Graffiti, Post-graffiti and Street-art
Alexone for Alice
http://www.alexone.net/ – http://www.alicebxl.com/
A selection of skateboards designed by active & retired graffiti artists.
Part II will be posted tomorrow,
feel free to suggest some boards in the comments.
Eindhoven is a small city and design is Eindhoven’s claim to fame because of the Design Academy etc. Luckily there are quite some other events during the DDW not directly related to the ‘ pots and pans, chairs and tables’-design, but places where there is a different touch. One of these places is Freek Lomme‘s Onomatopee and his Your-space. He did a lot of the arranging so we were lucky to produce the book.
Actually I think it’s good it was not related to an “urban art event”, it’s good to see genres mix, I never liked that art is only about art, urban only about urban, hiphop only about hiphop etc. There are good and bad things to find in all fields.
In a way yes. Like a scrapbook should be…Me, space3 and Crackrock wanted a good overview of certain people and certain works that had an impact on Eindhoven’s streets in the past 10 years or so. Next to that of course there are also more traditional tags and old electricity boxes with tags still visible after 15 or even 20 years. Most of these were buffed just recently, so in a way the book shows the ghosts of a past era, and also shows the constant battle with the citycleaners. Also it’s good that a lot of things are put together in one book, unlike big cities there are not so many people constantly going in and out of Eindhoven so a lot of nice things never were seen.
The fact that a lot of people with different backgrounds met in a similar field; producing stuff in the streets that challenged each other to make more and different work. A constructive vibe instead of losing too much energy battling in a negative way. More traditional graffiti always existed next to other expressions, people did both art or design and graffiti and crosshatched these fields. On a personal level all these different people always relatively got along quite well, it’s a small place it makes sense.
Yes…it’s mostly buffed and kept clean. Like most other North-European or at least Dutch cities there is apparently enough money to spend on city-cleaning, and it’s done as a “safety measure”; people feel unsafe and the best way to lighten that feeling is a superficial one. Nothing really changes, it looks and feels “better”, so that makes all the difference. It makes sense I guess in a society that is so much about appearance and looks.
Still people do things so there is still stuff to see, but it’s not as vibrant as before. In the bigger picture it makes sense that things change after a 10-year span.
Definitely check out MU, an art space with good contemporary art and changing exhibitions as well as the Van Abbe Museum, look for Arnol, the loudest streetpreacher ever in the center city, he will give you Jesus’ blessings personally, drink a beer or fifteen at the Lafolie-bar, go to Motta artbooks, break a leg in Area51 skatepark, get your infamous Dutch-cuisine lunch at Dik & Lang, try to be at a Stroomhuis-party, and that should be enough for one day to not come back in quite a while…
(cc) FacemeplsI really like Influenza‘s ongoing experiments in the research of using and abusing our cities and it’s public spaces…I still can’t get over what Mischa Leinkauf and Matthias Wermke did with their film “zwischenzeit”, it’s so good. Did you see Blu’s latest visit to Barcelona? I saw some beautiful stuff from Adams some time ago that make you realise how far some people push things…Ofcourse it’s interesting to see the developments ( or lack of developments) by our beloved (or not so beloved) streetart superstars and the famegame and moneymachine around it, some change in just a decade! Next to that there are so many things happening it takes too much space to type down…not only in street-related fields but in general. The more you see the less you know…
I would just like to find a way to bend time a bit more in my advantage.
If somebody can help me with that, that would be really nice.
Above: “I found this real life gladiator in front of the Roman Colosseum where he was charging 5-Euros from tourists to have their photo taken with him. I bargained with him to stand next to the painted gladiator and I got more than I expected”.
1. Why have you decided to release a 3rd chapter to “Object” ? What makes it different to the 2 previous books ?
I think, street art must convey a message to people and to be totally interactive. In Russia, street art has poor evolution, but I’m always interested in participating to the graffiti subculture evolution. In 2005 year I created a web-site : www.visualartifacts.ru. This web-site supported Russian street art. After a few months the idea came of “Objects” book.
First and second books contained best works of the Russian street artists and explored ex. USSR graffiti scene. In Russia there’s not enough interesting art projects. So, I had the idea of the Red Cube.
