London based Street Artist Ben Eine, the one with the American Presidential Seal of Approval, painted his new street work “PRO PRO PRO” in London on the side of Mother. Mother London commissioned this piece to counter the piece “ANTI ANTI ANTI” that Ben Eine painted, just across the street from Mother for the Anti Design Festival.
Our Weekly Interview with the street, this week featuring Chelsea Girl, ECB, Faile, Frog, Radical!, REVS, Think Fly, and Tono
As chosen by Samantha Longhi of Stencil History X
Pandemic Gallery
On Friday, Nov. 12th Pandemic is very proud to host a dual exhibition of two astounding Brooklyn artists,
“Sew Draw”
Richie Lasansky and Allison Read Smith
The show, comprised of drawings, prints, and sculpture of various mediums
relays an incredible balance of styles and process, that when combined simply take ahold.
Absorbing the viewers into the compelling visions these two have portrayed.
"Riche Lasansky "Fish Girl" engraving. copyright 2010. Image courtesy of the gallery
Allison Read Smith "Frog King" sewn rubber. copyright 2010. Image courtesy fo the gallery
“Painting in the streets puts limits on you, as far as the number of colours you can bring with you, how much time you have to paint, and even the subject matter since I like to put a link between the stencils I paint and the context around where I paint them.”
C215 speaks about his process, his travels, and his new book that features street images from our own Jaime Rojo and an introduction from our editor. More from the interview with Ripo on No New Enemies.
Aakash has been riding that tape into the gallery – including this homage to Jeff Koons. Says the gallery for the “Overlap” show that opened last night, “The common denominator of all works in the exhibition is the overlapping of isometric square shapes to create new forms that move towards figurative representation.”
Photo courtesy Bose Pacia
The celebrated Street Artist from Brooklyn talks about her approach to her work, and how it continues to evolve.
This courtesy of graffart.eu, apparently Street Artist Invader has a sidebuster called Id-iom. Invader’s iconic digital spaceship had a rather close encounter of the bovine kind on the street recently.
Read more HERE.
Image courtesy graffart.eu
This new video from Nick Walker in an interview at the opening of his current show at Art Sensus Gallery contains two of the pieces he did first with us this summer on a some walls BSA secured for him in The People’s Republic of Brooklyn. The pieces also look great in the gallery, but the time hanging out with this talented and down-to-earth Street Artist was stellar and a really nice memory for summer 2010.
Our 3 postings on Nick that week
http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=12522
http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=12566
http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=12579
An earnest text-based approach to Street Art, this duo treats their work more like Public Service Announcement than Street Art. The messages posted are in support of Proposition 19, a referendum to legalize use of marijuana this past Tuesday in California, which was voted against by 53.9% of the populace.
Interestingly, the first part of the video is a primer on how to make fresh wheat paste in your kitchen. Suddenly BSA is the cooking channel!
From the West Coast, where smoking pot is still illegal without a doctor’s prescription, Shepard Fairey posted excellent photos by Todd Mazer of a big mural he and Saber recently completed for a project with a name that sounds kind of familiar.
“Saber and I have been friends for over 10 years and previously collaborated on the Brooklyn Projects wall on Sunset in Echo Park. We also both recently coincidentally made art inspired by the American flag,” says Fairey.
Read more on the Obey Giant site
Street Artist Stephen Powers aka ESPO sends this video of an amorous train trip along the same elevated line that affords riders a birds-eye view of his “Love Letters” project in Philadelphia. On the way, the Beatles get involved, and we all start to cry.
Here’s the new video for the next chapter in adoration; Love Letters Syracuse, in a mid-sized city in the center of New York State.
“It’s not a typical show for us where it is like a huge thematic production. It’s a much smaller intimate show,” says Faile’s Patrick McNeil.
Faile partner Patrick Miller strikes a satisfied note, “It’s good, I feel confident about the work. I feel confident within about where we’re at within a given time. You can always go and tinker and keep playing but I’m happy with the body of work.”
