b-uncut

Vandalism Or Art? Banksy Dividing Opinion

// December 16th, 2010 // View Comments // b-street

One of art’s most divisive genres, graffiti is a controversial topic. The question remains: Graffiti, art or vandalism?

Long before he was helping out Russian art activists and selling his prints for big money, Banksy was a street artist trying to make a name for himself. Tarnished with the negative perceptions of a graffiti artist, it took a while before people cottoned on to Banksy’s skill and biting, political, wit. In some areas local councils have actually told street cleansing teams to leave Banksy’s work up. In others, like London’s Westminster, they have asked for his work to be cleaned off.

When one of Banksy’s pieces in Southampton was given a fresh coat of gloss by the local council, the disappointment spread beyond the city’s artistic community. The local community were so disappointed that a local ad agency, LowRyders Advertising, have pledged to display a giant poster of the mural using bikes and a giant billboard. They also plan to open up the debate to the public and ask city centre shoppers and workers the question: “Banksy in Southampton: art or graffiti?”

Which leads to my question to you: Graffiti, art or vandalism?

Asking ‘art or graffiti’, the ad agency in Southampton seem to have already made their minds up. But do you see a difference between graffiti and vandalism for the sake of vandalism’s sake? Any street art can be classed as graffiti,both the less artistic and the kind that wouldn’t look out of place in a gallery. As with all art, some has more merit than others. Is it only good graffiti artists that deserve respect and acceptance as artists, like Banksy? Should councils leave pieces like those by Banksy on their streets?

Let us know your opinions on this, can graffiti ever be considered art?

Stroke.03 Berlin Urban Art Fair Artist Interview: Daria Kudla

// September 29th, 2010 // View Comments // b-Crowd

STROKE Urban ArtFair is nothing but a fusion of graphic design, comic art, graffiti and illustration. The exhibition offers unconventional interpretations of the so-called Urban Art, often ignored and unfairly perceived as the poorer relation of Classic Art.

Stroke is the first such event in Europe- and perhaps the world - to present both known and emerging talents involved in this already global trend. The exhibition takes place twice a year – in spring as Stroke Munich and autumn as Stroke Berlin. Both cities are hugely important  German art centres.

The brains behind the idea are Marco & Raiko Schwalbe from the Intoxicated Demons Gallery, and, so far, the event has attracted dozens of galleries from all over Europe. The four day-long exhibition literally bursts with guests – offering the opportunity to not only experience or buy Arts, but also watch artists at work, listen to live music served by DJs and to meet a wide range of interesting people.

Stroke.03 Berlin (October, 2010) will take place at The Station- the former postal freight of an underground station Gleisdreieck located in the heart of Berlin, between Deutsches Technikmuseum and the Neue Nationalgalerie.

And b-uncut is pleased to introuduce one of the gallery’s featured artists, Daria Kudla.

Daria’s graphics were first chosen for Stroke. -02 Munich (May, 2010), an exhibition involving more than 9,500 visitors and 55 international galleries displaying over a thousand artworks. Daria’s pieces included ‘The Meadow Grazer’ and ‘The Guardians and The Art of Taming Fear’- under the Graphic Design label.

Daria will be showcasing oil and other media paintings – including “Winter is Coming, Dear Riding Hood” and “Fitchers Vogel (for Monika) at the Berlin exhibition next month.

Winter Is Coming Dear Riding Hood

Here’s the Daria Kudla interview!

b-uncut: What was your very first artwork?

Daria : If you mean the very first drawing I made, then it must have been a long time ago – I believe I have always been drawing, and colouring books or pencils were the best present for me. I remember well the first big format piece of mine, however. It was what i did to my parents’ balcony wall once, as a perhaps 6-year-old child – I covered it completely with drawings and used everything I had at that time – pencils, chalk, markers – and the parts unspoiled only showed that my hand could not actually reach that high. I remember how angry my parents were when they found out about that silly graffiti of princesses, hearts and horses. I can honestly say my first big piece was an act of pure vandalism .

The First Significant One, though, would be two equally important pictures – one was a pencil sketch I made some 8 years ago. It showed my face partly visible in a tall winged window. I value this piece very much, because it marks the exact moment I started expressing myself more freely on paper. I know it still hangs on the wall in the room of the person I made it for. The other is a canvas painting I made some 5 years ago for my then-best friend and now-partner as a gift. It showed a winged woman’s body with a monstrous bird’s head. I like the dynamic impression it makes – the creature fighting against some force pushing it back to where it is coming from – its giant beak open, screaming with desperation. It is, I think, the first non-static piece. Also, the first time with oils. And first experiment with colours. Nearly all my works before that canvas were pencil drawings.

b-uncut: Describe the piece you love the most—why?

