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Dave the Chimp’s surprising “human beans”

dave1

Fancy spray paint with a dozen different caps. Professional photographers. Scissor lifts. Street art doesn’t have to be so complicated. Just take Dave the Chimp. His little characters, “human beans” as he calls them, are generally simple and small figures, but because they’re site-specific, they’re more surprising than most bombastic murals.

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Dave’s beans respond to their environment, whether it’s acting shocked at strong language (or perhaps at the buff) or offering a joint to another street art character, Berlin’s walls are Dave’s playground.

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Since the best thing about Dave’s work is that there’s the potential for surprise in real life, the potential to look at a wall or a tag in a different way, it feels a bit silly to say this, but Dave only just got on Instagram, and I’d suggest giving him a follow.

And can we all agree that we need more of this? Is site-specific street art, something beyond wallpaper, too much to ask?

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Photos by Dave the Chimp

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Alan Ket captures the names we should know

Alton Sterling

A new photo series by Alan Ket is a quiet and beautiful, but still extremely potent, form of activism at a time when it’s desperately need.

As it seems new headlines comes up almost every day about another person murdered at the hands of the police, more than a few people have taken to memorializing the victims by simply writing their names in public. Sometimes the message is a major production, sometimes it’s small and rushed. Lately, Ket has been photographing some of these small memorials, just tags in black ink, during his commute around New York City.

Philando Castile

The act of writing these names is important because it helps get them into our limited head-space: Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Laquan McDonald, Delrawn Small, Tamir Rice, Anthony Hill, Freddie Gray… of course the list could go on much longer. But these are tags on New York City subway trains. They won’t last long. They’ll be buffed quickly, because that’s how New York City deals with tags on the subway. They don’t want commuters to see any of it. Which is what makes Ket’s photographs all the more important. They serve as a document that these names were written, and might even inspire others to pick up a marker and start writing.

Sandra Bland

As too many police departments try to sweep misconduct under the rug and wish that we’d all just stop saying, writing, and seeing these names, clearly the thing to do is the opposite. These tags won’t last, but Ket’s photos will. Here are a few more, and you can see the full series on Ket’s Instagram:

Laquan McDonald

Delrawn Small

Tamir Rice

Anthony Hill

Freddie Gray

Photos by Alan Ket

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So it’s come to this: An eight-year-old showing off her ass in a Bushwick Collective mural

Lisa Simpson-clean-ish

This afternoon, Caroline and I had lunch at Sea Wolf in Bushwick, at the heart of The Bushwick Collective. Unfortunately, we couldn’t enjoy the meal. We were seated right below the most sexualized painting of Lisa Simpson I’ve ever seen. Lisa is eight. I cannot imagine how The Bushwick Collective or the artist, GIZ, thought this was a good idea. Because the mural is NSFW and potentially triggering, I’ve cropped it in the above photo, but you can scroll down to see the full image.

Chris Tackett was, as far as we know, the first to call out The Bushwick Collective for this mural. He wrote an letter to Sea Wolf and The Bushwick Collective on Instagram:

Dear @seawolfbk,

Lisa Simpson is an eight-year-old child. It seems a bit creepy to have her showing her ass on your wall.

As listed on her Wikipedia page, “Lisa is a vegetarian, a strong environmentalist, a feminist, and a Buddhist. She enjoys many hobbies, including reading and playing the baritone saxophone.” She has been an inspiration to young girls for more than 20 years. A mural showing her doing any of these inspiring things would be far more fitting of your fine establishment. By allowing this to remain on your wall, you insult Lisa and make this precocious youngster into a sexual object. It’s weird.

If I may offer a suggestion, I think it’d be a welcome change to replace this with something less pervy, both for the people of Bushwick that have to look at it every day and also so people don’t feel like creeps when enjoying drinks on your lovely patio this summer.

As a huge fan of @thebushwickcollective, I don’t like complaining about something I love so much. But this one just feels off and worth reconsidering.

PS: I should add that I was there last night sitting at the table to the right. I was with four friends and their two infant girls. We had a great time, but it was that moment of sitting there with 4 of my favorite women that I was inspired to send this note. We were all talking about how weird it was. I’m always a little sad to see #bushwickcollective murals rotate out, but I can’t imagine there is anyone at all that will be bummed to see this one go.

Caroline has a great solution: Buff the mural and replace it with a portrait of a breastfeeding mother. I’ll pay for the paint for Caroline’s mural, if goes up in the next week. I’ve reached out to The Bushwick Collective and made that offer, but haven’t heard back yet.

Continue reading “So it’s come to this: An eight-year-old showing off her ass in a Bushwick Collective mural”

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Ad Takeovers: Learn from the best

Public Ad Campaign

Ever wondered how people like Abe Lincoln Jr., Joe Boruchow, or Icy & Sot install their artwork in bus shelters and phone booths? Next week, New Yorkers will have a chance to learn from the best. Public Ad Campaign is leading “a practical introduction” to ad takeovers at Mayday in Bushwick.

