Submitted by ABOVE:

Blood Diamond

Africa has had a devastating history of blood diamond wars. Blood diamond refers to a diamond mined in a war zone and then sold to finance an invading army’s war efforts, usually in Africa where more than two-thirds of the worlds diamonds are extracted. This site specific social / political word play was painted on the exterior wall of Johannesburg’s largest diamond trader Jewel City. Jewel City is a six-block mega-precinct that serves as a base for some 300 diamond traders as well as South Africa”™s Diamond Board and State Traders Association. Jewel City is the largest diamond exporter in the southern hemisphere with over R7-Billion worth of Diamonds being exported every year.

I was able to get away with this diamond wall heist because I told the owners I would paint in big letters “Diamonds are a woman’s best friend” on the exterior of their building.

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From artist, Above: I just uploaded my most recent stencil from Paris. It’s an interesting topic about Banksy and the thievery of street art works in general…

Before:

After:

About this piece (watch the video at the end of this post):

Many years ago, before Banksy”™s mass appeal, he painted his popular rat image that read, “Because I”™m worthless.” Times have changed the value of his artworks and he is now a common household name. I felt it would be applicable to the current state of affairs to appropriate and change his previous statement to “Because now I”™m worth it” to reflect the past and current thievery of his street artworks. (more…)

Submitted by artist Above:

Reverse Psychology Performance from Above
Leipzig, Germany, November 2009

There are two sides to every coin, and we all know two wrongs don’t make a right but somehow when it comes to filming a video in reverse then reversing it, it makes total sense? Confused? Watch the video to get a better idea. If you still don’t understand, I can only suggest to try and watch it in reverse?!

The reverse side also has a reverse side. -Japanese proverb.

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Submitted by artist Above:

Flying in the Wind (Paris, France)

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Submitted by artist Above who, on a European tour, has been in Madrid, Spain for close to two weeks working on three site specific installation-stencil pieces.

June 23, 2009: This morning I finished making and uploading the video of these street works.

EARS, TEARS, & FEARS. from ABOVE on Vimeo.

Below are five images with captions that talk briefly about the background and process of each image.

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