All posts tagged: Sweden

SpiderTag Traces Electric Geometry on the Swedish Waterfront

October 16, 2017 Artists

The Argentinian Street Artist named Spidertag has freed his work from the wall these days and prefers to trace geometry in the air.

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 5. (photo © Spidertag)

Using a relatively new glowing fluorescent chording that emulates his previous yarn compositions Spidertag spent a week in Helsingborg, Sweden experimenting and creating one new artwork every day.

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 7. (photo © Spidertag)

The installations on the ground, on walls, on ship docks and piers, and levitating in the air were not always simple to achieve, he tells us, and he required the help of three assistants and a car lift.

“I´m super glad of the result, the effort and the levels that I pushed myself to during this amazing week,” he says, of the multiple configurations that lit the night during Artweek, curated by Peter Erikson for Kulturhotellet. Every day at nightfall his temporary, installations suddenly lit up hidden places, many in concert with the beautiful views of Helsingborg.

The images here show the works in situ, some from multiple angles, without photo manipulation. As his electrified tags and geo-webs continue to evolve, one can imagine more complex pieces developing into the future while Spidertag tests the limits of the medium and his imagination.

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 1. (photo © Spidertag)

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 2. (photo © Spidertag)

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 3. (photo © Spidertag)

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 4. (photo © Spidertag)

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 4. Detail. (photo © Spidertag)

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 5. (photo © Spidertag)

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 6. (photo © Spidertag)

Hot Tea: An Undulating Fluorescent Apparition Takes You To Church

September 27, 2017 Artists

A fluorescent underwater sea creature is flobbing it’s tentacles in the ripply and unusual directions of the currents and cross currents, full of life and full of crazy ideas. This particular one is hanging over your head actually, but the breezes make it look like its under water.

Hot Tea. No Limit Boras 2017. Boras, Sweden. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The levitating and waving installation in the sky must be confusing for Borås citizens who see the sugar hot pink, the blood red, the radioactive lemon and electric lime blob in the sky, especially because its in the church yard.

It doesn’t really seem like a piece of Street Art to those who are accustomed to thinking that festivals like “No Limit” are for murals only. But the director of this Swedish art gathering doesn’t worry much about restrictions like that – he knows that public art today has as many variations as it does practitioners.

Hot Tea. No Limit Boras 2017. Boras, Sweden. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I can stare at the HOTTEA installation forever,” says Shai Dahan, a Street Artist who has invited a healthy range of artists who work in the public sphere in the 3 editions of “No Limit”.

In fact, it is mesmerizing and time may collapse upon itself while you stare up at this ever-changing sky-sculpture from green grass of the yard, or from the pews inside Caroli Church while allowing your attention to drift out the window. It may appear as a vision, a sign, a holy spirit embodied in this cubic form just outside the glass. Hopefully the Vicar hasn’t found it too distracting for parishioners to listen to his Sunday sermon.

Hot Tea. No Limit Boras 2017. Boras, Sweden. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hot Tea. No Limit Boras 2017. Boras, Sweden. September 2017. Video via BrooklynStreetArt.com

Anonymouse: Miniature Vignettes on the Street for “No Limit” Festival in Boras, Sweden

September 26, 2017 Artists, Interview

A new mouse on the street is bringing the world to you one little shop at a time.

Anonymouse. No Limit Boras 2017. Boras, Sweden. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miniaturization on the street or in the museum (or in the street museum) causes you to focus on detail, draw closely, to recall your childhood ability to freely invoke a sense of fantasy.

“Since our visitors are mostly nocturnal, our opening hours are quite generous,” the artists known as Anonymous say in reference to their nighttime installations, sometimes glowing with electric light in the lee of a bridge column, or the shadow of a door. They reference the famous Swedish children’s book author Astrid Lindren in their work, and you can easily visualize a small mouse family or a business mouse or a house mouse or church mouse astutely moving through these vignettes, living their important lives.

Possibly one is currently occupied in a back room of one of these installations at the moment but they will be returning presently to greet their new visitor – you, with your big face. Don’t worry, they like you to get up close. They may even provide a magnifying glass for you to get a closer look.

Anonymouse. No Limit Boras 2017. Boras, Sweden. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

When finding these new installations on the street in Boras recently during the “No Limit” festival, adults clamored to get close and examine each detail. For children the draw was more like a compulsion.

One inquisitive girl named Grace appeared to want to get inside the pieces, to live there full time. Unfortunately even a tiny person is too big for these miniature apparitions of a world that can loom so large in your imagination.