Third issue like the previous one, is mostly dedicated to Russian street art innovation reviews and events in the street art community. But this issue was conceived as something more meaningful than an ordinary street art album.
“Objects” cubed – is a project aimed to stimulate creative experimentation among Russian street artists, a call to overcome two dimensional and typographic street art, which is unfortunately the dominant trend in Russia. Our goal is redirect artists’ potential into the field of free art unrestricted to the urban surfaces only. So, this third issue is focused on three dimensional objects and space-volume compositions, created by various artists on the streets of the city. It’s the first time when the title reflects the contents so literally.
2. What has been the harder on the making of the book ?
Working on the books I had two big problems: artists are very lazy and are not ready for big projects and unique ideas. European street artists inspired by Russian art works and making a copy-past, this very sad. I think it is a big problem, that disturb evolution Russian artists.
3. Watching you book, we really have the feeling the Russia scene is extremely active with many diversity. But at the same time your latest personal project is named “Russian street-art is dead”?
But evolution cannot exist without experiment. Culture that blindly replicates tradition is a dead culture. One of the main intentions of this title – is a call to discover new areas of experimentation, to employ new media, to invent new forms of street expression, because, unfortunately, only a very few Russian street artists dare to tread new paths…
So, I came to the conclusion, that Russian street-art is dead. This subculture is very small and without evolution, it’s dead. “Russian street-art is dead” it’s my conception now, and my last exhibition confirms that.
4. Can you tell us the name of an artist from Moscow we should know about ?
I don’t really have a new interesting Russian artists to present now. There’s a few artists like me: Scheme, 183, 0331c and Misha Most, but it is not enough.
Right now, I’m working on my own public street-art projects. It’s a bit early to talk about a fourth book.
5. If I visited Moscow, which are the places I shouldn’t miss?
My recommendation art’s place in Moscow:
Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory,
Tretyakov gallery,
The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.
Official web-site: www.objectsbook.ru
With Best Regards, Igor P.
Homepage: www.prokvadrat.ru
You can order Objects 3 from Europe and from Russia.
You can also download the pdf of Objects 2.
Chor Boogie recently went to brazil painting some commissions as well as collaborate with photographer Jihan Abdalla on her documentation of prostitutes in Brazil …
Chor boogies involvement was to scout out the right prostitutes for a series he is painting that will be featured in the book as well…along with meeting new artists…. He also collaborated with the Fleshbeck crew painting walls in the dangerous favellas of Rio di Janero . In this case was wild… Simply because they are owned and operated by the drug zars and when we approach the walls we painted we get greeted by a 15 year old with 29 millimeters in his waist saying everything is cool. Hows that to make you feel safe…the people may not have much money but they have the best view of the city… Also as well .. Painting walls in villa Mimosa a red light district of Rio,collaborating with an artist named Bragga and Vagner.. Who where pretty fresh hosts by the way..
Then comes Sao Paulo connecting with Os Gemeos and Nunca to paint but unfortunately timing was off and people where busy but where pretty fresh guys over the phone and plan to hook up with them next time….being put up in ritzy hotel in Sao Paulo paid for by Leo Burnett agency one of the top 5 ad agencies in the world ..simply gave a lecture and painted live…collaborating with Gaz urban art and artists such as Cena7, Emol,and Obranco…then this leaves us to the last part of the trip painting in the 2nd largest prostitute district in the world in campinas …imagine thousands of prostitutes organized in a 10 mile radius supporting a city of refuge and i mean putting clothes on each others back making sure children get education running water the works … No matter what its still third world and its no joke as i was leaving a transvestite was found bent over naked with there clothes next to him murdered as people from the area scamper to go take a peek, along with a wild police chase because somebody thought it was that time to rob a store…good times …. Could happen any where ..but over all it was an amazing learning trip of my life…
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“Paddington” was done in London for Land Security.
“Traffic” was done in Germany for M-Real
the “Beko All Star” picture was done for a TV commercial in Istanbul check this link to see the video.
For us it was our most successful year in our liefs so far!
We had the opportunity to work in New York, Paris, London, Istanbul, Bolzano, Vienna, Brussels…
We have been invited to big Festivals like the Ars Electronica, found a Gallery, did some nice expositions and meet a lot of nice people.