Daria: If you mean my own piece – it is really difficult to say. All my works relate strongly to emotionally extreme moments. It would be The Guardians perhaps, because these two dogs have always been nesting in my head, standing for some specific Split of my personality – the very heavy, difficult, static and the undescribed, somewhat not sticking to actual contours, floating spheres of mind. I am strongly attached to this work and I guess it also affects people looking at it.

The other one is The Art of Taming Fear – I created it during a very difficult moment in my life. It shows my struggle to overcome depression.

b-uncut: What are your methods? Your inspirations?

Daria: Except for my true love for ink, I enjoy mixing everything – like putting charcoal or pencil on oil paints. It is a lot of fun with the ultimate effect. I like mess

My inspirations happen suddenly. I am very emotional when painting or drawing, it is always extreme feelings pushing me to work. However cruel or strange it may sound, Anger or Sadness are, by far, the constant source of inspiration.

b-uncut: What did it take to make it to where you are now?

Daria: Hmmm…I guess the push I receive from the people I love. My wonderful sister, Monika, has always stood there for my weird experiments and been the Safe Place to turn to. My boyfriend, Jens, has from the very beginning been there, convincing me to continue doing my thing and bravely fighting the unpredictability of my wild mood swings. It has been his idea to start looking for Galleries in Berlin to work with. And voila! I can say that if not for this support, I would never have met Marco and the Intoxicated Demons. And that moment opened the door to exhibitions.

Fitchers  Vogel (For Monika)

b-uncut: Do you make a living from your artwork?

Daria: I used to. It was the time when I still lived in Breslau. Now, I am looking for some better place of my own in this very specific to grasp world…Hopefully, I will be able to do it again.

b-uncut: Who has helped you along the way?

Daria: As I have said – my wonderful sister and parents and here, in Germany – definitely my boyfriend and his fantastic family.

b-uncut: What five artists (dead or alive) would you invite for the ultimate dinner party?

Daria: I guess I would be absolutely happy with just these three: Zdzislaw Beksinski and Gustav Klimt for their divine artistic skills, and Salvador Dali for his extreme personality.

b-uncut: Your favourite curse?

Daria: oh, when I get angry, I tend to swear quite an impressive lot. But I don’t want to write these things down – it’s rather embarrassing. But it may be the “standard set”…

b-uncut: Qualities a man needs to seduce you and the flaws that will repel you?

Daria: On the seductive side: originality, IQ, wit and the ability to make me laugh – especially when I’m down. I love people who laugh!

On the repelling side : vulgarity, playing the tough guy, showing off and bragging about money

b-uncut: Your biggest (albeit endearing) flaw?

It must be my unpredictable moods – as annoying as cute (at least from what I heard) …

b-uncut: Your parents advice you should have followed, but didn’t?

Daria: I have no idea – obviously, I haven’t followed it. I guess they’d be happier if I had turned out a medicine or law student…I, on the other hand, chose the difficult career of working with languages.

b-uncut: The power you wish you had?

Daria: Reading people’s minds ! I like knowing what others really think and hate being with or listening to people faking their respect or friendship. Uncurable hypocrisy is something I detest.

b-uncut: Who would you chose to rule the world?

Daria: Julius Caesar. Somebody who can really handle being Big.

b-uncut: Favourite ice-cream?

Daria: Everything with chocolate !

b-uncut: Where do you see yourself in…..

-One month?

Daria: At Stroke.03 together with my sister and friends in my wonderful Berlin

b-uncut: One year?

Daria: In big Berlin and London galleries

b-uncut: One decade?

Daria: I don’t know where but definitely with my works hanging on important walls.

Further information on the forthcoming exhibitions can be found on the following websites:

Intoxicated Demons
http://www.intoxicated-demons.com/

Stroke.02 Munich
http://www.stroke02.com/

Stroke.03 Berlin
http://www.stroke03.com/

Stroke.03 Blog:
http://blog.stroke-artfair.com/

Graffiti for Hippies | Eco Street Art

// August 3rd, 2010 // View Comments // b-street

A head on hippy crash between guerilla gardening and graffiti is germinating. Yesterday’s graffiti artists purveyed permanent ink & paint and now inventive tagging alternatives such as liquefied mud, moss, recycled fur and plain old pressure washers are being deployed. Anarchistic, artistic, political and egotistical messages are now delivered with no threat of handcuffs or pricey fines.

