Public Art: Exploring Urban Creativity & Expression

Some months ago, one of the world’s leading artists, TED Prize winner JR came up with the incredible JR Inside Out project, a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Inside Out in Haiti Together with Eyes on Haiti, the global art projectInside Out recently rose souls in the Caribbean country of Haiti! It looks like there are lots of talented photographers around the world, identifying with the JR Inside Out philosophy and for that reason join the challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world, what a great success! ...

2011 was a really successful year for German urban artist Clemens Behr who not just explored urban places and spaces around the world by creating amazing cardboard installations in public space, but also exhibited in Berlin, his adoptive home! Exploring urban places… Clemens loves working with recycled materials and basic geometric forms. His abstract installations, composed of cardboard, wood, paint, tape and found materials, often result in subtle confusions between 2D painting and 3D objects. ...

Dutch graffiti-writing master, sculptor and urban artist ZEDZ realized a new fine art print he subsequently painted on a huge bridge in Milan - he calls it urban regeneration… From Art Print Study to Urban Regeneration Know for his very architectural, abstract style, ZEDZ investigates new forms of graffiti, by regarding graffiti as 3D objects. In this way he links sculpting and writing and creates an unique way of painting walls… ...

After I wrote about the Style Wars rescue, I just stumbled upon another urban art related Kickstarter project: The Wall - London’s Most Public Gallery is public art project whose aim is to transform the well-known brick facade of London’s Village Underground (that’s the wall where I photographed Herakut, Titi Freak and others…) into an permanent art space including bullet proof metal and glass frames to protect the art work from theft and vandalism… ...

Brad Downey’s work over the past decade has consistently pitted itself against the sanctioned and the predictable, that’s the first sentence in Brad Downey’s Spontaneous Sculptures book and in my eyes this describes the presented series of urban interventions, transformations and occupation the best way. With this second part of my Urban Art Books & Mags Special I’d like to introduce his latest book to you… Downey was born 1980 into a military family, studied film in Brooklyn and painting in London and lives right now in Berlin. He’s well-known around the globe for his I would say back-to-the-roots artistic works in public space, which are often almost criminal and confusing (like the burning CCTV cameras) but always simply great and inspiring. For that reason, the Spontaneous Sculptures book, with its 160 colored pages, is a great reading for urban intervention enthusiasts. ...

In July 2011, a first-of-its-kind public art mural project called Visual Intervention took place in Rochester, NY bringing together local artists and a group of four artists from Cape Town, SA, including Faith47, DAL, Mak1 and FreddySam who shared their talents and painted several nice murals in hopes of inspiring the Rochester community… Finally, the corresponding documentary was published last week which I don’t want to deforce from you. It gives a nice insight into the entire project, and includes not just statements by the artists and organizers, but also explains the event’s reasons and how everything worked out in the end. ...

Park(ing) Day is an annual, worldwide event that invites citizens everywhere to transform metered parking spots into temporary parks for the public good. This year’s Parking Day will take place - as I just read on Urbanshit - tomorrow, September 16th! That means, that you all have to take your camp-chairs, some turf, and probably some barbecue equipment to reclaim the streets and public space by reusing parking bays… Since 2005, Park(ing) Day has grown rapidly. The 2010 event included more than 800 Park installations in more than 180 cities on six continents. From Iran to Madagascar, Venezuela to South Korea, the project continues to expand to urban centers across the globe, and participants have broadened the scope of PARK installations to fulfill a range of unmet social needs. ...

As already mentioned, British broadcaster Channel4 showed The Antics Roadshow by Banksy last Saturday evening! The hour-long special charted the history of behaving badly in public, from anarchists and activists to attention seeking eccentrics and was in that way a must to watch for all Banksy fans and every guerrilla art enthusiast… Narrated by Kathy Burke and produced by Jamie D’cruz, The Antics Roadshow examines the stories behind some of the most audacious stunts of recent times and what motivates the perpetrators, from mindless boredom to heartfelt political beliefs. ...

All Banksy enthusiasts are able to look forward to The Antics Roadshow made by Banksy himself! This coming Saturday (August 13th, 2011), the British Channel 4 will show Banksy’s incomplete guide to total anarchy, including the greatest hits of wayward behaviour, sedition and sabotage… Basically I just thought it was a good name for a TV programme and I’ve been working back from there. (Banksy) The hour-long special charts the history of behaving badly in public, from anarchists and activists to attention seeking eccentrics, presenting for example Michael Fagan talking about breaking into the Queen’s bedroom or Noel Godin, who pioneered attacking celebrities with custard pies. ...

Don’t know if you already heard about it, but the TED Prize and famous photographer and urban artist JR (the 2011 TED Prize winner) developed a nice new project called Inside Out in March 2011. The idea behind this project is that you submit a portrait photo of yourself, which will be printed and send back to you so that you are able to paste the poster somewhere in the city… ...