Ekta - Public Painting

Street art by Ekta on the side of The White building, along the River Lea Navigation at Olympic Stadium on August 7, 2013 in London, England.

 

 

A Swedish artist, she grew up on London, but later moved back to Sweden.  From an interview she says: I usually start with a very vague idea or no idea at all as to what I’m painting or drawing, I make stuff up as I go along, it would bore me to death to have a fixed idea that just needs to be realized. I don't like to be obvious with my work and I don't want it to be too vague either, in between is good. There’s a lot of lines involved in my drawings but I tend to stay away from lines completely when I paint and just use blocks and shapes of color, it's a good way for me to not get bored the process. I prefer painting but when I've done that for a while it's good to swap to lines and drawing for a bit. For painting I use acrylics and spray paint, I usually don't mix the two (unless sometimes when painting outdoors) as for drawing its just pens. I don't have a standard or some specific brand or size that I always use, I recently started drawing a bit more with a brush and ink which is something I'll continue with for sure, I've been very focused on tidy & clean lines when I'm drawing and using a brush allows me to try and be a bit less “perfect.” see: http://www.juxtapoz.com/current/interview-with-ekta

A pinch of Earth...Uysal's Sculpture

'Skin 2' (2010) created by Mehmet Ali Uysal. Not only did the artist create a giant clothes pin, but it seems to be squeezing a moujt of earth in this park outside Liège, Belgium. 

Federation Bells - A new way to ring the bells

A musical work of public art can be found in Melbourne. Called the Federation Bells, it consists of  39 brass different sized bowl-like bells that play different songs each day. In fact the public can submit a tune to the curator who then translate it via computer into a song the bells can play.  Federation Bells was created in 2001, designed by Anton Hasell and Neil McLachlan in collaboration with Swaney Draper Architects.

Jess Dobkin: Crossing Lines

Jess Dobkin is a performance artist based in Toronto, Canada. Dobkin's primary artistic tool is her own body, that she uses in multiple ways in her work. A lot of her work involves nudity, that is explicit, filled with humor, and sometimes makes the viewer a little uncomfortable. Her main goal is to allow audiences to dive into an array of contemporary social issues.
This is Dobkin's website that has several of her performance videos: http://181.224.139.35/~jessdobk/video/#&video=1

Kanye West: Claustrophobic ?

Kanye West is an American rapper, songwriter, performer, record producer, director, entrepreneur, and fashion designer. He began his musical career in 2004 with his first album, The College Dropout, and is currently finishing up on his latest, unnamed album that should be released sometime this year. West has already accomplished a lot this year with fashion (Adidas campaign) and music (single with former Beatle, Paul McCartney). A few weeks ago at the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary celebration show, West gave a very interesting performance, and was joined by rapper Vic Mensa and Sia. The performance begins with West lying down on the stage, rapping into a microphone that is hanging over his mouth, and making upside down eye contact with the camera, revealing his creepy blue contacts. Check out the performance, here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/751672

Marina Abramovic: Pulse

Marina Abramovic is a Serbian artist based in New York City. She began her performance art career in the 1970s, with one of her most famous series called Rhythm. Within the series her most famous performances is called Rhythm 0 (1974) in which she set up a table of about 70 objects, assigned herself a puppet-like role and viewers were allowed to participate in the performance by using the objects on Abramovic in any way they wanted. The objects ranged from a feather to a pistol with a single bullet in it, and for six hours the artist allowed the audience to manipulate her body in any way in order to test the limits between performer and audience. Today, she continues to work, with one of her most recent pieces called The Artist is Present (2010) that took place at MoMA. Essentially she sat at a table with two chairs, and guests were invited to sit in the chair across from her as she sat in utter silence. Each guest was photographed and then their photo was placed in a book. One of the guests included Lady Gaga, who attracted many more people to the museum/performance. After the performance was over, Gaga and Abramovic formed somewhat of a business relationship in which Abramovic (as well as other artists like Jeff Koons) helped the singer with aspects her latest album, artPop.

Rhythm 0
1974

  Artist's Commentary on Rhythm 0

The Artist is Present
2010

Francis Alys: Bringing Cultures Together

Francis Alys is a Belgian artist who is currently living in Mexico City. He was formally trained in architecture, but has a passion for using performance art as a means bringing people together either for a project or while viewing his work. He travels internationally to film his work, most of it holding similar themes of politics, culture, and location as things that are in the way of community. One of his most famous works is a performance piece called 'When Faith Moves Mountains,' that took place in Lima, Peru in 2002. Alys recruited around 500 volunteers to help with the project, with their end goal to move a sand dune a couple of inches. Though this project seems not only impossible but also a bit of a waste of time, the participants were excited to be a part of it, and once it was over, they were excited to share the story. Another piece he did is called 'The Green Line,' in which he performed a walk through the streets of Jerusalem with a leaking can of green paint beside him, leaving his trail. Spectators thought the performance as a poetic expression. Alys's other works consist of him traveling to different third world countries and filming children playing games together, some of which are the same game in different countries.
Alys also did a performance called Painting/Retoque in Panama in which he repaints a single median strip on a road where the US base used to be.

When Faith Moves Mountains
Lima, Peru
2002

The Green Line
Jerusalem, Israel
2004

Here is the video of Painting/Retoque, Paraiso, Panama, 2008