Canvassing Cork

Thursday, 23 October 2014

Canvassing (Parts of) Tuscany - Part 2 - Graffiti in Arezzo

In this post, I'll share some of the graffiti/street art that I found while combing the streets of Arezzo in Tuscany during a recent family holiday. I captured a range of pieces, from commercial art to stickers to stencils and doodles. I'll just post them all here, grouped by type, and y'all can feast your eyes on whatever pieces you like.

On a side note, as an experiment, I took nearly all of these (except two?) with the camera on my Samsung SII smartphone. I think they turned out pretty well.

OK, first we'll look at some commercial art. The first three photos were taken of pieces at a gelato shop in the old city centre. The first pic - of the Rasputin-like character - is on an outside wall. The next one is inside, as is the drawing. They have a Manga kind of feel to them. There are some initials ("ZJK") on the drawing, which I assume is the template for the bigger pieces.

The next piece adorns the doorway of a dance clothing shop....

There is a name painted into the piece, but I had trouble making it out properly at first. After some searching, I found the painter seems to be Gianluca Bosello, a painting instructor at a place called Accademia 49 in Cesena, Italy. There is a mini-profile of him at this link: http://www.accademia49.it/index.php/docenti/gianluca-bosello-disegno-e-pittura.

Also, here is a link to the shop's Facebook page, where they have a folder with photos of this piece being painted:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.160494834147775.1073741828.160491677481424&type=3

Moving on, there were a lot of what I would call "doodles" around the city, and here is a selection of the better ones....

And now, here are the stickers. There were a lot of stickers....

Rough translation: "Revolt against the modern world!"

There was some old fashioned graffiti down around the train station, as you might expect....

And there was a bit of text on the city walls as well....

Rough translation: "The fact is that of all the ways to be happy I choose you".

Very rough translation: "You who of stars dressed the sky". Probably wrong, though!

The above phrase seems to be from a fierce romantic Italian pop song called "Non è mai abbastanza" ("It's never enough") by a band called Modà. Very passionate stuff. Here's a link to the video for the song on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NRQgnsKl9Q

Rough translation: "You are chaos, the chaos that stabilises my weak heart. I love you."

There were a goodly number of stencils around the city, as well....

Translation: "Safety?"

Translation: "I'll find you".

Rough translation: "The Revolution? Today no... Tomorrow maybe. The day after tomorrow definitely..."

I'm too tired at this stage to put up links this time. And I bet you're too tired to look at links. So let's call it a day.

Alla prossima....

Sunday, 19 October 2014

Special Bulletin: "Surplus Candy" profiles graffiti centres and artists

Ladles and Gentlemints, we interrupt our irregularly scheduled posting to bring you this interesting message....

I learned from a friend in the States that there is a new YouTube series called "Surplus Candy" that is profiling graffiti centres around the world, or at least in the "New World". It is hosted by a guy named Hanksy, who interviews local folks about the graffiti/street art scenes in their cities.

It looks like there are two episodes so far....

In the first, Mr. Hansky visited Montreal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nfTSFjedDM

The second episode highlighted the developing scene in Detroit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJMwwH7GcmU&list=UU7i6iH7cLz1aq0E7HeVmhcA

Here is an article in The Huffington Post about the Detroit episode, with some images by local artists:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/16/hanksy-detroit-_n_5992818.html

The show seems to be produced by a group called The Hundreds, and the episodes are published on their YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7i6iH7cLz1aq0E7HeVmhcA

The Hundreds have the usual social network links and pages. Info on their Facebook page says:

Company Overview

At it’s core, The Hundreds is a multi-faceted project that houses an apparel and accessories brand, footwear range, eyewear, online-magazine, print magazine and retail stores. All ends of The Hundreds incorporate our trademark lifestyle, attitude, and personal perspective on street subculture.

The Hundreds clothing is inspired by LOS ANGELES LIFESTYLE / CALIFORNIA CULTURE and Southern California’...s skateboarding, surf, punk, and hip-hop cultures. The design is also reminiscent of 1980s surf-culture t-shirts, independent skateboard company apparel of the 1990s, and the advent of “streetwear” at the end of the millennium. The line is sold in limited quantities in the world’s most prestigious streetwear and skate boutiques and has been recognized by media such as Inc., the New York Times Magazine, Antenna, Giant Robot, KoreAm, MuchMusic Television, and T Magazine.

So it is a business, but now you have been warned. I've watched the "Surplus Candy" episodes, though, and they are good - worth a look! (The animated Tom Hanks face gets a bit old after a short while, though.)

Happy viewing.

