I’ve just spent the last two weeks in London and it’s been great to catch up on everything that’s been going on here (even if it’s mostly that art is being replaced by billboards). Here’s what I’ve been checking out online this week:
This week I have a piece over at Complex.com where I go over some of my favorite lesser-known facts about the histories of graffiti and street art. It was really fun to write.
Great piece by 1010. Something a bit different and out there with the colors.
I’m off for a few days of traveling. Expect lots of pictures. Here’s what we missed on Vandalog this week:
Endless Canvas has organized a show of murals in an old factory in the Bay Area. They are using Kickstarter to get the show off the ground, and could use some help.
Had about 4 days away from a computer and it’s taken me nearly as long to catch up on emails. This post should help to finish that task. Here’s what I missed while I was away:
Aiko has a show at Pure Evil Gallery opening today. It’s called Unstoppable Waves, which was the name of her recent show in Amsterdam, so it will probably be some of the same work.
Lazarides’ Minotaur show/restaurant in the Leake Street Tunnels is open now, and, regardless of the ridiculous high-society vibe of the event, the art looks good. S.Butterfly has plenty of images. Additionally (and counteracting a small portion of that high-society vibe), Lazarides’ The Outsiders webstore has 3 unlimited run screenprints available now from ATMA, David Choe and Stanley Donwood.
One of my roommates came by a few minutes ago and asked “So, did shit hit the fan?” He knew I was posting something about Underbelly yesterday, but he’s not really the artsy type so he didn’t know quite what it was.
Well indeed shit has hit the fan, but mostly in a good way so far. The Underbelly Project made it into The New York Times and The Age. Also, Ian Cox and Luna Park have posted their photos on their respective blogs. And their photos are much better than mine, so check them out.
It seems most people are liking the project, even if some have some reservations. As one commenter on my last post pointed out, maybe you had to be there to experience some of the awesomeness, but it’s still pretty cool. I think that’s a fair assessment. Some artists’ work is best viewed in person, and the best artworks in The Underbelly Project tend to fall into that category. Posterchild put up an interactive sculpture, and Dan Witz’ art is definitely more powerful when it comes as a surprise and in person.
But there’s been one criticism that I absolutely don’t buy: That The Underbelly Project was conceived and executed purely for commercial gain. Yeah, later this week I’ll be posting a trailer to a documentary about the project, but the organizers, who I think are two very bright people, would have to be complete idiots to do this project if their only interest was a sick book deal. Yeah, there are street artists and graffiti writers out there who do illegal work to get attention and doing well-promoted street art can sell a painting or two. I’ve called out people on doing things like that before. That said, the scale and risk of The Underbelly Project is greater than what could be often by any likely monetary rewards. It would be much easier and less risky to either fake the entire project in a warehouse somewhere or just do something that relies on one or two big events instead of a year of secrecy and dangerous activities. I highly doubt that The Underbelly Project will be an efficient way to make money for the participants, even with any future books or films or anything like that. When I was first told about The Underbelly Project, it was little more than an idea, and the idea was to create a secret street art and graffiti Mecca, not to make a million bucks.
Here are some more photos from down in the tunnel:
Lister. Photo by GarrettSinboy. Photo by RJSurge, The Flower Guy, Stormie, Indigo and somebody I don't know. Photo by RJPhoto by GarrettPhoto by GarrettGaia. Photo by PACMark Jenkins and Con. Photo by WorkhorsePaper Twins and 1010. Photo by PACM-City. Photo by WorkhorseLister. Photo by RJJeff Soto. Photo by RJRoa, Revok and Ceaze. Photo by RJ
I’ll continue this week to post more photos, but you can check out a more full set of my images on flickr.
This summer, I sat in a massive pitch-black room and muttered “Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit…” over and over again. I couldn’t stop repeating “Holy shit” for maybe for five minutes. I’d been anticipating this moment for nearly a year. I was somewhere underneath New York City. I was waiting to be shown The Underbelly Project. Technically, I was there to take photos, but really I didn’t care at all if images came out or not. Really, I just wanted to see firsthand what was going on 4-stories below the streets of New York City.
Revok and Ceaze. That light comes from the lights that were set up temporarily for an artist who was painting that night.
Imagine Cans Festival, FAME Festival or Primary Flight: Some of street art and graffiti’s best artists all painting one spot. That’s kind of like The Underbelly Project. Except that The Underbelly Project took place in complete secrecy, in a mysterious location and without any authorization. Over the past year, The Underbelly Project has brought more than 100 artists to an abandoned and half-finished New York City subway station. Each artist was given one night to paint something.
Know Hope had this entire room to himself. What was this room meant to be? An elevator shaft? An office? I have no idea.
