All posts tagged: “I KNOW THERE IS LOVE”

New Mural by Chris Stain and Armsrock!

July 29, 2009 ,

Under cover of darkness, a beacon’s hopeful signal

(photo Jaime Rojo)

Childhood reverie before the sun breaks (photo Jaime Rojo)

In preparation for their upcoming collaboration at Ad Hoc in Bushwick next week, Armsrock and Chris Stain sailed deep into the night near Brooklyn’s massive Navy Yard, hoisting up ladders to put up a large mural stirring the contemplative inner currents of child’s play entitled “I Know There Is Love”.

(photo Jaime Rojo)

(photo Jaime Rojo)

Using projections of their original work as well as improvised “chalk drawings”, the storytelling includes two tadpole-aged lads and a small harbor of imaginary vessels. In it one instantly escapes to a freer time of discovery when multiple dreams were easily set afloat.

(photo Jaime Rojo)

(photo Jaime Rojo)

As if a reaction to the rough and salty seas of daily life in New York for many, the street artist co-captains hang a huge banner across the mast of this ship to announce that it is possible to right the bow and head toward hope.

Proclaiming hope in the face of adversity (photo Jaime Rojo)
A proclamation in the face of adversity (photo Jaime Rojo)

More pics and detail of this installation to follow in the next few days.

Ad Hoc

“I Know There Is Love” Show

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Chris Stain Honoring Workers One Piece at a Time

Chris Stain Honoring Workers One Piece at a Time

July 23, 2009 ,

Street Artist Chris Stain talks about his mural last weekend in Albany, and the people who he honors with his work.

After a stint of screen printing with friends in Philadelphia, Chris Stain hopped the train this weekend up the mighty Hudson River to NY’s state capital, whereupon he put up a blue-collar mural.

The stencil-like imagery of two guys you think you know, is a style Stain has been mining since he began in the late nineties; and so it is topically. Time and again he features the very people who keep the wheels of society turning yet who are finding themselves getting pinned under those same wheels, the workers.

S

The warehouse had a number of setbacks and planes to negotiate to cover it’s entire side.  (photo Chris Stain)

Ironically, at a time when the workers’ plight get Foxily attacked, glossed over, and dismissed in the mass media, it takes a street artist using a much older medium to restore their voices.  Chris proudly points out that these are the people he grew up around, and he has a special affinity for their lives and a respect for their contribution.

Brooklyn Street Art: Who’s the 518 posse who asked you put of this piece?

Chris Stain: 518 Prints was founded by Jesse Brust, Don Naylor, and Justin Louden. I had worked with them over the years at Equal Vision Records. They put their heads together and started their own shop in the basement of Jesse’s house just about the time I made the move down to the City about 3 years ago.

The shop has flourished, printing mostly merch for touring hardcore bands on everything from basketball jerseys to short shorts. They now run a full shop with several employees, automatic and manual printing equipment, a warehouse and an online merch store for bands. I was asked to come up and paint the building they have taken over.

Brooklyn Street Art: The mural is huge; did you have any help?

Chris Stain: Jesse provided the ladders, paint, food, and space.  I started painting around 8:30 pm and finished about 2:30am. I set up my projector and went for it. The piece itself is about 30 ft wide by 14 ft high. It was a nice night. They had a bonfire going, a BBQ, and a bunch of friends I hadn’t seen in a minute.

Brooklyn Street Art: These images, which appear often in your work, look like working folk we see every day.

Chris Stain: Many of the images I choose have some relation to my upbringing;  whether they’re working class or inner-city, it all stems from growing up in Baltimore. I find myself drawn again and again to the subject matter. I cant seem to shake it but don’t find a reason to right now.

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Now Chris is back in Brooklyn and feverishly preparing for a much-anticipated collaboration at Ad Hoc Gallery, where he is paired with a kindred soul in street art, Armsrock.  The two are preparing “I Know There is Love”, based on the lyrics of a song the same name by the 70’s punk band Crass.

A Return to the Simplicity of All Things

“A Return to the Simplicity of All Things” a very recent piece by Armsrock (image courtesy the artist)

A better pairing of styles may not happen for a while – both artists use the humanity of their subjects, unpolished and unassuming, to reflect back at us the state of our condition (or is that the condition of our state?)

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Stay tuned to BSA for exciting developments en route to the show!
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Chris Stain & Armsrock at Ad Hoc: “I KNOW THERE IS LOVE”

May 30, 2009 , , ,

Chris Stain & Armsrock

August 7th – Sep 6th 2009

Opening Reception: Friday, August 7th, 7-10pm

Chris Stain first became infected by graffiti’s bold colors, striking form, and independent nature as a child in the summer of 1984. As time went by he investigated other avenues of art such as print making, graphic design, and screen printing. Stain’s work is a direct reflection of the people, neighborhoods, and struggles that are swept along with the every day lives of the common American. It is his hope that through the work he will be able to convey the importance of the role of the less recognized individual of society.

Outside Inside (11)
Creative Commons License photo credit: Lord Jim photo of Chris Stain

Armsrock is an artist and activist whose work focuses on the human condition in the urban environment. By creating hundreds of unique drawings of his fellow citizens, and placing these original pieces on the walls of the city, Armsrock makes an attempt to generate a critical understanding of the stories and fates that house us.

Old Stuff
Creative Commons License photo credit: unusualimage photo of Armsrock

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