Anonymouse. No Limit Boras 2017. Boras, Sweden. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The artists say they consider themselves novices, but this level of execution and attention to detail suggests that their skills are far more accomplished then they are letting on. During our recent trip to Sweden we had the opportunity to see their work and ask a few questions to see if this mysterious collective(?) could bring a tiny lantern to shed some light on a few matters.

An illustration from Ilon Wikland for an Astrid Lindgren story. ©Ilon Wikland

Brooklyn Street Art: What is the conceptual idea behind these very detailed small worlds you create?
Anonymouse: The idea to construct mice-sized sceneries emerged in March of 2016, inspired by the stories of Astrid Lindgren, and the movies of Walt Disney and Don Bluth.We believe that at some point most children like to imagine that there is a world parallel to ours wherein small animals live quite like we do but using things that we have lost.And based on the response we’ve received it would seem like quite a few people feel the same way.

Anonymouse. No Limit Boras 2017. Boras, Sweden. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Would you call yourselves street artists?
Anonymouse: Not really no, we see ourselves as enthusiastic amateurs. Since we’d like our work to speak for itself and not focus on us, we’ve chosen to stay anonymous, and as such it’s also quite hard to become part of a street art community.

Brooklyn Street Art: Do you have a background in working in the public sphere previously? (graffiti, Street Art, public art, etc?)
Anonymouse: Nah, or well, a few of us have been part of some small projects, but not anything of notice.

Anonymouse. No Limit Boras 2017. Boras, Sweden. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Who do you think is your most enthusiastic audience – children or adults?
Anonymouse: Ha ha, good question. We think kids and adults see different things in the sets – children see the “magic” and accept the shops for what they invite.

Adults, if they like it, like the craftsmanship.

We encourage people build their own miniature sets and to place them all over their own cities. If we can do it, so can you!

Brooklyn Street Art: What a unique addition your work has been to “No Limit” this year.
Anonymouse: We’d just like to thank all the other artists doing absolutely amazing work in Borås. And to Shai Dahan, for the whole initiative.

Anonymouse. No Limit Boras 2017. Boras, Sweden. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 09.10.17 “No Limit” Borås Special

September 10, 2017 Artists

Welcome to Sunday! This week we have a special edition of BSA Images of the Week; Dedicated to “No Limit” in Boras 2017.

Begun on the initiative of Street Artist Shai Dahan, the No Limit festival in Borås Sweden is a nice respite in a quiet, somewhat conservative town of pleasant people where all the shops close by six and the streets are empty by ten. With the initiative and vision of Dahan, three editions of “No Limit” have brought a varied roster of more than 30 Street Artists and muralists and installation artists into the downtown area and thrilled the tour groups and looky-loos who follow the trail discovering new artworks.

Playing toward the center and knowingly delighting the audience, the full collection also boasts a few great eclectic names and actual forward-looking leaders on the Street Art/ Contemporary Art continuum. Thanks to Dahan’s sharp eye and knowledge of who to bring, it is a well-rounded collection that compliments the city and yet represents the independent-thinking iconoclastic nature of today’s art on the streets.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Anonymouse, Bordalo II, Christina Angelina, Fintan Magee, Gemma O’Brien, Hot Tea, JM Rizzi, Lakwena, Lonac, Nespoon, and Telmo & Miel.

Top image: Bordalo II. No Limit Boras 2017. Boras, Sweden. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bordalo II.Detail. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fintan Magee. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fintan Magee. Detail. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hot Tea. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Telmo Miel. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Telmo Miel. Detail. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Telmo Miel. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JM Rizzi. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lonac. Detail. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lonac. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lakwena. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NeSpoon at work on her wall. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NeSpoon. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gemma O’Brien. Detail. No Limit Boras 2017. Boras, Sweden. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gemma O’Brien. No Limit Boras 2017. Boras, Sweden. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anonymouse. No Limit Boras 2017. Boras, Sweden. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anonymouse. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Christina Angelina. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Flying Into the Weekend : HotTea, Bordalo II, TelmoMiel, Nespoon for No Limit / Borås: Dispatch 6

September 9, 2017 Artists

HotTea is being offered in the Caroli Church yard right now, floating above parishioners heads.

Hot Tea. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unveiled as the sun was seting in the Swedish sky, the separate bundles of rayon strips freed one-by-one beneath their gridded wire superstructure, this hovering mass of radiance is enlivened by the slightest breezes rippling through the glowing neon soft cloud, not quite a rectangle, not at all expected.

Hot Tea. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It is a tenet of illegal Street Art and legal public art is that it has the power to reactivate public space, sometimes challenging it, sometimes transgressing it. In the case of HotTea his installations reveal space that you were perhaps not seeing, the way Aakash Nihalani reveals geometric patterns and relationships with masking tape and Brad Downey subversively cuts chunks out of it, rearranges it, reallocates it.

