The video is produced by The Social Creative, a London based collective which makes films for issues that matter. They work with charities, not for profit agencies and creative and cultural enterprises, including a body of work comprised of web films and short documentaries.
It’s only a one-week show folks, and Adam has built a sit-n-spin ride that will make you blow all that Genesee Cream Ale like Linda Blair around the front gallery, so you don’t want to miss this opening!
Wanna Ride? A sit-n-spin for four created by Ad Deville for Pufferella (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Before we go to the show, a little background; Street Artist Pufferella has played a pivotal role in the New York Street Art scene by running Orchard Street Art Gallery for 7 years with Ad Deville on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, opening the doors and clearing the way for many aspiring graffiti writers and street artists to show their work in a new public setting, many for the first time.
After losing their lease due to greedy landlords, they moved to Bushwick in Summer 2008 to open Factory Fresh, another gallery that opened it’s arms to emerging and better-known street artists and fine artists. On her own, Pufferella has quietly established her own fine art work, consisting primarily of sewn pieces that may be more traditional flat “canvasses” or full-blown soft sculptures.
“That sewing machine is like my baby,” Pufferella (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Taking a break from the sewing machine, Pufferella shows us the inner sanctum of her office at Factory Fresh, which is carefully hung with fabric pieces for the show, effectively blocking all eyes from seeing in the window or over the counter.
The collection of new pieces are brightly colorful, boldly warm. The shiny solid shapes and figures are stiffly posed in simple arrangements, floating in awkward proximity to one another, creating a momentary scene or flash of action. Sewn on lush fabrics, they can take special importance because of the spareness in number and bluntness of geometry.
It’s when these pieces are finished and seen together as a group that Pufferella can get overwhelmed with their significance and she questions if she has been too open as an artist. Speaking about her art and her life, a dual set of impulses emerge – frequently warring with one another. It may be this ongoing conflict that gives many of the pieces a raw energy that is captured in action.
Brooklyn Street Art: I don’t see as much sexual activity in this show as I thought I would.
Pufferella: Oh, yeah? There’s I’d say a good third of the show has those themes. There are some other things going on. Like the tigers! They are so cute I want to take them home with me.
Two new tigers hanging out by Pufferella (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: So, about these various couples in positions… do you like to imagine sexual relations in unusual places?
Pufferella: I think these are all personal things. Stuff I’ve done or things I think about. I’m very private but I’d say I’m a little wild in certain places.
Brooklyn Street Art: Well, this is the thing; You feel like it is very private and yet you are holding an exposition of it in a very public way.
Pufferella: Isn’t that what art is? Aren’t you supposed to put your soul into it? If I was like, “what am I doing?” then I would produce graphic design. So for me it is that pure. I’m not doing it to sell it, necessarily. So that’s why it’s like, “I think it would be funny if cotton candy fell in love with carrot.”
A little hanky-panky in the castle with the prince. Pufferella (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: Do you ever have problems or fights with your sewing machine?
Pufferella: Yeah, I mean, I have to oil it, take care of it. I know what the problems are. That sewing machine is like my baby.
When stuff falls out of place, like the pins fall out or I get sliced by stuff, I get pissed. Like when stuff moves and you get a ripple and you have to go back… I spend a lot of time fixing stuff. But I also know what I’m doing wrong. There’s a backing that I’m supposed to put on all of this and my mom gives it to me. She’s like, “Why aren’t you using this?” but I don’t like the way it comes out. It comes out so “crafty”.
So I like it to be a little messed up. Like those kinks and things, I think for me, are what really keeps it “art”. I don’t know.
Brooklyn Street Art: So it’s an effect that you don’t like when you see it, like it has too much of a “finished” quality.
Pufferella: Well, I come from quilters too, and I went to art school and they didn’t because they were farm people who made beautiful quilts, to keep them warm, and they did them nicely. So, I try to differentiate. I know what that (quilting) is, and I’ve tried but I’ve come close.
Brooklyn Street Art: You are afraid of becoming too “crafty”?