For us there is nothing to add, except to say THANK YOU.
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Une photo d’action de POM, Gé et Joos parce que ce qu’ils font est toujours incroyable autant dans le format, que dans le placement et que dans la bonne humeur que ça apporte à tous sans avoir à se creuser la tête. On regarde, on sourit, j’adore ça. Et puis aussi parce qu’ils sont adorables et que j’ai la chance de pouvoir les suivre de temps en temps dans leurs sorties. Dernièrement, la 3e édition du festival One short One movie s’est appuyé sur leurs collages à l’UGC Capitole pour les thèmes des courts métrages. A (re)voir par ici.
Action photo from Pom, Gé & Joos. What they do is always amazing because of the size, of the place and for the smiles they bring to everyone.
2008 aura été pour moi l’année du retour à l’argentique et surtout la découverte du moyen format qui a changé ma vie de photographe amateur…
J’apprécie particulièrement l’exercice du portrait avec ce nouvel outil pour moi. Voilà donc un portrait de Julien Loïs, ami coloriste et illustrateur qui vous laisse sur le cul en trois coups de crayon. Ici devant un détail d’une de ses dernières réalisations murales pour une librairie de BD.
In 2008 I came back to analog photography and I discovered Medium format film. It really changed my life of amateur photographer.
I particularly enjoy shooting portrait with this “new” tool. Here is Julien Loïs a friend of mine who is an incredibly talented illustrator. On the photo he was working on the wall of a comic shop.
Et enfin, Ricardo, le factotum de l’association Nicole Crême, sérigraphe fou et talentueux avec qui Loïs et moi avons démarré une petite production d’affiches sérigraphiées de qualité.
Peut-être plus d’infos bientôt sur ekosystem… ;o)
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Une photo que j’apprécie particulièrement (1 heure d’attente pour avoir cette photo)
I waited one hour to capture this one.
Titi from Paris. L’une des plus belles œuvres à mes yeux d’art urbain sur Paris cette année.
One of the most beautiful urban art piece in Paris 2008 to me.
Couverture du livre Paris Street Art 2008 aux Editions Prestel dont je suis co-auteur.
I used this one to illustrate the cover of Paris Street Art 2008 book.
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Ghost subway station in Paris. I love this place because we can find some very old school pieces. (Oeno on this one !)
Perfect place (Quay d’Orsay), it reminds me some great moments. and the barges bring great light.
This factory is certainly one of the last one that is not fully covered by graffiti around Paris.
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Midnight marauders in Berlin
Berlin is broke and besides having no money for the anti-graffiti-fight
they too have no money for infrastructure / building costs etc. There
are so much abandoned places like this old & unfinished Parking-Garage.
Finding a chilled spot for doing some graff in the daytime and in the
middle of the city is no problem at all. (Hey Chris).
“He´s begging you to feed him – we´re begging you not to”
Meeting YOK in Bangkok who was painting this Mural for a Project trying
to get awarness for the bad conditions of Street-Elephants
Another selection of record covers designed by active & retired graffiti artists.
AKROE – http://www.akroe.net/
C100 – http://www.c100studio.com/
CALMA (Stephan Doitschinoff) – http://www.stephandoit.com.br/
DELTA – http://www.deltainc.nl/
Eko/TCF – EH?/Bristol – http://www.myspace.com/rev_urine
ESPO – http://www.firstandfifteenth.net/
FUTURA 2000 – http://www.futura2000.com/
HoNeT – http://www.aventuresextraordinaires.fr/
INKUNSTRUCTION – http://www.inkunstruction.com/
HAZE – http://www.interhaze.com/
JIWEE/SDK – http://www.jiwee.fr
Kid Acne – http://www.kidacne.com/
LKSIR – http://www.lksir.canalblog.com/
TWIST (Barry Mcgee) – on Wikipedia
Have your checked the 1st part of this selection of record covers.
AKROE – http://www.akroe.net/
BANKSY – http://www.banksy.co.uk/
DELTA – http://www.deltainc.nl/
FLYING FORTRESS – http://www.flying-fortress.de/
GOMES – http://www.weareshit.com/
GREMS – http://www.grems.eu/
Sheppard FAIREY – http://obeygiant.com/
POPAY – http://popay.free.fr/
SUPAKITCH – http://www.myspace.com/supakitch
UPWEHR – http://upwehr.net/
Any suggestion of other albums designed by street & graffiti artists for a second selection ?
