I got to the blogspot a little bit late on this sunny day. Wanted to spread the message from South Africa, but saw that news does travel fast in this massive community reach ... so now its sunny and I'm smiling and the most faithful thing to do seems like spread some of the great images I've received as early morning mail treats from Faith47 during the past year or so ... creative action = active creation.

C215 Forwarded an email from Cape Town artist Faith 47. The new law takes away their ability to give permission to artist to paint murals on their house.

Here is what Faith47 had to say about the new law

"we are facing a new anti-graffiti by-law in cape town which takes away the house owners rights to give permission for any artworks on their walls besides a house number.

The new, proposed graffiti by-law makes no distinction between vandalism and public art that is done with the permission of the owner of the property.

Please can you assist us in our efforts to amend this by-law by signing the petition and forwarding it on...
As we need to present it to the council during the public participation process.

thank you, here is the link and below are the details of the two points in the by-law that we would like to amend.


http://www.petitiononline.com/art4all/petition.html


To: The City of Cape Town

The new, proposed graffiti by-law criminalizes all forms of public art and violates our personal right to freedom of expression on private property.
It makes no distinction between vandalism and public art that is done with the permission of the owner of the property.
The by-law will soon be presented for public discussion and these are the two main issues that we feel need to be addressed:

1. The definition of ‘graffiti’ under the by-law is too broad. It classifies ‘graffiti’ as any inscription, word, figure, letter, sign, symbol, sketch, picture or drawing. There should be a clear differentiation between ‘graffiti vandalism’ [e.g. gang tags, scratchings] and public art that is done with permission from the owner [murals, colourful characters and positive, inspiring messages].

2. The by- law removes the legal right of the private property owner to paint anything other than a house number on his/her wall. We strongly believe that the private property owner should maintain the right to determine what to paint on to his/her property without permission from the City.

if you agree with these two amendments please sign the petition on the link above
and hopefully we can adjust the by-law to become a more inclusive one and thus limit the damage it can potentially do to the creative growth of our city.
"





This law reminds me of the same legal challenge that the city of Miami gave Mark Ecko when he had artists paint a mural on the outside of his house. They threatened to fine Mark something like a thousand dollars a day if he didnt remove it. Unfortunately I do not know what the final outcome was with his legal challenge to the city. If anyone reading this blog has an idea, I'd be keen to hear about it.

Got an email from C215 this morning about a piece of artwork that was stolen. The piece was put out in the public arena, so it could be argued that it was free game, but the problem is that too many people try to exploit the public arena to make a dime.

C215 says "Hi if someone see this piece in a gallery, an auction or by someone, I would be really happy to be informed. If you want to help, you could also put this on your blogs, this would be fine to deprive these people to sell the piece. My request is simple : Please let art in the streets... "

Seems a pity to rob the blight of the urban landscape of something that is so beautiful.

Here is another blog entry about it: http://samarrainelafee.blogspot.com/2009/03/le-voleur-des-rues.html

Opening TONIGHT in NYC!
Work To Do
112 Greene Street, Lower Level
6-10pm

Curated by Royce Bannon and the Endless Love Crew
Featuring work by Moody AA, Cabahzm, Cake, Robots Will Kill, Smart Crew, AVOID pi, infinity, Deeker, Keeley, El Celso, Pufferella, Skewville, Royce Bannon, AnerA, Abe Lincoln Jr., Ellis G., Matt Siren, Overconsumer, Kosbe, Aiko, Abby Goodman, Bast, Ben Jackson, Bobby Hill, Buildmore, C. Damage, Chris Brennan, Christopher Gordon, Dark Clouds, Destroy and Rebuild, Erica Faulke, Smells, Stikman, Royce Bannon and many more.
With a performance by Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force

Photo by Mark Sullivan / My Central Jersey

Sabotaz brand was featured in a photo essay published in The Home News Tribune yesterday. Albus Cavus artists Eric Kennedy, Jim Hancocks, Jos-L, Will Kasso, PaperMonster, Sarah Massey, Peter K and Leon Rainbow got together for a little painting jam in New Brunswick, NJ. Visit Albus Cavus blog to get more info and view more photos.


Click the photo to see more...

In town for his show at the Christopher Henry Gallery (on view through April 12), Ethos spent the weekend painting a wall in Williamsburg.