Pufferella: Definitely. I think people expect this work to be “craft”. It’s like “appliqué” – like what’s the defining line between me and appliqué? Very little, but I’m hanging on to it.
Brooklyn Street Art: Right, there is a fine line… where suddenly someone is saying, “Can you make a pillow for me?”
Pufferella: And I have done that. Like I did Abe Lincoln Jr.’s bird. But I made it poop and poop-balls came out of it. Yeah the other thing that makes it “art” is the idea. I think when people make quilts they look at patterns.
A Cat and Dog scene from Pufferella’s 2005 show at Pink Pony (Image courtesy Pufferella)
Brooklyn Street Art: Some of these themes are related to circus or performance or childhood fantasy?
Pufferella: Yeah, I guess that I feel like it is always coming back to those things. Like my 2005 show at Pink Pony, where I made a circus. I guess that is just what I think about a lot. Funny, carnivale, freaks. I feel like I’m very normal on the outside but very weird on the inside.
Brooklyn Street Art: Can you give me three adjectives?
Pufferella: For me?
Brooklyn Street Art: Don’t think about it.
Pufferella: Shiny. Giggly. Dark.
More action on the fairgrounds. Pufferella (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: Okay.
Pufferella: Like I think there is that dark humor to everything.
Brooklyn Street Art: Like “Funhouse” humor.
Pufferella: Yeah.
Brooklyn Street Art: Did you go to state fairs, or county fairs when you were a kid?
Pufferella: Yes, and I think I have that dual nature because my parents were raised on farms, but then they moved and raised us in a different life. We traveled and did all these things that they didn’t really do. So I think there is that dual thing. Like sometimes they were having us milk cows but then taking us to New York City. It was always that way. I grew up in Morristown, New Jersey, which is just outside New York. I did the whole club thing at 16, but I had these roots where I would go back to Michigan and see my Grandma.
“The Perfect Wife” by Pufferella (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: Did you tell me this is the ideal woman?
Pufferella: “The Perfect Wife” Yeah, that piece is about how I don’t feel like I get heard a lot of times. Like I have to say stuff a bazillion times. I might as well be like a video game playing and I might as well have my shirt off. That’s the whole thing with guys. Like I might as well just be serving drinks, playing music, with the mute button on.
Pufferella (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: What about this powerful image? Can you describe her?
Pufferella: “You Must Be This Tall To Ride” – this porn pose, like she is stripper dancing, but giving you a rule. It’s like a sign for entering an amusement park ride. So the top of the leg would indicate the height the person must be, and then the other meaning could be for sex. Like it could say “to ride me”, but it doesn’t. That one came about from preparing for a show I was supposed to do with Thundercut and Gaëtane (Michaux), but it got cancelled. So we were all supposed to do a sign.
“You Must Be This Tall To Ride”, Pufferella (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: So it is this “come-on” pose coupled with this rejection at the same time.
Pufferella: It is, isn’t it? It could be used for a boy or a girl. She’s very bold. I think that’s the boldest piece I’ve probably done, with all that hair.
Detail from “You Must Be This Tall To Ride”, Pufferella (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: It’s full of energy and action and movement and power.
Pufferella: Yeah, it’s funny, I have a hard time looking at that one. Sometimes when I’m all done, I actually cry. I don’t really like my work.
Brooklyn Street Art: Really?
Pufferella: Yeah, like I had a breakdown. Just looking at all of it and what it all means, and really kind of having that put in your face, in a way, it’s like “maybe this is the reality”. Like “What am I trying to say? Why is this what comes out of me?”
Brooklyn Street Art: It’s revelatory, perhaps.
Pufferella: Yeah, I guess. Like I do the drawing, and I guess it doesn’t mean as much as what it ends up being in the end when it comes to life.
Brooklyn Street Art: That’s interesting how it causes discomfort and emotional turbulence.
Pufferella: Yeah, I probably wouldn’t do this show if I could back out now. Now that it’s all ready to go I would probably not show it. Because it is like “what am I doing?” The work is very personal I guess.
<<< >> .. .>>> ..>> ..>
Pufferella has been sewing creations for the front room and Josh McCutcheon will be showing himself publicly for the first time in the back room.
