From Paris with Love

Looks like Invader is safely back in Paris with new work and possibly a subtle message for the LAPD. (Photo: Lionel/Flickr)

(via ultra look)

Ai Weiwei Projected on Chinese Consulate in NYC

Cuban artist Geandy Pavon projected a giant image of Ai Weiwei on the Consulate General of China in Manhattan on Friday night. Since the diplomatic mission’s security always runs protesters off their sidewalk and into a designated patch of concrete across the street, this was appropriate.
Protest project Nemesis Ai Weiwei: The Elusiveness of Being had a rippling Ai portrait tower over Twelfth Avenue, haunting the building with a public shaming. This video’s scenes of New Yorkers recognizing Ai’s face are heartwarming, but the action is only symbolic. Too many of Ai’s friends and associates are still missing and the reported details on Ai’s brief visit with his wife seem suspicious. Support from the international art community is growing steadily, but the Chinese government has not wavered in their demonstrative persecution of the artist.
by Marina Galperina

Cement eclipses

electoral campaign Gendarmenmarkt. Berlin. April. 2011

T he Cement Eclipses by Isaac Cordal, "small interventions in the big city" as he  calls them are clever placed little sculptures that pop up in several European cities. His sculptures take the form of little people sculpted from concrete in ’real’ situations. Cordal manages to capture a lot of emotion in his vignettes, in spite of their lack of detail or colour. He is sympathetic toward his little people and we empathise with their situations, their leisure time, their waiting for buses and their more tragic moments such as accidental death, suicide or family funerals. His sculptures can be found in gutters, on top of buildings, on top of bus sheltersLast year, London bases street art magazine LSD published an interview with Isaac. Excerpt:
Where and when did the Cement Eclipse campaign begin? 
I started making sculptures out of cement when I was at School of Art in 2002, but it was not until 2006 when I started to use them on the streets. The first place I left a Cement eclipses sculpture was in the city of Vigo

What’s the concept behind these small street pieces? 
Cement Eclipses is a critic/definition of our behavior as a social mass. This project intends to catch the attention on our devalued relation with the nature through a critical look to the collateral effects of our evolution. These scenes zoom in the routine tasks of the contemporary human being. They present fragments in which the nature, still present, maintains encouraging symptoms of survival. The precariousness of these anonymous statuettes, at the height of the sole of the passers, represents the nomadic remainders of an imperfect construction of our society. These small sculptures contemplate the demolition and reconstruction of everything around us. They catch the attention of the absurdity of our existence. more

 A book about the Cement eclipses will be presented Thursday 26th May 2011 6.00pm at The Pure Evil Gallery, London 

habits make us blind

‘habits make us blind’  1/4

 Spanish architecture studio espai MGR’s ‘habits make us blind’ is a photographic series of work which addresses the vacant lots in downtown valencia, which they pass everyday.

‘…like an invisible metastasis generated in the heart of the city and extending to all its arteries. neighborhoods that, although having huge potential, lay unused, not promoting a good means of sustainable development. We recognize this as a typical theme in the central neighborhoods in valencia. sometimes, the tourists are the city’s
inhabitants pay attention to the issue at hand for a moment because secondary problems stemming from those spaces implied affect us directly. however, in most cases, they are only a part of daily way of life. this photographic body of work aims to call people’s attention to these neglected spaces. it demands the recreational use of these vacant lots as seen through the eyes of a child, by filling them with impossible constructions, surrealistic installations in line with the problem. (…)’
architecture studio espai MGR

‘habits make us blind’  2/4

‘habits make us blind’  4/4

‘habits make us blind’ 3/4

digged at the art resort

(via habits make us blind)