UPDATE 5/10/2014
Here is episode three of Surplus Candy, where Hanksy visits Philadelphia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCPZosCNpn8

UPDATE 23/11/2014
Here is episode four of Surplus Candy, where Hanksy visits Portland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-4zOa_dO60

UPDATE 29/11/2014
Here is episode five of Surplus Candy, where Hanksy visits Chicago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMvIgmSp_8Y

UPDATE 18/03/2015
Here is episode six of Surplus Candy, where Hanksy visits Austin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OqpszlVD2c

Saturday, 18 October 2014

Canvassing (Parts of) Tuscany - Part 1 - Graffiti in Florence

I was in Tuscany recently with the family unit, and I took the chance to sample some of the local urban/street/graffiti art in two of the cities there. I passed through Florence (Firenze) very briefly on my way to Arezzo (Arezzo), where we spent a number of days.

From the point of view of street art, this was doing things exactly backwards, as I found out. While there is a lot of art in Arezzo, and lots of basic graffiti, there does not seem to be a great deal of the kinds of street art I usually feature in this blog. Florence, on the other hand, seems to be a virtual Mecca for street artists. So, I was able to capture only the smallest fragment of what's on display in Florence and I had to hunt around a good bit for what I was able to find in Arezzo...

In this post - part 1 of a mini-series I'll do on what I found - I'll start by sharing the few bits I was able to photograph in Florence. I saw plenty street art there, but this was mostly through the windows of taxis and trains as we passed through. It was pretty frustrating. I suppose I will just have to visit Florence again, budgeting more time to wander around....

While taking the train, I found the stations around Florence to be rife with graffiti, naturally enough I suppose. I was able to take videos of some of this work as we flew by. I have uploaded two of the better videos to YouTube and I have provided the links below here. Though the graffiti does whiz by as the video rolls, you can pause the flow to get a better look at particular pieces if you wish.

Video 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3VpXyxegE8

Video 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKQxkf0h8KE

I also tried my hand at taking some screen shots from one of these videos, so I will include the better ones here.

In my next posts, I'll share the interesting bits and pieces I found in Arezzo. Ciao!

LINKS!!!

I found there is a small Tuscany graffiti group on Flickr. The link is below here. In a way, though, you can get more results by just typing in searches on Flickr with terms like "graffiti" and "Tuscany", "Florence", "Arezzo", etc.
https://www.flickr.com/groups/1277232@N20/

This is a news story of sorts about good and bad graffiti in Florence. It shows some great work and lists areas of the city that I should try to check out next time I'm there. I saw the piece at 1:40 when passing in our taxi and longed to jump out and photograph it.... but we were on our way to the airport. Next time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OD7gSv7K6I

Here is a video I came across of some graffiti writers at work in Firenze with a sweet soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPXECkIMY8Y

And video of a graffiti fest in Florence back in 2009:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wPH_p2KFEw

If you are inspired now to visit Florence, there is a plethora of travel videos about the place. Here is a video giving you Florence in a nutshell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0_zfTN5_jI

Wednesday, 8 October 2014

Enda and the Cat

Just a short post today about two small pieces located on Oliver Plunkett Street.

First, Mr. Vincent Zara recently put up a political piece portraying Mr. Enda Kenny (the current Taoiseach, or Irish Prime Minister) as a particular famous literary and Disney character...

Nearby is a nice paste-up of a cat. I'm not sure who it's by, but I like cats....

LINKS!

Not much to link to this time, but here is Enda Kenny giving a "State of the Nation Address" on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9qK_A8dRp4

Here is a trailer for Disney's film Pinocchio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKAX3IjyluQ

And here is a YouTube video of a cat playing ping pong:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXz2ABOIqwo

Also worth checking out is the YouTube channel for Oskar and Klaus:
https://www.youtube.com/user/Mick12321kciM

And last but certainly not least, here's a link to the "Simon's Cat" cartoons:
https://www.youtube.com/user/simonscat

Saturday, 13 September 2014

People's Republic of Cork

Last year, a great mural was put up at the corner of Cornmarket Street and Kyle Street in Cork. It was done by artist Tom Doig on behalf of the people at the People's Republic of Cork, a website providing events information, music guides, chat forums, etc. associated with Cork.

According to Doig, the idea was to create

a mural in the centre of Cork City in order to brighten up a fairly delapidated area of town while at the same time celebrate some of Cork’s most recognisable citizens. We came up with a design that incorporated the theme of a ‘People’s Republic’, which would be recognisable to most Corkonians. The famous Cork people included are: Roy Keane (Footballer), Rory Gallagher (Guitarist), Frank O'Connor (Writer), Sonia O'Sullivan (Olympic Athlete) and Mother Jones (Trade Unionist).

He said the mural was put up over four days in July 2013. I finally noticed it this year ( : - p ) and photographed it this July - one year later. Better late than never, I guess?! It is a bit weathered, but still in good shape...