Graff is on the upswing, becoming legal in Brazil and a low priority in SF (via tomorrows museum)
“There is also an element of the impulse to preserve these things and to pack your whole life onto a couple of hand-made rafts and set sail, which is about the feeling that the way we are living is coming apart at the seams, is destroying the world around us and will not last. These boats are not to be taken as a literal solution, but in the way that art distills a language from our imaginations and creates images that speak to us above and below the level of our spoken language, we are addressing these issues in our form.” Artist Swoon talks about her upcoming junk raft voyage across the Adriatic Sea (via arrested motion)
Some bloggers just don’t understand just how unseemly this preoccupation with Shepard Fairey is. I mean it’s simply a disgrace. Whatevs. Some bloggers need to stop trying to control the conversation.
So this whole hoopla over Shepard Fairey’s AP Case has gotten a bit of fuel from the man himself in a response to his detractors on his website. And the detractors come back with apparently both barrels blazing. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. This is shaping up to be a real showdown at AP corral. My take on it is that Fairey refuses to acknowledge the difference between “Art with social commentary” and a marketing campaign. Just because the financial beneficiary of this campaign was a political figure makes no more difference than if it was McDonalds. Actually there is a difference, McDonalds would have paid for the license on the image.
Photographer Matt Hoyle has made some pretty cool images of members of the last surviving sideshows in America (via CRBlog)
“I started to feel the opportunities that were flowing my way started to slow because I passed them up, or just took them for granted. Was it just a general recession of the art market or could it be that I wasn’t following my path and dreams to my fullest potential” 2f2k friend Joe “2H” Mcsween talks about his upcoming show in LA and some serious changes he has made in his work ( via arrested motion)
“THE EAST COAST HAS FAR MORE GRAFFITI THAN THE WEST COAST. BUT I THINK THE WEST COAST HAS PROGRESSED MORE IN TERMS OF STYLE” An interview with Life. (via Clout)
I need this – Metagraffiti Graffiti Art Films , It’s somewhat like a graff film festival at your house without the scribing on your mirror. That is unless you get down like that. (via ektopia)
“Fairey’s claims to questioning authority through guerrilla interventions in the public sphere are jejune. Obey Giant is now an industry, Hello Kitty with pretensions.” Christopher Knight joins the chorus of folks talking about the dissonance between what Shep say’s and what he does (via LAT)
“Suck my d**k Steve, It’s KET” The battle Royale between vandal squad and graff writers ended up being less bloodsport and more like group therapy (via wyw)
“My mum brought me the book ‘Subway art’ and that spurred my interest in graffiti, but that was way, way before any of my own activities and the term ‘Street Art’ was coined, so I’m not sure she could be held accountable for that really, I think skateboarding has more to do with it, but then again she did buy me my first skateboard!” D*Face talks about street art and the market, Is it over? (via myartspace)
“I am open to new materials and ideas. A wet sponge on a dusty window is just as cool and effective as a can of paint.” Interview with drippy ink king KR (via WYW)
“This ‘globalised state of culture’ is already a matter of fact: in every spot of the planet, you can see this new cultural stratus, coexisting with the layer of traditional culture and some local specific contemporary elements. Saying that it is the privilege of the artistic jet set is a pure denial of the worldwide violence of the capitalist system, or an extreme naiveness.” An interview with Nicholas Bourriaud, author of the seminal book Relational Aesthetics and curator of the fourth Tate Triennial, Altermodern. (via Art in America)
After years of neglect and rejection seminal afropunk band Death finally release it’s 1976 album(via NYT)
“I looked up and I was like wow, I know that says something and it’s big and colorful, but I don’t know what it says and how these guys are doing it. And I crept around in places that if my mom knew I was there, she probably wouldn’t be too pleased with me, but I slowly met people and figured it out. It’s not like somebody handed me a magazine or was like “yo! check out this website.” Graff Don Dada CYCLE talks about the direction the artform is headed and what has been lost. (via HQ)
Shipping containers are rapidly becoming the go to device for architects the world over. ( via futurismic)
“When your in some small redneck town and theres people chasing after you , not to kill you, not to yell at you, and not because they know who dave choe is, but they just want a poster of hope to hang in their living room, that’s pretty powerful.” Holy shit!!!!! David Choe isn’t going to rob my house. (via obama art report)
