Vandalog Movie Night as a blog post

Earlier this week, I hosted a movie night at The Wren’s Nest in Atlanta for the Living Walls Conference. Living Walls asked me to put together a list of some short films to show, and I ended up with 27. A few people have asked me to post those films online to share with friends or just to see a film that they missed while they were getting some food, so after the jump you’ll find embedded versions of all 27 films that were screened at the movie night (many of which have appeared on Vandalog before). Enjoy! Continue reading “Vandalog Movie Night as a blog post”

Living Walls is underway

This year’s Living Walls Conference has begun and the team are posting daily updates to Vimeo. Here are the first three days. I’ll be arriving in Atlanta for the conference in less than 24 hours. Please join me on Wednesday night for an evening of short films and Friday evening for a panel about gender and identity in street art. And also, I’m sure the rest of the conference events will be interesting too. Here’s the full line up of Living Walls activities.

The Living Walls Conference 2012

The 2012 Living Walls Conference is about to begin, and the line-up of events and murals has finally been announced. Once again, I’ll be participating at the conference. I’ll be speaking at a panel on the issue of gender, hosting an evening of short films and maybe doing a Pecha Kucha talk if I come up with something to talk about.

But of course, the highlight of Living Walls is going to be the murals. For this year’s conference, the festival organizers have decided to go with an (almost) all-women lineup of muralists including Fefe, Hyuro, Miso, Cake and Olive47, plus photographers Martha Cooper and Teen Witch.

Other speakers at the conference include Living Walls alums LNY and Gaia, as well as Ian Wilson, who recently organized the Wall\Therapy mural festival in Rochester, NY.

Living Walls will take place August 15th-19th, with special events every day. For the full lineup a comprehensive listing of events, check the Living Walls facebook event.

Photo by RJ Rushmore

Living Walls needs your support and has a matching grant

LNY for the Living Walls Conference 2011

The team over at Living Walls in Atlanta has some exciting news this week. Possible Futures will match up to $10,000 of donations made to Living Walls between now and August 1st. Living Walls is, in my opinion, the best mural festival or conference in North America, but the conference relies on donations to make it happen. Thanks to Possible Futures, any donation you make now through August 1st will go twice as far, so even if you can only spare a few dollars, I hope you will consider donating to Living Walls.

Photos by RJ Rushmore

Neuzz for Living Walls

Photo by Bonham Johnson

Neuzz was the latest artist to visit Atlanta for Living Walls Concepts. Here are a few shots of Neuzz and the wall, and a video by Dustin Chambers and Wil Hughes documenting the progress of the mural.

Photo by Wil Hughes
Photo by Wil Hughes

Next up for Living Walls Concepts: Evereman.

Photos by Wil Hughes and Bonham Johnson

Interesni Kazki for Living Walls Concepts

Photo by Nathan Bolster

The Ukrainian duo Interesni Kazki are the latest artists to paint a wall in Atlanta with Living Walls for their Living Walls Concepts series. Neuzz is in town painting now, so expect to see something from him soon, but for now here’s what IK got up to…

Photo by Noah Orisich
Photo by Noah Orisich
Photo by Nathan Bolster. Click image to view large

Interesni Kazki are now at work on another mural in Mexico City.

Photos by Nathan Bolster and Noah Orisich

Gaia and Nanook for Living Walls Concepts

Photo by Gaia

Gaia and Nanook were just in Atlanta for their turn at the new Living Walls Concepts series of mini-conferences that are an extention of Living Walls. Here’s what Joshua Rackliffe, Living Walls’ director of programming, has to say about their visit:

Living Walls Concepts, a year-long extension of the conference’s programming, hosted its first collaboration of 2012 with seasoned Living Walls artists Gaia and Nanook. Over the course of their 4-day visit, they produced an original work in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. The creation spans the western wall of a structure on Edgewood Avenue, located on the opposite side of a building that displays another Living Wall by Tel-Aviv artist Know Hope. In addition to their mural, Gaia and Nanook hosted an open conversation and lecture pertaining to their experiences in street art and how it engages community, activates space, and conveys messages about the state of the urban environment. These two have been consistent representations of the Living Walls mission, and are enthusiastic about continuing their participation with the organization.

Living Walls have just gotten their status as an official non-profit organization and are starting on a big fundraising drive. I hope you will support them if you can.

