Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. BSA & Martha Cooper Discuss the Opening of MCL at UN
BSA Special Feature: BSA & Martha Cooper Discuss the Opening of MCL at UN
IN CONVERSATION WITH MARTHA COOPER, STEVEN P. HARRINGTON, AND JAIME ROJO (BSA) AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE MARTHA COOPER LIBRARY AT URBAN NATION BERLIN.
In November 2021, Martha Cooper was in Berlin together with Jaime Rojo and Steven P. Harrington of Brooklyn Street Art for a viewing of her exhibition “Taking Pictures”. Simultaneously the three announced the official opening of the Martha Cooper Library. They were each presented with the first MCL library cards in the MCL Reading Room at the Museum. With this, the library was formally inaugurated and has been open to the public since the second of November.
With Chief Librarian Eveline Wilson at the desk and Library Director Dr. Hans-Michael Brey leading the way, we are pleased that BSA’s vision and Martha’s vision of establishing an unrivaled library resource for scholars and students of graffiti and street art and related art movements across the globe will now have a dedicated collection for all.
Already, we are growing. Through the contact of Sascha Blasche, Hitzerot, we received a generous donation from the Dutch Graffiti Library in January of this year. The Dutch Graffiti Library was founded in 2018 by the twins Marcell and Richard van Tiggelen. Together with Sanne van Doorn, they built an extensive private collection on graffiti with a focus on the Netherlands and published several publications on the subject. Books from the Dutch Graffiti Library can be found in the OPAC. We also received an interesting donation from Kathryn Nussdorf. During a VHS (Berlin’s community education university) seminar, she created a fan book about the Berlin graffiti group CBS with many photos. In an exchange with the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy we have also received more catalogs. And in April there will be the first event: “MCL presents…”
Together with Jaime Rojo and Steven P. Harrington of Brooklyn Street Art, UN interviewed Martha Cooper about the opening on its very first day – about their common ideas, wishes and visions for the library.
Today we go to Polinyà, about 45 km from Barcelona, Spain, to visit the site of a historic summer country house. Built during the 1900s, “within the so-called Catalan modernism,” says Lluis Olive, the home was inhabited by the Marti family in this municipality of 8,389 until about 10 years ago when it became a restaurant. According to a description in Wikipedia, “The façades have, within Italianate lines, symmetry and consistency in the design of openings and moldings used for framing balconies and windows at the top.”
Unfortunately, the restaurant venture didn’t succeed for long and the property became empty. You KNOW what happens next in this story. However, you may not guess that the artist Fullet Original hoped to help find a new buyer by filling all the rooms of the house with graffiti and mural art.
According to Olive, who shares his photos with BSA readers here today, Fullet carried “out a project that he had dreamed of many times.” His friend has purchased the property, plans to hold an alternative market in it, and “last weekend about 15 artists were painting practically all of the spaces,” says Olive. The rooms were flooded with light and aerosol and lively conversation as the former farmhouse came alive in January with so many artists and friends.
The cross-section of styles are indicative of tastes of the moment in Spain and should be finished within a week or two. Which is good timing because “the opening of the market is scheduled for March.”
Yesterday we reported on the abandoned garage in the city of Ljubljana that attracts graffiti writers from all over the world wishing to leave their mark behind as they pass through this ancient city. Going deep on yesterday’s excursion into the graffiti garage, we give you a spotlight on local talent Maksim Azarkevič, an illustrator, fine artist, and commercial artist who also writes RAMZ and has a head-splitting imagination, a sense of humor, and enough style to make anything a surreality.
We begin with this lounging figure atop his name which has drawn the ire of a passerby for indulging the objectifying gaze of the straight male, or so it would seem. “ne jeben seksitov!” (no fucking sexists!).
Clandestine abandoned former factories are ideal locations for graffiti writers to practice their skills. Regardless of your intuition or expectations, you never know what you’ll find. Graffiti pieces that go up, are dissed, or simply crumble – all of it is possible. For fans with cameras, it is a revolving exhibition and no two visits will ever be the same, lending the location and air of discovery – if you know where to go.
In Ljubljana, Slovenia, for the Ljubljana Art Festival last summer, veteran graffiti photographer Martha Cooper got into a hidden spot, a so-called graffiti garage near the capital. Here she found some fresh paint and some fresh ideas on her tour, and she shares them here with BSA readers exclusively.
Read more about the Ljubjana Art Festival HERE, HERE, AND HERE.
