THE UMBRELLA REVOLUTION AND ITS REBELLIOUS ART

Hong Kong protests | Art-Pie

The umbrella, as a symbol of the protests that are going on in Hong Kong, resulted from police pepper spray, used against activists, who used it as a shield. In no time, this was picked up by creatives, artists or just supporters who via that object, represent their support to the cause through art and imagery.

The Umbrella Revolution was born

#OccupyCentral and its demonstrations began peacefully last week but turned more intensive at the time where we are writing this article. The uprise is about activist who are calling for democracy in Hong Kong and free elections in 2017 (See more photographs about the events on the Mashable website).

We have collected a fe examples of the art and imagery incorporating the umbrella and other symbols of resistance on social media.

Hong Kong protests art | Art-PieBytJPu4CYAAK25g

Another symbol widely used is the the yellow ribbon, which protestors are using as a symbol of democracy and suffrage and we found this awesome piece below

Yellow Ribbon used in the Hong Kong protests

More imagery/art from protesters and artists below

Hong Kong protests art | Art-Pie Hong Kong protests art | Art-Pie Hong Kong protests art | Art-Pie

Sculptures from the London Art fair

Following our first trip to the London Art fair, where we noticed and appreciated very much the abstract works on display, we thought we would be sharing some of the sculpture works we came across.

Artist: Alexandre Durand
Title: Ex Calce Liberatus
Medium: Mixed media (steel, aluminium, gold)

Alexandre Durand - London Art Fair | Art-Pie

Artist: Anna Gillepsie
Title: To the limit
Medium: Bronze
Anna Gillepsie - London Art Fair | Art-Pie

Artist: Keith haynes
Title: No Mr Bond
Medium: Mixed media
Keith Hanes - London Art Fair | Art-Pie

Artist: Paul Day
Title: Burst
Medium: Bronze
Paul Day - London Art Fair | Art-Pie

Artist: Schoony
Title: Boy soldier Panel Union Jack
Medium: Fibreglass
Schoony - London Art Fair | Art-Pie

Drones in Deptford coming soon

Silent RunningWe all like going to the movies, don’t we? But how about going to the movies and get a total immersion in it, how about an invasion by spaceships and robots whilst watching the 1972 eco-themed sci-fi classic Silent Running?

Immersive cinema company The Vanishing Point is throwing another mighty sounding event in association with nationwide film season Scala Beyond.  The venue is the Utrophia Gallery in Deptford – a space which, conveniently, is already well equipped with rooftop machinery, and the feel of a ‘run down old spaceship’, according to Paul Reed, The Vanishing Pointco-founder and creative director.

Drone#1-huey
Drone #1 aka Huey in Silent Running

From Paul Reed,

‘We don’t want to create a nostalgic reaction of the film but look at the themes, what was it getting at and how can we have some fun with that and keep people interested and excited.

The event will feature interaction with crew members from The Valley Forge space freighter, garden areas, a blast-off bar, food stalls and immersive installations inspired by the fiction of the film. We also hear that there will also be a retro video game installation.

The Vanishing Point Silent Running Screening takes place on 15 September at Utrophia (Rooftop screening), 120 Deptford High Street, London, SE8. For tickets and more information visit www.thevanishingpoint.org.uk

Find out a bit more about the concept

Exit through the gift shop: a Banksy movie

This is the movie everybody is talking about right now and whoever is behind the promotion of it is just very clever.

We are at the Sundance Film Festival last month in the United States. No mention at all about the movie in the official programme but rather a very late announcement a few days before the start of the festival and there you had it: speculation and expectation leading to the sort of buzz that makes people queuing up hours before the screening.

I expect the same level of interest when Exit through the gift shop comes out here in Europe on the 5th March. Let’s not forget that Banksy’s show last year at the Bristol Museum attracted more than 300,000 visitors.

Should anyone have thought that at last Banksy’s identity would be revealed, ditch that idea, this is not what that movie is about at all. Banksy can only been seen from behind and in shadow and his voice is digitally altered. Who would give up his identity when it precisely what is making some of his artworks fetch the £200,000 + mark, come on.

“I guess my ambition was to make a film that would do for graffiti art what ‘The Karate Kid’ did for martial arts — a film that would get every schoolkid in the world picking up a spray can and having a go,” Banksy said of his first film earlier this month at Berlin Film Festival.

Beyond being some sort of graffiti ambassador, I believe Exit through The Gift Shop deals with a much more interesting issue: How do we assess or evaluate Art and eventually like it? Why Street Artwork is now selling as much in terms of value than more classical type of Art?

With actor Rhys Ifans as narrator, he allowed  Thierry Guetta to film him while ‘at work’. To make it short (a post about Thierry Guetta is coming up soon) he is the cousin of the artist Invader, a French guerrilla artist who sticks mosaics upon walls and buildings inspired by the video game Space Invaders. Guetta filmed his cousin’s artwork as well as other artists and was thus sucked into the street art world which led him to meet Banksy.

The London premiere of ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ is happening right now as I am writing this post around Leak Street tunnel so if like me you did not get an invite, you might as well watch the trailer below

ART-PIE

Maxime Angel – Let My Eyes Be Your Mirror at C4RD

Centre for Recent Drawing presents the first UK solo exhibition of artist Maxime Angel. Through a highly physical and performative relationship to her drawing practice, Maxime Angel mines a deep held fascination with human sexuality and mortality in her intensely beautiful yet disturbing works on paper and card.