Hot Tea. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Here on the property of a religious and historical institution, one is tempted to say he captures the spirit of its higher aspirations and holds it aloft as a reminder. He also just completed this summer an enormous record-breaking installation in the Mall of America, a holy temple of commerce and consumerism, so we may have mistakenly imbued this project with something mystical because we were transported from the slippery bricked streets of Boras upon its discovery.

Either way, Boras tour groups applaud. We keep seeing it wherever we go – the appreciation of the new works literally makes people burst into applause, as they did when Hot Tea was on his lift yesterday, as they did for TelmoMiel as they were in their separate baskets 3 stories above in the drizzle, and from 200 meters away on the other side of the street looking up a hill watching Bordalo II as he installed his white wolf, half dripping white, half Technicolor consumer items. As they did when Jim Rizzi turned around almost on cue to face a dozen seniors who were staring at him across the river while he was painting. For those street artists and graffiti artists who have been hunted down by the Vandal Squad or its equivalent over the years, this outpouring of appreciation for your work feels and sounds surreal, perhaps leading you to be philosophical, or bitterererer-er.

TelmoMiel. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Those are the original drawings for the cartoon that we used to watch,” says Dutchman Miel as he takes a break down on the pavement to look up at the animated scene looming above and his art partner Telmo in a cherry picker gazing into the mouth of a fox. The guys are creating a sophisticated tableau incorporating the 2-D cartoon stills of a famous children’s animation and overlaying incredibly realistic 3-D versions of the same.

A still from the animated series of Nils Holgersson

“We used to watch it when we were little – it’s a very old Swedish book and it has been animated by the Dutch and I think the Japanese and it is one of my favorite shows,” he says as we learn about Nils Holgersson and the likelihood that most Swedes will be instantly familiar with this small boy riding on the back of a goose who flies him around the world.

“We like combining the realism with the flat stuff right now,” Miel says of this digital shattering, a hi-jacked visual collage.

TelmoMiel. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: And you have these atmospheric washes…the realism, almost surrealism.
Miel: Those are cut-outs because it’s like a two layer thing. We erase one layer and we always end up having strokes and bits – which makes it kind of more abstract, and we like that aspect so we just leave it. By abstractifying realism, we create surrealism.

A similar split between real and surreal exists in the sculptural installation of Bordalo II on the side of the Boras tourist center. Collaged together refuse from the never-ending garbage/recycling stream we are creating, the Lisbon artist has an uncanny ability to evoke the likeness of an animal that is often familiar to a locality. Here the street audience is also witnessing the transition of an artist’s style, displayed mid-evolution.

Bordalo II. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Whereas Bordalo II’s well-known and celebrated sculptures until this summer had always been finished with paint to complete their transformation, the artist has grown tired of the technique and is moving toward a body of work that uses only the colors present in the recycled items – a much more demanding and challenging technique for the artist, and a visual shift from his typically realized works.

We talk about the new direction as we’re looking at the piece nearly finished on the wall and he contrasts his relationship with the “old” right side of the animal with the “new” left side technique.

“It’s different at least,” he says. “I was getting bored of the old way on the right side – it’s always the same.”

Bordalo II. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And the multi-color eye-popping left? “This is the side that excites me. It’s fun because you can recognize a lot of the items and there is a lot of detail with all of the colors. You’re not playing with tones. You’re playing with colors and you have to give the idea of the shape of the outlines all with just the choice of different colors. I’m not using much black or white – for example the only place where there is black is in the eye. It’s important to use black only in the few places where you really need it then you can just play with the colors and make perspective.”

NeSpoon. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Just across a footbridge into the city’s old commercial district you round a bricked corner and find Nespoon riding up and down a two story wall beside a tavern. The organically decorative lace pattern pops out from the surface, slightly undulating like the long leafed aquatic plants in the Viskan river only 15 meters from her paintbrush.

NeSpoon. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I draw the lace by hand, scan it, print it on large paper and hand cut all the pieces before I stencil them.” It’s a laborious process admittedly, but one that allows a feeling of full authorship and an organic relationship with the materials and final product. The Polish artist is making great progress and now is filling the background with a rusted red root timbre, just picking up the autumnal highlights in leaves on trees nearby.

As this Swedish town nearly marches ever closer to fall, the electricity of “No Limits” is bringing one last surge of summer and a real appreciation of the work of Street Artists as well.