And now for your viewing pleasure, a promotional video for the show done by Pufferella’s dearest friends at PLAZTIK MAG
Polymetrochromanticism
The Artwork of Josh Mccutchen
As a television personality Josh hosted “Does This Look Infected” on MTVU network from 2005-2007. When he’s not painting modern masterpieces, Josh is the host, writer, producer, and editor of the Josh McCutchen Show. You can see him in action at http://www.youtube.com/joshmccutchen
<<< >> .. .>>> ..>> ..>
Pufferella’s Site is HERE
Factory Fresh Site is HERE
Faile & Bast – three Brooklyn street art creative forces of nature are mounting an experiential exhibition at Lazarides Greek Street Gallery in London right now. Longtime collaborators, the trio have combined their signature elements to create a distinctive conceptual show that includes an arcade installation, the Virgin Mary, Humpty Hump, and high-heeled boots.
A begging dog, high-heeled stilleto boots, and a soapbox - looks like the S&M Circus is back in town!
The Stars and Zig-Zags Forever.
A bit of Bast's Humpty Hump and a Bit of Faile.
Food for Art. Art for Thought.
Chocolate & I, New York
511 W. 25 Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY10001
Chocolate & I, New York is excited to showcase recent works from both established and emerging artists revolving around the relationship and characteristics society attributes to chocolate and the way it affects us on a personal level. Join us on February 11th and view the work of Elim Chen, Ema, C&T, Jason Krugman, Michelle Mayer, Carolina Vallejo, Asli Sevinc & Charnan Lewis.
Reception: Thursday Feb. 11, 9p-11. Music performance by Rifle Recoil.
Hedonistic Cloud – EMA.
For this year’s CINY, Ema will prepare a mixed media mural installation that will take you into a delicious visual exploration of her imaginary characters’ relationship to chocolate and other hedonistic practices.
Chocolate Timepiece – C&T.
4 chocolate drippers hang from the ceiling dripping chocolate onto large stainless plates on the floor. Each of the 4 drippers drip at different increments. One drip per second, one drip per minute, one drip per hour, and one drip per day. The drip hits the plate on the floor, creating a distinct sound of chocolate dropping. Over time, each of the 4 plates accumulate different size mounds of chocolate.
Firefly, LED basket – Jason Krugman.
Firefly is a modular LED matrix that visualizes the wind. It transforms wind into a sparkling force that embeds the environment with a sense of magic. LED basket is an exploration into the possibilities of 3-dimensional electro-luminescent LED structures. The concept of LED Weaving, is a new and uncharted territory.
Conflict Confection – Michelle Mayer.
This installation will be a twist on a luxury chocolate shop. I will be making gold leafed chocolate bullets. When approaching the subject of chocolate, one of the most delectable and cherished luxury good on the planet, it is interesting to consider its origins. Chocolate’s main ingredient is the seed of the cacao tree, discovered 2,000 years ago in the tropical rainforest of Americas. Ivory Coast’s cocoa industry, the largest producer in the world accounting for 40% of world production and selling to Mars, Kraft and Nestle among others, is highly controversial. The extremely profitable cocoa fields in the region have been a major source of funding both for the rebel armies in the north and the government in the south. An investigation by anti-corruption organization Global Witness found that in the most recent conflict, the civil war of 2002, $112m was illegally diverted towards war materiel by both sides from cocoa sales. Thousands died. Global Witness further allege that the two sides in the civil war, which recently signed a peace accord and are said to be disarming, are continuing to draw profit from the sector through embezzlement and corruption. The war has undermined cocoa prices for farmers who until recently had been able to sell their beans direct to companies for a reasonable profit, but who are now reliant on buyers thanks to the destruction of he transport network, who are gouging them over prices. As a result, despite growing demand for cocoa and rising prices on world markets, farmers have been receiving less. The $1.2bn industry has also come in for fierce criticism for its child labor practices, with a recent expose by a major newspaper tracking child slaves across the continent and finding that the number of enslaved could be as high as 12,000. Food for thought.