Angel’s personal interaction with her medium and her ability to project the internal and external machinations of the artitst’s body onto the 2D plane create a deeply visceral viewing. She lies, sleeps, smudges, interacts, destroys, scars, crumples and lives with her work, upon which she inscribes her fears, experiences and realities. Thus the drawings become an artifact of her life, laid bare in an intimate exchange of imagery and symbolism that sees the viewer not only connecting with Angel but reading something of themselves in the work.

The fragile nature of the medium reflects the works powerful grasping for fleeting beauty, as young vitality morphs into decay. Angel deploys these images as a metaphor for AIDS and our constant slide towards death, although she regards the act of drawing as itself a way propagate life, a Dorian Grey like exorcism of the inevitable.

Maxime Angels work traces a long and complex historical line of queer drawing, from tattooing to gay erotica, yet cannot be described simply as pornography. Her erotic illustrations mesh together both personal and cross-cultural references in uneasy yet sublime cohesion, while her beautiful and complex compositions recall traditions of Vanitas and still life. In doing so she subverts and utilizes the gay sub cultures, religion and pop iconography that have so influenced her life, exposing and exploring perceptions of gay narcissism.

Capturing what Angel describes as the ‘perfection in decay,’ these works entice the viewer with a rich visual language which is at once highly distinctive to the artist yet ultimately recognizable and truthful. We are reminded of our own mortality, but also of the cyclical and uplifting nature of life.

Maxime Angel will be working on a large site specific drawing in the gallery space in the weeks leading up to the show- feel free to come visit and watch Angel’s process on 28-30th April and 5-7th May 12-6pm. The show is curated by Paul Kindersley.

Words by Paul Kinderseley

Where – C4RD | 2 – 4 Highbury Station Road, Highbury Islington, London.

When – opening reception on Tuesday 10th May 2011 from 6 – 8pm. The exhibition will run from 11th May to 17th June 2011

Crunch 2010 – The Art Festival at Hay: book the date

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This year, Crunch: the art festival at hay will bring the same mix of thought-provoking debates, incisive talks and late-night parties. For one magical weekend in November, an eclectic set of artists, gallery directors, art critics, authors, academics, philosophers, film-makers and musicians will congregate in Hay to debate the big question: what’s the point of art? Continue reading Crunch 2010 – The Art Festival at Hay: book the date

SESPER at Pure Evil gallery

Brazilian artist Alexandre “Sesper” Cruz spent his adolescence absorbed in music and skateboarding – building ramps, making fanzines that documented the Sao Paulo art scene, and recording k-7 compilations. These interests influenced the sticker and paste up poster campaigns he launched around the city in 1999.

Sesper is best known for his unique mixed media artwork. He uses recycled material such as paper, cardboard and wood as his surface and paints over these with oil pastel and latex, incorporating layer upon layer of texture and color. A member of the renowned Brazilian art collective, the Famiglia Baglione, Sesper has participated in and filmed many of their live painting and gallery installations around Brazil.

SESPER at Pure Evil

He produces music and is a full time vocalist for Garage Fuzz band since 1991, as well having sung and recorded in the following bands: OVEC, PSYCHIC POSSESSOR, SAFARI HAMBURGUERS, PAURA, and the projects: NOTWORK, INTROSPECTIVE, LOFI EXPERIMENTS, VALLEJO X SUNSET, 5 GAS QUESTION, FLIPTOP, and others.

Words from the Pure Evil website

Noise Intercepted, global art project about noise

Labspace Studios | Noise Intercepted
Photo by Sam Pelletier

Noise. Noises. They are everywhere these days and unique in their own ways but can they be assimilated to art too?

Labspace Studio ( (a creative agency & art house in Toronto, Canada), the people behind Noise Intercepted, a global art project about noise part of the Noise Project, certainly think so and have just launched their project today. and guess what, we are taking part and are excited about it. But what is it exactly?

Noise Intercepted is a series of ten experience-activated noise challenges that prompt participants to listen, observe and interact with their urban soundscape in new and unlikely ways.

The project brings together over 200 collaborators from 28 countries around the globe — artists, sound ecologists, designers, writers, mothers, fathers, educators, filmmakers, administrators, technicians, scientists, students, programmers, health practitioners, and the list goes on.

Over the course of four months (March – June 2013), participants will be sent (via text msg & email) a series of ten noise challenges and creative prompts.

They have exactly 1-week to respond to each challenge and share their findings here with you.

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You can still join – http://thenoiseproject.net/call-for-collaborators/noise-intercepted/

Stay up-to-date and get onto the Facebook and Twitter pages
https://www.facebook.com/Labspace.Studio
https://twitter.com/LabspaceStudio

The Noise Project

The Moniker Art Fair starts today…

This is not your traditional contemporary art fair, Moniker Art fair, now in (only) its second year has already become a respected platform featuring work of a generation of artists, often coming from  often overlooked in British mainstream fairs but proven successful and recognized throughout the art world – , museums and established art institutions.

Some of the featured artists: Steve Powers | Polly Morgan | Swoon | Ben Eine | Herakut | Banksy

Some of the represented galleries: Black Rat Press (London) | Circleculture, (Berlin) | Carmichael Gallery (Los Angeles) | Anonymous Gallery (New York City)

http://www.monikerartfair.com/

When : 13(preview)-16th October 2011.
Venue : Village underground | Shoreditch | London.

STREET ART ENCOUNTERS