Photo © Jaime Rojo
Okay, so sometimes we get too excited. Not by spectacle, or hype, or insider clubbiness – but by the art. Somehow Faile made this painted wood show feel electric.With fragments of images, snippets of phrases out of context, flashes of celebrity, skin, and irony, “Bedtime Stories” is an apt analogy for a lucid dream state, big city life, and our current fascination with glowing digital rectangles of all sizes.
The white box gallery isn’t always suitable for Street Artists; The raw energy of the street can feel stale when trapped inside and shows like this sometimes merit criticism from those who want to “keep it real”. But in typical Faile fashion, “Bedtime Stories”, opening tonight at Perry Rubenstein Gallery in Chelsea, is a considered, well presented multimedia manifestation that energizes the space. The one sculpture, a tree-trunk of titillation in the center of the chamber, serves as a jagged graphic lightening rod for the flashing neon particles that swirl around the space.
Detail Photo © Jaime Rojo
Detail Photo © Jaime Rojo
The first New York gallery show in three years for Street Art collective Faile opens tomorrow at Rubenstein Gallery; a heavy graphic quilt of past, present, and “jimmer-jam”. With the 12-piece “Bedtime Stories”, Patrick and Patrick debut a densely packed wood painting show of story, texture and humor in a quite intimate setting.
Checking on progress as they finished final pieces last week, Brooklyn Street Art was treated to completed block tapestries and works in progress in their buoyantly buzzing studio. Long days have turned to long nights at the end of this parsing of pieces, and the output exceeds the storage.
It’s a hard charging exploration of process, with the selective re-combining of broken-apart wood canvasses.
“Bedtime Stories” is a glut of hand-packed eye candy; steel girded graphic thoughts crashing and merging deep into the diamond mine of Faile’s visual verbiage, delivered with storytelling finesse. Each individual piece is a near-dizzying puzzle of pop plied with rigor chock-a-block against the restraints of an unbending welded frame.
Brooklyn Street Art: These new pieces feel very dense.
Patrick McNeil: It’s like eating chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream and chocolate pudding and a cup of hot chocolate. They are a lot to take in.
Patrick Miller: They need space.
As they talk you get the idea that they needed some psychological space from the constrictions of a themed show and they became enamored with the wood painting process more than the exact outcome. It’s clear that the new approach has been gratifying.
Patrick McNeil: This isn’t really an exhibition about message, it’s more about process. Not to say that it is devoid of any message. It’s just been more about building than about going out and trying to make a statement with the visual.
Patrick Miller: Yeah I think that’s more what we talked about a little before – about how it was about getting loose and have fun making images again and not feeling like it was one big overarching theme that was going to drive the whole body of work. Given that we were really interested in exploring the medium, I think the message is kind of coming through in the process.
Patrick McNeil: Yeah I think our last two shows were so theme related that I was like, “Let’s not think about the space as much.’ It’s more like, let’s just make a body of work and when it’s show time let’s collect it all and see what hangs right and looks good in the show and go about it that way. We wanted to be more organic in the process instead of so structural.
Patrick Miller: Some of our recent previous shows were “a series of” paintings that either ran together or lived together in some way –although these actually do too in a way.
Brooklyn Street Art: Well each piece contains your DNA so they kind of have to reflect your story.
Patrick Miller: Right, they all start as a bigger piece, and then those get broken apart and built back into other pieces. I feel like when you look at them all and they are all spread out you can really see; “Oh, that’s a part of that, and this is a part of that”. So in that way I feel like it is a “Faile” kind of thing.
Faile “Hey Yo Let’s Go Get Smashed” Street Stencil (Photo © Jaime Rojo)
In the middle of the studio a large wooden canvas painted blue with a black lined pulp inspired tryst is lifted by three studio assistants to rest on blocks against the wall so that it’s bottom can be painted. Later this thick wooden canvas will be sawed into cubes, but for now it is a complete 4’ x 6’ duotone.
