If you have a few minutes, click through Thomas Hawk’s, flickr set “Graffiti, Stencils and Public Murals and Art.”
Purls of wisdom
There has been a slew of radical textile projects of late, it seems, although there is always a longer history than we realize:
Germaine Koh’s Knitwork, which she describes as a lifeling project, began in 1992. Periodically, Germaine makes an appointment with the registrar at the Art Gallery of Ontario to knit one purl two, adding to her work. More recently, see Cat Mazza’s microRevolt; Rachel Beth Egenhoefer’s KNiiTTiiNG – knitting for the Ninetendo Wii and virtual knitting; which reminds me of Stephanie Rothenberg and Jeff Crouse’s Invisible Threads.
And there are many, many other projects, but spurred by Forecaster2’s Overview of Nouveau Graffiti, I want to call attention to the blog on Etsy about Magda Sayeg’s Knitta. The intro about “tomasons” is worth quoting:
“‘The apartment I moved into has a tomason,’ said Rachel, my friend Tom’s girlfriend. ‘A what?’ I asked, thinking it was some sort of poltergeist. ‘It’s this old, weird metal thing sticking out of the wall,’ Rachel explained. ‘I’m not sure, but I think it used to be a fixture when there were gas lights.’ ‘A tomason,’ my friend Tom, a book editor, followed up, ‘is a word coined by a Japanese artist Genpei Akasegawa. It’s in this book I’m publishing in June called Portrait with Keys by Ivan Vladislavić.’ According to Wikipedia, Genpei Akasegawa used this word to refer to useless street objects that happen to look like conceptual art.
Tomasons are a little more banal that ghosts, and I’ve found them much easier to spot, now that this unlikely word is in my head. Tomasons now appear before me on my daily walk to work. Before I hadn’t noticed them; they’d flowed together in the continuous stream of my peripheral vision. It occurred to me that they are part of what makes up our general experience of grit and urban decay. An army of tomasons stands silently at attention, arming the city with strong stuff like metal poles and concrete abutments. And then one day, out of the blue, a steel door handle is decked out in a brightly colored knit cozy.
Sayeg uses her knitting to “tag” tomasons!
An Overview of Nouveau Graffiti
Graffiti is not your grandma’s tag anymore! Urban artists and interventionists are finding more and more ways to alter our environment without all the messy side effects!
Reverse Graffiti
“Reverse graffiti also known as clean tagging, dust tagging or grime writing, is a method of creating graffiti on walls or other surfaces by removing dirt from a surface. It is usually done by removing dirt/dust with the fingertip(s) from windows or other dirty surfaces, as in the old joke of writing “wash me” with one’s finger on a dirty car.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_graffiti
image via www.environmentalgraffiti.com
image via www.environmentalgraffiti.com
image via www.environmentalgraffiti.com
The Reverse Graffiti Project and artist Paul “Moose” Curtis create a poignant scene in SF. Watch the process in this short clip by director Doug Pray.
Moss Graffiti
I am particularly fond of this new method of beautification. An extension of the seed bomb artists are taking to the street armed with a blended recipe of moss and buttermilk. What results is living breathing art!
image via treehugger.com
Artist Ladybird. image via woostercollective.com
image via barbhoffman.com
L.A.S.E.R Tag & Projection Art
There is almost too much to cover here and it just about warrants a whole new post. To wet your whistle check out these sites and projects.
The work of Graffiti Research Labs is stretching street art to new heights and takes a serious approach to including innovative technologies into everyday life. One recent project is L.A.S.E.R tagging.
Here is a great video of the process and a variety of tags.
Check out the Muonics blog for L.A.S.E.R tag code – its open source!
Another one of my very favorite group of innovators is MAW (Minneapolis Art on Wheels). Call me hometown proud. Watch them on Make television.
And last but not least for those of you looking for an excuse to go to Florida this summer Alys Beach should be your destination of choice. The second annual Digital Graffiti Festival will be held on June 6th 2009.
image via digitalgraffiti.info
“Photon bombing” call for entries
Alys Beach is pleased to invite digital artists to submit original works for the Second Annual “Digital Graffiti†Festival at Alys Beach, a juried digital art competition and display. All works and subject matter will be considered for the competition and display during the 2009 festival, which will be held on Saturday, June 6th.