You Will Eat My Words; A Writing Piece – Carolina Vallejo.
Chocolate is often used as antidote for sadness, loneliness and heartbreaks. When bitting a piece of good chocolate and feeling it melting in the mouth an immediate sense of relief, sexiness and seduction comes to mind. You are taken care of. Chocolate is there for you. In You will eat my words I will craft bitter chocolate pieces into words and will offer them to the public. I will be transcribing texts written by me in the past: private letters to ex-lovers, thoughts that have been cumulating years and dust on piles of notebooks. I will set an installation that will look like a desk and will carefully make a dark chocolate and sea salt mix that will become my writing material. Pieces of each text will become chocolate for others, giving that old sorrow a new life as a comforting piece to give brief and instant happiness to others. Each piece of chocolate that I will make will be carefully packed and will have a label with the date the original text was written. Suggestions on the most appropiate time to eat that particular chocolate will also be given.
Chocolate Road, Freddie Got Smallpox, Happy Accidents – Charnan Lewis. Chocolate Road, Freddie Got Smallpox, Happy Accidents – Charnan Lewis.
T. Charnan Lewis’ pointillist paintings use unusual materials to trace the changing landscape and material culture of the West. Large canvases covered in countless candy dots imagine distorted variations of pop imagery. For example, a blond character from Scooby-Doo, wrapped in a Washington Redskins blanket and suffering from smallpox, surveys the landscape in a scene that recalls classic American representations of Indians as noble savages. In such work, viewers confront the ambiguities of U.S. history, and, at the same time, experience such imagery in the unusual medium of candy, an invitation to literally consume the work. In more recent work, Styrofoam dots affixed to contact paper are colored to create landscapes. Here, the tension between the natural and the unnatural further complicate our experience of the paintings. Styrofoam is at once extremely unnatural-it is a strange, almost otherworldly, petrochemical-derived material, a trademark of the Dow chemical company-and extremely natural-we encounter it every day, and it could be considered a symbol of the mundane. The “natural” landscapes Lewis paints in Styrofoam are themselves impossible to imagine outside of our history of representing such landscapes. That is, by using pointillism, Lewis recalls the whole tradition of painters who have sought to reimagine the natural world within a frame. But by using Styrofoam, she suggests the extent to which any such representation is a product of history and culture. Ultimately, her progression from sugar to petrochemicals recalls the shifting economies of global capitalism over the past several hundred years and the resulting cultural production they have engendered.
I Need You to Need Me – Elim Chen.
I want to arise the awareness of the fact that everyone needs to feel they’ve been needed, and it’s ok to admit we’re needy sometimes. To do that, I made two “needy objects”, they need the owner’s attentions to make them work. One is an alarm clock, to stop the alarm, the owner needs to hug it. The other one is a speaker, the volume will go crazy when the owner is not around. The owner needs to pet it to make it calm down.
Wholetrain. 2006. Written and directed by Florian Gaag. With Mike Adler, Florian Renner, Elvas M’Barek, and Jacob Matschenz. 89 min. In German with English subtitles. The screening of Wholetrain will be followed by a conversation between director Florian Gaag and graffiti writer Pure TFP.
With his fantastic cinema debut WHOLETRAIN Florian Gaag tells the story of a crew of four “writers” – David, Tino, Elyas und Achim – who observe the hierarchies, the values, the rules and the codes of the graffiti scene. Night after night they make off for the subway stations of the city, intent on leaving opulent images behind. But as another crew appears on the scene, and the four feel challenged, a creative battle ensues, one that will change the lives of these young people forever.
WHOLETRAIN is an exciting and emotionally gripping drama, one that explores for the first time the secret universe of the graffiti scene. The protagonists exist in a breathless state, suspended somewhere between two worlds: their day to day life, and their existence within the crew. Florian Gaag manages to recount a tale coloured by tension and aggression. The result is a many-sided portrait of characters whose world has never been documented in this way before. Their subculture remains authentic and realistic. Edgy editing and grandiloquent camerawork, a pulsating soundtrack and an excellent ensemble of actors, make WHOLETRAIN a film experience not to be missed.