Jesse Graves

(Images via: Shaunie P., Groundswell Collective, Treehugger, See Brown Blog, May’s Machete)

We use it in the form of a facial mask to draw out impurities from the skin, so it makes perfect sense that watered-down dirt is the ideal foil for artist Jesse Graves’ environmental messages. A coincidence? I think not. However, in true Crowdsourcing fashion, the artist happily dispenses helpful ‘how to’ instructions on his website, which will hopefully get people riled up enough to lobby on behalf of Mother Nature this weekend!

Neozoon

(Images via: Neozoon)

The international artistic collaborative known as Neozoon (a term that references the existence of non-indigenous species) offers interesting food for thought by placing random animal figures throughout the streets of Paris and Berlin wearing assorted recycled fur coats rescued from local thrift stores. The diverse group of artists — who prefer to preserve their anonymity with masks during all public appearances – have proven that their ongoing project is more than just a quirky little pastime. They strategically select the location of all future animal figure installations based on what has happened throughout history, as was the case when they placed recycled fur covered sheep right outside of a former slaughterhouse.

Anna Garforth

(Images via: Yatzer, Free People, Cross Hatchling)

London-based illustrator and graphic designer Anna Garforth propelled herself from paper to three dimensional eco-sculpture by partnering with Elly Stevens in a series of artistic projects that employ sustainable materials, including tree bark, ferns, grass and, most famously, moss. Their collaboration, known as MOSSenger, has yielded beautiful living typography on the front of walls.

Paul Curtis (aka ‘Moose’)

(Images via: Granny Buttons, Daily Art Fixx, Green Answers, Format Mag)

Ask anyone the question: “Who started reverse graffiti?” – the term used to identify any city image that is created on walls, streets, sidewalks or objects by removing dirt with fingers, power washers and copious amounts of detergent — and British artist Paul Curtis will be given all the credit. For 10 years, the Soundclash record label head, disc jockey, eco-marketing guru and self-confessed ‘Professor of Dirt’ has devoted his spare time to the fine art of defacing public surfaces with cleansing messages, all of which have culminated in commercial contracts with high profile brands. One of his biggest coups was being commissioned by Green Works cleaning products to create an impressive eco-inspired mural in San Francisco’s Broadway tunnel (documented in the video above).

CURB

(Images via: CURB, Interactive Angle, Culture Buzz, Springwise)

Inspired by the eco-graffiti trend that has swept the globe, the marketing organization CURB earns their bread and butter by pimping out Momma Nature on behalf of some of the most notable consumer brands and organizations using nothing more than creativity and artfully arranged snow, sand, grass, dirt, water, and even glow in the dark bacteria. CURB dabbles in so many intriguing biodegradable and zero-impact mediums that it’s hard not to give them credit.

The Dutch Ink Clan

(Images via: Ette Studios)

Working as a reverse graffiti team along the lines of master artist Paul Curtis, several Durban, South Africa schoolmates – including Martin Pace, Stathi Kongianos, JP Jordaan and Nick Ferreira – launched their artistic project by hand scrubbing a visual timeline of their town’s architecture into a pollution covered 17 meter tall concrete freeway wall in Essex Terrace using nothing more than a hardware store-purchased metal brush. With accolades and widespread public appreciation, they moved on to bigger and better projects reflecting more organic scenes such as a school of sardines swimming across a city bridge as well as a stylistic forest that resembles that of a solar print.

Graffiti Research Lab

(Images via: Gothamist, Digicult, Cranium, DigiArts)

Formed 5 years ago, the Graffiti Research Lab — the brainchild of robotics engineer James Powderly and Parsons School of Design valedictorian Evan Roth – offers a veritable open source toolbox for eco-sensitive activists and graffiti artists to take advantage of. Unlike employing typical earth-bound media such as mud, moss and grass, the duo help the public to communicate their messages thanks to the glorious trinity of computers, video cameras and lights which work in tandem to project images on whatever formerly unreachable surfaces might tickle one’s fancy. The result is visually arresting, particularly when New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge or Italy’s Roman Coliseum are used as canvases, enabling those who have a thing or two on their minds to say it in grand style without damaging a single blade of grass…or their law-abiding reputation.

