guerrilla art - The Art of the Prank

March 29, 2011December 15, 2023

Trials & Tribulations for Russian Art Collective Voina

Voina Art Collective Donates Banksy”™s Money to Political Prisoners
by DJ Pangburn
Death + Taxes
March 28, 2011

When Voina Collective members were imprisoned for a prank involving overturning police cars, Banksy donated money for the cause. Voina then paid some of the money forward to other political prisoners.

Guerrilla art pranksters Voina are holding firm in their belief that high-concept, high-risk tactics are necessary, especially in a place as given to authoritarian tendencies as Russia.

When we last looked into the group in December, members Oleg Vorotnikov and Leonid Nikolayev had been imprisoned for a stunt in which several Moscow police cars were overturned. Banksy heard of their beatings and imprisonment, and donated $130,000 to the group from a print sale, then paid their bail of $10,600. Once released, they were followed and beaten by mysterious men who claimed to be police.

An unknown percentage of the sum donated by Banksy was then donated to Voina”™s political prisoner friends, according to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. According to the Voina website, one of Vorotnikov”™s cellmates, Old Man Serioga, was released on March 26th.

Read the rest of this article at Death+Taxes.

March 10, 2010December 15, 2023

Guerrilla Crocheting in Cape May

Midnight Knitter Pulls the Wool Over NJ Shore Town
1010WINS
March 10. 2010

West Cape May, N.J. (AP/1010 WINS) — Someone is spinning quite a yarn over one New Jersey shore town.

Dubbed “The Midnight Knitter” by West Cape May residents, someone is covering tree branches and lamp poles with little sweaters under cover of darkness. Continue reading “Guerrilla Crocheting in Cape May”

November 20, 2009December 15, 2023

Veiled Threat: The Guerrilla Graffiti of Princess Hijab

Veiled Threat: The guerrilla graffiti of Princess Hijab
Bitch Magazine
by Arwa Aburawa
November 19, 2009

princesshijab1

Since 2006, the elusive guerrilla artist known as Princess Hijab has been subverting Parisian billboards, to a mixed reception. Her anonymity irritates her critics, many of whom denounce her as extremist and antifeminist; when she recently conceded, in the pages of a German newspaper, that she wasn”™t a Muslim, it opened the floodgates to avid speculation in the blogosphere. If her claim of being a 21-year-old Muslim girl was only partially true, some wondered what the real message was behind her self-described “artistic jihad.” Continue reading “Veiled Threat: The Guerrilla Graffiti of Princess Hijab”

November 6, 2009December 15, 2023

There’s a Fork in the Road in Pasadena

Pasadena’s Fork in the road is guerilla art installation
by Janette Williams
Pasadena Star News
November 3, 2009

forkintheroad-200 Pasadena – Right where Pasadena and St. John avenues divide, there’s a fork in the road.

It’s about 18 feet tall and looks like stainless steel.

The fork’s appearance a few days ago, tines firmly stuck into a little Caltrans-owned median, was a bit of a mystery at first.

“It’s a guerilla installation,” guessed Rochelle Branch, the city’s cultural affairs manager, who oversees the public art program. “I don’t know if it’s through Caltrans, but it is clever.”

Caltrans spokeswoman Maria Raptis, who said Caltrans leases the small plot of land to the city, was equally baffled.

“Sometimes we do put art up. We have context-sensitive art off some freeways,” she said. “But I don’t know about this.”

And David Amronin, co-artistic director of Pasadena’s always edgy NewTown arts group – they describe themselves as “A Persistent Weed in The Garden of Art” – said it wasn’t his group. Continue reading “There’s a Fork in the Road in Pasadena”

June 17, 2009December 15, 2023

Guerrilla Street Art

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.

Street installations by Mark Jenkins

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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Continue reading “Guerrilla Street Art”