A Love Letter For You: The Movie

A few months ago, there was talk about a film being screened in Philadelphia. A film based on Steve Powers‘ amazing A Love Letter For You project. Unfortunately, I missed the screening, and didn’t hear much about it until this week when I spoke with someone at that screening. They said it wasn’t just a documentary about the project, but actually a fictional account of a graffiti writer, which was surprising. Well now there’s a trailer. Check it out:

No info on further screenings yet, but the trailer says to keep an eye on this page.

Photo by Nikkirk

Via Juxtapoz

One night only: TitiFreak installation in Newcastle

TitiFreak will be at One Thirty 3, a new space in Newcastle, this month for a one-night-only installation. One Thirty 3 has a ballsy setup: shows run for one night only, the artist does an installation, there’s only one original artwork for sale and one print (in an edition of 33). TitiFreak’s show be open on February 24th from 6:30-9:30pm. If you plan to check out TitiFreak’s show, One Thirty 3’s website recommends emailing info@onethirty3.com to get your name on the list. Should be cool.

Later this year, One Thirty 3 will have shows with Sickboy, Word To Mother, Gaia, Retna and Herakut.

Photo courtesy of One Thirty 3

New space, TOYKIO, opens in Düsseldorf

TOYKIO have just launched their pop-up coffee-shop/gallery in Düsseldorf, Germany. It looks pretty crazy. Especially since this is just a temporary shop until the real space opens on April 1st. You’re either going to love or loath this place. Me, I’m loving it. The people behind TOYKIO love art with a strong passion, and I think that comes across pretty strongly. And the combination of gallery, just plain showcase of awesomeness and spot to eat sounds perfect to me. Should relieve the stress and seriousness that accompanies most galleries. Check out the photos:

If you can’t make it to TOYKIO in the flesh but like their taste in art, you can still check out their extensive web store.

Photos by Nicola Roman Walbeck

Via Arrested Motion

On the street

The Wa. Photo by the artist

There are a few street pieces to share today.

Above is something by The Wa in the tradition of Roadsworth or Darius & Downey, which I think it just fantastic.

And here’s something that Kid Acne put up in London from his Art Fags series (Hooked has more images):

Kid Acne. Photo by Hooked

Here’s two billboards from Ludo:

Ludo. Photo by the artist

It’s worth noting that Ludo is selling a few works on paper with 100% of sales going to Skateistan.

Ludo. Photo by the artist

And Monica wanted to share this piece from E1000ink (who also has some cool new work on Rebel:Art):

E1000ink. Photo by the artist

Photos by The Wa, Hooked, Ludo and E1000ink

Hell’s Half Acre

Back in October of last year, Lazarides collaborated with The Old Vic Tunnels to present ‘Hell’s Half Acre‘, a truly unique exhibition staged in the labyrinth of tunnels beneath London’s Waterloo Station. Over 10,000 people attending the event during the course of a week witnessed contributions from amongst others, Conor Harrington, Polly Morgan, Vhils, Antony Micallef, Ian Francis, Doug Foster, Paul Insect, Jonathan Yeo, and David Choe, and now you too can share the spectacle with the release of the catalogue documenting the show. ‘Hell’s Half Acre‘ is exclusively available to purchase from The Outsiders website, priced at only £10.

IOCOSE puts 4 real sunflower seeds into an artwork of 100 million fake seeds

Right now at the Tate Modern in London, there’s an artwork in the main hall by Ai Weiwei. The work is called Sunflower Seeds. It consists of about 100 million hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds. Even from up close, these porcelain seeds look real. It’s quite… something. But actually, that’s what I saw at the Tate a few weeks ago. Now, that’s just what most people think they’re seeing. IOCOSE says different though. The group of European artists used slingshots to fire 4 real sunflower seeds in the midst of Ai Weiwei’s sea of porcelain seeds to create their new artwork, Sunflower seeds on “Sunflower Seeds”. Okay yeah, there’s some conceptual art meta-bs going on here, but I still love it and within the context of a museum and interacting with a piece of conceptual art, that seems perfectly appropriate. IOCOSE’s act is just the playful sort of thing that Ai Weiwei would probably love. Fantastic work.

Here’s some of what IOCOSE says about Sunflower seeds on “Sunflower Seeds”:

The new artwork looks exactly the same as the previous one, as the natural seeds and those made of porcelain are indistinguishable from each other. IOCOSE reclaims the authorship of the new installation and reminds viewers of Ai Weiwei’s previous statement: ‘what you see is not what you see, and what you see is not what it means’.

And here’s a video of the performance/action taking place:

Sunflower Seeds on Sunflower Seeds from IOCOSE on Vimeo.

Photo by Jacek Barcikowski

Via Rebel:Art

In defense of Mr. Brainwash (the appropriation, not the art)

Photo by catheadsix

As mentioned a few days ago, Mr. Brainwash is being sued by Glen E. Friedman over the use of Friedman’s iconic photo of Run DMC. While this lawsuit has been going on for quite a while, attention was first really brought to it after a recent post on Boing Boing. The immediate reaction from the blogosphere seems to be to side with Friedman and against MBW, while somehow trying to explain how this is massively different from Shepard Fairey’s lawsuit with the AP where most of these same people were siding with Shepard.

