Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: armani, art, chanel, coffee and cigarettes, dash snow, death, dies, graffiti, heroin, hong kong, irak, mafia, mario sorrenti, muse, nyc, overdose, sacer, stephen marche, street art, ZEVS
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So Dash Snow aka Saker Irak died of an overdose recently, RIP. Some say he’s already being Basquiatised, and probably not a minute too soon. Stephen Marche fittingly points out in a fairly caustic article, “Basquiat’s hedonism fuelled his creativity, but for Snow hedonism was the creativity.” He’s already not one, but two four letter words and surely an adjective (or more fittingly, adverb) can’t be far off? Photos aside I couldn’t dig much of his art but as a person(a) he’s fascinating – for me maybe the ultimate embodiment of the downtown art scene today. |
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Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: adbusters, advertising, art, censorship, consumerism, future gutter status, hijab, hijabism, hijabizing, korinna irwin, no logo, orientalism, post-consumerism?, princess hijab, rock star with words, street art, veil, visual terrorism, zines
Who is Princess Hijab? She’s my age, yet anonymous; an “unseen character” And
since 2006, the Princess, who has begun a movement (Hijabism) based on the subverting of advertisements (Hijabizing) veils faces on billboards using a black marker pen.The black hijab encompasses every existing form of distinction. PH also operates on the Internet by creating animated gifs. She initiated the hijab_ad collective.
There’s some debate over whether she is a hijabi or even a Muslim. Or even a woman (take that as loosely as you will). I kind of like that it’s ambiguous
and that you don’t necessarily need to subscribe to certain identities to dislike the oversexualisation of women’s bodies, and especially the creepily prepubescent
(hello, Tom Ford! though I do think those ads are kind of unintentionally brilliant in their hyper-plasticity, kind of like lucy and bart). Princess Hijab, anyway, sees her work as a kind of culturally specific Adbusters-ish response – except for the part where you consume to cut down comsumption. She tells Menasset that
“I created PH to be connected. I wanted to mix elements from different extractions and cultures, starting from my initial subject: the veiled woman. I believe it’s the reason why PH had such an impact. She never let herself be defined by religion nor gender. It was really crucial for me,: she said”.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: animation, anti-feminista, art, blu, BR1, exoticisation, fetishisation, hijab, italy, muslim, muto, orientalism, patriarchy, stopmotion, street art, the other, turin, veil, wall, women
I can’t decide if these pieces – by BR1 in Turin, Italy – are really rad, or just another rehashing of orientalist tripe in street art form? The artist deals with
“the representation of Muslim women and their social condition… I would like to make people know that there is nothing strange with this particular subject: Muslim women are equal if compared to Western women. My Muslim women are represented in daily life situations: they are mothers, grandmothers and daughters, smoking, taking pictures and smiling. My message is: pointing out that Muslim women have the same needs and necessities of the majority of Western women. Certainly, the only exception is the veil. The veil changes in different countries, and here comes the sociological aspect of my work: I am very careful in rendering the different types of veil, the Maghrebi veil, the Afghani burga and the Iranian chador.
Great to see Muslim women are equally capable of living up to the patriarchal ideals of womanhood, then. Replete with the same universal needs and necessities – childcare, raising families, taking pictures and smiling? Nevermind seeing any Muslim men (not exotic or fetishisable enough? too dangerous?), it would have been nice to see hijabis in other situations outside the traditionally feminised. Like perhaps working, or, I don’t know, holding AK-47s? Then again, his Western women probably wouldn’t be able to do these either. It’s interesting that he notes that “the veil changes in different countries”, and looks to carefully depict several variants. And also that the veil remains a constant – would an unveilled woman not be Muslim/Otherable enough I wonder?
neo-orientalism as a social tool! and princess hijab
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: access, ali shah, bourgeois public sphere, carpet weaving, carpets, classism, danah boyd, india, intellectual property, internet, kashmir, labour, property is theft, proudhon, public art, social media, srinagar, street art
To be honest, I really just wanted to recycle Critical Culture’s amazing take on Proudhon, in which ze ” wanted the back of my iPod to read, “intellectual property is theft” (Proudhorn [sic], motherfucker!), but Apple denied my request”. That got me thinking again about intellectual property though – like the fact I thought about just snatching that rather delectable phrase, but wouldn’t have felt right doing so, and so linked to the blog. Does the same thing apply then, with the internet as with academia? You’d think that on the internet, intentions are rather more mercenery, with the whole maximising traffic/linkbacks/ad revenue bit. But then doesn’t the same happen in academia with citations, and a scholar even being judged by how often and widely their works are cited? I suspect it all plays back on itself in social media (I’m thinking of LinkedIn, but there’s probably scores more that are more industry specific)?
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Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 3amiya, arabic, athens, fusha, graffiti, intifada, l'insurrection qui vient, lyon, msa, pigs, police, riots, semiotext(e), stencils, street art, surveillance society, tarnac 9, the coming insurrection, translation
[picture from biphop in Lyon]
Or al warida? Some consideration to be made – dictionary in hand – as we look to translate the coming insurrection/l’insurrection qui vient (recently re-translated by Semiotext(e)) to Arabic – hopefully both Fusha/MSA, and the Egyptian colloquial 3amiya.
