Billboard Advertising Clean Air

A provocative new sculpture has opened at the U.S.-Canada border crossing near Vancouver, BC. It’s a billboard advertising...well, nothing.

The creator, Daniel Mihalyo from Lead Pencil Studio says:

Borrowing the effectiveness of billboards to redirect attention away from the landscape... this permanently open aperture between nations works to frame nothing more than a clear view of the changing atmospheric conditions beyond.

Signs of Life - JR

2011 TED Winner French street artist JR pastes enormous close up portraits of African women on any available wall space in their villages. He also printed them onto vinyl sheets then used to protect many leaking huts from rain, making murals seen from the sky. The portraits show the resilience and spirit of the women. 'I photograph anonymous women who are our daily heroes,' say JR, 'to make their story travel.'

brainpickings  daily motion
TRAILER " WOMEN ARE HEROES" from SOCIAL ANIMALS on Vimeo.

Banksy exposes the horrors of overworked & underpaid elderly unicorns

Guerilla Knitting

Graffiti art by definition intervenes in public spaces. Knitted graffiti beautifully blends a traditionally female craft activity with the traditionally male urban spray painting and/or political slogans of anarchists.

Appearing all over the place like moss growing around telegraph poles and bannisters, public benches and even a bus, the knitted graffiti revolution is upon us. Outsider art meets nanna.

see: grrl plus dog

While You Weren't Watching

thanks to cronicas barbaras

Public Ad Campaign

thanks to urban prankster and public ad campaign

Read/Write City

"Our city is read-only. You’re free to read advertising, business signs, and city signs. But dare you write or hang anything of your own; you will be labeled as a criminal - a graffiti vandal. In many cities it’s even illegal to hang a sign for a garage sale on a light pole. If you happen to have a several thousand dollars, you might be able to say what you want - as long as it’s not too political.
But this is public space. You’re free to say whatever you want in public space, but freedom of speech does not extend to the visual environment. The visual environment is pay to play. Public visual space has become commercial space.
The visual environment is read only.
Why is read/write better? Because you can consume, process, and respond. This is how we think critically. This is how we learn. You can talk back. You can express yourself. You don’t just consume expression, you create expression.
Read/write is how democracy works.
There’s a reason kids want to write their names on walls. There’s a reason why people take graffiti seriously. Granted, graffiti writers don’t always know how to direct this energy, but I’d argue there’s some overlap with the reasons one writes their name on a wall and the reasons one runs for the school board. Being able to write means being able to affect your environment. To change it. You exist in the world not as a consumer, but an active citizen.
Read only culture creates apathy."

The Anti-advertising Agency via Tomorrow Museum image by Banksy

Improv Everywhere: High Five Escalator

The best thing about this improv is watching gloomy urban commuters break out in huge grins as they get the Improv Vibe. No one is selling anything, there is no spooky agenda other than joy. Urban Pranksters are all about breaking monotony and playing with conventions. Fabulous.

Armsrock

Ephemeral art as described by inspiring artist Armsrock who wants to give pedestrians a surprise image to wake them from the every day humdrum. Like Hermann Hesse's river that is never the same from moment to moment the street is never the same.

Miso

waratah place, melbourne

Found Magazine

Have you ever wondered what to do with that hand written note you found at the bus stop? The one with a prophetic message that unravelled a problem your psyche was pondering at the time.

I love collecting them, even when it turns out the scribbled note is only a discarded shopping list. The good ones end up pasted into my journal. They exist as evidence of small ordinary intimacies.

Such detritus of mundane existance is transformed into art thanks to this on-line internet site. You can post all those found items such as handwritten notes and photos and anything you find to the site. Some items have even been reunited with their respective original owners.

There is an apology note written by a child who had a tantrum (we assume) whilst playing monopoly on vacation with his family in a cabin somewhere far far away. It is very sweet. The comments thread that follows is an hilarious interweaving of conversations.

Bubble Project

source: always try to go with something else

No Sir-ee

A few years ago my friend Lisa and I braved a fresh Spring morning to protest about the impending Iraq War. I think I was in the 'W'. Anyway, I found the image thanks to google. It was published online in an Indian tabloid. Here's the caption:

Over 300 nude women protesters spell out "no war" during an anti-war demonstration in Sydney on Sunday. The women bared all to protest Australia's involvement in a possible US-led war on Iraq. — Reuters

Wet Dog

My favourites of psuedo-anonymous Banksy's street stencils include the sillhouettes of English children at play in a 21st Century squalid context.

The juxtaposition of innocence with urban decay is interesting.

This one of a wet dog is simply clever and delightful.

A few days ago when feeding my goldfish I noticed a face in the bottom of the tank smiling up at the fish and me, it was unfortunately unphotographable but this long face in the pavement spotted whilst snacking on yoghurt was easily captured.

It's not quite Jesus appearing on a piece of toast but hey, I'm agnostic.

Let Me Out

Dan Witz is a NYC based street artist who, amongst other things pastes art stickers on buildings around Brooklyn.

About the his new series Ugly New Buildings he says:
In the past few years much of my neighborhood in Brooklyn has been torn down to make way for luxury housing. For better or worse it's a whole new street-scape out here. Personally, I can't say I like the new modern architecture very much, it's sterile and alienating and so arrogantly disconnected with its surroundings sometimes it seems like giant alien space ships have landed. But let's face it, bemoaning gentrification in New York City is futile, it's like complaining about the noise or other unstoppable forces of urban nature.
So for this summer's piece I tried to make the best of it. These are photo-based, heavily re-painted stickers, mounted on plastic and glued to the walls of the Ugly New Buildings. In May I put up around 30 and about half are still there.
source: urban prankster

Improv Mirror

Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 70 missions involving thousands of undercover agents. The group is based in New York City and best known recently for the ‘Frozen Grand Central’.

Their latest mission involved filling a subway car with identical twins, creating a human mirror. Genius.

source: swissmiss

City of Shared Stories

A City of Shared Stories is a project from Spread the Word in the UK supported by the Arts Council of England. It started in March this year and works with London writers at every stage of their development by offering connections and opportunities for writers through a programme of courses, professional development, events and work in schools.
They encourage new and original voices in poetry, fiction, scriptwriting and many other genres.

Writers are invited to submit a short story about their street in London, creating a map in words. The map changes and grows as writers add their words.

source: my art grows around me

Not a Tree

Rather odd mini manhole covers inscribed with the word TREE dot the streets down at the Rocks in Sydney, presumably for access to tree roots for watering. I photographed some and added text and a tree shadow using photoshop.
With a nod to Magritte, who painted The Treachery of Images 1928 with text "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" translated to "This is Not a Pipe", I made this image as a protest about urban sprawl and deforestation of native bushland. Cities are often built on the most fertile, abundant soils with largest rainfall.

image: Talisa Tulip 2008

Face 2 Face

The Parisian artist JR works with portrait photos which he puts up on walls, bridge pillars or gates. Through the special aesthetics of his photos and the sometimes gigantic formats in which he brings the faces to the city, he directly challenges advertisement posters and gigantic banners in a visual way because the people in his photos are actively looking out at us as opposed to being objectified.