I would love to, as usual, bash Mr. Brainwash’s work as overpriced, barely qualifying as art, completely derivative and only of any value (monetary, intellectual or otherwise) for the absurdity of him and his career as a whole. And I’d love to back up Glen E. Friedman, a photographer with a uniquely talented eye that combines taking photos of interesting/historic things with aesthetic and technical know-how. If there’s a guy a want to like in this story, it’s Friedman, and if there’s a guy I’d love to hate, it’s Mr. Brainwash. Unfortunately, I’m not going to take the easy sides. All those things I’ve said are true, but in the wider context of fair use and artist rights, Mr. Brainwash is the bastard child of a good idea worth defending.

Photo by textdrivebys

A lot of MBW’s work relies on taking existing iconic imagery and changing it to fit within his world. With the Run DMC image, he has used it in a variety of ways, including stencils and his portraits made of broken records. He didn’t copy the photograph and start running off copies. He transformed it into something new. Yes, you could overlay MBW’s stencils with Friedman’s photo in photoshop and they would match up, but that’s how references photographs often work. That similarity, the reference, doesn’t mean they two works are the same thing or that MBW is legally obligated to license the use of the image from Friedman. The MBW artwork transforms the Friedman photograph into something new, and even if it doesn’t, street art fans need to be careful about not defending appropriation.

Street art and pop art in particular have relied heavily on the ability to appropriate from other people’s photographs or other imagery, iconic or not and often not licensing or even crediting the original creators. Shepard Fairey (countless times including his early André the Giant image and the Obama poster), Banksy (source), D*face (source), Rene Gagnon (source), C215 INSA (okay this one is within the public domain but it’s still a good example of appropriation) and so many others have used source imagery in their artwork and transformed it into something new. We can debate, particularly with a lot of pop art, the extent to which the original thing was transformed, but there is definitely a change taking place and some sort of artistic or design input involved in making that new image. And if you want to argue that in all those examples I provided except for INSA, the artist should be legally and morally obligated to license the imagery from the creator of the source material, then that’s another debate. What I’m taking particular issue with today is that the same people who defend Shepard Fairey doing his lawsuit with the AP are now rooting for Friedman against Mr. Brainwash for doing essentially the same thing that Fairey did.

Sean Bonner has argued that the key difference between what Fairey and MBW did comes down to how iconic the photograph was to start with. By that logic, any random photograph is fair game to turn into a stencil without credit, but it would become problematic if the source photograph is well-known. Well then Bonner must also think that a lot of street art and pop art is vulnerable to lawsuits. The same argument that Bonner makes on behalf of Friedman would threaten some of the artists mentioned in the last paragraph, Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Can series, the work of Elaine Sturtevant, any artist using Mickey Mouse except in instances of parody and possibly even Shepard Fairey’s Andé sticker since Fairey was basically utilizing the iconic nature of Andé the Giant for his sticker.

Taking that view out of art and looking at music for a moment, mash up artists like Flosstradamus, The Hood Internet, Girl Talk and DJ Dangermouse rely on a combination of iconic and non-iconic sounds for their songs and don’t license that material. The courts have made it clear that a lot of what they do is illegal, but I don’t think that’s a decision conducive to the creation of new art and music. The White Album, The Black Album and The Grey Album are three very different artistic creations.

I hope that MBW wins this lawsuit and the rights to fair use and artistic appropriation are upheld.

That said, I want to get back to my earlier comment that MBW is the bastard child of fair use. It doesn’t seem to me like MBW’s artwork is how fair use is intended to work. And he looks like a complete jerk for not licensing imagery which it might have been possible to license (Shepard Fairey has licensed some of Friedman’s photos). The ethical thing to do might have been to at least attempt to license as much of the imagery that MBW uses as is possible. But he can’t legally have an obligation to license the imagery. Otherwise, art and music are screwed. MBW’s art based on iconic imagery is not how fair use is intended to work, but if it doesn’t work for MBW, it stops working for the artists who deserve fair use rights and use them respectfully. Although excessive allowances for fair use can screw good over people like Friedman who get taken advantage of by jerks like MBW, on balance, it’s better to have too many rights for fair use than not enough.

But I’m no expert on fair use. I’m hoping to get a nice discussion going here. What do you think?

PS, if you’re wondering why I’ve not posted Friedman’s original photo, it’s because I don’t have permission or a way to get in touch to ask for permission, and I don’t want to upset him by using his photo without permission even though it probably qualifies as fair use in this case. Just kidding (sort of).

Photos by catheadsix and textdrivebys

Weekend link-o-rama

Unknown artist in TriBeCa

With the riots and protests in Egypt, I thought the above sticker is a worthwhile thing to consider this week. I’m a bit late on this week’s link-o-rama.

Photo by Loisinwonderland

Sweet Toof at Arch 402 in London

The entrance to Arch 402 with artwork by Sweet Toof and Cept. Photo by Nolionsinengland

Sweet Toof’s show at Arch 402 Gallery in London opened earlier this month. While not a 100% smash hit, there are also some of my favorite Sweet Toof works ever. Some of my favorites from this show are actually the ones that I posted in the preview. The show is open through February 3rd, so you still have a few days to check it out. Well worth a look.

Here are a few of the installation:

Photo by Hookedblog
Photo by Hookedblog

Photos by Nolionsinengland, Hookedblog and courtesy of Sweet Toof