All posts tagged: Luna Park(US)
BSA in Print : "Community Service" – The Art of C215
January 3, 2012 Artists
"On these hard streets a man discarded can't possibly feel like a citizen of any community. I've wandered these streets in my own disconnected delerium and not seen the homeless man lying inside the contorted cardboard box. Layered in sweatshirts and drowsy beneath the roaring traffic on the bridge his eyes flicker above the edge of the box and we are jolted by each others' suddenness. It's a split second, and maybe unnerving, but not uncaring. I am, after all, only another man, and here we are on the same street. Given the right chain of events, I could be the one peering out over the tattered edge. Am I changed by this moment? Sometimes I am." – Steven P. Harrington
So began the introduction by Steven P. Harrington to the book "Community Service", a monograph of the French Street Artist named C215 that was released last year. It was one of three published works that BSA was honored to write for and provide images for in 2011.
C215 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The multi-layered and luminescent stencil portraits that C215 has created in neighborhoods of cities all over the world have made his work well-known and respected by peers in the Street Art world. For us, his technique and human touch has been so inspiring that it was an automatic response when he asked us to write the introduction and conduct an extensive interview with him for his book. Along with photographs of his work by Jaime Rojo, the work that C215 considers to be "community service" is captured in print by an international roster of many of today's top street art photographers.
Together they all tell a story about a moment, this moment on the street with one of the best, and we were proud to be a part of it in 2011.
Excerpted from the interview for "Community Service":
Steven P. Harrington: Some people have said that Street Art is transforming contemporary life. Is that one of it's roles?
C215: I think that an observant person seeing these small works will never return to an ordinary view of the streets. The day you become interested in street art is a kind of point of no return. The German poet Novalis said, "If you look for your favorite color, you will see it everywhere". I could say the same about graffiti. Street art is changing urban perception for sure, and if you begin to photograph something you have found and show it to someone else, you are so happy to share it.
Steven P. Harrington: When you create portraits of people, often they are people who are in the margins of a society. Can you talk about how you decide which people you will portray in a certain environment?
C215: This is a personal artistic attitude: I try to interact with context, so I place in the streets elements and characters that belong especially to the streets. I like to show things and people that society aims at keeping hidden: homeless, smokers, street kids, etcetera. It is also the result of a certain personal ideology, being socially inadapted myself.
Regarding the pictures I use, it is always a completely subjective choice, based on my own emotions. I'm always expressing my personal feelings through an image everyone can understand. The work has to remain one of self-expression, even when it is also useful for the community. Changing the city by adding color and faces to it is a good compromise.
"Community Service" the art of C215, featuring photography by Vitostreet (FR), Chrixcel (FR), RomanyWG (GBR), Luna Park(US), Jaime Rojo (US), Lois Stavsky (US), Jessica Stewart (IT), Vinny Cornelli (US), Elodie Wilhem (CHE), Lionel Belluteau (FR), Unusualimage (GBR), and Gregory J. Smith(BR). With introduction and interview by Steven P. Harrington from Brooklyn Street Art, a preface by Marc & Sara Schiller from Wooster Collective, and Thierry Froger, collector.
BSA Holiday Giveaway : Banksy, C215, Street Art New York, Beautiful Losers
December 14, 2010 Artists, BSA Giveaway
Dear BSA Readers: We've invited six artists to participate in this year's "Eleven Wishes for 2011". That leaves 5 empty spots. Now we would like to invite five BSA family like you to be a part of it — and win extravagant prizes for your efforts:
All you need to do is send ONE wish and ONE picture or image file to Giveaway@brooklynstreetart.com no later than December 17 and we'll pick the 5 winners.
THE DEEEELUXE PLATINUM BUCKET: This prize will go to the first TWO submissions we pick. In addition to being featured on BSA "Eleven wishes for 2011" these two lucky readers will also get:
A copy of Banksy's "Exit through the gift shop" DVD.
A copy of "Beautiful Losers" DVD.
A copy of C215 new book "Community Service" (release date 01/28/11, but you get yours now!)
A signed copy of our new book "Street Art New York".
THE GOLD PLATED BUCKET: This prize will go to the next THREE submissions we pick. In addition to being featured on BSA "Eleven Wishes for 2011" these three lucky readers will also get:
A copy of "Beautiful Losers" DVD
RULES: You must write a wish for 2011 that you wish for yourself or others; extra points for personal and respectful. Image can be anything BUT you must hold the copyrights to publish the image. Image must be at least 740 wide, and can be in .jpg, .tif, .png, or similar format. Submissions must be received no later than December 17, 2010. Please include your postal address to receive the prizes. Final selections are made by the editors and buckets are not included. We can't wait to hear from you!!!
5 Examples from last year; Martha Cooper, Broken Crow, Jef Aerosol, Hellbent, Cake
SHOUT OUTs: To Beastie Boy Adam Yauch and Joshua Fu at Oscilloscope Laboratories for donating the DVDs. Go to this link to see their full selection of titles. Also to our editor Jeremy Echard at Critères éditions for the c215 books before they are even published, and to Ali Gitlow at Prestel Publishing for Street Art New York. Thank you all!
PRIZE Descriptions
Exit Through the Gift Shop, Director: Banksy
A chaotic trip through low-level criminality, comradeship, and incompetence. By turns shocking, hilarious and absurd, this is an enthralling modern-day fairytale… with bolt cutters.
Exit Through the Gift Shop DVD
Beautiful Losers, Director: Aaron Rose
In the early 1990's a loose-knit group of like-minded outsiders found common ground at a little NYC storefront gallery. Rooted in the DIY (do-it-yourself) subcultures of skateboarding, surf, punk, hip-hop, and graffiti, they made art that reflected the lifestyles they led. Featuring, Shepard Fairey, Ed Templeton, Mike Mills, Harmony Korine, Barry McGee, Chris Johanson, Geoff McFetridge, Jo Jackson, Margaret Kilgallen, Stephen Powers, and Thomas Campbell.
Beautiful Losers DVD
Street Art New York, Authors: Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo
with forward by Carolina A Miranda, published by Prestel
Written by the founders of BrooklynStreetArt.com, Street Art New York the authors take you on a fast sprint through the streets, along the waterways, on the rooftops, and up the walls of todays ever-morphing Street Art scene, as only New York can tell it. Featured in this unplugged and dynamic collection of images are works by 100+ artists, some wildly exciting newcomers as well as some of the "old masters", each one telling their New York story.
C215 Community Service, Author: C215
with introduction and interview by Steven P. Harrington, and preface by Marc & Sara Schiller from Wooster Collective and Thierry Froger, published Jan 2011 by Critères éditions.
World famous globe-trotting French stencil artist C215 as seen through the eyes of 12 of today's renowned street art photographers, covering ground in New York, London, Tel Aviv, Dakar, Moscow, Vitry, Casablanca, and New Delhi among others. In a style recognizable by Street Art fans everywhere, C215 raises the game to poetry while keeping it very human. Photographers include Vitostreet (FR), Chrixcel (FR), RomanyWG (GBR), Luna Park(US), Jaime Rojo (US), Lois Stavsky (US), Jessica Stewart (IT), Vinny Cornelli (US), Elodie Wilhem (CHE), Lionel Belluteau (FR), Unusualimage (GBR), and Gregory J. Smith(BR).