urban art - The Art of the Prank

October 18, 2013December 15, 2023

Calling Out Banksy

New Yorkers Are Calling Out Banksy
by Nina Strochlic
The Daily Beast
October 18, 2013

Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD, an anonymous New York artist”s collective, and a community of graffiti writers make strange bedfellows. But the disparate groups have one thing in common: they”re calling out beloved street artist Banksy as he prowls New York City on a 30-day tagging quest.

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Steve (not his real name) is the founder of TrustoCorp, an anonymous New York-based guerilla art group known for its subversive signs and other pieces meant to highlight “the hilarity and hypocrisy of human behavior.”

And that”s just what he set out to do on Monday, when he installed two street signs in New York City pointing out the irony of Banksy as a world-famous multimillionaire maintaining the persona of a rebellious street artist. Each sign cited a parody sponsor by “CitiBanksy” and “Banksy of America,” and featured twists on the elusive tagger’s own work. Continue reading “Calling Out Banksy”

October 18, 2013December 15, 2023

WISH, by Jorge Rodràguez-Gerada

From Jorge Rodràguez-Gerada:

Urban art reaches epic proportions in Belfast

For the 2013 Ulster Bank Belfast International Festival at Queen’s, Cuban-American Artist, Jorge Rodràguez-Gerada, has created WISH, a portrait of an anonymous local girl photographed by the artist in the process of making a pure and simple wish for the future. Spanning an 11 acre site in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter, the photographic image of this girl – made of topsoil, sand, grass and stones – can be seen from various locations around Belfast. This innovative public artwork pushes boundaries and uses cutting edge technologies, making it one of the most ambitious land art projects in the world.

Making WISH was no easy task. With 30,000 wooden stakes, 2,000 tonnes of soil, and 2,000 tonnes of sand, the WISH team had just four weeks to complete one of the largest realistic portraits the world has ever seen. Continue reading “WISH, by Jorge Rodràguez-Gerada”

October 14, 2013December 15, 2023

Banksy Carries On

From Deborah, Michael, & Toni:

Banksy’s month long New York show “Better Out Than In” continues. Here’s work found in the streets from October 11-14, 2013.

October 14, 2013, Queens

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Says Banksy:

Some people criticize me for using sources that are a bit low brow (this quote is from ‘Gladiator’) but you know what? “I’m just going to use that hostility to make me stronger, not weaker” as Kelly Rowland said on the X Factor.

October 13, 2013, Banksy originals sold for $60 each in Central Park

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Want to know who bought them and how much they were worth? Read about it here.

October 12, 2013, Concrete Confessional Continue reading “Banksy Carries On”

October 6, 2013December 15, 2023

Banksy’s in NYC: Better Out Than In

From Marcy LaViollette: Banksy has taken up residency on the streets of NYC for the month of October, 2013

From Banksy’s Better Out Than In Website:

October 6 – No posts today due to shocking footage found on YouTube:

October 5

A New York delivery truck converted into a mobile garden (includes rainbow, waterfall and butterflies) will visit a different location every evening from dusk.

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Images found around town (some have already been tagged over) from October 2nd & 3rd: Continue reading “Banksy’s in NYC: Better Out Than In”

September 20, 2013December 15, 2023

Vagina Exhibition: Welcome to Our World

Walk-in vagina installed in Johannesburg women’s prison
by James Legge
Independent.co.uk
August 30, 2013

Artist says work is a reaction against the former symbol of oppression

sa-200 A former women’s prison in South Africa which once held Winnie Mandela is now home to a 12m-deep screaming vagina.

Visitors are invited to walk through the artwork, by 30-year-old artist Reshma Chhiba, in a reaction against the former symbol of oppression.

As they do, the scarlet walls ring out with screams and laughter. The “yoni” – the Sanskrit word for vulva, or vagina – is skirted by acrylic wool imitation pubic hair over a tongue-like sponge walkway.

Chhiba said: “It’s a screaming vagina within a space that once contained women and stifled women. It’s revolting against this space… mocking this space, by laughing at it.”

The prison, in the central Johannesburg area of Braamfontein, dates back to 1892, and its Womens’ Prison held Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in 1958, when she was imprisoned for protesting against apartheid segregation, and again in 1976.

The artist said the work also opposes deeply entrenched patriarchal systems, and taboos around the vagina.

“You don’t often hear men talking about their private parts and feeling disgust or shamed,” as women often do, she said. Continue reading “Vagina Exhibition: Welcome to Our World”