hipster trap

Includes PBR, bike chain, American spirits, Wayfarers, and fake blood. Art happening?

inside out project

JR's work is an example of how art can be activism. He describes himself in the street, pasting away, when someone walks up and asks, "What are you doing?" "Art," he says. Silence.

His works are beautiful, compelling, and specifically linked to local culture. When he leaves, the only way to find out about the project is by talking to the residents who were involved. He used the project featured above, to create a bridge between the people of Provencia and the media who had silenced them.

His newest project aims to involve everyone in the movement of using art to change the world, by offering an interested party to submit a portrait and an idea. If they are selected, he will send back a poster size version of the portrait for pasting in the proposed location.

save the world? what about art...

"JR, a semi-anonymous French street artist, uses his camera to show the world its true face, by pasting photos of the human face across massive canvases. At TED2011, he makes his audacious TED Prize wish: to use art to turn the world inside out. Learn more about his work and learn how you can join in at insideoutproject.net."

-TED

banksy in la!

matt stuart

Matt Stuart is London-based a street photographer who goes through a couple of rolls of film at day. At that rate you're bound to come up with a couple of good photos, but never mind. He is quite good at capturing funny little moments and clever juxtapositions in ordinary situations. 

I enjoyed almost every single one of the photographs on his website. I highly recommend taking a look.

I know you know him

...even if its just from the Obama Hope poster. I went and saw Shepard Fairey's collection at the ICA in Boston (click here for video), and I was impressed. But also a little saddened that a person so talented, and with such an impressive resume (he has done work for Interpol, Led Zeplin, & the Black Eyed Peas, and graphics for GHII and Walk the Line), could spend so long in near obscurity probably in part because he is a street artist. It is common for him to 'borrow' images from pop culture (my favorite being a portrait of Flavor Flav) and then put them up illegally. Like Andy Warhol said, "Art is what you can get away with." The image on the left is the original Obama poster, before his campaign contacted Fairey and requested that the word at the bottom be changed to hope. Fairey has always used his work to express his opinions, but this poster was the first time he has used his art to support any political figure.

Fairey does quite a bit of street art and has been arrested roughly 14 times in his career. A lot of his art centers around a mythical figure that he created based on the face of Andre the Giant called Obey Giant. If you read his manifesto you will see that he wants to make people rethink what they already know, and he does so by posing questions or flat out confronting the viewer on an issue. Obey Giant is a commentary on advertising and its power in our lives. (By the age of 5, children can recognize and identify more than 100 logos - do not even get me started.) It represents a symbol with no agenda and for some people that is discomforting; you are supposed to be able to recognize labels. There is a certain amount of relief when you discover what the image means, and in turn that makes you think about what symbols mean in your life.

Fairey encourages people to proliferate his work in any way they choose and even offers a few images on his website that can be printed out and used to make stickers, posters, etc. I decided I could use a little Obey Giant in my life, so here goes my first diy art project:

who doesn't like polks dots?

What you are seeing is part of an exhibition called Walking In My Mind: adventure into the artist's imagination at the Hayward Gallery in London. The polka dot trees are by Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) a Japanese artist who lives, by choice, in a mental institution in Tokyo. She began painting when she was 10 at her therapist's suggestion as a way to channel her hallucinations and obsession with repetition. This is probably an accurate insight into what Kusama sees on a regular basis, as she usually describes herself and her whole environment as being covered in polka dots.



The writing on the artwork is evidence of its interaction with the environment rather than vandalism and proves that it is challenging for many people. Obviously her art has made an impression on people and something about it has compelled them to write on it. I would argue that here the viewers' perception of the art is more important that the material art itself. For anyone that doesn't hallucinate dots, this really challenges the way that you think about your environment. If nothing else, it makes you conscious of your surroundings. She is using her art to comment on how artificial the trees feel in an urban setting and to challenge our expectations. Finally, as a temporary work of art there is an urgency to see it that makes it even more special.

So the next time you are walking down a crowded street imagine that everything is covered in dots, and see if you notice anything new.