JM Rizzi. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Christina Angelina. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lakwena. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anonymouse. Installation # 2. No Limit/Borås 2017. The Malmö based secretive installation artist put this hand crafted miniature gas station overnight. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gemma O’Brien. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Surprise Anonymouse Guest, Sunlight at No Limit / Borås: Dispatch 5

September 8, 2017 Artists

This week BSA is in Borås, a municipality in south-western Sweden for the 3rd edition of No Limit, a mural arts festival that brings Street Artists from around the world to create new works on walls of the city, in the process enlivening public space and creating new ways for this historic textile merchant town to engage passersby with their city.

A small surprise guest appeared in Boras Thursday overnight and was sort of discovered by people on their way to work in the neighborhood. And when we say small, consider that a thimble is playing the role of a lampshade in one of these set scenes.

Anonymouse. No Limit/Borås 2017. The Malmö based secretive installation artist put this hand crafted miniature storefront overnight.Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The miniature movement has been important in the last 10 years particularly in Street Art, with ever small pieces popping up – a bit of escapist fun for kids and those adults who also would like to disappear themselves for a moment into a tiny fantasy world. The Swedish installation artists Anonymouse have appeared on the streets of Malmö with a logo that smacks of Disney, Ronald McDonald and that Occupy mask of Guy Fawkes. But this is just a little mouse world for you to live in, provided you can get on your belly and stare closely.

Aside from that new bit, we found the artists happier with the weather, spirits lifted, and walls going up! Here are some of the images we caught on tour through the city which really has embraced the influx of international artists in a way that few do.

Anonymouse. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“It’s great how many business owners have been supportive to us over the years,” says artist and “No Limit” organizer Shai Dahan. We’re standing with structural engineer and commercial real estate property manager Erik Williamson in front of the new wall by TelmoMiel that features a goose and a fox from a well known Swedish fable by Nils Holgerssons.

Williamson has donated buildings and gallery space over the last three editions of the festival, virtually goosing the interest of the rest of the city. Now Shai receives calls from local businesses asking for artists to paint their walls almost daily.

NeSpoon for the Thinkspace/No Limit Borås 2017 “There Are No Limits” art show. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“We love it!” says Mr. Williamson, “I’m a bird watcher, so this one is fun for me. It’s good for the city and the town. I think this year there will be many more people.” Does he think that these new works around town are like graffiti and does he have negative connotations about them? “I do not think of graffiti, I think it more of art. I think it does us good to walk around the city and to see street art and sculptures and it is good for the people in the city, I think.”

Abstract artist JM Rizzi is feeling good about his progress as the sun is coming out and his long wall is finally filling with color thanks to late days and helps from local volunteers. It’s appropriate that his work is here by the river, as he speaks of fluidity when describing the gestural abstract style that he has become known for.

JM Rizzi. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Influenced as a student in college nearly two decades ago by artists like Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline, Rizzi says he’s heartened by the idea that his early graffiti influences are now matured and embedded with his love of writing, and the simplicity of the line.

“The person who really turned the light on for me was Franz Klein – his drawing, his black ink, his gestures, his letterforms,” says Rizzi. In fact, he says the essence of a JM Rizzi piece is always “about the linework.” He also speaks of music. Tracing the wall with his finger in the air he talks about the rhythm of the piece and says he can hear a soundtrack of percussion and horns; the yellow is a horn, the grey is a bass.

JM Rizzi. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ultimately, he says, “It’s about the dialogue of art, and what I am adding to that dialogue.”

As we speak we see well-known local tour guide Bjorn Linder is bringing a group of mature adults up the banks of the river across from Rizzi’s new wall. When it comes to putting your art out to be seen by the public, that’s where the dialogue continues.

Hot Tea. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gemma O’Brien. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lakwena. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Christina Angelina. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artists at Work, Soggy but Intrepid Update for No Limit / Borås: Dispatch 4

September 7, 2017 Artists

The Australian letterist Gemma O’Brien may be the only artist who is dry right now at No Limit Boras; she’s painting a wall inside The Swedish School of Textiles – adding her illustrative painting to a publicly accessible area of the esteemed institution of learning. Ken and Alisha from Thinkspace are also out of the rain because they are installing the pop-up gallery show opening Thursday night in the city center.

Gemma O’Brien. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA has had the pleasure of co-curating with Thinkspace in the past and once again they are bringing a stunning cross section of current Street Art, graffiti, dark pop, pop surrealist, tattoo, illustration, all helpful to put the No Limit mural installations in a larger context. The art movement, perhaps because of its global nature and the many tributaries that contribute to it, is still having a hard time deciding on the rubric these works fall under: Urban Contemporary? New Contemporary? Definitely Thinkspace is giving a good taste of what is happening as it evolves. Wednesday afternoon a few of the artists who are on walls in town were and in the gallery show were also in the space – including Nespoon and Bordalo II, both whom just landed.

