of advertising, marketing and things like that. On the other hand, KAWS is inserting himself into pop culture in order to embrace it and become a part of it. Actually, D*face probably explains his art better himself in a new video for Don’t Panic:
I think it’s fair to say that D*face is “against” advertising, or at the very least that his critique of it doesn’t paint a pretty picture. I would also say that D*face has been, throughout his career, very good at subverting advertising, media and pop culture. Yet, there’s something about D*faces work that doesn’t subvert advertising at all. In fact, in some ways, D*face’s art embraces advertising. Like Shepard Fairey (one of D*face’s major influences), D*face has an “icon” or a “logo” of his own. The d*dog or elements of the d*dog appear throughout his work, as does D*face’s own name. So is D*face advertising himself by subverting advertising? Certainly. Is that his intent? I’m not sure. And if it is, it’s worth mentioning the standard argument defending that: (except for Shepard Fairey who has teams of wheatpasters) an individual artist doesn’t have the resources to advertise themselves on anywhere near the scale that a brand like Coke can advertise and the artist is putting up art while advertisers are solely trying to sell a product. Additionally, D*face’s use of a logo has probably helped him to become the success he is today, which in turn allows him to do crazy projects like this and increase awareness for his agenda of getting people to question advertising and mass media.
For those familiar with Adbusters, this paradox might be familiar. The Adbusters organization sells shoes which are essentially made in opposition to Converse and branded shoes made in sweatshops, but by creating an anti-brand, they have created their own shoe brand.
Jordan Seiler, like D*face, is known for billboard takeovers but also for his efforts to change/eliminate advertising in the public space. In addition to his own art, Jordan organized NYSAT and TOSAT. Throughout his outdoor art career, Jordan’s style has changed more drastically than the average street artist. While there are a few reoccurring motifs (like a use of simple geometric patterns and shapes), each project is very distinct and it would be hard for me to define a specific style for Jordan (unless doing ad takeovers is itself a style). Additionally, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jordan sign his outdoor work. Recently, Jordan has been preparing to retire one of the designs that he has used for a while now and is starting to become identified by, his Weave It design.
On his blog, Jordan recently explained that he was finishing up the Weave It project (as he had ended projects previously before they became “iconic”) “in order to remained un-branded as an artist and therefor escape criticism that I use the streets and advertising venues as advertising for myself.” Two days later, Jordan restated his feelings in another post. Once again, Jordan said that he is moving on from the design in an effort to “prevent branding of PublicAdCampaign imagery.”
To most street artists, changing their style regularly and actively trying to avoid any identifiable trademarks might seem like a novel and counter-intuitive idea, but Jordan seems to be sacrificing potential short-term artist notoriety for his long-term political aims. The flip-side of this strategy is that a lot of Jordan’s art isn’t immediately obvious as an advertising takeover. Most of the takeovers don’t scream out “I am here instead of an advertisement,” so the art can easily be ignored or even possibly confused as some sort of guerrilla marketing campaign. While D*face’s artwork makes itself obvious and forces people to re-examine the world we live in, perhaps Jordan’s more subtle techniques cause the art and the action he has taken to be overlooked (although, and I’m not sure about this, he might argue that that’s sort of the point in some cases).
I emailed briefly with Jordan and he clarified his position on using logos in art. Surprisingly, he said “My thoughts on logo reproduction in street art and ad takeovers are not as idealistic as that which I practice” and he actually doesn’t believe that street artists shouldn’t use logos, just that “I choose to go as far as I can from logo production and stylistic similarities (which I can often fail at) mostly because I choose only to hit ads and therefore am under even higher scrutiny when being asked if my work is self promotional.”
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So whose work to you think is more effective? Let me know in the comments.
Photos by hebedesign and Jordan Seiler
