All posts tagged: V. Ballentine

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.09.24

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.09.24

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Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

When surveying the current crop of street art here and in other cities around the world, we wonder where the political will has gone – the one that seemed much more confrontational and conflicted in earlier years of the modern movement. The once fiery, in-your-face spirit seems to have mellowed and become pleasant and pleasing. One theory that pops up regularly when surmising why there is a lack of conviction in street messaging, even as wars break out and the wealth gap widens everywhere you look, is that there is no such thing as anonymity as there once was. Privacy has almost completely been allowed by the citizenry to be eroded.

With a default Digital ID following your every movement and transaction, the means for someone to triangulate a particular data point are so sophisticated that if you speak out or actually challenge the status quo, you will probably be traced. Hell, any Twitter storm can produce an army of motivated detective volunteers to doxx someone who has offended social media “norms,” and we use that term loosely.

Your 13-year-old nephew Lucas can easily unearth someone’s personal details without breaking a sweat, and he doesn’t even have a laptop. 20 years ago, a graffiti or street artist could assume some modicum of anonymity, but in practice, the current crop uses the streets as a marketing extension of their Instagram account, an expression of their online personas, studiously and clearly spraying @ tags and websites on their street pieces to make sure you can find them.

So if you are pissed off at the system, you probably think twice before you put it on the streets these days unless it is a screed sprayed with a fire extinguisher that is largely untraceable – or something like that. In the case of whoever sprayed “Rishi Sunak is a Rat-Faced C*nt” on a wall, you may even inspire a punk ditty.* For many right now, activism is not even the point.

Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring David Puck, Shok1, Epic Uno, Par, Kitsune Jolene, Smug One, Trasher, V. Ballentine, Inker, P.T., King57, FUP One, and Cope Doz.

V. Ballentine (photo © Jaime Rojo)
V. Ballentine (photo © Jaime Rojo)
David Puck (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Epic Uno (photo © Jaime Rojo)
SHOK1. Hit The North Festival. Belfast, Northern Ireland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dog with tags. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
INKER. AGAIN JACK. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Smug One. Hit The North Festival. Belfast, Northern Ireland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Smug One. Hit The North Festival. Belfast, Northern Ireland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Smug One. Hit The North Festival. Belfast, Northern Ireland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
P.T. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
KING 57 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Kitsune. Hit The North Festival. Belfast, Northern Ireland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
PAR (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Trasher (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unknown photographer. *This raw scrawled sentiment, appearing in a few places now as sort of campaign perhaps, could even inspire the punk-style anthem linked here. Or the other way around. See reference in essay above.
FUP ONE (photo © Jaime Rojo)
COPE DOS (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Williamsburg Bridge. Brooklyn, NY. June 2024. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023 – Recap

The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023 – Recap

Following the evolution of The Bushwick Collective and its annual block party in Brooklyn has been a captivating journey akin to an anthropological exploration into the growing embrace of street art and murals within the realms of graffiti and HipHop. Back in the day, as the neighborhood began transforming with the influx of gentrifiers, street art faced outright dismissal or was treated as a rare phenomenon, a curiosity.

Unaware of the previous codes that roughly governed the practices of graffiti writers on the street, art-students-cum-street-art-poets often obtusely stomped their way into public view to circumvent a gallery system and to express their right to self-expression in public; something HipHop culture had been encouraging for years but had perhaps not envisioned this way. The rivalry between graffiti aficionados and street artists/muralists was sometimes palpable, with throwies vandalizing fresh paint, the OGs asserting territorial dominance, and at times, even resorting to threats and insults in person and in online forums.

Huetek celebrating the location of the so-called ‘Birth of HipHop’, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in The Bronx. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As the block party, now in its twelfth year, unfolded, its early editions predominantly featured international and some local street artists eagerly seeking out BC’s visionary leader, Joe Ficalora, for an opportunity to leave their mark on his neighborhood walls. Local street art forums found fault with Ficalora, masking a barely hidden contempt for a streetwise guy taking a leadership role and betraying their own classist privileged opinions about the right to curation. That has all melted appreciably; this year’s event evidenced the remarkable shift that has been underway. Graffiti writers took the stage alongside the muralists in prime spots, sometimes seamlessly collaborating to create art transcending boundaries, all while the electrifying sounds of live HipHop performances reverberated through the air and TikTokers danced in front of them.

SEPC. Detail. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Let’s raise a bottle to those who always believed in the possibility of this transformative phenomenon, and to those who championed inclusivity over exclusivity. It’s yet another reason why our hearts beat for this extraordinary international art movement, the embodiment of the people’s democratic spirit and the unlimited creative spirit that is in every person. And most importantly, it’s a reminder of why we hold you dear.

SEPC. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Tymon De Laat. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Urban Ruben. Detail. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Urban Ruben. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
V Ballentine. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Zach Curtis in collaboration with Danny Cortes – recreating an iconic New York deli exterior in all its glory. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Zach Curtis in collaboration with Danny Cortes. Detail. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Zach Curtis in collaboration with Danny Cortes. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Jason Naylor. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Hodder. Detail. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Hodder. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vexta. Detail. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vexta. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dasic Fernandez. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Enjoy Hads. Six Million Dollar Steve. Mr. Makro. Brandy. Creating a tribute to David Jude Jolicoeur, who rapped as Trugoy the Dove in the trio De La Soul. He passed away in February at 54. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Enjoy Hads. Six Million Dollar Steve. Mr. Makro. Brandy. Creating a tribute to David Jude Jolicoeur, who rapped as Trugoy the Dove in the trio De La Soul. He passed away in February at 54. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Enjoy Hads. Six Million Dollar Steve. Mr. Makro. Brandy. Creating a tribute to David Jude Jolicoeur, who rapped as Trugoy the Dove in the trio De La Soul. He passed away in February at 54. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Enjoy Hads. Six Million Dollar Steve. Mr. Makro. Brandy. Creating a tribute to David Jude Jolicoeur, who rapped as Trugoy the Dove in the trio De La Soul. He passed away in February at 54. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Roachi. Hoacs. Quest. Fours Crew. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Roachi. Hoacs. Quest. Fours Crew. Detail. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Roachi. Hoacs. Quest. Fours Crew. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Roachi. Hoacs. Quest. Fours Crew. Detail. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Roachi. Hoacs. Quest. Fours Crew. Detail. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mate Artist. Detail. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mate Artist. Detail. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Cody James. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Corey Pane. Detail. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Corey Pane. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mr. Blob. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mr. Blob. Detail. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mr. Blob. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mister Alek. TankOne. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mister Alek. TankOne. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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