Global Street Art

This piece by Blu in Madrid is as relevant as the day it was...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:39:53 +0100

This piece by Blu in Madrid is as relevant as the day it was painted. The UK news this week has been dominated by: (1) our double-dip recession and Greece’s likely exit from the Euro, (2) scandalous behaviour by British politicians courting media giants News Corp and, (3) the Queen’s Jubilee - when a woman wearing a £1,000,000 hat gets to tell us about fiscal austerity. Hypocrite! For more on Blu: www.blublu.org.

This one’s from Kassel in Germany (one of the artists is...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 10:34:31 +0100

This one’s from Kassel in Germany (one of the artists is MOTEL) - a black and white abstract piece under a bridge in the Northern part of the city. Kassel’s graffiti scene is fantastic - there must be tons of writers and tons of people visiting because the quality of the graf in the city is very high. You’d be amazed at the things you can find under German bridges!

From Cordoba, Spain to Cordoba, Argentina - this is a sweet...

Thu, 31 May 2012 16:39:39 +0100

From Cordoba, Spain to Cordoba, Argentina - this is a sweet abstract character from my friend Seat-1. For more info about the graf scene in Cordoba (Argentina) check out www.cordobagraffiti.blogspot.co.uk.

Can anyone save us! When you’re in need of having a wall...

Thu, 31 May 2012 12:12:47 +0100

Can anyone save us! When you’re in need of having a wall saved from the monotony of gray civic paint and soul-destroying adverts you might call DUTO and 2IPO from Cordoba, Spain. Everyone needs heroes!

One of Odeith’s specialties is his anamorphic graffiti...

Wed, 30 May 2012 16:12:24 +0100

One of Odeith’s specialties is his anamorphic graffiti (you have to stand in a specific position to see the image properly). This one is painted on a corner in the Damaia neighbourhood of Lisbon. Despite the technicality of the piece, its still a lot of fun. For more on Odeith check out our interview.

An Interview with Portugal's Odeith - The Illusionist

Wed, 30 May 2012 10:41:48 +0100

During my time in Lisbon I was lucky enough to meet Odeith, also known as ‘The Illusionist’. His technical ability to trick viewers into seeing his work burst off walls stands out above the vast majority of 3D graffiti writers. A professional muralist and tattooist, himself heavily tattooed, I remember Odeith pulling up to the paint store where I met him in an aging black BMW, complete with a massive exhaust pipe and tinted windows. People in his neighbourhood of Damaia will gladly provide Odeith with paint for his murals. If you could close your eyes and imagine a ‘graffiti king’ then Odeith just overtook him in a pimping car.

Check out the amazing Odeith slideshow below…

In Odeith’s Words

I started painting in 1995 and I haven’t stopped since. Most of my pieces in the beginning were just bombing. In 1997 I started to paint big mural; every time I went to paint I always wanted to do it bigger and better. I was always focused on 3D pieces (I started painting corners in 2005).

I never studied art formally - I left school at the very young age of 15 and I worked in a furniture factory. Most people think that I’m one of those guys who studied art when they see my work but I guess life didn’t want it to happen that way!

I wrote the Portuguese for ‘HATE’ in my first piece. I thought there would probably be a lot of people writing ‘hate’ around the world so I made a few pieces writing EYTH. I don’t know why but I decided to change the “y” for an “i”. After 8 years of writing I wanted something that sounded Portuguese – here’s the tricky part; pay attention! In Portuguese ODEIO-TE means “I HATE YOU” and when you say Odeith it has the same sound. I kept the old ‘Eith’ and now it sounds Portuguese!

When I started writing I think there were only 5 - 6 graffiti writers in Portugal. I used to buy a famous magazine called Hip-Hop Connection only because there were 2 - 3 graffiti pages in the middle. It was a good start to see different graffiti / art from everywhere.

As the years passed, more graffiti writers traveled to Portugal. Every year brings a lot of writers and now we have a big community with a lot of artists, a lot of bombing, etc. The streets are nice galleries to walk through! Now Portuguese writers meet other writers and that’s good because it open doors for you outside of Portugal so you can learn with the world.