The process of creating can encompass many pieces developing at once. A smaller or midsize piece that grows beyond its’ original boundaries is re-located into a larger frame where it has more freedom to grow.
Often a piece will get re-worked multiple times to finally strike the balance that it needs – a intuitive sense that both Patricks have and trust in the other. Studio assistants have also learned the language of Faile and can tell when something probably needs reworking.
Patrick McNeil: There’s a lot of made up words; Shimmer-sham, Jimmer-jam….
Brooklyn Street Art: Shimmer-sham? Jimmer-jam?
Patrick McNeil: Yeah you’ll be like, “That needs a little shimmer-sham right there and some down there.”
Brooklyn Street Art: And does shimmer-sham mean the same thing, have the same definition for everybody?
Patrick McNeil: Yeah, pretty much.
Patrick Miller: Pretty much.
Ask the studio assistants, and they’ll tell you the same; In a close-knit group that works long hours together making art, it’s not unusual to develop a vocabulary and shorthand that speaks to the art and the process.
Brooklyn Street Art (to studio assistant Sarah): If one of the Patricks said, ‘we need more Jimjam over here’…
Sarah: Jimmer-Jam (laughter)
Brooklyn Street Art: What would that mean?
Sarah: Um, it really depends on the context I would say.
Patrick McNeil: And the gesturing involved.
Sarah: And the gesturing, yeah
Brooklyn Street Art: So if the gesturing is very insistent, then it might mean…
Sarah: It usually is in reference to something that’s already happening. If it needs more of something or less of something. Also Zibber-zabs.
Brooklyn Street Art: Zibber-zabs? Which is analogous to
Patrick Miller: Which is very different! You could have a problem..
Brooklyn Street Art: Are there other vocabulary words?
Sarah: Um, those are the two that are most frequently used. Jimmer-jams and Zimmer-zabs. (to the others) Can you guys think of anymore?
Maggie: Did you say Shim Shams?
Male assistant: “Could use a little more lovin’ ”
Sarah: Yeah, that’s a P. Miller one.
Brooklyn Street Art: What would ” lovin’ ” mean in this context?
Patrick Miller: It’s like ‘you need to push it a little more’
Brooklyn Street Art: More attention?
Patrick Miller: Yeah. We don’t want to see any go out without enough lovin’, ya know
It’s not likely that would ever happen in a Faile show, they care too much. A loose tension. Structure and play. The rebel yell. Details don’t slip by, meanings are hardly incidental, and everything is considered. Smartly aware of concepts like brand and marketing, they stay on message and deliver the goods. New patterns and texts must be vetted and go through a background check. Just kidding.
Faile Street Stencil (Photo © Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: What is “Bedtime Stories”? – A reference to your parents, your mates, your children, Madonna, Peter Rabbit?
Patrick Miller: I think we’d been searching for a title. We’d been talking about different things along the way. One of the pieces in the show is called “Bedtime Stories” and it’s a part of one of the new images. I think one thing we kept thinking about was that there was a period when we were both really interested in quilt making. We did a lot of research on it.
Brooklyn Street Art: Quilt making?
Miller: Yeah, and we kept saying throughout this process to each other how quilt-like these wood paintings were to us in a way. How much the process reminded us of that kind of craft feeling; Old American quilt making and that tradition. There was something about that – and bedtime, and beds. And then “Bedtime Stories” obviously refers to the narrative quality of the pieces and there is so much of that built in. As they come together and we take bits out of one thing and put it into another thing it starts to make new stories. There is sort of this tension between the pieces and how much visual experience that is in all of them and the bedtime being this quiet special moment. All those things, for me, made me feel like bedtime stories was a good fitting title.
Brooklyn Street Art: (to McNeil) You didn’t have anything to add to that?
Patrick McNeil: That’s pretty much it.
Patrick Miller: It won out over “Block Shock”! (laughing)
Brooklyn Street Art: Yeah, that name has a certain alliterative quality right?
