From Make: Mischief Maker’s Gift Guide:

The Guerilla Art Kit ($13.57 on Amazon)

MAKE contributing writer John Baichtal reviewed this seemingly awesome Guerilla Art Kit over at GeekDad:

Whether it’s marginalia, notes shoved in library books, randomly mailed postcards, moss graffiti, fortune cookie fortunes shoved into random locations, Smith has ideas for subtly touching the world around us. There are chapters covering guerrilla etiquette, stencil making, rubber stamps, stickers, and formulating environmentally benign poster glue. I was bowled over by the chapter on guerrilla gardening. Imagine beautifying a rundown neighborhood by scattering wildflower seeds in sidewalk cracks, empty planters, and fenced off industrial lots.

Related links:

Aping art? Gorilla crucifixion graces church
News.Ninemsn.com.au / AFP
October 16, 2009

An artist has defended his installation of a lifesize gorilla on a crucifix in a former London church, saying it is designed to highlight a threatened African species.

The artwork by Paul Fryer is scarily lifelike, created using the waxwork techniques of the world-famous Madame Tussauds museum and finished off with human hair.

It is intended to highlight the plight of the endangered Western Lowland Gorillas – Fryer said that despite the setting, the aim is to provoke debate, not to cause offence. Read the rest of this story here.

Here are some pick hits from 20 Subversive Works of Urban Guerrilla Street Art, written by Steph on June 14th, 2009 on WebUrbanist:

Street Art That Makes You Look Twice by Mark Jenkins

Ducks made of packing tape, floating in a puddle. A man seemingly putting his head through a concrete wall. The startling contrast of cheerful balloons tied to what looks like a dead body. These are all among the creative urban art installations that come from the mind of street artist Mark Jenkins, who treats public space like one big blank canvas.

Jenkins told art critic Brian Sherwin, “There is opposition, and risk, but I think that just shows that street art is the sort of frontier where the leading edge really does have to chew through the ice. And it”™s good for people to remember public space is a battleground, with the government, advertisers and artists all mixing and mashing, and even now the strange cross-pollination taking place as street artists sometimes become brands, and brands camouflaging as street art creating complex hybrids or impersonators.”

images: xmarkjenkinsx.com; see more of his work here.

Subtle Yet Subersive Art Interventions by SpY

Spanish artist SpY subtly alters ordinary objects in urban environments, sometimes to make a statement and sometimes just for the fun of it. He describes his work as a “playful reappropriation of urban elements”, replicating them or transforming them in his studio and then installing them in the streets. He seeks to break through the automated monotony of everyday urban life and get people to notice things as if for the first time.

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