Sometimes I say to kids though, if you want to do something really original the best way is to stopping watching other artists work – if you watch others, even if you don’t want to, your mind gets influenced .

I have been making tattoos for twelve years now but at the moment I’m making a living from my anamorphic pieces: sometimes I sell my soul and make some money with some pieces but it’s better than working in a factory.

For years most of my paintings had a message to society because I thought I could change the World. Now I don’t care about it - I just want change my life before the World changes me.

References

Check out this massive wall by Sao Paulo’s Sinha. This is...

Tue, 29 May 2012 16:57:48 +0100

Check out this massive wall by Sao Paulo’s Sinha. This is one of four murals on apartment blocks by the freeway that leads into the city, miles from the city centre!

We’ve now found over 10 new walls for art in East London....

Tue, 29 May 2012 10:57:54 +0100

We’ve now found over 10 new walls for art in East London. This shutter went online yesterday, featuring Malarky, plus Resto and Bue from Belgium. Check out more from Malarky and Bue here: www.malark.blogspot.co.uk, www.flickr.com/photos/buethewarrior. Also check otu our walls project page here for the map: www.globalstreetart.com/walls!

Books are knowledge! The figure Decertor has painted is plugging...

Mon, 28 May 2012 17:42:58 +0100

Books are knowledge! The figure Decertor has painted is plugging a light bulb into the wall of a library (Libreria Lumbreras = library of illumination). A subtle but poignant message! From Lima, Peru.

The Walls of Lima - Interview with Peru's Decertor

Mon, 28 May 2012 11:18:00 +0100

Decertor originates from Lima, Peru. Although he is not globally well-know at this stage I think that’s likely to change in the coming years. Decertor blends a broad palette of vivid colours on his large murals and illegal street pieces, taking some influence from national fabrics. His lifelike characters often have stone-faced looks. Perhaps that’s no surprise given Decertor started out painting tribute murals for murdered gang members in rough neighbourhoods of Lima. I’m confident you’ll see his work and name spread across South America and then beyond, as part of a generation of talented new South American muralists.

Check out the Decertor slideshow…

About Decertor

I sign my art as ‘Desertor’ although I spell it ‘Decertor’ because DCT are the initials of my name, Daniel Cortez Torres. A desertor (a deserter in English) is someone who abandons a project. It’s a military term, but it is also used in daily life. Da Vinci said “A work of art is never finished, it’s abandoned.”

In my case, during an important time when I made decisions about my future I opted to leave behind formality, friends and the life I had to pursue a different set of challenges, one of which was making street art.

You see, in 2005 I was looking to go to art school but I became distracted. I was already painting a lot and the act of physically painting walls distracted me from formal education. All I wanted to do was paint. I didn’t care what I was painting and I didn’t know anything about the street art movement / scene in Lima.

I maintain principally a figurative language [i.e. painting people], but for me the paint itself has stopped being only a “painting for the street”. I started to understand it as part of the urban landscape, like a unit which is part of the composition of the whole. Since then my work has grown in size and format. I had to find new ways to overcome technical problems like using spraycans strapped to the end of long poles.

Something that is very present in my work is ‘man’, in whatever situation. We are the architects of society. I try to communicate this through my murals, and hope that most people recognize it (although at the same time there can be different interpretations). I try to critique everyday situations which are problematic, but always with irony. Another important theme I work with is to reassess the identity and customs that we have in common as a community.

The idea is to always have an excuse to keep painting, to transgress, to counterbalance the publicity that encourages constant consumption, bad architecture and to return public spaces to the people.

There was a time when I studied the geometry, deities and colours that show up in a lot of the Pre-Colombian cultures, especially in ceramics and textiles. I learned to recognize how to add these forms to my walls in a very intuitive way. Peruvian folklore is really varied. On occassion I have taken elements from the Paucartambo festival (Cusco), La Huaconada festival (Huancayo) and La Tunantada (Jauja). Usually the elements I borrow are masks of characters which satirise the colonisers.