C100 published 5 years ago; “The art of Rebellion“,
the 1st book about the so-called “street-art scene” of the early 00’s.
He’s back with a new book collection…
“Part Of The Rebellion: Flying Fortress” seems to be the 1st book of a new collection.
Why have you choosen Flying Fortress for this 1st book ?
We want to do proper art books to show that this is a true art form.
http://www.flying-fortress.de/
http://www.publikat.de/
http://www.c100studio.com/
Size : 15×18.8cm – Pages 128 – 14.90€ – Isbn: 978-3-939566-16-8 – English – Softcover
Can you present yourself ? Where do you live ? Are you related to Pikachu ?
I live in London although i am originally from Devon in the UK. I’m not related to Pikachu, but my cousin IS Jiggleypuff.
Was there any particular moment or event that motivated you to begin this “little people” project ?
Not so much a specific moment, but i did start to become interested in the macro, hidden side of London. I found a stag beetle one evening and realised that i hadn’t seen one since i left Devon, which is a rural area. It got me thinking about the world under our feet and how, in a city, you rarely pay much attention to the ground as it is generally barren and covered with concrete, not full of interesting bugs and plants. A few weeks later, the ‘little people’ project just popped in to my head and i liked the idea of creating a hidden world of overlooked city dwellers.
The little characters you use. Where do they come from ? Do you paint/custom them ?
Most of the characters i use are originally created for train sets, many by a German company called Preiser. They generally come unpainted. Depending on the scene, i will cut up and repose the figures and model new clothing for them such as hoods and baggy jeans, then paint them. They then get super-glued to the street and left there.
Some of your scenes seem to be from the 50/60s. Is it intentional ?
The figures tend to have a 40s-50s vibe to them. I think this is because they are made for train sets and these often hark back to the ‘good old days’ of steam-powered trains.
Your little people looks a bit lost & alone in a huge city. Do you have sometimes similar feelings as a Londoner ?
This is something that i love bringing to my installations and shots – i like that meloncholy feeling. I think everyone who lives in a big city feels lost and alone at some point.
Do you feel close to the so-called “street-art” scene ?
In some ways yes. I think the ‘scene’ encompasses a lot of different styles of art which is what makes it exciting, although perhaps the general public still just think of graffiti as being street art. One of my favorite things about taking part in group shows has been to get to meet a wide variety of talented artists who in one way or another work on the street. I think because my work also involves photography it also stands apart a bit from ‘street art’ (In a way that work by someone like JR doesn’t as his photography actually gets displayed outside). It doesn’t feel wrong for me to put my shots in a gallery for instance, although i do prefer the part of my work that involves doing stuff outside.
How did you manage to have a foreword by Will Self ?
We just asked him and he said yes. He is very interested in scale and, of course, is also a Londoner so we hoped that he would be interested, and he was.
When you were a child were you into Lego or Playmobil?
I used to love lego. I was very much one of those children who prefered making things in his bedroom to playing football outside. I was always builing things from cardboard boxes and toilet rolls.
Any plans for the future that you want to tell us about?
I am working on different series of installations and shots that move the project forward a bit – they involve a lot more customisation of the figures. I also want to do some street-based projcts that don’t use little people but still keep that human element to them and explore how we live in cities and the types of people that live around us. And now it is autumn and wet again i want to hunt down more snails to mess around with. I have kinda fallen in love with snails a bit. They are pretty cute when you get to know them!
Slinkachu on the web:
http://little-people.blogspot.com/
http://slinkachu.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40878105@N00/
http://innercitysnail.blogspot.com/
Slinkachu book : “LITTLE PEOPLE IN THE CITY” – The street art of Slinkachu
ISBN 978-0-7522-2664-4
Nuria in Mallorca at Pilar y Juan Miro Foundation
Nuria in London
The Street Art Walking Tour:
An urban tour of site-specific art from
a group of five Madrid-based street artists: 3TTMan, Spok, Nano 4814, Eltono and Nuria Mora.
Nuria in Sicily