Edina Tokodi (aka ‘Mosstika’)

(Images via: Mosstika, Design Boom)

Easily able to pull her weight with the best of ‘em, Hungarian-born Edina Tokodi – whose stomping grounds are now in the heart of Brooklyn, New York – is a green graffiti artiste extraordinaire who focuses specifically on bringing “nature closer to city dwellers” through the installation of socially relevant images that trigger environmental appreciation.

Alexandre Orion

(Images via: Bldg Blog)

Skulls don’t seem like particularly green subject matter to focus on, but when they’re etched into the inner tunnel of a highly trafficked area via the grand reverse graffiti tradition, they instantly trigger an ‘ah-ha’ moment. They no longer represent trendy, cliché imagery — instead, they serve as a blatant reminder that the toxic pollution released from the hundreds of thousands of vehicles that commute back and forth on a daily basis have left a tangible mark…not just on our physical structures, but also in the air we breathe and in the environment that is supposed to sustain us. Brazilian graffiti artist Alexandre Orion – who in 2007 transformed Sao Paolo’s Max Feffer Tunnel into an outstandingly impactful verdict on our passive pollution oblivion – fortunately had his project filmed before the city washed away all traces of its existence.

Vichen

(Images via: Vinchen)

Vinchen has earned a reputation on par with Banksy as one to be admired, revered and even emulated…and as his website appropriately asks, “What have you done to change the world lately?” One look at his collection of visually arresting images and you’re immediately struck with the sense that the Ohio artist really means business. His varied and judiciously delivered messages comment on everything from bureaucratic nonsense and chronic hyper-consumerism to social classes and the state of the environment. Of his most clever imagery, Vinchen’s simply named “Ivy” – located on Columbus, Ohio’s High Street – uses a crowning glory of plant life as the perfect accent to a grinning face peering from beneath. On the flip side, his depiction of two innocent Bambi-like fawns nonchalantly nibbling on a radioactive flower cause one to exhale a heavy sigh, knowing full well that there’s more truth in it than we’d like to admit.

via WebEcoist

A lady too big for King Kong: Antwerp's Street Art

// June 1st, 2010 // View Comments // b-inspired, b-street

This delicious mural by Steve … saddens me. Why can’t the UK liberate itself for such spray can delights. As Boris Johnson tries to ban protesting and a new breed of police dog is trained to sniff out graffiti materials, one must ask, how free and liberal is this conservative jungle?

via wooster collective

Calligraffiti: Fusion of Old and New

// May 25th, 2010 // View Comments // b-inspired

Want to see king calligrapher Niels “Shoe” Meulman write with a broom! Watch the video. NOW, WOW

“Shoe revolutionized the art of writing with Calligraffiti, an art form that fuses calligraphy and graffiti. He launched this movement in 2007 with a successful solo exhibition in Amsterdam. Since then, his Calligraffiti pieces (signed NSM) can be seen in various international exhibitions.”

Buy Shoe’s awesome book and read full story here.
Buy art online here.

SPICY HOT GRAFFITI: ROA, Sten & Lex and DAN23

// May 14th, 2010 // View Comments // b-street

Feast your eyes on this animation from the legendary artist ROA.

Graffiti gone massive with TOTTI-WOLF by Sten and Lex.

Live Splats, Sprays and Strokes from Dan 23

Join our online artists network here

SAVE SAM: Part 2: Philip Letts & Street Art

// April 13th, 2010 // View Comments // b-hind the scenes, b-street

Online artists network b-uncut continues their local campaign with Labour party’s Amir Akhrif to bring back street art to London.

See Part 1, the interview with Amir here.

Join this Facebook Group to support the campaign that could lead to many similar projects.

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b-shots: Roa

// January 25th, 2010 // View Comments // b-street

Think we spotted a Roa work on Brick Lane…

b-shots: Graffiti is the New "Cool"

// November 27th, 2009 // View Comments // b-street

I think it is safe to say that East London is brimming with cutting edge street art, all you have to do is look around:

These shots were taken on Bethnal Green Road, here is another wall piece from the same street!

b-shots: urban vibe on Portobello Rd.

// November 20th, 2009 // View Comments // b-street

Check out this ‘graffiti’ we spotted on Portobello Rd! Forget stencils, Urban Art has officially passed into the realm of Fine Art according to this wall piece!