All posts tagged: Outpost

Sydney’s “OutPost Project” ReCap

November 23, 2011 , , , , ,
Our sincere thanks to BSA reader and New Yorker Spencer Elzey, who took a trip to Sydney at the beginning of the month and had the opportunity to check out the Outpost Project Street Art festival. Here’s his report.

Overview and a warning. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Cockatoo Island is the Governor’s Island of Sydney. The ferry leaves Circular Quay, motors beside the shimmering tiles of the Sydney Opera House, sweeps underneath the arching Harbor Bridge and the tourist who pay $200 for a chance to climb the upper deck above. Twenty minutes later, a large “No Trespassing” sign begins to become in focus. We have arrived at the Outpost Project.

Anthony Lister. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

The island, who’s past includes an old Imperial prison and one of Australia’s largest shipyards, welcomes each street art enthusiast with a detailed information brochure. The inner cover contains a fairly easy to follow map of what lies ahead. Right away three large inflatables (imagine a small grounded hot air balloon) greet you adorned with Anthony Lister’s iconic caricatures. The info packet says it best when describing the images; the “superheroes are never indomitable conquerors or unequivocal villains.” Straddled by two of these is a large piece by Belgium artist, and frequent Brooklyn talent, ROA.

ROA. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Follow the art around the corner through a mural-lined alley between two buildings and some familiar styles present themselves including the stick-figure arms by Perth Street Artist Creepy.

Creepy and Daek. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

The second floor of one of these buildings is the current home to a large private collection of work by Banksy. The OI YOU! Collection had an interesting start, but where it currently stands is 22 pieces by Banksy. Intermixed are items by Faile, Swoon and others. The husband and wife team collecting behind OI YOU!, George Shaw and his wife Shannon Webster, sold both of their cars and re-directed a home improvement loan to feed their need for owning more street art.

Kid Zoom…and documentation of the destruction of three Holden Commodores. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Inside the main building, known as the Industrial Precinct, MOX (Mark Cawood) is hard at work. After over 120 hours of intricate stencil cutting, his diligence is well on its way toward a completed final product. At the end of the hall, behind the small traffic jam of mangled cars, is a life size recreation of the childhood home of Street Artist and fine artist Kid Zoom.

Kid Zoom. “Home” The artist recreate a scale reproduction of his childhood home from early adolescent memory… (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Located deeper within the hall of the Industrial Precinct are two other impressive arrays; NEXT by T-World and Pastemodernism 3. Both of these installations, while serious in their scope, were whimsical at heart. The NEXT collection, overseen by “Melbourne-born T-shirt messiah Eddie Zammit,” asks 20 artists to assemble over 1,500 T-shirts to display. Local shout-outs included Barcade in Williamsburg and Katz’s Deli on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Pastemodernism 3, now in it’s third year at OUTPOST, is the self-proclaimed “largest celebration of ‘paste-ups’ in Australia.” Over 100 artists had a part in this collaboration.

A view of the T Shirt installation. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Traversing the Artery, a limestone lined subterranean tunnel, one passes by a “rogue gallery of 30 hand picked Australian street artists” including HA HA, Ghostpatrol, Numskull, Dmote and Yok, just to name a few.

The Art Gallery in the Tunnel. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Upon exiting, you end up back at the beginning, next to the “No Trespassing” sign and amongst a collection by Will Coles. His concrete cast items, usually adorned with a word or two, are lifelike enough even the Seagulls seemed a bit confused.

Will Coles. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Will Coles. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

New Rock Crew. 1976 Classic School Bus. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

New Rock Crew. 1976 Classic School Bus. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

New Rock Crew. 1976 Classic School Bus. Anthony Lister balloon on the background. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Shannon Crees. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Phibs. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Mini Graff. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Max Berry. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

We couldn’t read the artist’s signature. Please let us know if you know who this artist is. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Hazzy Bee. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

HA HA on the left and Shida on the right. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Ears. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

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“Outpost: Art From The Streets” Sydney’s Own Mega Street Art Festival

November 2, 2011 , , , , , , ,

The Outpost Project begins in two days on a former military outpost, Cockatoo Island, the largest island in Sydney Harbour in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. This city really knows the value of the Street Art scene and celebrates the contributions of artists to the cultural wealth of the people who live there.

The entire island is basically porn for Street Artists, and right now about 150 are readying work their magic ways on the industrial spaces. Artists like ROA, Ethos, KidZoom, Anthony Lister, Everfresh Collective, Os Gemeos, Swoon, Faile, and Banksy are on the bill and a number of other projects will be taking place simultaneously, including a Pro/Am skateboarding exhibition, a region art gallery, DJs, artist battles, and pop-up bars.  The island becomes a canvas, and there is no admission. Um, are you coming?

Kid Zoom will be dominating the Turbine Shed with his project Kid Zoom: “Home”. Right now his home is split between Brooklyn and Perth, so he’s kind of a hometown boy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)


Another Brooklyn/Australia native, Anthony Lister will pepper the island with his signature characters  grinning larger than life transposed on enormous balloons. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DMOTE will be involved in multiple projects but primarily on his own panel installation demonstrating new leaps and techniques he’s implementing in his ever-evolving style. (photo © Andrius Lippa)

Ben Frost is curating “Pastemodernism 3″ where every inch of surface area will be covered in wheatpasted posters from a slew of hand-picked artists. Probably the most populated exhibition of OUTPOST, “Pastemodernism 3” will include over 250 artists, both local and International. (photo © Andrius Lippa)

REKA. EVERFRESH STUDIO. The crew whose stellar lineup includes Phibs, Meggs, Rone, Reka, Sync, Prizm, Wonderlust, Stabs and Makatron will be tackling the East Apron Cliff Face with a tongue-in-cheek statement of the anti-graffiti rhetoric of yesteryear. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Artist Creepy: Project Ugly will sit gazing over the harbour displaying 20 panels from interstate street artists, including an onsite live painting on an industrial scale by Sydney figure Sprinkles and as well, Brisbane based Shida. Amongst the pre-created collection will be Above (San Francisco), Creepy and Daek (Last Chance Studios, Perth) and Drypnz (NZ). (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Yok. Artery, located in the Dog Leg Tunnel will greet patrons upon first landing – being a sample of the creative tone to come including Meggs, Haha, Rone, Yok and Drewfunk amongst other featured Outpost Artists. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Also included will be the Oi You! Collection featuring the largest private collection of Banksy’s, amongst works by David Choe and Herakut. As well, live painting by Sao Paulo artist Ethos and Belgian monotone muralist Roa.

Banksy is going to participate, but how? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ETHOS. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Herakut. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ROA. (photo © Jaime Rojo)


From the press release:

“The crown jewel of Sydney harbour, Cockatoo Island, a former military outcrop and penal colony will be transformed this November. In conjunction with the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, witness the island wide invasion as aMBUSH Gallery launches a curatorial take-over – transforming the industrial monument into a battlefield of street-art. The Outpost Project will be the Southern-hemisphere’s largest Street Art Festival to date, with a projected 90, 000 visitors over the course of 5 weeks. Amongst a myriad of forums, educational programs, aMBUSH will bring to the table the nexus of content featured on the island.”

For further information and a complete list of participating artists, events and schedule please visit the sites below:

http://outpost.cockatooisland.gov.au/

http://www.ambushgallery.com/

 

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