Gemma O’Brien. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Actually had a great opportunity to see Bordalo II jumping into the dumpster to peruse the recycled garbage he’ll be working with over the next few days here to create a sculpture on the side of a wall. Contrary to the process he has to do elsewhere, this time he gave the Boras team a full list of desired garbage items for them to find and collect for him. Thanks to the pretty sophisticated recycling system that Sweden has and the fact that you frankly don’t see much garbage strewn across this city at all, this was the assured way that the Lisbon based artist could get the raw materials needed to create his signature installation.

JM Rizzi. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The London Police have been milling around a bit aimlessly it would seem, appearing only under cover of night, tempting peers and unsuspecting bar patrons into pool games, episodes of hilarity and assorted blueprints for late night debauchery. Since the town doesn’t typically stay up late for, well, anything, this has posed a particular challenge for Chas and Chinny to wrangle participants, but we have faith in them. Not officially part of the No Limit festival this year, we hear that the Police have some public tricks up their sleeves over the next couple of days, so keep your eyes peeled.

JM Rizzi. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hot Tea and his assistant Fabrizio arrived here without there luggage yesterday afternoon (as many have) and despite the jet lag, the rainy skies, and their 2 day-old clothes, they are both teetering atop a cherry picker on the Caroli Church grounds.

Here Hot Tea is hanging a system of wires between the flag poles for what will be a remarkable installation by the Minneapolis born former graff-writer now yarn magician.

JM Rizzi. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Caroli Church, by the way, is the oldest building in the city and it has withstood all four enormous fires that nearly destroyed the city in the 17^th, 18^th, and 19^th centuries, and its bell tower is visible from many vantage points around the city, its hourly chimes audible out your window. Perched high above one important tomb high in the sky and presumably closer to God these guys are laboriously hanging a system of wires that are hard to decipher at the moment.

A certain salty-tongued Mexican photographer we know remarks that the wires and flagpoles may be closer to heaven but also closer to lightning bolts and if this storm picks up they may be fried. Heresy! On these Holy ground they will be safe. But if the Vicar knew much about Hot Tea, he may be doubtful about this as well.

Hot Tea at work on his installation. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Polish Street Artist Nespoon has just arrived as well and she tells us about a recent urban exploring trip she made to Chernobyl (!) and she has begun scoping out her wall location here in Borås.

The Dutch duo TelmoMiel have begun to sketch out across a large wall in aerosol a story that appears to include a fox and a goose, JM Rizzi is showing a lot of progress with color blocks across his lengthy expanse by the river, Christina Angelina is now claiming a corner of hers by the traffic overpass.

Christina Angelina. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Croatian realist Lonac is applying a tattoo to the leg of his graffiti-writer while a local guy periodically does a sort of excited interpretive dance on the street near the cherry picker, and the Australian Fintan Magee has won the speed competition by completing his powerful image of a Swedish woman hoisted above branches looking skyward overlooking the Borås central park. Lakwena did some late night screen projecting to put crisp fonts into their composition, which is unveiling it self in blocks of vibrant angular hues.

Think that’s it for now. You have been apprised of the current Borås public art situation. More to come!

Lakwena. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

TelmoMiel. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lonac. Work in progress. No Limit/Borås 2017. Borås, Sweden 09-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Borås Kids Smash the “Open Wall”: Children’s Workshop at “No Limit” : Dispatch 3

September 6, 2017 Artists

“They just float around you know, they do their own thing,” says Swedish graffiti writer Appear37 about these junior aerosol artists who are taking his workshop here on a muddy grey day. “Some have sprayed on each other and stuff, I need to check on them regularly. They also like to spray on the ground. So kids are crazy.”

Open Wall. Children Workshop with Swedish graffiti writer Appear37. No Limit Borås 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We’re in a small wooded park by the railroad tracks here in Borås, standing in front of the first official legal wall that is sponsored by the city. Getting this large outside canvas for organic artistic expression took years of discussion that was often lively and even rancorous, according to a number of locals. A collection of 7 or 8 young people are here to get familiar with the spray can and to see if they can translate their hand drawn designs into paint on a wall.

That’s precisely what their teacher Appear37, otherwise known as Adam Algotsson, is helping them do. The folding table near the wall is full of boxes of cans, and an acoustic speaker is playing the Spanish language pop hit “Despacito” on a loop. Adam tells us that the kids wanted to hear their favorite song over and over again so he obliged their preference so they could get into their groove. After the fifth time hearing the song he says the repetition is beginning to drive him a little loco and the professor is ready to switch to his own funky playlist on his phone.

