Monday, May 11, 2009

Banksy


I've found a new heartthrob in Banksy, the pseudo-anonymous street artist. Surreptitious stenciled figures spray-painted on surfaces around Brittan and beyond, anti-war, anti-capitalist, anti-establishment. Small-scale surprises tucked away in alleys or large-scale blaring messages covering high-rise walls, confronting the masses. Asking. Demanding. Revealing. Tough Questions and Dirty Secrets. And also just because.












I think my favorite is the long drizzle of white paint trailing through the streets (of Bristol? Multiple cities?) and if you follow it far enough (across streets, through the park, around buildings) you will encounter a guilty looking man dressed in law enforcement garb crouched in some obscure place, holding the incriminating white crayon. Caught red handed. See a slide show of some of his outdoor stuff here.



Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Jan Svankmajer

Love love love the work of filmmaker Jan Svankmajer. Just got done watching some of his collected short films and simply wowed all over again. Food and angst and consuming and isolationist existentialism, not to mention pounds upon pounds of dirty rusty found objects that he animates to life and make my heart go thump thump. (A lot of my assemblage art was inspired by his work.)
Some of my favorite shorts of his are the "dialogues", Meat love and Dinner (really, the entire Food series is out of this world disgustingly awesome.) Ironically, none of those shorts have much in the way of those pounds of dirty rusty stuff I love so much. Just lots of mind bending oddness and brilliance.
(Btw, the image above is a still from the short Darkness Light Darkness.)