Poster Boy

A number of you-- particularly you New Yorkers-- may have heard of Poster Boy, the anonymous guerilla artist who- using only a razor blade- rehashes self-adhesive subway advertisements such that the result is a satirical representation of 'political reality*'

For those of you who haven't, you should look into it. Using his 50¢ boxcutter, he cuts pieces from one** ad and collages them onto another so that a billboard that once promoted, say, the Star Wars DVD box set*** ends up something like this:

The reason that I bring it up today is that yesterday, my contributing author-- the lovely Mr. Nicholas P. Wing-- brought it to my attention that on March 2nd, Mark Batty Publisher will release a compilation book titled Poster Boy: The War of Art. As you might have guessed, it will feature some of the reclusive artist's best work. Further details are still sketchy, but here's the description offered by Amazon.com:

"The New York Times dubbed him an 'anti-consumerist Zorro with a razor blade, a sense of humor and a talent for collage'; the Guardian UK said of his work, it 'is witty, web-savvy and economical . . . and the only materials it requires are chutzpah, imagination and a 50 cent blade.' Poster Boy tweaks corporate copy, replacing it with incisive and playful puns and turns of phrase rich with innuendo and political punch. Beautiful models turn ghastly and iconic spokespeople become the mouthpieces for Poster Boy’s ideas. Poster Boy: The War of Art collects his best work yet"

Check out more of Poster Boy's pieces on his Flickr photostream. If you're stoked about that, you can pre-order the War of Art for under $13 at Amazon. And finally... if you find yourself liking Poster Boy's subway art, have a look at the Subway Art Blog and further broaden your urban art horizon.


* à la George Orwell's Animal Farm


** or two... or twelve...


** I guess it could also be a Star Wars marathon at some artsy NYC movie theatre. Either way, you get the idea. 

Now there's a Neverland perspective

The cover of this month's Architectural Digest features an interesting retrospective commentary on Michael Jackson's famous home, the sprawling Santa Ynez Valley estate so dubbed 'Neverland'. Now, I think most people agree with me when I say that I find the fact that a fifty year old man of unspecified race made himself an eerily child-centric amusement park in which to live somewhat unsettling (at best), however, attached to the article is a web-exclusive: an eight photo slide show that considers some of the ranch's design.

I found that the photo gallery offered some insight into the property's value as an architectural/ design monument. Understandably, when we look at Neverland, we tend focus on the absurd and thus forget the discerning design elements that really make it complete.

Personally, I favor light colors and clean lines in interior spaces, so I find the ranch's wood-panelling (which, by the way, is effing everywhere), a little oppressive to say the least. Despite this, I can certainly appreciate the genius in the house's embellishments. I, for one, would die for the big copper hoods that he has in the kitchen or the old wood sculpture of the roosters he has on display in one of the foyers.

I can't say that I've ever considered the property in that light so I got a kick out of the feature. Let me know what you guys think, I'm always interested in other opinions.

If you missed the link above, check out the architectural photo gallery here.

If you liked that, you should also look into photographer Harry Benson's brief and heartfelt portrait of the King of Pop and his abode here.

Ukraine's got talent?

A few weeks ago, my darling little sister shared the following video with me. I saw it, loved it, and wanted to post it right away. It came to my attention, however, that I should probably do some research on the premise behind the clip. So, here we are, a few weeks later:

The artist is Kysenia Simonova, 2009 winner of the Ukrainian version of 'Britain/America's Got Talent'. The medium is known as sand animation, in which the performing artist creates a series of images by dusting a piece of backlit plexiglass* with sand and then rendering recognizable forms with his or her hands.

The story that Ms. Simonova is telling is really the most interesting part of all of this. Having watched the clip knowing nothing about the sand animation's narrative, there is something intuitively emotionally gripping about its plot progression. However, if you consider that both members of the audience and the judging panel are moved to tears, I gathered that as an outsider to Ukrainian culture, there were some key historical elements to the story that I was missing. And here they are--

What we know as WWII is in Ukraine called the "Great Patriotic War". Theirs was the most devastated nation in the entire global conflict--more so even than Germany. After Stalin decimated Ukranian numbers with famine, they lost 25% of their national population as a result of the fighting-- it is estimated that about 20% of all WWII casualties were Ukrainian. With this context in mind, the animation's narrative really comes to life. As explained in Ms. Simonova's artist's portrait by the Guardian:

"She recounts Germany conquering Ukraine in the second world war, bringing calm, then conflict. A couple on a bench become a woman's face; a peaceful walkway becomes a conflagration; a weeping widow morphs into an obelisk for an unknown soldier. Simonova looks like some vengeful Old Testament deity as she destroys then recreates her scenes - with deft strokes, sprinkles and sweeps she keeps the narrative going. She moves the judges to tears as she subtitles the final scene 'you are always near'"

There are videos of Ms. Simonova's other sand animation performances on Ukraine's Got Talent, as well as more information on the artist available online. I'm too lazy to put them all up so here's the Google search to get you started.

*Think transparency projectors like we had in elementary school

Artscape

So having been away for a week, today I thought I'd take a moment to rep my American hood. i.e. Baltimore. This weekend in Charm City was the 28th annual Artscape-- the largest free arts festival in America, attracting upwards of 350,000 visitors each year. It's always pretty sweet...  past performers include Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. Oh, and also... all events and performances are completely free. 

I know, right?

This year featured the usual repertoire of local and visiting visual artists, musicians, performers and exhibitors, not to mention the best street food that Baltimore has to offer-- as the low-to-mid range food capital of the country, you can imagine that the deliciousness is borderline unacceptable. Headliners included Robert Randolf and the Family Band, Dionne Warwick (who is definitely still on crack), and CAKE. 

The festival is hosted in Mt. Royal around the Maryland Institute College of Art (an unreal art school) and Baltimore's symphony hall, the Meyerhoff. 

Long story short-- if you ever live within a drivable/train-takable distance, or need to be in D.C. or Baltimore in the middle of July, you should ch-ch-ch-check it out.

For more information, here's the official website.

and I'll throw in a link to these graffiti artists from Load of Fun Studios whose stuff I really liked. Obviously the tags weren't for sale. The products offered tended towards more portable,  more legal forms of art.

I think this says something about the overarching meaning of life.

Tell me this isn't the sweetest butterfly you've ever seen. 

Reppin 1988. or 1888. or...well...'88.

Oh my wow.

The conceptual art for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is disgustingly good.

It'll be out March 5, 2010.

I really almost peed myself.