BSA: It looks like the kids like to experiment.
Adam: That’s why we do this – so they can get the feeling. It’s part of the “No Limit” project and we want to show the youngsters that we have a legal wall now so they can start and become a real artist.

Open Wall. Children Workshop with Swedish graffiti writer Appear37. No Limit Borås 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The “Open Wall”, as it is referred to here, has literally been up and ready for the public for only three days, he says, and already many artists of a variety of ages have been putting their skills and ideas to the test. Appear37 has a serious burner here and another well known Swedish graff writer LEON (W.U.F.C) has one of his fantastical characters on it as well.

As he keeps a close eye on the students progress he talks about his own history without much guidance on his art skills. “I started like this, on the streets of course. I found some walls in Gothenburg. When I got older I talked to the local officials here in Borås about getting a legal wall for everyone but it took 10 years, 11 years! But now we’ve got a really huge one and we will get even more because they like it now. So I am glad for it and I live very close so I can just go and paint on it.”

Open Wall. Children Workshop with Swedish graffiti writer Appear37. No Limit Borås 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We pause for a moment as a girl with long blond hair and an adult sized buttoned shirt over her regular clothes carries a can over to Appear37 to ask him a question. After some instructions and encouraging tones in Swedish, she tentatively does a couple small bursts of paint on an eyeball.

“She wanted to know how to do highlights,” he says. “It’s good if they can try. She understands – you can see it in her work. It won’t get good the first time – you need to try to change how far you hold the can from the wall and it is so difficult.”

A frog is ready to leap from the sketch to the Open Wall. Children Workshop with Swedish graffiti writer Appear37. No Limit Borås 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“It takes a lot of years just to do one clean line. For me it took like four years to do a good line. Now I do a really good one. It’s my full-time job so I have to do it well.” We talk about the change of roles for him from rebel to artist to teacher. Now he is the one who is setting the example, and his face lights up as he talks about all the students he has been working with. “Yes I have a lot of workshops. It is so fun – when they listen!”

He says that he is self taught, and he spent much time alone as a teenager – painting, and more painting. “I have been alone a lot, thinking. I have grown as a person because of that I think. It has been a lot of hours in my studio and in my room doing canvases.” A life-long Borås resident, his graffiti work is well known among peers in the Swedish graffiti game and he has developed an appreciable following for his gallery work on canvas as well.

Open Wall. Children Workshop with Swedish graffiti writer Appear37. No Limit Borås 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

But right now, Appear37 is looking for the new talents that are emerging before his eyes in this two-hour class.

“Some of them want to leave pretty soon after they first try to use the can. But then some of them don’t want to stop. Those are the ones that I want to catch – the ones who really love it.

We look at the sketches of the students now placed on the ground in front of the wall. The students prepared them earlier with a school teacher at a picnic table nearby before attempting to create them here on the wall. One of them, a line drawing of a character, catches his eye.

“She has her own style already. You can feel it in her sketches.”

Check out the works of the professor at his brand new gallery show:

Adam Algotsson alias Appear37 this weekend as part of the “No Limit” festival in Borås at Galleri Villastaden, opening Friday night. Complete info below:

Open Wall. Children Workshop with Swedish graffiti writer Appear37. No Limit Borås 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Galleri Villastaden
Övre Kvarngatan 44
50453 Borås
Telefon: 0706-329758

info@gallerivillastaden.se

Lakwena, JM Rizzi in Process at No Limit / Borås: Dispatch 2

September 5, 2017 Artists

Swedes love to talk about Swedish weather, especially when explaining the famous winters and the grey days that are causing muralists to try and paint in between the rain drops in Borås right now. Aside from Gemma, who is painting inside the Swedish School of Textiles on the university campus, everyone else is painting outside, which means a cloudy, cool, and rainy day presents a particular set of challenges. But this group evolved from the modern graffiti/Street Art scene, so unless there is a police officer involved, the rain won’t stop the party.

The sun-drenched Dallas based abstract contemporary painter JM Rizzi may be a bit more in shock because he has just been scoping out the enormously long wall he will be painting along with a local assistant from the high school named George, who used to do a little graffiti of his own before he moved here from Croatia a couple of years ago.

Rizzi says he’s excited to do the largest wall he’s ever done and he is taking this rain day as an opportunity to sketch the outlines of his composition while George runs across to the other side of the river to look at his progress and text any feedback.

