Artwork: Mural by SETH (@seth_globepainter), Three Cages, Amman, 2021
Lovely mural by SETH (@seth_globepainter) Three cages, painted in Hashmi Al Shamali in Amman for the @baladk festival, 2021.
racist sexist boy
Punk is not dead! The Linda Lindas song, Racist, Sexist Boy, has gone viral, partly because it’s a raw riot of a song, and also because the band is made up of four Asian/Latinx girls aged 10-16. The band is already signed up with Epitaph Records for their first EP The Linda Lindas, and they also made an impact opening for Bikini Kill at the Hollywood Palladium.
Check out the song performed at the LA Public Library (which is a crazy backdrop—but i‘m a book nerd so I approve).
to build a home
The dance duo and brothers Marvel and Victory Ebinum from Lagos, Nigeria, create movements that resonate with abstract feelings and big issues relating to mental health, belonging, racism and the planet. The power and beauty of their expression comes as much from their connection to each other, as with the world around them.
Recently they spoke of what inspires them to dance, despite the challenges:
“Your life is a story where you choose the words with your actions. You can choose to lead, follow, fail, win, fall or grow. We had no shoes to dance on and we became so used to it that we loved dancing barefooted even when we had the shoes, it became a part of us.
We had no studios to train, we trained in different floors, in sands, concrete, under the rain, in the room, wherever we were, we became so used to it that even when we had the studios we just loved expressing ourselves anywhere, it wasn't about how we did it anymore it was why we did it.
Even with all that, we still kept expressing ourselves. We got hurt on the way, we argued, we fought, we cried, we almost died but we never stopped because we had a dream, a purpose. We are happy to not only express ourselves through movements but to also inspire and change minds with it and still growing to fulfill our dream which is for the world to be filled with love.
That's the key to keep moving, having a purpose and believing in your dream. That way, you will never lose focus no matter the circumstances that come your way, you will keep moving because you can already see where you are headed.”
words on walls
Artwork: Words by Addam Yekutieli, 2014
The escalating Israeli/Palestinian situation is horrific. Today Addam Yekutieli (aka Know Hope; @thisislimbo) wrote this on Instagram, with images from words he wrote on walls in Europe and Tunisia during the Israel-Gaza war 2014. Words that are tragically still relevant now.
“Revisiting some pieces from the time of the Israel-Gaza war in 2014.
About a week into the fighting, I left for a few months for projects around Europe and Tunisia and throughout this time, witnessed the atrocities taking place from afar.
It was a difficult and extremely surreal experience that brought forth feelings of shame, anger, disorientation and immense heartbreak.
Throughout this time, I wrote these phrases on walls in Austria, Italy, Tunisia and Germany. Like an organic diary of sorts, I used these different spots as moments for reflection. Walls or locations that visually reminded me of a human condition, an emotional situation, places that felt personified by adding thoughts or words onto them that reflected my processing of the events that were going on thousands of kilometers away.
How the barbarity of war reveals the worst of ourselves, collectively and individually, internally and externally.
How people can be hypnotized to believing that there is no other way, how we so easily succumb to the arrogance of war, the self righteousness that indoctrinates and justifies our acts of violence.
Artwork: Words by Addam Yekutieli, 2014
How we look to place guilt anywhere besides on ourselves in order to rationalize the unthinkable.
How we’re not willing to admit what a high price we all pay for this.
How we are shortsighted and fail to see that what is happening is a result of generations of dispossession, humiliation and systemic and systematic oppression.
How we are complicit in sustaining, enforcing and perpetuating this reality for the Palestinian people- even if we're not violent people on an individual level, even if we only keep to ourselves and live our small lives.
How stubborn we are to insist on erroneous terminology to describe this reality.
How in any other context, in any other place, with any other narrative, we would understand this and condemn these systems.
How this reality might give us a sense of safety, but at the expense of a vast population of people indigenous to this land. A people that are fighting for their freedom- of movement, of believing in a future and for their dignity to live a full life.
How on one hand we have our own personal histories ingrained in our psyche but on the other hand are not aware that we are using our generational trauma to justify causing new generational trauma to others.
How it's as if we haven't learned anything, so from within our denial our trauma has mutated into a monster that will end up devouring us all, a Golem that is unaware of its own self.
Artwork: Words by Addam Yekutieli, 2014
How the Occupation is an ongoing process, how it continues to morph and get more elaborate and its engineering more sophisticated.
How we all so actively make sure that we don't lower our guards and take a moment to reflect what we would do if we were in the same situation, without insisting on resorting to cold pragmatism.
Looking back at this and reliving my thoughts, partially through a more current prisma, I'm not surprised at how little has changed.
It emphasizes how much unlearning needs to take place and how urgent the need for the myths that paralyze our morality and overbear our empathy need to be dispelled.
Realistically, these were just words written with spray paint on a wall. Words that can mean anything to anyone, or nothing at all. That they can be loaded and filled with interpretation or be empty of meaning.
Ultimately, it's our choice to see reality and what's in front of us in the way that we do.”