The soundtrack was written and produced by Florian Gaag, who worked with legendary figures like Hip Hop greats KRS-One, Freddie Foxxx, O.C., Planet Asia, Afu-Ra, Grand Agent, Tame One, Akrobatik and El Da Sensei. Florian Gaag also collaborated with internationally renowned graffiti writers Neon, Won, Cemnoz, Pure and Ciel to create artwork for the film.
Wholetrain
Film Screening + Conversation
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010, 7:00pm
Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building
5 East 3rd Street (at Bowery)
New York, NY 10003
Tel.: +1 (212) 439-8700
Closest Subway: 6 at Bleecker Street
Admission is free, no reservations required.
Sure, you may think its a great day to go play in the snow. But after a few snow angels, a couple slides down the hill on an inflateable mattress, and peeing your name in the white stuff, you will probably head inside to watch Youtube videos of chickens who can make pancakes and that Major Lazer simulated fornication REMIX again. Oh yes you will!
So don’t get all Sanctified Street-Art Preacher Man when Chris Stain tells you he’s been making his stencil projects under a roof with central heating for the last couple of months instead of painting big pieces outside on the wall like a Street Artist. We can’t all be Robots Will Kill.
Watch your head on the ceiling fixture! Chris Stain (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Chris first did a big mural in an old Soho building that was once probably a factory. And then probably a drug den, then an artist studio, and now a stock photo publishing agency and community space. So, the living room/lounge area had a big wall and he had a blast one afternoon getting up a pretty bumpy bulwark – careful not to bump his head on the ceiling light fixture or tumble into the glass coffee table.
Another gig he did was last week in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Bowl called Rock and Wrap It Up which is an anti poverty organization. More on that here Win4Hunger. It was pretty funny seeing him with what amounted to SPOTLIGHTS clearly demarking his place on the wall.
He had 3 hours before the bands started, so Gracias a Dios he had help from two sisters Heather and Robyn Macionus, who rocked the piece in record time, and added a bit of visual interest of their own – or can’t I say that? Okay, they are both gorgeous – now it’s all out in the open!
by photographer Vincent Cornelli
Sure, Jef Aerosol had his show 2 Fridays ago, and he’s now back home in France. But it seems worth revisiting the amount of amazing moments I captured in Bushwick that day as a result of his energy and inspiration while he was in New York; One cannot help but feed off of it.
I want to give you some behind-the-scenes photos of the art and street scene that surrounded the artist at work. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did photographing and capturing them.
Carlito Brigante and C215 in a subtle collaboration © Vincent Cornelli
Te Amo © Vincent Cornelli
C215 on a firebox © Vincent Cornelli
© Vincent Cornelli
© Vincent Cornelli
Know Hope © Vincent Cornelli
© Vincent Cornelli
Bast and Clown Soldier © Vincent Cornelli
© Vincent Cornelli
© Vincent Cornelli
Robots Will Kill © Vincent Cornelli
© Vincent Cornelli
Eine in the center of the Ad Hoc entrance © Vincent Cornelli
The BSA project, named after the business that occupies the building, is an opportunity for street artists to get their stuff up legally that also gets a lot of foot traffic. The block already has roared with wildlife for a few years with the pack animals of Street Artist Dennis McNett in the recessed “window” spaces above the KCDC skate shop. Now RWK has conceived of a way to open the bricked window spaces into a world they imagine.
Here is a peek at the wall in progress.
When Brooklyn Street Art and Robots Will Kill first talked about the guys doing this new windows project, it was sunny and warm and girls were still in their summer shorts. The only “girls” wearing shorts in this neighborhood right now are looking for a ride in your nice big cozy car, and I’m not sure all of them are girls.
“The Patience of Saints, The Industry of Ants” – Veng’s FB status.
“I’m German,” says Veng, as a way of explaining why he thought this February engagement was perfectly suitable for standing on aluminum ladders with a metal spray can in your hand for 8 hours while the wind gusts off the East River like sailors rushing to an “Open Bar”.
“I’m freakin’ cold,” shivers Chris as he pulls down his neoprene ski mask to talk. “Careful, my coat has paint on it.”