New time lapse video from Anthony Lister for his show in Italy

So do you want to virtually tag up your TV with your Wiimote....now you can (sort of).
WiiSpray

Many people can quote Blek and Jef aerosol as French stencil artists from the 80's. Just a few know Epsylon Point. Epsylon began to paint stencils in the streets in 83. He is an authentic French anarchist who never worked of his life. Etienne struggled during his whole life against all forms of authority, and while many others left the scene during the low business periods, Epsylon never gave up stenciling, placing kamasutra and revolutionnary stencils in the streets of Paris, even spraying his own moustache, sometimes pink, other times purple or blue, and this during 25 years. He's now 59 years old, he's poor, has no teeth anymore and looks sick, but his work and body are both a pure testimony of the street stencils history. You can contact him, he's a very nice and funny fellow.



his flickr group :

http://www.flickr.com/groups/epsylonpoint

Check out the amazing skillz of Reka and Phibs of the Everfresh crew as they do a piece for the 50th Anniversary of Chupa Chups... Best Quote "These guys are not out Taggin trains...They are are professionals" ....Ba ha ha ha!!!

DABS MYLA"LIKE THAT"
This is our last show in Melbourne before we head of for a year or 2 to Los Angeles..
So we wanted to go out with a bang!!
A lot of work went into it!!A lot of mind space...
Its a great feeling for it to be up now!!!
...take a breath!!.....ahhhhh!!
The opening went really well!!a bunch of people and a lot of kind words!!
check the flicks below!!!

Just a few words to introduce one of the main founders of street art and my favourite street artist so far : the French artist Ernest Pignon Ernest.

Born in 1942, he was already painting stencils outdoors in 66, before gluing amazing academic silkscreen posters in the streets of the world during more than 20 years and influencing later artists like Blek or more recently WK.


His website :
www.pignon-ernest.com

If you are in DC this week, you can't miss this mural jam show. Over 20 artists are creating murals dedicated to Zora Neale Hurston, influential Harlem Renaissance artist and folklorist.

The show is sponsored by Sabotaz and it features some of the most exciting mural artists living and working in DC area. The opneing will be on Saturday March 14, 9pm-midnight. Open to public on Sunday as well.

This is not strictly art, but it's urban, so I decided that those who like industrial spaces and nice painting spots might be into it too. I used to do this occasionally when I lived in Melbourne, and I was pretty lucky to find a crew of people here in Moscow who like exploring and taking photos of abandoned sites.... There are a LOT of them here. I assume it is the case in a lot of Eastern European countries. Lots of businesses shut down for various reasons, and the sites have just been left to decay.

So far I have been to disused factories, hospitals, office buildings and even an old waterpark. All these sites bar one were pretty much unguarded, and besides, when you run into security guards here, you can bribe them to pretend they never saw you.........

I have also heard about Metro 2 - a second metro system that is apparently larger than the actual Metro, and was built under the main system to ferry Stalin et al around the city. It is supposed to connect the Kremlin with the FSB headquarters, the government airport at Vnukovo-2, and a lot of other places. This is one of those things that has never been confirmed or denied by authorities, although some urban explorers claim to have been down there. There's a 'secret map' here. These guys, the Moscow State University Diggers, are a group of students who go on regular missions/expeditions under the city. For those in Melbourne, they are kind of like the Cave Clan, and yes, it seems they have parties under the city sometimes too. They also say they've been down into Metro 2.

I watched a video made by a couple of Americans who said they were down there. You can check it out here. You can also find a general Moscow urban exploration site with pics of some pretty amazing places here.

Plus here are some of my photos from the last 6 months or so.




Abandoned printing factory, Novosloblodskaya, Moscow.

Labels: Abandoned Buildings, Metro-2, Moscow, Russia, Urban exploration

Got to visit the Sabotaz factory in Greece. It was like a kid in a candy store. Not only did we get to see how the paint is made, but we got to see the 40 new colors that are going to be added to our palette!! For the past year, I have been hearing about these 40 new colors, but for one reason or another, there were delays in production. Well, I am happy to announce that finally, after one year of delays, the colors are completed. We are working on the shipping now, and should be receiving 20 of the 40 colors in the next month or two. Stay posted.

Here are a few shots of the hotness:

Here is a shot of the warehouse. Beautiful isn't it? thousands and thousands of cans of Sabotaz just waiting for someone to use them. ahhh.