An anti-abortion billboard in Corinth, Mississippi was vandalized last week by the activist art collective INDECLINE off of Highway 72 & Howell Drive (directly across from San Roque Tienda Mexicana), according to a press release from the anonymous visual interventionists.
Members of the collective used spray paint to quickly alter the original message of the advertisement, prompting drivers to visit a website offering information on how to order abortion pills, thus bypassing the potential shutdown of abortion clinics in the state.
Indecline. Corinth Mississippi. January 2022. (photo @ThisIsIndecline)
This action coincides with the 49th anniversary of Roe. V. Wade, the landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that effectively legalized abortions in the country. Many are watching a decision by that same judicial body this June which may effectively prevent celebrations for its 50th anniversary in a case called Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Billboard before it was intervened by Indecline. (photo @ThisIsIndecline)
This is not the first time the collective has used controversial direct action techniques to address the issue of abortion rights in the South. Last March, the members of the collective altered a billboard in Byhalia to promote abortion services at Planned Parenthood
Months later, the group scaled the iconic Christ of the Ozarks statue in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and hung a massive banner from its arms reading: GOD BLESS ABORTIONS
Indecline. Christ of the Ozarks. Eureka Springs, Arkansas. (image/still from video (photo @ThisIsIndecline)Indecline. Christ of the Ozarks. Eureka Springs, Arkansas. (image/still from video (photo @ThisIsIndecline)Indecline. Christ of the Ozarks. Eureka Springs, Arkansas. (image/still from video @ThisIsIndicline)
The collective just released a film with footage documenting their interventions during the past two years including the Christ of the Ozarks banner. Click HERE to go to the full-length film.
Worried that voting rights are being stolen from black and brown people in a systematic way across the country? Let Mitch McConnell put your fears to rest.
So here’s our weekly interview with the street in NYC and Miami, featuring Beautiful Mind, Bella Phame, BK Foxx, Claudia La Bianca, DAK PPP 907, Dek2DX, djaRodney, Gina Kiel, Gold Loxe, JJ Veronis, Lady JDay, Melski, Rumba Art, StyleOne, Tee Pop Art, and Tutto & Niente.
(VIDEO BELOW) To highlight their accomplishments and escapades during 2021 Indecline debuts a full feature movie titled “Side Hustles” today.
Ultimately, it’s a show reel of greatest hits by the activist subverters of public space called InDecline – loosely strung together by an ongoing skit of a formal job interview that seeks to further illuminate the message, but sometimes tires. Anonymous by necessity, this mid-length docu-portfolio gives little indication of the origination of the mainly young, mainly white, and mainly male masked American protagonists of the street art/performance art scene, but you have an idea that it is their politics and disgust that bind them as one.
The various installations range in skill, sophistication, and maturity – but something invariably impresses about each campaign. Clever Photoshop and elbow grease, and you’ve got yourself a subversive art installation that mocks both Easter and Q-Anon. A harrowing cable scaling of a massive statue of Christ to hang a pro-abortion banner looks far more dangerous and physically demanding.
Subverting a billboard to encourage masturbation is perhaps a bit of comic relief from the far heavier topics they target: Busting anti-abortion billboards to offer abortion services contact information, shining a light on police violence, and offering a no-holds barred criticism of a culture that births weekly mass shootings in cities nationwide.
Their methods may be driven by the economics of printing and installing their brand of détournement but the effect can be stunning and direct. A billboard showing off a gunmakers line of ammo says proudly “Born Here. Built Here” across a silhouette of the US map. It infers a national pride, a dedication to the 2nd Amendment, a nod to blue collar labor, and a healthy wallop of xenophobic distrust. InDecline simply replaces one word so the slogan says “Born Here. Killed Here” to refocus attention to the bodies piling up from coast to coast.
Whether its riding freights to spread the ashes of a friend or an earnestly rageful powerchord punk and/or bluegrass country soundtrack or the corporate cluelessness of local news footage, if you stay for the full ride you see the themes that drive the work – and feel a hopeful promise, and a sense of dread.
Canaries in the coal mine for a decade or so in public space, InDecline’s multiple acts of art show how the trendlines all merge. By the time you are finished with the list of societal/political/socio-economic ills that InDecline is addressing through their guerilla art installations, you realize that the country they are responding to is already in the midst of a civil war and the forward path is scabrous.
