I spoke briefly with Peruvian artist Seimiek about a trend in street art I’ve seen a lot of in the past 2 years, one that that extends street art outside of the city and interacts with a new audience; perhaps forming new intent and meaning behind the works done by artists who’ve started to put colors in forgotten towns.
Siemiek in Canta Gallo, Peru
Laura Calle: I’ve noticed a lot of street artists have started to put up works outside the city, how do you think this changes the dynamics in your art?
Seimiek: I went outside of the city in search of new places to paint, in which case I did find new spots and the experience changed into something that gave me new ideas. New places, new ideas.
Siemiek in Canta Gallo, Peru
Laura Calle: What was your initial reason or purpose that has influenced you to paint in places like Canta Gallo?
Seimiek: I wanted to find new spots. When I went to Canta Gallo for the first time, there was a reaction by people that made me want to continue working there. I think, that that is what has made the whole experience so awesome. People will tell you, “come here, paint this spot, here here!” and then you go and finish painting that spot and they tell you how much they like it or how why they aren’t into it. That’s what made me come back. The difference in painting in the city is that you will finish something, sometimes you finish it only half way, and you leave the spot to sometimes find it gone in a few days.
I don’t always love Spidertag, but this recent piece in Marseille, France caught my eye. Spidertag’s work draws attention to this beautiful old wooden door on an otherwise unremarkable wall.
Australian street artist CDH is thinking about the preservation of street art in a responsible manner and trying to get the effort going in Australia. Definitely an interesting, and controversial, read.
While down in Puerto Rico this past fall for the Los Muros Hablan festival, I met a number of local artists – new to me – whose work intrigued me. Among these was Philip Cruz aka Pun18 whose surreal images fuse elements of comic, graffiti and pop art. These are two recent works Pun18 shared with me.
It’s been a while since INTI has worked in his homeland of Chile, so it was a pleasant surprise to see this mural at the Museum Cielo Abierto San Miguel.
INTI is known for his large scale portraits of single characters, but here we see a stylized metamorphosis of half good half evil, or maybe the natural vs. the cultural.
Note from the editor: This is a guest post by Nico Glaude, who will hopefully be contributing more to Vandalog in the future. – RJ Rushmore
RJ tweeted this a few days ago “Alec Monopoly is in the latest issue of @JuxtapozMag. Seriously? Come on Evan. I know you’re better than that!” Which got me thinking; what exactly is going on to the state of street art culture? For those that don’t know, Alec Monopoly is a street artist who “lightly” appropriates the Mr. Monopoly character in the streets, sometimes he’s playing a keyboard or even playing the turntables. His interior work follows the same guidelines of appropriation; Mr. Monopoly on canvas either pasted with monopoly money or news paper articles related to the economic state of the U.S. The point of it all? Maybe there is none.
Alec Monopoly. Photo by Birdman.
Meaningless art is something that will always plagued the art world, and most definitely plays it’s part in the streets. Yes there will forever be the debate of subjectivity, but let’s just be closed minded for a minute and examine things. What’s make Alec’s art pointless? The lack of effort in it all, the irony of taking on the economic state as a message, yet selling his art for thousands upon thousands of dollars. There’s no sense of real purpose or substance in his work, no evolution. If you take a minute to think about it, the same can be said about countless other “artists” who are getting rewarded even though they’re in a constant state of mediocrity.
Another case of substance abuse can be latched on to Curtis Kulig’s overly redundant “Love Me” campaign. It’s grown from a simple tag to becoming nothing more than a brand. In terms of marketing, it’s pretty genius, but at what point does it not become art anymore? Like with Alec’s work, Kulig’s work doesn’t evolve, what once had some substance, is now replaced with something that is lost in the world of pure redundancy. “Love Me” is now found on tee-shirts, skateboards, and sneakers. The slogan has become meaningless because the message is gone. It’s now become simply a marketing tool. Maybe, that’s all it ever was.
The point to all of this? Well just like Alec’s and Kulig’s art, maybe there is none. Yes meaningless art will forever be inescapable, this article won’t change that, and as I mentioned Alec and Kulig are only two cases of many. But we, as a culture, need stop validating such pointless attempts at attention, and realize that it is simply that, artists trying to get noticed by pawning off pretentious, uninspiring and empty art. This fact will be true until the end of time, but we need to stop letting artists off so easy, stop granting them a “Get out of jail free” card, and make them realize that in order to gain our attention,they need to start making art that isn’t so meaningless.
This piece by Jade in the Chorrillos District of Lima, Peru is probably a bit more cutesy than the street work I’m normally interested in, but the placement is great. Most murals of this size look they they are slapped onto a wall, but the different surfaces (wood and brick) are interesting, and the way that the wall is falling apart a bit at the bottom makes it look like perhaps the mural has been part of the wall for quite some time, even though obviously Jade just painted around the parts that are crumbling. This isn’t an obvious spot to put a mural because of those abnormalities, but the piece is stronger because of the decision to those this spot rather than a crisp clean wall.
Bishop203 recently painted two spots on Mulberry Street in New York’s Little Italy. Little Italy, Wayne Rada, and I invited Bishop203 to paint these two doors as something for Valentine’s Day. Thanks again to Bishop203 for coming out to paint, and for his Low Brow Artique helping out with supplies.