Led by Jordan Seiler and Thomas Dekeyser, the workshop will cover the history and philosophy of ad takeovers (the topic of Dekeyser’s PhD research), as well as the tools and techniques that Seiler has spent the last 15 years perfecting and sharing.

I’ve attended one of Jordan’s workshops before, and I cannot recommend them highly enough. It will be fun, and you’ll see just how easy ad takeovers can be. The more people who know how easy it is to open up ad kiosks, and have access to the tools to do it, the better.

The workshop is free to attend, but you have to register in advance.

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Whatever you expect, you’re not even close: Seth in Rome

Seth

Seth Globepainter has spent the last few weeks in Rome thanks to a residency with the 999Foundation. The residency culminates on Thursday, July 7 with Range Ta Chambre, a one-day solo exhibition by Seth at the Teatro India, an experimental theater space. The details are slim for now, but curator Stefano S. Antonelli promises, “Whatever you expect, you’re not even close.”

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Photos courtesy of 999Foundation

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Under the wire: Reed Bmore in Brooklyn

Headphones kid

Just in time for the summer street art rush, Reed Bmore visited installed a few of his trademark wire and mesh sculptures in Brooklyn. As usual, he’s hung the sculptures from electrical wires. Would love to see more artists taking a page out of Reed Bmore’s book and finding new spots to install their work.

JiminyBK

Bearpridedetail

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Photos by Reed Bmore

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Catch RJ at The Art Conference

RJ Rushmore

Later this month, catch me at The Art Conference, a new arts festival in London. I’m excited to be speaking alongside some amazing artists, including Jordan Seiler, Dan Witz, Tinsel Edwards, and Lucy McLauchlan. I’ll be there to speak about what street art can be when it goes beyond decoration.

The Art Conference will take place July 23 and 24th, and includes a ticketed conference portion and a free exhibition component. Friday the 8th is the last day to pick up early bird tickets to the conference, so don’t delay if you want a deal. For more about the speakers, schedule, and tickets, check The Art Conference’s website.

Speaking of Dan Witz, he’s got a Kickstarter campaign going for an upcoming series of street pieces, which he hopes to install inside London’s iconic red telephone booths.

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S̶k̶y̶ ̶T̶V̶Sly TV by Dr. D and Disobedient Films

Sky TV Billboard

Dr. D‘s latest project, a collaboration with Disobedient Films, takes his ad busting beyond billboards. Sly TV, a parody of the British satellite TV company Sky (a part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire), is perhaps most visible as a series of wheatpastes in East London.

Sly TV has its own website, and Sly’s ad campaign extends from street art to digital advertising.

It’s amazing what kind of targeting powers digital advertisers have. For as little as $10, you can buy an ad on Facebook and narrow your audience so that it’s only seen by wealthy young British men who go to university and love classic rock. Or just about any other audience you can imagine. Similar thing on Google. Want to reach people thinking about buying a new car? You can buy ads that display when people search “how to buy a car.” What if you want to reach people who are thinking about Sky TV? You can buy ads that display when people search for “Sky TV,” “Sky News,” or “Sky box.” And that’s just what Dr. D and Disobedient Films did.

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Now, if you search any of the above search terms, there’s a chance that an ad will appear for the Sly TV website. Here’s what that ad looks like:

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Sly TV bought similar ads for Facebook. So, if you fit their target audience (English-speaking men who live in the UK), keep an eye out for Sly TV in your newsfeed.

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Photos and video courtesy of Disobedient Films

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Faith47 mixes paints, lights, and rights in Manchester

Faith47

Gotta love 722 – 481 BC, Faith47‘s new piece in Manchester. The mural is part of the Cities of Hope project, which is inviting street artists to address a variety of social justice issues on Manchester’s walls, and to connect with local organizations while they are in town painting. Faith47’s mural celebrates LGBT rights. I’m optimistic that the Cities of Hope project can bring some political edge into the street art festival circuit, but it’s probably too early to say much about how that will go. The other reason this mural caught my eye is the lighting.

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Faith47 worked with Thingking to design custom lighting for the mural. I’ve got mixed feelings about lighting murals, but I think Faith47 has done a great job with this one. The lights don’t just make the mural visible at night, they add to the composition.

And of course, here’s the full mural during the day:

Click to view large
Click to view large

Photos by Zane Meyer and courtesy of Faith47

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A hidden piece across 100 shutters

mvin

In an internet-age twist on Steve Powers’ famous ESPO shutters, Spain’s MVIN has painted a massive piece across 99 shutters in Barcelona. Like Powers, it appears that MVIN painted his shutters in broad daylight with a high-vis vest, acting like the buff man. And individually, each shutter does look more or less like a half-finished buff job. Collectively though (and with the help of the 100th shutter, a camera)…

Click to view large
Click to view large

For those in Barcelona who want to visit some of these shutters in person, here’s a map.

Finally, here’s a video of the piece coming together:

Photos by MVIN