Previous interventions BSA reported on appear HERE, HERE, HERE, AND HERE.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. Dave Kim & Eric Burke in Alameda 2. INDECLINE: “SIDE HUSTLES” Trailer 3. The Greek Bar Jacket
BSA Special Feature: Dave Kim & Eric Burke in Alameda
Muralists Dave Kim and Eric Burke create an iconic piece for Alameda’s West End on a prominent wall on Webster St.
INDECLINE: “SIDE HUSTLES” Trailer
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s release of the full movie here on BSA
The Greek Bar Jacket
Here’s an hour and eight minute film from the House of Dior. It tells us about the making and the evolution of a collection. There’s no surprise to discover that many fabled collections have been inspired by ancient cultures and their peoples. This particular collection is a tribute to Greece and the designers’ challenge is not to appropriate directly from the culture or make it look like a museum. This film is an excellent complement to the current exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum: “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams” currently on view until February 20th.
It may be a challenge to identify the through-line when it comes to curation of artworks at an auction house exhibition. Selections are predicated on the availability of artworks at the moment and the exigencies of the market. And 30 additional variables.
You will however see a warm confirmation of greater themes in the new exhibition at Phillips auction house that opened last week entitled 1970s / Graffiti / Today, and you’ll leave enriched by the experience. With the works of 30 or so artists on display for approximately a month, it is not intended to be a comprehensive survey, yet it manages to spread a wide net over a number of scenes, practices, and personalities working on US streets during the previous five decades.
There is a vastness to this scene, its people, its practices, its histories, its quality variations. As evidenced by a show like this, there is now a general acceptance of the street-born form of visual expression called graffiti, its various hybrids expressed broadly as street art, and the onward march of certain forms of both toward acceptance as contemporary art. As suggested by the title, you’ll probably see a good representation of each here, and one or two will strike you as quite impressive.
Curator Arnold Lehman is a recognized champion of that march forward, most notably for when he shepherded the “Graffiti” exhibition as Director of the Brooklyn Museum in 2006. That show, one of the first museum shows dedicated to the movement, featured 20 large-scale canvasses by graffiti artists that were donated by the estate of famous mid-century New York gallerist Sidney Janis, who had shown a number of them in the early 1980s.
A native New Yorker, Lehman grew up with graffiti on the trains and easily recognized the contributions it was making to his city and the culture. When he had an opportunity to introduce the works as an exhibition, he says he faced much opposition, despite the fact that it came from the collection of a gallery owner who was celebrated for introducing most of the emerging leaders of abstract expressionism, the Fauves, the Futurists – and later the proponents of Pop.
“He began showing graffiti in his gallery in 1981 or 1982,” Lehman says of Janis when speaking of the canvasses he organized in the Graffiti show at the Brooklyn Museum. “A number of my colleagues were quick to write and say, ‘Have you lost your mind?’ “
Five of those same canvasses provide an anchor in the timeline here, supported with early photos and light ephemeral documentation of the burgeoning graffiti scene on subway trains and elsewhere in New York. This city and its streets and culture figure prominently into this collection of about 150 pieces, with Mr. Lehman estimating for us during a recent tour that the mostly US-focused show is divided into two-thirds New York and one-third Los Angeles.
“The artists we are showing really deserve a presentation like this,” he says as we walk through an exhibition of individual expressions that are as varied as the kind of people who’ll typically ride a subway car; drawings from sketchbooks (Al Diaz), stenciled canvas (Chaz Bjorquez), photographs (Martha Cooper, Gusmano Cesariti, Steve Grody, Cheryl Dunn), elaborate “wood paintings” on welded steel sculpture (Faile), canvasses by early generation graffiti pioneers (Fab 5 Freddy, NOC, Daze, Lady Pink, Toxic, Haze), repurposed metal subway signs (Julius “T. Kid” Cavero), a slickly painted motorcycle (Crash), mixed media collage (Augustine Kofie) a refurbished ice cream truck (Mr. Cartoon), a repurposed bus stop poster (KAWS), an acrylic painting on scrap metal (Margaret Kilgallen), a mounted neon sculpture (Risk), paper cutouts pasted on found wooden doors (Swoon) and a heavily tagged Fun Gallery refrigerator hit up in the early 1980s by people like Basquiat, Haring, and Futura.
The newly completed Phillips gallery is ironically and literally underground. Its thousands of square feet lie just below the Park Avenue street level, lending a hidden secretive quality to it. Nevertheless, the massive venue sports triple-height ceilings and a vast marble spaciousness that allows for mounting and lighting a variety of gallery sizes, shapes, and volumes. It’s also free.