Meanwhile Lakwena, the vibrantly graphic textologist from Hackney, London has her heart set on improvising her wall and is channeling the messages she has been receiving from in inner world to decide what aesthetic direction her wall just off the main street of Allégatan.

She tells us she’ll be free-styling this time around, allowing the spirit to move her and taking inspiration from the lyrics of her assistant and talented musician sister Abimaro, with whom she’s been talking a lot about the importance of process in creativity.

“She and I share a similar vision about our work. So we had this long talk about our process for work – so I’ve kind of gone back to what I used to do, which very much, ‘The Soul is in the Process.’ You know, it’s not just in the planning,” she says.

The two of them are studiously laying out a color palette in trays on the sidewalk and carefully marking out dimensions and patterns across the buffed wall in the chilly drizzle, keeping an upbeat attitude despite a downbeat aqua rhythm that eventually turns to full-on rain.

An artist who loves the letter-style on public signage, Lakwena says she’s getting inspired by some of the text treatments she’s been seeing on the street here, and she knows she’ll be incorporating some of that inspiration in her text as well. “I don’t have any ‘declarations’ about what its going to be,” she says before revealing that the wall will be inspired by lyrics from a song called “Fever” by her sister.

“It’s inspired by one of her lyrics actually, ‘When I’m free’ is one of them, ” she tells us. “That’s kind of what started it. I mean the lyrics are probably going to be in there because I always have lettering about something that I feel – it’s almost like an anchor for me, which I love.” As one of the outstanding women who rocked Wynwood with Jeffrey Dietch in Miami a few years ago and just recently with JustKids and Charlotte Dutoit in Arkansa for The Unexpected project, you know this wall is going to make Borås jump.

Once the rain clears, that is.

Fintan Magee, Lonac in Process at No Limit/Borås: Dispatch 1

September 4, 2017 Artists

“No Limit” 2017 is just getting underway here in Borås. Fintan Magee is the first out of the gate with a large wall overlooking the Viskan river which winds it’s way through this southwestern town in Sweden. Artists have been arriving in Goteborg from around the world and getting a ride 40 minute ride to Boras by car with a friendly volunteer who offers to transport these honored international visitors.

We immediately hit the clean streets with some serious jetlag and without luggage (it will follow later no doubt) to see the walls with artist and organizer Shai Dahan, who started the “No Limit” mural arts festival in 2014 to bring his friends in the Street Art world to this friendly and welcoming city known more for its textile industry than its graffiti scene.

First we headed to a demonstration of Afghani immigrants who were gathered in the main square here to give speeches and display handmade signs protesting a proposal to send these relatively new emigres back to Afghanistan because some in the government contend that the country is safe enough for them to return.

A couple of the guys standing in the assembly told us that most Afghani’s would disagree with that assessment and felt that returning to their original country would be dangerous to them. We took some photos of the signs and made our way to see Fintan’s work-in-progress wall of a local Swedish woman set atop winter branches, elevated into the sky. He had already stopped painting for the day so we set out to find Lonac.

The artist Lonac, from Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia that is more than 10 times the size of Borås, was just finishing up his work for the day on a huge portrait of a guy whom we didn’t recognize, so we talked to him about it. A fine artist whose realism sometimes slides into surrealism, the sharp-witted aerosol musician tells us that his new painting is a tribute to the graffiti writers whose work gave birth to much of the modern Street Art scene, including this guy in this new painting.

“He is a graffiti writer from Zagreb. Sometimes we also paint together,” Lonac says, “So for this wall I chose to paint him because mostly I paint people who I know. I like to use them for stories I want to tell, whether it is pictures or paintings or murals it makes sense for me to paint someone that I know. I started doing it about three years ago. It is a big challenge to paint somebody who is real, not from your head, because eventually that person will see it. So I work more and more to make the painting realistic, to create the personality of the person who I want to paint.”

BSA: You are putting a lot of pressure on yourself by doing that – painting a contemporary.
Lonac: Yes, but no, no, I like it. This way I feel that the wall doesn’t only have to do with me. It has to do with somebody else. That’s what I’m trying to do.

BSA: So when you think of him, what do you think of?
Lonac: He is one of the main guys in the graffiti scene in Zagreb. When I started painting I wasn’t so close to those guys and now since I have been painting more and more I am becoming more understanding of this other part of our culture. Until now I mostly only did paintings. So its mostly about honoring other people who are also doing some type of art and acknowledging that they are also painting, even though I am not close to that kind of painting.

BSA: What would you tell people here in Boras about graffiti that they do not know?
Lonac: I don’t know if they know a lot about graffiti here because there is not much bombing or tags. I would say that there are a lot of people doing many types of graffiti and there are some who take from the history of graffiti and are making it into some type of art. So I would say before judging it they have to know something about it to understand it.