Check out some photos and video of the wall coming together after the jump… Continue reading “Gaia and Nanook for Living Walls Concepts”

Let’s talk: Discussions this week in NYC and ATL

Gaia and Nanook

This week, there are at least three discussions about street art and graffiti that look worth checking out.

The first two events are in New York at screenings of the film Vigilante Vigilante. VV is a film that I’ve been hoping to see for at least a year. It’s about the people who take graffiti removal into their own hands and paint over graffiti without permission. Here’s the trailer. VV has two screenings in New York this week at the Maysles Cinema: Wednesday and Friday at 7:30pm. After Wednesday’s screening, there will be a discussion with director Max Good, artists ESPO (aka Steve Powers) and Lava 1 & 2. After Friday’s screening, there will be a conversation between Max Good and retired Vandal Squad Cop Steve Mona. Either event should be interesting, but I’ll be at Friday’s screening (although I might have to bail on the discussion in favor of Fountain’s opening party. We’ll see). You can buy tickets for Vigilante Vigilante and read more about the film and the post-screening events online.

The final discussion is on Sunday evening in Atlanta. Living Walls Concepts is bringing Gaia and Nanook, both participants in the Living Walls Conference since its inception, to town to discuss “the impact of mural projects on urban areas” and “the importance of illegal street work and direct action.” Given their years at Living Walls and other mural festivals and Gaia’s experience starting up the brand new mural project Open Walls Baltimore, this should be something pretty special. You can find details of the event here.

Photo by Nanook

Weekend link-o-rama

Ludo in Paris

It’s officially spring break, which meant the last week for me has primarily consisted of sitting at my desk where I read and type furiously until my eyes are tearing up and my fingers are sore. It also means I could only blog when procrastinating and that the next few days should be a chance to write some longer posts that I’ve been sitting on. In the mean time, here’s what I’ve been finding around the web this week:

  • The man who came up with the Broken Windows Theory died this week.
  • Great piece by You Go Girl on a bus.
  • If you like graffiti writers moving beyond text and generally pushing graffiti’s boundaries, make sure to check out this video of Askew.
  • Todd James has a new print out at Pictures on Walls.
  • Great group show coming up in London with Matt Small, MyMo, Sickboy, Fefe, Monica Canilao, Remi, Best Ever and more.
  • Stinkfish‘s work is on the cover of Diplomat Magazine this month thanks to Jeannine Saba. Here’s the cover.
  • David de la Mano did a fantastic job brightening up this spot in Uruguay.
  • Interesting article about street art that definitely makes a real difference in the world.
  • Plaztik Mag’s latest video features work by Skewville, Roa and Bast and is creepy/awesome.
  • The Living Walls Conference has two great announcements this week: 1. They are now a 501(c)(3), aka an official non-profit organization. 2. In addition to the annual conference, there will be 6 “Living Walls Concepts” mini-events throughout the year, starting in March.
  • Craig Ward wrote a letter critiquing Banksy’s critique of advertisers. Given: Banksy is one of the world’s best marketers himself. Beyond that, the letter is a bit of a mess and Ward points out that he has worked in advertising himself. Clearly, it’s written from the perspective of someone who has lost his perspective and seems to boil down to “There’s worse stuff in the world, so umm, please leave advertisers alone.” No doubt that there are greater evils in the world than the public advertising that seems to be the primary target of Banksy’s critique of advertising, but that sure as hell doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. Additionally, one of Ward’s points as to why traditional advertising isn’t as bad as Banksy’s advertising is that traditional advertisers pays for the locations they use. With that argument, Ward completely disregards both the negative externalities of massive ad campaigns that occur regardless of how much the advertiser pays (compared to the documented positive externalities of Banksy’s street art) and the illegal nature of many advertising campaigns which do not pay the government for the space that they use. By his standard, hiring an assassin to kill someone might be better than doing it yourself, because at least there’s money involved and somebody is getting paid for their time.

Photo by Ludo

John Fekner for MLK Day

The Living Walls team installed the above stencil, designed by stenciling legend John Fekner, in Atlanta last week as part of a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I Still Have A Dream is Fekner’s first work in Atlanta. It can be found at Pal’s Lounge at 254 Auburn Ave NE on the corner of Auburn Ave and Bell Street, and was installed just in time to be seen by participants in Altanta’s 2012 MLK Day Parade. More photos are over on Streetela.

Photo by Streetela