Images of Week 07.19.09

God Save the Stencil: The Rise and Fall of Western Commodification

February 12, 2011 U.K.

Will and Kate as Sid and Nancy: They’re not the snooty types

The anticipated springtime royal coupling of blue bloods is reduced to playing “dress-up” at the 80’s Night Theme Party and just one more nail in the Rotten coffin of anarchy in the UK. Prince William and Kate Middleton, unborn at the time when Britain birthed the sneering Sex Pistols in the late 70s, are transformed cheerily into “edgy” punks in this new Street Art stencil by artist 24 year old Rich Simmons, surely causing Sid Vicious to roll in his grave. Then again, he might have had a good larf to see how unemployed working class youth giving the finger to an indifferent establishment eventually was mollified into a kooky “fashion choice”.

“God Save The Queen” by artist Jamie Reid for the Sex Pistols in 1977

The Sex Pistols during the shoot for the “God Save the Queen” promotional video, early 1977. The Jamie Reid poster is displayed behind the band (public domain).

C215 Donates a Smoking Piece to the Auction Benefit

April 19, 2010 Artists, NYC, Paris

It isn’t unusual to look at the heavily lined faces of this artist and find that you drift away for a moment, lost in a thought. This particular portrait by French street artist C215 of Jon Cartwright has appeared on the streets of New York, London, Paris, and Sao Paulo.* C215, well known for his intricate stencils and portraits of people that somehow allow their inner glow to come out, generously donated this piece for the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit this Saturday.

Using the bottom side of what was once a letterpress sorting drawer of heavy wood, C215 chooses a subject that looks off into a haze of smoke, reflecting for a minute on the issue of the moment, or remembering someone, a conversation, or a phrase.

* source Metro.co.uk

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