Spider Tag Uses Electricity to Trace a New Direction In The Dark

March 29, 2017 Artists, Interview

It’s good to see artists stretch themselves creatively, going outside of their comfort zone, hopefully, and discovering new techniques and approaches to their art.

“You cannot stay at the same level as when you first practiced your truth, life won’t let you.”

~ Kamal Ravikant, Live Your Truth

Spanish Street Artist Spider Tag has appeared here on BSA for many years constructing his outside constellations in abandoned buildings and community gardens and elsewhere with nails and yarn. If you didn’t see the geometric shapes there on intersecting planes before, he was willing to demarcate their dimensions with bright red lines for your benefit.

Recently in a new modern neighborhood of Malmö, Sweden called Västra Hamnen, Spidertag decided to use a curiously amenable neon cable material to try out a new public installation. He says the total exhibition lasted about 30 minutes, until the battery died, but it was a successful experiment he is eager to expand upon. “I used nails, a hammer and 50 metres of neon cable,” he says, “I thought it was a perfect spot with the buildings in the horizon.”

We asked Spider Tag about this new direction and about his practice as an artist working in public space and he reveals that it is not always easy to make a change with your art:

BSA: What inspired you to take this new direction into the darkness?
Spidertag: From 2008 to 2015 I was using yarn and exploring different directions, from geometric, abstract or minimalism in the urban environment and in countryside, taking video documentation and short film. I felt that I had to change the yarn. Even though many people told me that it was a mistake for me to change my art practice because people recognize me for a certain style or practice, I didn´t care. For more than a year I jumped into a bad period in which I didn´t find a solution. It was a scary moment, because I thought that I was losing my sense of direction.

I tried with metal and other materials, but didn’t like the result. And as in a superhero´s classic comic book, by luck or by mistake, I discovered the neon cable. Eureka! Since that moment, I’ve been exploring the use of the light with other materials -hammer, nails and paint- that I´ve used since the beginning of my career. The cool thing for me is that this new material has the same flexible use, but it’s more unique. It is also new and modern in the Street Arts movement.

I had experimented with black lights and yarn back in 2012 in the Alps and in Madrid. So, this is a continuation but with a new power.

BSA: Do you discover shapes and geometric relationships as you are creating the piece, or do you have the composition diagrammed out in your head before you begin?
Spider Tag: I work with the space. That´s the key in street art, especially when you do illegal work or without permission, because you choose the place. In my case I choose it because the surface, the material, inspire me. I work with sketches and also improvise, but it’s the personal background, the ideas that you look forward to realize and the open eyes to found the perfect place that I follow as a patron…”

BSA: Sometimes when we see your work, we realize that you are outlining shapes that already exist but we couldn’t see them before.
Spidertag: I walk the streets scanning the surfaces with my mind. There are straight lines everywhere, abandoned spots that are perfect for what I want to do. And when you find these, half of your work is done…

BSA: Have you an interest in creating text or perhaps figures or recognizable icons?
Spider Tag: Yes, but it’s not my field…

BSA: What do you like the most about creating your art in public space?
Spidertag: I enjoy the exploring the moment, walking or being on the bike or skating. And now, also the magical moment when I press the button and the darkness changes with the lights…

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.07.16

August 7, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring ABOVE, City Kitty, Corn79, Crisp, D7606, Damien Mitchell, Dee Dee, EC13, Gregos, Hiss, Homo Riot, Imamaker, Invader, Mark Jenkins, MOMO, Olek, OneArt, Savior El Mundo, Stik, Wing, and Zimad.

We first called her the Christo of Street Art a number of years ago, and this latest project seems to finally confirm it. Olek created a two part installation for the Verket Museum in Avesta – in short it is about destruction and rebuilding. Above is the latest picture of the house she mounted the installation within – wrapped in meters and meters of pink crochet.

“Our pink house is about the journey, not just about the artwork itself. It’s about us coming together as a community. It’s about helping each other. In the small Swedish community of Avesta we proved that we are stronger together, that we can make anything happen together. People from all walks of life came together to make this project possible. Someone donated the house, another one fixed the electricity and Red Heart Yarns donated the materials. The of course, most importantly, many women joined us in the effort to make my dream a reality.

After I exploded the house I wanted to create a positive ending for them as a symbol of a brighter future for all people, especially the ones who have been displaced against their own wills. Women have the ability to recreate themselves. No matter how low life might bring us, we can get back on our feet and start anew.

We can show everybody that women can build houses, women can make homes. “

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