The day we were in the production, they were running Cosmost Lac, which is a secondary line of paint that Sabotaz does. This secondary line of paint is meant for hardware stores, and general use. it's sort of like the American Accents paint that Home Depot sales. I would have loved to see Sabotaz being produced because I think it would be amazing to see the Sabotaz cans rolling off the assembly line, but this was nearly as good.

These are the empty cans, before the valve is put into them.

This after the cans are filled with paint, the propellent is added, and now they are headed to a water bath. The water bath tests the cans to make sure they can stand up to heat as hot as 130 degrees. Every single can of Sabotaz is tested to make sure it is as reliable as the next.

Here the cans are coming out of the water bath and they are being blown dry before going down the assembly line to the next area.

this machine puts the caps on each can. With the Sabotaz cans, they dont come with the caps already on, but for the Cosmos Lac line, they are.

Here you can see that the cans have the caps on them, and now they are headed to the area that puts on the ovecaps. The overcaps are what stop the caps from accidently spraying, and shows what color the paint inside is.

This is the overcaps coming off of the assembly line.

just like little soliders

Here you can see the cans rolling down to the next area. Now the cans are ready to be packaged. They have the caps, the over cap, and are going to be put into boxes and labeled.

This is the boxing robot. The Cosmos Lac line of paint comes 12 cans to a box, so it waits for 12 cans to line up, then it picks it up and puts them into the box.

beautiful site, isnt it?

This is the robot that picks up the boxes of paint, and puts them on a palette. This thing was a beast. Could kill you in a second if you got in it's way, then it would take over the world, and enslave your family.

The palette is ready to roll down the assembly line and be put onto a truck.

Cans ready to be pulled and put on the assembly line.

Empty cans of Sabotaz

When I go to bed at night, I dream of this. Not Demer, but the thousands of cans of sabotaz.

Name:
Peter Krsko

City:
Washington DC

Country:
USA

What do you do?:
I co-founded Albus Cavus artist collective. Currently, I coordinate some of our projects. I also create art, but most of my effort goes into supporting the other creatives.

Your website:
http://www.albuscav.us

Your favorite artists?:
Hard to pick the favorites. That varies with my mood. Besides Albus Cavus artists, Andy Goldsworthy and George Segal dominate the list.
Suggested websites, books, galleries, or places:
Stay tuned to this blog or http://albuscav.us/blog/ as I will be sharing my favorites with you on regular basis.

What do you have a passion for?:
For learning and exploring. I love to discover the hidden secrets around us. For a while I used scientific language that turned out to be insufficient for my purpose. Now, I focus more on sharing my findings with everyone else in creative ways. Teaching and playing...

What inspires you?:
Earth as one huge living organism that controls itself through chaos and nonequilibrium... All the building blocks (trees, rocks, people...) and their relationships and ways of communication inspire me every day. Among the negative element, the barrier between human society and the rest of nature scares me and pushed me to do what I do.

What does the future hold for you?:
Future is bright... filled with urban playgrounds...


Sultry Indulgence: Recent installation for Valentine's Weekend Artshow in Washington DC. Interactive installation that forced the audience to touch and feel the art. http://albuscav.us/blog/?p=370


Raritan River Art Walk: One-mile long outdoor gallery of murals in New Brunswick NJ. Annual event features over 100 artists. Albus Cavus established the space and currently curates it. Photos by Massey Media.



Dubai 08: Piece by Chor Boogie and Pose 2 that was created during our trip to Dubai. My role was to coordinate all the logistics and business. MTV Commission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teuI4Qx5AEM


DC: This is collaboration with Will Kaso during an art jam in Columbia Heights neighborhood in Washington DC. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXblBfGBUes

Concrete Alchemy 08: The tour of 15 artists on the East Coast. I was one of the main organizers and coordinators. It was an amazing experience to be on the road for two weeks, fully focused on our art. Photos by Ricardo Barros.
http://www.albuscav.us/concretealchemy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0pEQ5qyP1Q

Bummer at the Burning Man 2008: The sculpture created by Myk Henry and his team, painted by Pose 2 and me. Photo by http://flickr.com/photos/zachwass2000/

New piece in Lincoln City, OR by Jim Darling. 8 seconds dood, ride it!

Labels: Jim Darling, sea side rodeo, surfing

Labels: 15 Minutes, artists call, Luckystar, Warhol. Milwaukee art

Belgian artist ROA stopped by Factory Fresh in Bushwick, Brooklyn this weekend.