Old Tree
Artwork: Pamel Rosenkranz, Old Tree, Highline, new York, 2021
Pamela Rosenkranz’s recent commission for the Highline, New York, is a stunning, vibrant and mythic sculpture of a red-pink tree. Old Tree references the myths of ancient trees connecting heaven and earth, but set within the concrete, glass, tar and steel of the city, it’s a stark reminder of the blood and roots of what makes this world liveable and beautiful. Trees are fundamental to life, and Old Tree wonderfully connects the blood, vessels and tissues of the human circulatory system with that of the tree which sustains our lives. And it’s a reciprocal relationship.
Starry Beach
In 2020, a’strict, the art division of the Korean digital design group d’strict, created this amazing and hypnotic immersive art installation, Starry Beach.
First shown in Kukje Gallery, Korea, the digital artists of d’strict/a’strict explore the intersection of humans and technology, especially in light of the transformation of digital technologies during the pandemic. Starry Beach is a surreal landscape created in a black box space, engulfing the viewer in a synesthetic experience of encountering massive waves on a beach under a starlit night. The inspiration was “the complexity of nature, in particular the diverse visual and sonic characteristics of water.”
cupid
Artwork: PichiAvio, Cupid, (2021) Grañén, Huesca (north Spain)
Great mural by Spanish duo PichiAvio, melding contemporary street art with classical, Cupid, (2021) painted in Grañén is a rural village in the province of Huesca (north Spain).
I LOVE YOU EARTH
Artwork: Billboard by Yoko Ono, I LOVE YOU EARTH, 2021
For Earth Day Yoko Ono created a series of billboards in collaboration with Serpentine Gallery across the UK. Ono said this about the project: "There are so many of us in the world who are now awakened, ready to act to save our world. So, let’s work together to save this planet. Together. That’s how we will change the world. We change, and the world changes. Have trust in what you can do. Have trust in how fast we can change our world for the better. Why? Because we have to. Believe that we are one and together we will make it. Love is what connects all lives on Earth.”
sky wonders
Photo: by Ewelina Dziewiela (@ewelinadziewiela)
Just wanted to share this spectacular sky featuring polar stratospheric clouds in Iceland.
the end of the tunnel
Artwork: SETH (@sethglobepainter), Le bout du tunnel / The end of the tunnel, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, Paris, 2021
A painting of hope from SETH (@sethglobepainter): "Le bout du tunnel" / "The end of the tunnel", Paris, 2021.
reading is sexy...
Artwork: by WRDSMTH (@wrdsmth)
Totally agree! Artwork by WRDSMTH (@wrdsmth).
A Yoshitomo Nara Day
Artwork: Yoshitomo Nara, Peace of mind, 2019
Peace of mind.
Sit Still
A short dance work directed by Vincent René-Lortie in collaboration with Jacob Jonas The Company featuring seven-year-old Adeline, alone in a vacant school and her “intimate and exhaustive journey of self-expression as she navigates her emotions through Krump.” Krump is a free-form style of street dance with Afro-diasporic roots, popular in the United States. Adeline’s adaptation is quietly powerful, the film heart-wrenching and poetic.
the acorn is happy to become an oak
Handwritten note by Vivienne Westwood, 2019
Wise words from the iconic artist/designer/activist Vivienne Westwood:
“The acorn is happy to become an oak
— Aristotle.
He defines happiness as fulfilling your potential. Follow your deep interest (forget yourself) and become who you are.”
Griffon
Awrtork: paste-up of griffon by SONAC (@sonac.artwork), Paris, 2019
A mythical griffon photographed in the wilds of Paris! Wonderful paste-up by SONAC (@sonac.artwork) of the fabled half-eagle, half-lion creature imagined and written about for centuries by authors such as Herodotus, Pliny, Marco Polo, Dante and Jorge Luis Borges. And magically brought to life here.
El Dorado
Artwork: Choker, album Peak, 2017
Grand theft auto and love gone wrong—El Dorado, a brilliant song by Choker from his 2017 album Peak. Check it out!
Godzilla VS OwlKitty
Something hilarious. I’m a fan of OwlKitty (aka Lizzie) @owl_kitty, and the latest parody of Godzilla VS Kong is hilarious.
JR's Palazzo Strozzi
Artwork: Paste-up by JR (@jr), Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 2021
Artist JR has created a stunning trompe l’oeil paste-up creating a massive opening in the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, revealing significant artworks such as Boticelli’s The Birth of Venus, housed in museums that so many have been deprived of seeing because of the pandemic. The project is funded by the Palazzo Strozzi Future Arts Programme that supports contemporary art. Florence is one of my favourite cities in the world, so JR’s artwork and words resonate:
“They say the museums are closed. But it's up to us to open them. Here is Florence, the city of Boticelli, Donatello, Machiavelli and Dante, we opened the Palazzo Strozzi. These last few months, we have been deprived from the possibility to be together ... but we still have the freedom to dream, to create, to envision the future. Maybe, it's not much, but we have that!”
creation/lifework
Photo: Yohji Yamamoto (Getty Images)
Inspiring words from artist/designer Yohji Yamamoto:
"Creation is lifework, creation is how...you spend your life, you cannot divide life and the creation, it’s impossible. Shut your eyes, close your ears, don’t use your brain, use your heart, your soul."
rainbows
Artwork: Painting by @kennyrandom
Wonderful wall by Italian artist Kenny Random (@kennyrandom): “…because we are made of colours.”