Patrick McNeil: It really is shocking through blocks. They are kind of shocking pieces in the sense of the denseness of them and how much is in them.
BSA’s “Projekt Projektor” in Dumbo, Brooklyn as part of Under the Bridge Festival September 2008. Image of Mary by Faile ( photo © by Jaime Rojo )
Brooklyn Street Art: In a way these pieces are also analogous with dream states and what you remember the following day.
Patrick Miller: It’s true.
Brooklyn Street Art: They could be very intense pieces but…
Patrick Miller: And dreams, like, your memories of them are so fragmented. You are kind of left with “I remember this part and that part”, and that’s how these pieces are. They are assembled parts that make up this kind of weird tapestry.
Brooklyn Street Art: Right, and the parts of the dream that you remember are the most vivid, emotionally charged ones, or psychologically charged parts, not the subtle parts.
Patrick Miller: Yeah, and that’s a great way of seeing it.
Brooklyn Street Art: And you guys are not really marketing subtlety
Patrick Miller: No, not in this show.
All Photos © Jaime Rojo
BSA………………………BSA……………………. BSA………………………BSA…………………….
FAILE
Bedtime Stories
Perry Rubenstein Gallery
November 4th – December 23rd, 2010
Erica-il-Cane
Erica-il-Cane (Photo courtesy of the gallery)
FIFTY24SF Gallery presents We Were Living in the Woods
New Work by Erica il Cane
FIFTY24SF Gallery, in association with Upper Playground, is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Italian street muralist and fine artist, Erica il Cane, entitled, We Were Living in the Woods. The exhibition will be the second solo show that Erica has held in the United States.
As a major contributor to an increasingly progressive and elaborate street art and mural movement occurring in Europe over the past 5 years, Erica il Cane (translating to “Eric the Dog”) gained international recognition for his anthropomorphic building-sized animal murals throughout Italy and the continent. With fellow contemporaries Blu, Sam3, Escif, and San, Erica’s large-scale murals have been viewed as fine art done within the public’s view. We Were Living in the Woods will feature works on paper and on-site installations.
Born and studied in Bologna, Italy, Erica’s evolution to gallery work has seen depictions of animals in unique, human situations rendered in Victorian-like style illustrations, etchings, and short animated films. The art is often described as imagery from a dark fairy tale, in which animals are shown within the darkness of human nature, focusing on themes of alienation, satire, existentialism. Both gallery and mural work has also been hailed as influential works advocating vegetarianism and animal rights.
Erica il Cane has shown throughout Europe, including Lazarides Gallery, Banksy’s Santa’s Ghetto, the Fame Festival, and gallery shows in Milan, Rome, London, and Barcelona. He has also shown in Los Angeles and Chicago. “We Were Living in the Woods” will run from November 11th – December 30th, with an opening reception on Thursday, November 11th, from 7:30PM – 10:00PM.
Relevant Links:
FIFTY24SF Gallery: http://www.fifty24sf.com/
Erica Il Cane: http://www.ericailcane.org
“Overlap”
Aakash Nihalani "Play Ground" 2010 (Image Courtesy of the Gallery)
Aakash Nihalani’s Overlap brings the possibilities of public space indoors and turns discrete linear square forms into active and organic compositions. Well-known for his frequent and impromptu public interventions of tape installation, Nihalani addresses the interconnected parts of the whole, both literally and metaphorically, in his newest exhibition. The show, which includes photography, sculpture, tape installation, painting, and interactive digital imagery, can be seen as a more permanent investigation into his existing conceptual framework.
In 2007, Nihalani began what has become an ongoing project of tape installation throughout New York City. He has since applied his artwork on urban landscapes throughout the country, as well as abroad, including Austria, India, and most recently, France. With the aid of fluorescent tape, the artist highlights and emphasizes elements of layering and depth already present in the urban environment. By drawing on points of urban design and architecture (bricks, grates, doorways, sidewalks, scaffolding, etc.) endemic to that setting, Nihalani creates playful opportunities for passersby to interact with the often ignored environment and to find intrigue in mundane spaces. Just as he sets the stage for creative trompe l’oeil possibilities outdoors through permutations of isometric shapes, so too does he allow for physical and philosophical points of perceptual slippage in his more permanent works.