Workhorse and PAC, the project’s organizers, have put countless hours into their ghost subway station, and now they’re finally ready to unveil it to the world, sort of (more on that later). So I guess that’s why I was in that dark room, sitting in silence, waiting for them to give me a flashlight. I’m still not sure why I’d been extended the invitation to see the station firsthand, but I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity. The Underbelly Project is going to be part of street art history.
Surge, Stormie Mills, Remi/Rough and Gaia
Eventually, Workhorse and PAC came over to where I was sitting and lent me a flashlight. I stood up, already coated in dust and probably dirtier than I’ve ever been, and got a full tour of the station. I’m not somebody who is good at estimating the size of a space, but The Underbelly Project took place in a space that was meant to be a subway station, so I guess it was the size of a subway station with a few tracks. The station is like a concrete cavern: random holes who-knows how deep into the ground, dust thick like a layer of dirt, leaky ceilings and hidden rooms. Except the whole station is covered in art. Think of FAME Festival’s abandoned monastery transplanted to beneath New York City. I’m not an urban explorer, so I had no idea that there are abandoned subway stations throughout New York, but The Underbelly Project seems like just about the best possible use of one.
Of course, having been down there myself, I’m going to be prone to hyperbole. Even at it’s simplest, even if The Underbelly Project is “just another mural project,” it’s a story that the artists can tell for years, and it may even be evidence that street art isn’t so far gone and corporate as some people have suggested.
Swoon and Imminent Disaster. Disaster's piece is stunning beyond belief and fits the space so perfectly.
The list of artists who painted for The Underbelly Project goes on and on, but here are just a few:
Swoon
Gaia
Know Hope
Revok
Roa
Dan Witz
Jeff Soto
Faile
Mark Jenkins
Elbow-toe
TrustoCorp
Mark Jenkins and Con. This is at the end of a long and dark tunnel that, at the time, was not otherwise painted.
On my visit, The Underbelly Project wasn’t finished. In fact, somebody was painting there that night. Nonetheless, the space was already substantially painted and postered. I spent that night wandering around the tunnels, taking photos and getting lost (and also scared – Damn you Mark Jenkins! You can’t put a sculpture like that at the end of a darkened hall. I thought it was a person!).
TrustoCorp
And what now? The walls have all been painted and the artists have moved on to new projects. When the last artist finished painting the last wall, Workhorse and PAC made access to The Underbelly Project nearly impossible by removing the entrance. Even if any of us wanted to go back (and I do), even if we could remember how to get there (and I don’t), we can’t. Nobody can. For now, The Underbelly Project has become a time capsule of street art, somewhere in the depths of New York City.
Meggs
Brad Downey once explained to me why he thought Damien Hirst’s diamond skull is interesting. It had something to do with what people would think of the skull in 1000 years, when its original meaning has been lost to time. That’s when the skull is going to become a true icon and object with immense power. In some ways, The Underbelly Project is like Hirst’s skull, without the price tag. One day, decades from now hopefully, somebody may rediscover that old subway station and have no idea what they’re looking at. Hopefully, they’ll just feel that it’s something incredibly special.
Dan Witz. This was the first time I'd seen his street art in person. It's the perfect setting for Dan's Dark Doings series.
Here are some more images from The Underbelly Project, and expect more over the coming days on Vandalog and around the blogosphere… Or you can pay £1 to read an in-depth article about it in today’s Sunday Times.
Stash (well, part of his piece). This is another room like Know Hope's area.Swoon and ListerL'Atlas, Mr Di Maggio, 1010, Paper Twins, Bigfoot, Control/Jice. Photo by WorkhorseFaile. Photo by PACSkewville, PAC, SheOne, Revok/Ceaze. Photo by PAC
Every serious art show should have a theme, subject, or a suggestive title. This show does all that but it also makes an exception. The title doesn’t refer to a specific subject or theme, but tries to say something about the works of every artist who takes part in this show, about the strange gathering of a few people from different parts of the world, different backgrounds, experiences and styles, who want to meet and show their works and paint together. And it also tries not to say too much…
The works of each of the 8 artists in the show, have a more or less obvious magical, fantastical component or feeling: the geometrical, almost abstract fantastical characters of 1010, the intricate world populated by chubby cute creatures of Aitch, the paintings/collages of pop characters, crude colors, hyper realistic landscapes and potraits of Juan Carlos Noria, the expressionistic compositions of characters grouped almost like in magical processions in the works of Labrona, the delicious multi eyed/handed/faced monstrous characters of Noper, the magical mix of realistic portraits, intricate colorful patterns and grotesque members in Other’s characters, the dreamy/nightmarish characters or pencil drawn animations of Produkt and the colorful backgrounds, mystical graphical signs and the cute or grotuesque fantastical creatures of Saddo.
Also, the 8 artists are somehow connected to each other – either they met at some point in their lives, lived in the same city or worked together before in different formations;, but never all of them appeared in the same show, under this line-up – and now they are brought together not through the powers of hazard or fate, but almost…as if by magic.