I’m in Cairo for this month; it’s more than a little overwhelming, but pershaps in a really comforting gulf (pre-emaar and nakheel) meets india way. My own 3amiya is improving a fair bit which is a nice validation of my last summer-of-doom spent (re)learning arabic, perhaps. Next up, perhaps to (de)learn it? I do love the sentiments of these four Athens stencils from Magic Krtek in, from the disciplinary interrment, to anti-semiotic and anti-flic:
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: art, street art, beirut, genou choueiri, jim darling, beacon, jean-luc cornec, telephonic sheep, recycling, commuication, potatoes, junk, trash, baa baa black sheep, nursery rhymes
Yeah, amazing. There’s something really satisfiying about painting or drawing onto convex surfaces like balloons (or for A levels, surgical gloves), or even just looking at the back of a spoon. Lebanese artist Ginou Chouei, who lives and works in beirut, does just this with her series of potato portraits. I wish I wasn’t reminded of those Mr Potato Head ‘pets’ that you would water and watch their herby hair grow. Of her potatoes she says:
I chose the potato to portray the human face due to it’s many striking parallels. Not only is their skin porous like ours but they also come in different colors, shapes and sizes. Potato heads grow, sprout, age, then decay… but they refuse to go without a trace.
Like humans, they come in various forms, from family friends above, to even the esteemed George Bush(el?). They are covered in eyes too – might be interesting to do a surveillance society version? I can’t quite tell how she’s done them either – painting would make sense, but it almost seems like some kind of photo transfer.
more: papas and trash dudes
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: berlin, berlin wall, east side gallery, gentrification, germany, graffiti, kreuzberg, music, prenzlauer berg, street art
Ahh! Berlin is like a morsecode of mental checkmarks so far, staccatoing really satisfactorially (as opposed to satisfiyingly maybe? more heavyset perhaps) like the bmm tsh music that seems especially popular. I’ve only ever been into ambienty idm and breaky glitchy digital hc type electronics before, so it’s been a nice introduction to more technosided and dancey stuff. My friend arrived and has been searching for the alternafilm strains; perhaps I should quest for the subaltern? 
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: advertising, art, brand recognition, chanel, consumerism, corporate imperialism, culture jamming, globalisation, graveyard, idol worship, intervention, just seeds, laura keeble, logos, macdeath, macdonalds, nike, public art, sculpture, street art, tombstones, traces, ZEVS
Another globalisation is possible? Probably not. This however is North Road Cemetary, in Southend, England, and it just might be where the phenomenon goes to die. Or rather three of its MNC markers – Macdonalds, Nike, and perhaps unusually, Chanel. The artist in question, Laura Keeble, based the project on “theory of magical thinking, looking at belief systems and idol worship”. She says that it plays with the viewers perception, hopefully creating a pause for thought. I can certainly think of people who indeed positively worship at the altar of the now iconic interlinked Cs, but Macdonalds? It’s nice that it can be read in so many ways though.
| When I see it I for example tend to immedately think of corporate imperialism and globalisation, as opposed to maybe aspirational-luxe goods. The markers are at the same time a jolting reminder of just how far brand recognition has permeated into our collective cultural consciousness. These symbols are obviously among the most recognisable, but you’d probably be surprised as to just how many others you recognise – take the corporate logo-d flag, for example. |  |
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: anarchism, anthropology, ☭☭☭, bent jbeil, billboard, gaza, gaza massacre, hassan nasrallah, islamic university, israel, mark seager, palestine, public art, street art, taxis
According to JustSeeds, this sick piece ” appeared yesterday in the South Bronx. The wall faces the Bruckner Expressway, a highly used elevated highway passing through the Bronx”. It got me wondering about graffiti in Gaza itself, and I came across Mark Seager’s amazing photographs. He says that these photos were taken during visits in 2001 at the beginning of the Intifada, and again in 2003 circa the Iraqi invasion. They’re almost all the more precious in that these walls are most likely bombed and decimated by now, with their images erased forever – unlike images buffed away on city orders, that still leaveghostly outlines.
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Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: anarchism, art, ☭☭☭, crimethinc, other, palace of the people, public art, romania, street art, trains, troy lovegates
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Canadian street artist Other, aka Troy Lovegates has a new solo exhibition up at SF gallery / zinehome / seemingly all around rad spaceNeedles and Pens. You can see the pictures from the show here. And though I like the work on wood and its solidified cardboard cut out raised off the walls feel, I’m most drawn to his other work and its ridic use of colour and suface, especially on trains and murals. |
I dislike that Crimethinc has so permeated that I immediately associate freight train hopping with them along with indulgent dropout-yet-be-a-capitalistic-parasite and mountains of stale bagels. To me it feels more like a subculture than a social movement, kind of like playing a video game revolution. Not to rehash the perhaps tired body of Crimethinc criticism (and indeed there’s a lot that could be learned from their media machine), but I do rather like Anarkismo’s “Rethinking Crimethinc”