The common denominator of all works in the exhibition is the overlapping of isometric square shapes to create new forms that move towards figurative representation. This exploration of multiplicity produces increasingly elaborate compositions that thoughtfully and innovatively manipulate positive and negative space. The artist has used metal to create works that integrate the ephemeral energy of his outdoor works into the more static and permanent space of an extended gallery exhibition, while several other works continue to use tape and cardboard as the basic medium. Also included within this new body of work are photographic documentations. Such documentation typically accompanies Nihalani’s outdoor works as these fleeting installations exist predominantly through digital reiteration in online public spaces.
In a move towards permanency, the artist has engaged in the rather timely challenge of navigating current modes of artistic production with the recent decline in the contemporary art market. Nihalani’s works explore the trajectory of such practices for the newest guard of young artists, while the elaborate tendencies of recent “big production” art icons have come into question. Between the push and pull of do-it-yourself techniques and outsourced production, the artist was able to negotiate the demands of today’s art market and perceptions of value in relation to scale and material. Play Ground can be seen as one such example where a common image takes on multiple forms for the sake of production exploration. The central image, a big pink dog, exists simultaneously as a cardboard and tape construction, as an image in a photograph, and as a smaller, commercially produced, metal sculpture. In this way, Nihalani has taken the iconic balloon animal from the realm of bankruptcy-inducing exclusivity and returned it to the space of attainability. Through the development of these works the artist not only brings to discussion the nature of production, but also authorship, finance, and the unavoidable realities of artistic production for the future generation of artists.
Aakash Nihalani’s practice is an active dialogue between the many forms of public space (literal and virtual) and the conceptual notions of multiplicity and replication in visual art. Please join us for this unique installation of both permanent and temporary works as the artist fills the gallery with solid objects and the neighborhood with ephemeral installations. Immediately following the opening reception will be an after party at 17 Frost with performances by Das Racist and other special guests.
Born in Queens, NY in 1986, Aakash Nihalani studied at New York University and obtained a BFA from the Steinhardt School of Culture. He has participated in group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally. Overlap marks the artist’s first solo exhibition with Bose Pacia. Nihalani lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
BOSE PACIA
163 Plymouth Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
USA
P 212 989 7074
F 212 989 6982
mail@bosepacia.com
Tuesday – Saturday
11.00 am – 6.00 pm
Carmichael Gallery
Sixart "Turkey in Motion" Image courtesy of the Gallery
Four brand new works on paper from Sixeart will be on display in the gallery showcase room from November 13 to December 11.
Carmichael Gallery Invites You to Attend
Block Party
Boxi, Krystian Truth Czaplicki, Gregor Gaida, Simon Haas, Dan Witz
&
A Showcase of New Works by Sixeart
5795 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
November 13 – December 11, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 13, 2010, 6-8pm
please RSVP by email rsvp at carmichaelgallery dot com
Carmichael Gallery is pleased to present Block Party, a group exhibition featuring Boxi, Krystian Truth Czaplicki, Gregor Gaida, Simon Haas and Dan Witz. Block Party aligns the disparate creative practices of five internationally-based contemporary artists. In doing so, the shared intrinsic presence of themes of isolation, beauty and reflection upon self and surroundings in their works are augmented, inviting new dialectical dialogues and considerations.
Artworks included in the exhibition range from works on canvas, wood, MDF and paper to mixed media sculpture, a large site-specific mural installation and a video presentation.
A showcase of new works on paper by Sixeart will be displayed concurrently in the gallery’s largest project room.
There will be an opening reception for the exhibition on Saturday, November 13 from 6 to 8pm with Boxi and Simon Haas in attendance. The exhibition will run through December 11, 2010.