Clad in their North Pole gear the RWK dudes attempt to defy (conquer) mother nature as they depict windows that don’t just open the bricked building, but out to another world.
Chris’s windows show a childlike pastel world of a friendly cock-eyed boy thinking of his Valentine and a wistful hyper-alert cat on the windowsill, while Veng is taking you to a 16th century Dutch town, or possibly the 1840’s town of Williamsburgh, the industrial seaport that was once here.
Stay tuned for more progress reports.
RWK in conjunction with BSA.
NYLON TV interview with Judith Supine
Still from the video of Judith showing a collaged figure
“I just sit in a pile and sift through everything and start to find things that feel their way together.”
See more Judith HERE
King of Brooklyn - Biggie
Destroy & Rebuild
Additional Viewing:
Sunday 2/28 from 12-5
Thru April during hours of operation
M-Thur 10:00am-8:00pm, Fri 10-6, Sat 10-6, Sun 10-8
Rae McGrath
"ICES QUEEN" RAE Acrylic & Ink on Reclaimed Laundry Detergent Bottles 48 in x 36 in x 2 in Image Courtesy of the gallery
MORE INFORMATION REGARDING THIS SHOW TO BE UPDATED
“PORTRAITS”
STEN & LEX • GAIA
October 16 – November 6, 2010
ART OPENING: October 16th, from 7:00pm- 10:00pm
Brooklynite Gallery
334 Malcolm X Blvd.
Brooklyn, NY 11233
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The world’s oldest known “Portrait” is believe to be created over 27,000 year ago. So why after all this time is it still the most often used subject of creation? A portrait often speaks much less about the physical features we are viewing, then it does about what’s behind the gaze in ones eyes or the telling angles of their mouth. This fascination continues to intrigue us through the work of three street artists who use traditional and non-traditional techniques to create their own brand of “PORTRAITS”.
Just because street art tandem, STEN & LEX are widely considered to be the pioneers of “stencil graffiti” in their Italian homeland, doesn’t necessarily mean they are content with resting on the title. Best known for introducing their “halftone stencil” technique, these two self-proclamined “Hole School” artists spend ample time hand-cutting pixel dots and lines to compose their imagery which is best viewed from a distance. Choosing to forgo the common pop culture imagery often associated with street art, STEN & LEX’s subject matter pulls no punches. Saints, Popes and the Italian Christian Church were primarily referenced early on –minus the often added social commentary. However, most recently and for their upcoming exhibition here, the subjects of choice comes from the historic Italian archives they’ve rescued. The 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s portraits from all walks of life are the focus this time around, as they are put through the rigorous transformation of stencil cutting style that is trademark STEN & LEX. The final appearance of these portraits appear to have been fed halfway through a paper shredder then pulled back at the last minute leaving the shreds left to dangle. The images are for the most part of common folk—young and old. People who have lived lives and have stories to tell. Just read their faces.
Seems as if the young, hard charging NYC street artist GAIA has been showcasing his bold imagery to the masses since before he could walk. Well maybe it hasn’t been quite that long but over the past few years he’s managed to garner a lot of attention by using more traditional techniques to create his wildlife animals and distinguishing human portraits. Taking a more intelligent, reflective approach to his work, this “old sole” uses wood block carvings and hand-drawn methods to achieve the fur textures of bears, tigers and rabbits as well as the worn lines in the faces of his latest portrait series entitled, “Legacy.” At it’s core, “Legacy” raises the question of infrastructure design and how we are forced to live with the decisions, good or bad, created by figures such as Robert Moses, James Wilson Rouse & Mies van der Rehoboth, all of whom have shaped parts of the American landscape. GAIA also plans on featuring a series of faded self portraits called “Sunsets”. Sunsets are a portrait of the nature of the street artist as an identity. It’s a pseudonym, to the person behind the work and the conflict between the secret, the collective and the fame of the individual. Some of the work is directly painted onto reclaimed street posters and found materials.
Gallery hours: Thursday – Saturday from 1pm – 7pm or by appointment.
238
138
45
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