One piece caught our eye and the eye of our companion, the photographer Martha Cooper, whose photos of 1970s-80s graffiti on subway trains places her squarely at the center of the scene. It’s the large fabric canvas/backdrop that commands one of the walls in the gallery – not only for its dynamism of placed elements and handstyle-vibrance but because of the history of the piece and the cross-section of writers and performers who intersect on it. Attributed to Futura 2000, it also contains work by Dondi and a tag by Phase2, at least. It also pays tribute to the musician and performer Afrika Bambaataa, the Rock Steady Crew, a number of possibly British graffiti writers and crews.
When posted on social media by people like Futura and Ms. Cooper this week, discussion of this piece lit up like a fire – with people surmising different venues where it may have been displayed, arguing about the propriety of selling such an item, conjecturing about who owns it, and spotting it in the background of photographs by Janette Beckman and David Corio.
Mr. Corio allows us to show his images here of that event, which he identified as being part of the London stop of the NY City Rap tour, November 23rd, 1982. Assessing photos and the relic itself, one surmises that it was not signed by all the persons named necessarily since its function was a marquee naming of participants of the tour as well as a vehicle of visuals.
Corio later posted images from the event on his Instagram with his current recounting, but we like this older one from his website, as it is lyrical.
“Welcome to the future. This was one of the first hip-hop shows in London and it was at my favourite place to shoot gigs. Bam had brought with him vibrant visions of the New York street in the form of graffiti legends Fab Five Freddy and Futura 2000. While he played, they spray-painted the backdrop. Londoners had never experienced any gig like this before – with break-dancers from Bambaataa’s Zulu Nation and a team of skippers doing the double-dutch. ‘Planet Rock’ and ‘Looking For The Perfect Beat’, two singles of 1982, along with Grandmaster Flash’s ‘The Message’, gave notice of a new musical force breaking out of New York – hip-hop and electro – and it was all rising straight off the record decks. It was amazing to witness this revolution in person.”
As you stand before the piece, you may better appreciate the human scale of some events that have stepped into a golden storied past. Without these antecedents, many would not have known the art, music, and dance world as it evolved – nor appreciate the components that Hip Hop grew and evolved from. Looking at this unnamed banner, you remember again that once in a while a piece of art transcends itself, and becomes a historical document.
1970s / Graffiti / Today is an opportunity for fans and historians to see some of these works before they disappear into private collections. That alone is worth the trip.
1970s / Graffiti / Today at Phillips Auction House in Manhattan, NY is open to the public until February 20, 2022.
Our sincere thanks to photographer Martha Cooper for contributing her photos to this article. Her Instagram is @marthacoopergram
Thank you as well to the photographer David Corio for allowing us to use his historical photos here. To learn more about him and his work please go to www.davidcorio.com and his Instagram is @david.corio
What to do with 13 decommissioned factory pipes in Dnipro, Ukraine?
Why not convert them into a glorious bouquet of flowers…laser flowers that is. The city of one million is located in southeastern Ukraine and hopes to increase tourism to the city. Lighting designers at a private company called Expolight experimented with 5 of the 13 chimneys – “employing an amalgam of lasers, pixel lights, and wireless synchronization,” say the organizers.
Dnipro Light Flowers by Expolight. Dnipro, Ukraine. (photo courtesy of Expolight)
Named the “Dnipro Svitlovi Kvity” (Дніпро Світлові квіти), the new installation is visible at night far from the train yards where it originates, including along Slobozhanskyi Ave in this industrial city that runs alongside the Dnieper River.
Designers at Expolight created the light-art installation by “employing an amalgam of lasers, pixel lights, and wireless synchronization,” to make the stalks and blossoms dance in the middle of the nighttime cityscape.
Dnipro Light Flowers by Expolight. Dnipro, Ukraine. (photo courtesy of Expolight)
The project was originally published on Designboom and it’s part of their DIY Submissions series.
“Winner of the 2021 lighting design awards, the artists say they hope to illuminate all thirteen chimneys, creating a “real technological garden that covers a distance of 7km, visible from the right side of the Dnipro riverbank.”- Desingboom.
The Asalto Festival celebrated its 16th edition this past December 2021 in Zaragoza, Spain. With 300 artists over the years and Covid threatening to make it stop, somehow Asalto still came back strong – focusing on murals on a more human scale and on involving the community in a direct way.