Boxi (b. 1974 Kent, England) A dark, disillusioned romanticism pervades Boxi’s work; material boundaries are dissolved and perceptions are altered by means of hand cut, multi-layered, often life-sized stencils that offer a comforting solidity within the smoky abstraction of his grey-scale landscapes. In addition to new works on canvas and MDF, he will create an elaborate site-specific installation on the gallery’s main wall.
Recent solo and group shows include Between a Dream and an Excuse, Kunstverein Buchholz, Nordheide (2010), Remap, Ad Gallery, Athens (2009), Urban Art – Collection Reinking, Weserburg Museum for Modern Art, Bremen (2009) and Grey Area, Carmichael Gallery, Los Angeles (2009). He lives and works in Berlin.
Krystian Truth Czaplicki (b. 1984 Wroclaw, Poland) Krystian Truth Czaplicki combines found materials with existing objects large and small to create simple but effective abstract artworks that reveal an astute understanding of architectural and natural structures. He will present a series of new mixed media works on canvas and a slide compilation of the urban installations that have informed his gallery practice.
Recent solo and group shows include Young Creative Poland, London (2009), Experimenta Design, Urban Play, Amsterdam (2008), The 5th Young Triennial, Centre of Poish Sculpture, Oronsko (2008), Truth, BWA Gallery, Sanok (2007), Urban Irony, BWA Gallery, Wroclaw (2007), Transformation, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2006) and Simplicity, Entropia Gallery, Wroclaw (2006). He lives and works in Wroclaw.
Gregor Gaida (b. 1976 Chorzów, Poland) Gregor Gaida merges timelessly classic ideals with an unquestionably contemporary sensitivity. Characterized by a muted palette and meticulous employment of texture, both his figurative and more abstract expressions feel all but alive. He will present sculptural works from several new series, including Fragments, Kingdom, Drummer and Pissing.
Recent solo and group shows include Summe der Geschichten, Galerie Adler, Frankfurt (2010), Gregor Gaida – Kunst im Foyer, Nolde Stiftung Seebüll Dependance, Berlin (2010), HangART-7, Edition 14 Mal was Deutsches, Hangar-7, Salzburg (2009) and Gaida-Schiela-Kim, Galerie Epikur, Wuppertal (2009). He lives and works in Bremen.
Simon Haas (b. 1984 Los Angeles, USA) Simon Haas’ elegantly executed, subtly hued portraits of himself and others transit to viewers an intensely emotive perspective of various psychological states of being. He will present new oils on canvas and works on paper.
Recent solo and group shows include Instant LA Summer, Carmichael Gallery, Los Angeles (2010), Volume, AT1 Projects, Los Angeles (2010), Manifest Equality (2010) and Solo Show, Untitled Gallery, Los Angeles (2007). He lives and works in Los Angeles.
Dan Witz (b. 1957 Chicago, USA) Dan Witz employs light and darkness to supreme effect in his oil and mixed media works. A glowing warmth pervades each canvas, fashioning a haunting atmosphere that feels at once lonely and comforting. He will present several works from his Nightscapes and Bar Shrines series.
Recent solo shows include New Night Paintings, DFN Gallery, New York (2010), Dark Doings, Carmichael Gallery, Los Angeles (2009), New Street Works, Sid Lee Collective, Amsterdam (2009) and Night Paintings, Stolenspace, London (2008). He lives and works in Brooklyn.
Sixeart (b. 1975 Barcelona, Spain) Sixeart combines psychedelic abstraction and mysterious coded formulas with vividly rendered figuration to produce a highly personal visual language. The childlike innocence and almost hallucinogenic sense of second sight of his work has a dreamlike quality that shows an affinity with Surrealist artists such as Joan Miró, another native of Barcelona. He will present four new works on paper.
