The British graffiti artist known as Banksy made his presence known in Boston this week with an uplifting piece on Essex Street (photo credit to my wife Kathryn). I’ll always have room in my heart for Shepard Fairey and Borf, but Banksy rules them all. Recent cameos in a handful of North American cities likely means that Banksy is out on a publicity tour: his first film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, is currently screening in several major cities.
Definitely take a minute today to check out his oeuvre. My personal favorite, below, appeared on Leake Street in London before being painted over (whoa, meta-irony) in August 2008.
Banksy in Boston
If Jackson Pollock Used A Mouse
People like to disparage so-called “modern” art by proclaiming that with the proper time and inclination, anyone could draw seemingly arbitrary lines on a canvas or reprint the iconic image of a soup can. As it turns out, those people are wrong, and I don’t mean their closed-minded aesthetics: it now takes neither time nor inclination to make Pollockesque art, thanks to a new software application by Anatoly Zenkov. According to Fast Company,
You just run the app, minimize the window, and go about your business. The tracks show your mouse path, and the circles show where your pointer lingered–stopping points where you were working on the keyboard, away from the computer, or immersed in content.
via Fast Company
Tricks Are What Whores Do For Money
Kiwi architect Neil Dawson installed “Horizons,” an optical illusion-cum-installation art display, in a large private park in New Zealand for our enjoyment. It certainly looks like a cartoonish piece of paper but is actually welded steel.
Speaking of illusions, please enjoy this video of a disembodied Charlie Chaplin mask twirling around slowly. Sorry, schizophrenics!
via The Morning News
Shepard Fairey at the Brillobox
In this video from Ben Hernstrom, we get a look at artist Shepard Fairey working his magic on the rooftop of the Brillobox, one of Pittsburgh’s best watering holes. This is one of the many spots chosen by Fairey as part of his “Supply and Demand” exhibition at the Warhol Museum, which runs through the end of January.
Ross Racine
Back in June we posted some sweet artwork from Ross Racine, and we’ve learned that he now has a print for sale over at Fuse-Works. For interested New Yorkers, his work is part of an exhibition at the Front Room gallery in Williamsburg through January 3.
What are you? I’m Batman.
My girlfriend and I watched Tim Burton’s Batman today in preparation for an upcoming visit to the Burton retrospective at the MOMA later this week. Can you believe it’s 20 years old? I can still remember going to see it with my mom and having my mind thoroughly blown. I had the sticker book, action figures, trading cards… you name it. I will stand by this statement until the day I die: Michael Keaton is the best Batman ever.
I found a UK documentary about the making of the film on YouTube. Check out the first part here:
They wanted Bill Murray to play Batman? As in Bill Murray!? My brain literally can’t handle how awesome that would have been. Does not compute.
Now watch parts 2 and 3.
Your MetroCard is Your Life Coach
This fall, the MTA here in New York printed the word “optimism” on 7 million MetroCards without any sort of announcement. It turns out that it was a public art project created by a graphic artist named Reed Seifer. I suppose you could start moaning about commissioning art projects as ticket prices continue to rise, but I have to say, I kind of love the fact that a giant bureaucracy will still do something fun every once in a while just for the hell of it.
Your MetroCard May Be Sending You a Secret Message.
Give ‘Em A (Painted) Hand!
Great collection of pictures that boldly proclaims itself to include the “Best Hand Painting Art Ever.” No argument here, but I haven’t read Sarah Palin’s book.
via Damn Cool Pics
A History of The Sky
A sample movie from the upcoming art intallation “A History of the Sky”:
A History of the Sky enables the viewer to appreciate the rhythms of weather, the lengthening and shortening of days, and other atmospheric events on an immediate aesthetic level: the clouds, fog, wind, and rain form a rich visual texture, and sunrises and sunsets cascasde across the screen.
This is a work in progress. Currently, an image of the sky is being captured every 10 seconds from a camera installed on the roof of the Exploratorium, on the edge of San Francisco Bay. The images collected over each 24-hour period are assembled into a 6 minute movie (at 24 frames/second).
The final piece will consist of a large projected grid of 365 movies, each representing one day of the year, and cycling in parallel through consecutive 24-hour periods. The viewer can stand back and observe the atmospheric phenomena of an entire year in just a few minutes, or approach the piece to focus on a particular day.
via murphlab
Body Paint
Bad ass interactive art installation by Memo Akten
Via LikeCool
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