Ekosaurio. Festival Asalto 16th Edition. Zaragoza, Spain. (photo courtesy of the festival)
Participating artists were Asis Percales, Berni Puig, Dani Hache, Ecosaurio, Letsornot, Maite Rosende, Mina Hamada, Nelio, Olga de Dios and Twee Muizen. Each artist appeared to create murals that are more on an intimate scale, perhaps just large enough for you to encounter with a friend, rather than 300 friends.
Organizers said one of their goals was for “artists to treat the history of the neighborhood of the Arrabal de Zaragoza and the relationship with its people with great sensitivity, as well as the structure and dimensions of the environment and its historical structures.”
Twee Muizen. Festival Asalto 16th Edition. Zaragoza, Spain. (photo courtesy of the festival)
The festival is well regarded, has received many accolades and awards, and is sponsored by the city council, some foundations, and a few commercial brands. In addition to the painting of murals the festival hosts workshops, education classes, and tours with citizens and visitors. One particularly unique program pairs Spanish artists with local citizens “to create unique works inspired by their stories.”
Today we have just a few shots of the new murals and artworks created for Asalto 16th Edition.
Asis Percales. Detail. Festival Asalto 16th Edition. Zaragoza, Spain. (photo courtesy of the festival)Asis Percales. Detail. Festival Asalto 16th Edition. Zaragoza, Spain. (photo courtesy of the festival)Maite Rosende. Festival Asalto 16th Edition. Zaragoza, Spain. (photo courtesy of the festival)Berni Puig. Detail. Festival Asalto 16th Edition. Zaragoza, Spain. (photo courtesy of the festival)Dani Hache. Detail. Festival Asalto 16th Edition. Zaragoza, Spain. (photo courtesy of the festival)
Martin Luther King Jr’s message throughout his life included the themes of Love, Peace, Unity, Hope, and Equality. That’s why we think that the work of graffiti writer, illustrator, and calligraphist Andres Medina on a wall in Brooklyn perfectly illustrates what we commemorate today.
Mr. King’s vision for a better world and specifically for the lives of the millions of African-Americans who were denied their basic human rights is as important today as it was when he was still alive; preaching, marching, shouting, counseling, and keeping tabs on the rulers.
We will continue to keep Dr. King’s messages clear and relevant to the new generations. We believe that it’s equally important to emphasize a singular theme that might have more relevance in today’s political atmosphere.
For us, the alarming erosion of voting rights, particularly in the “red” southern states is an issue of severe importance. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965 with Martin Luther King Jr. by his side. This law allowed African-Americans to overcome the legal barriers that state and local governments had implemented preventing African-Americans from exercising their right to vote as given to them in the 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution ratified in 1870.
But in 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court chipped away the Voting Rights Act by ruling that the law imposed constraints on states and that the federal voting procedures were outdated. This ruling allowed certain states to enact laws imposing restrictions and limiting the access to vote by demanding ID requirements, closing voting polling stations, eliminating early voting, and voting by mail. After Trump’s election, his defeat, and his denial of the legitimacy of President Biden’s win, Republican leaders at both the federal, state, and local levels have been furiously working on the further erosion of the Voting Rights Act to the point that the razor edge Democratic majority in Congress has been unable to pass voting legislation that would, among other things, ensure that African-Americans and other minorities retain and preserve their right to vote without interference from local legislatures and politics.
Each of us has a responsibility to make certain that voting rights for all citizens remain an inalienable right, one that can not be taken away by capricious, partisan autocrats nostalgic for the old days of white supremacy.
Because it is not just one day, it is 365 days. We celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. today for his leadership and his bravery, tenacity, vision, and ability to convey and light the way. The values that he and the Civil Rights movement championed are what we still have to pursue and fight for every day in large ways and small because those who are arrayed against equality never seem to stop.
Today we feature a mural that speaks to some of the greater themes, the connected values that Americans know are the right ones and which we’ll keep talking about and retaining at the ‘top of mind’. LOVE. PEACE. UNITY. EQUALITY. HOPE. While MLK Jr. could be poetic and soaring in his speeches and his rhetoric, these simple words speak directly to our greater goals for the greater good.
Admittedly today in 2022, the insidious deceptive movements against equality are disheartening, but MLK Jr. told us not to give in to the hot sting of hatred. “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great of a burden to bear,” he said.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