Recent solo and group shows include Mundo Animal – Transmutation Intercontinental, A.L.I.C.E. Gallery, Brussels (2010), Booked, Carmichael Gallery, Los Angeles (2010), De Chillida a Sixeart, Galeria Mayoral. Barcelona (2009), Guerreros, N2 Galeria, Barcelona (2009) and Street Art, Tate Modern, London (2008). He lives and works in Barcelona.
About Carmichael Gallery:
Founded in 2007 by husband and wife team Seth and Elisa Carmichael, Carmichael Gallery focuses on a select group of artists breaking ground in painting, mixed media, photography and sculpture. Their annual program consists of a series of solo and group exhibitions that document the progress of these artists.
For information on current, past and upcoming shows, visit www.carmichaelgallery.com. For additional information and press materials on this show, please contact the gallery by email art at carmichaelgallery dot com or call +1 323 939 0600.
Alec Monopoly
Alec Monopoly
Skulls are everywhere on the street today, and here is a collection to mark The Day of the Dead. The commemoration of people who have passed is observed nation-wide in Mexico every year at this time. Although it is not a national holiday, the strictly religious and cultural observance is revered and, depending on the region, it varies in the ways in which the holiday is marked.
The cultural aspect of this holiday has inspired many artists, filmmakers and poets. Here we have selected images of Street Art culled from our library to mark the Dia de Los Muertos, focusing on the most prominent symbol used to represent this holiday: “Las Calaveras” or skulls.
Mexico’s “Dia de los Muertos” or “Day of the Dead” takes place every year on November 2 to coincide with the catholic holiday of “El Dia de los Santos” or “All Saints Day”. The Day of the Dead is not the Mexican equivalent of Halloween. The Day of the Dead in Mexico is a celebration of Death and it does not carry any of the connotations of fear, fantasy and gore that Halloween does.
This religious and cultural holiday can be traced as long ago as 3000 years. Before the conquest of what’s now modern Mexico in the pre-Hispanic era the indigenous cultures celebrated death, rebirth and their ancestors by displaying human skulls as memento mori.
When the Spanish missionaries arrived more than 500 years ago they tried without success to eradicate such pagan and sacrilegious celebrations that seem to mock death while converting the indigenous people to Christianity. To the Spaniards death was the end of life but to the Aztecs it was a continuation of a journey not yet completed. The Aztecs embraced death and they celebrated it for the entire month of August, the ninth month of the Aztec Calendar, and the festivities were presided by the goddess Mictecacihuatl or “Lady of the Dead” presumed to have died at birth.
Modern Mexicans remember their friends and family members that have departed from life by honoring them with extravagant festivities that, depending in the region might include lavish offerings or “ofrendas” in private altars in the cemeteries at the tombs of their loved ones and/or at home. It is a day of celebration and many people elect to stay overnight at the cemetery for prayer, and remembrance but partying, eating and drinking is encouraged and expected always following the norms of respect and decorum for the defunct.
These “ofrendas” or gifts include the most favored dishes, foods and beverages that their loved ones enjoyed while alive. They also include photos and other personal mementos of the deceased ones. The “ofrendas” are meant to be eaten and shared by the relatives and friends of the departed and sometimes they are very elaborate five course dinners. Other times the relatives might choose to have a daytime picnic at the cemetery and return to their homes at dusk. The “ofrendas” are believed to nurture and help the souls of the dead while in their journey to heaven.
Some people use this day to just take their customary once a year trip to the cemetery to clean and maintain the tomb of their loved ones.
Regardless of the singular cultural distinction of each region two symbols are common throughout the country: “La Calavera” or The Sugar Skull and “La Catrina” or The Skeleton Lady. The Skulls can be made of sugar and chocolate and often are inscribed with the recipient’s names and are gifts to both the living and the dead. There is also “El Pan de Muertos” or “Bread of the Dead” which Mexicans give as gifts to the visiting relatives for their journey back home.
It is said that Mexicans not only celebrate death they also eat it.
Main Banner image credit: Jose Guadalupe Posada “Gran Calavera Eléctrica” Courtesy Library of Congress.
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BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
