urban art - The Art of the Prank

January 24, 2010December 15, 2023

Banksy Film “Exit Through The Gift Shop” to Premiere at Sundance

As seen on TheFilmStage.com, January 21, 2010:

Graffiti Artist Banksy To Debut Mysterious New Film. by Raffi Asdourian

banksy_museum_exit_through_the_gift_shop-200 Banksy, the renowned British graffiti artist, whose artworks are often satirical diatribes on topics such as politics, culture, and ethics, is shocking the independent film world with what may be the greatest film prank of all time. “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” billed as “A Banksy Film” , will have its world premiere Sunday night at the Library Center Theater as part of Sundance”s Spotlight Surprise.

“Sundance has shown films by unknown artists, but never an anonymous one,” said festival director John Cooper. He described the film as “part personal journey and part expose on the art world, with its mind-altering mix of hot air and hype.”

Source Reuters

This explains odd Banksy art popping up around Park City. You can view the trailer for the film below and attempt to decipher the mystery to what the film is all about. Check out some of his graffiti art below as well.

Continue reading “Banksy Film “Exit Through The Gift Shop” to Premiere at Sundance”

January 10, 2010December 15, 2023

Public Ad Campaign’s National Bestseller

Jordan Seiler’s interview with Danny Valdes on his first radio broadcast of Radio Provocateur on WVRB radio resulted in this article for The Indypendent:

Artists Reclaim Public Space: A Conversation with Public Ad Campaign Founder Jordan Seiler
by Danny Valdes
The Indypendent
January 8, 2010

TheRichandtheRighteous_b_we-200 Everywhere you turn in New York City, there are advertisements”” posters featuring attractive models schilling perfume, pop bands promoting their latest albums and celebrities endorsing soft drinks. The Public Ad Campaign, a collective of street artists, sees the prevalence of these advertisements as an intrusion into public space. Founded by Jordan Seiler in 2000, this group is dedicated to reclaiming the city”s sidewalks, subways and street corners by creating unauthorized public art installations. The group”s latest undertaking, an ongoing project called National Bestseller, incorporates bestselling or popular books that are taken apart and then wheat-pasted into a single sheet and installed over advertisements in phone booths.

Seiler, 31, a native New Yorker born in the Chelsea Hotel, started the Public Ad Campaign shortly after returning to New York City as a graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design. What started as a personal art project soon grew into much more of an activist-oriented effort against public advertising. As Seiler explains, the group”s mission is not to wreak havoc, but to defend the first amendment. “Public spaces are really our last democratic spaces. They are the only spaces that we have left as a society in which we all have an equal voice and can have open dialogue.”

The Indypendent”s Danny Valdes spoke with Seiler about the different ways people interact with public space and corporate advertising”s threat to the urban environment in New York City and beyond.

Danny Valdes: Is there a difference between the way art and advertising affect us in public space? Continue reading “Public Ad Campaign’s National Bestseller”

January 3, 2010December 15, 2023

Banksy v. Robbo — Tag! You’re It!

Banksy rival King Robbo has the final word in street art feud
by Fiona Hamilton
The Times
December 30, 2009

Not since the rivalry of Picasso and Matisse, which prompted the Spanish master”s friends to throw missiles at his French counterpart”s work, has there been such a clash between artistic camps.

This time, though, the hostility has arisen over the sweep of a spray can rather than the delicate dabbing of a paintbrush.

Banksy_1_665277a-425

Banksy”s painting of a mural over a rival”s work, which had been left untouched for more than 25 years, has provoked an online assault against one of the country”s most popular artists. Scathing remarks were posted on internet forums yesterday about Banksy”s image of a workman pasting over a wall of graffiti in Camden, North London. The painting covered up the work of Robbo, a renowned street artist who pioneered the capital”s graffiti tagging scene in the 1980s.

Banksy_3_665275a-425

It appears that Robbo returned to the site over Christmas to paint “King Robbo” in giant letters over Banksy”s work. It appears as though Banksy”s character is painting the phrase, thus paying homage to Robbo. Continue reading “Banksy v. Robbo — Tag! You’re It!”

December 1, 2009December 15, 2023

High-Minded Holiday Gifts 2009: Guerilla Art Kit

From Make: Mischief Maker’s Gift Guide:

guerillaartkit-200 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.

Muto, A Wall Painted Animation by Artist BLU

Another animated street mural from artist BLU, an Italian painter who uses the streets to create epic works of animation. This short film, created about two years ago, is, in the artist’s words, “An ambiguous animation painted on public walls.”

MUTO, A Wall Painted Animation by BLU

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=993998&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Made in Buenos Aires
Music by Andrea Martignoni
Produced by Mercurio Film
Assistant: Sibe

via 40cozy.com