Lima is a chaotic and disorderly city with abysmal levels of social inequality and bad urban planning. There is a lot of space for graffiti and every day there are more and more adventurous writers and groups in all different parts of the city. The same can’t be said for murals, which usually have to be legal. Local municipalities put obstacles in your way as people are scared of something new and they associate murals with power groups and propaganda. There is definitely a lot of artistic potential and there have been festivals which have made the practice more mainstream. The movement is growing, but always with Lima at the centre. Peru is centralized which is why Afuera (street art festival in a remote mining community in the Andes, www.afuera.com) is so important. It’s time to decentralize art and take it to remote, unexpected locations.

In each society, art represents what is taking place there and the art is a consequence of that. Street art in Lima has a very marked social agenda, thanks to a lot of factors one of which is immigration. As an immigrant to Lima your customs adapt to the new context, become deformed or are simply lost all together. There is a huge alienation, a struggle just to survive and every day all you can do is keep looking ahead, feeling foreign in the space that you inhabit. Add to that, poverty and social inequality and it’s a tough situation.

At the moment in Peru there is a growth in cultural pride. We are looking inwards at our culture, to all that we have and all that we have inherited. Street art in Lima is a bridge to this re-evaluation and reunion with our cultural identity.

I thought that artists and friends were mostly the ones who were following my work, but after being invited to participate in some festivals and other projects, people in the street are starting to recognize my work, which is important. As far as the authorities go, it’s still complicated but I still manage to occasionally get things done. It’s not easy, just like I’m sure it’s not easy in any other city!

I have a project with Elliot Túpac, in which we unite our work in one solid space without losing the particularities of our individual styles, which are very different. I always put off the idea of having an exhibition, and it looks likely to stay that way. I am really happy doing murals and each time on a larger scale, in different places, decentralizing this activity. I’m also interested in working with more enduring materials and modifying structures.

The Afuera Project

Cerro de Pasco is a city devastated by man’s own hand. It’s a remote mining community way up in the Andes. The landscape is very harsh and the community is full of social and environmental problems caused by the very industry the town lives from. So, this is the setting for Afuera. The idea is that they will take a group of International and local artists to a place they would never normal have access to or even know about. Obviously, in a project like this, the community plays a big part. As artists, we want to go there and see for ourselves the complexities of the situation of living in a remote mining village and hopefully start a dialogue that activates ideas about inclusivity and decentralization. I think that projects like Afuera are really valuable ways of broadening the conversation about our identity as a culture and our identity as a global community.

Afuera is an independent project which guaranties that neither the artists nor the works will be censored or influenced by any outside force, which is a difficult thing to pull off especially when powerful mining companies are involved. The organizers are trying to make the project happen with sponsorship and voluntary donations via Kickstarter. It is an amazing thing to bring together all of these people and some of the best street artists at this critical point in the history of Peru.

Anyone who wants to support the project should visit the Afuera Kickstarter page (see below).

References

Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/decearte
AFUERA on Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/1558062788/afuera-cerro-de-pasco-2012

Welcome to Brazil! This building is a classic pixacao - a...

Sun, 27 May 2012 12:53:52 +0100

Welcome to Brazil! This building is a classic pixacao - a uniquely Brazilian form of graffiti that came out of the favelas. The writing was influenced by heavy metal logos in the 1980s. Whole buildings, tagged top to bottom!

Sometimes you just can’t beat small details. How cool is...

Sat, 26 May 2012 10:28:21 +0100

Sometimes you just can’t beat small details. How cool is this guy! I found this concrete bollard high up in a favela in Rio (roughly Canto del Gallo). The streets were thin and winding and all the electrical wiring droops between the tightly packed houses. Its not on any tourist map!

Mundano’s faces are totemic. This one’s painted...

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:35:35 +0100

Mundano’s faces are totemic. This one’s painted illegally under a bridge in Sao Paulo in a rough area where there were a lot of drug addicts. I sprinted to take the photos because the sun was going down!

Brazilian twins Os Gemeos are well-known for their large-scale...

Fri, 25 May 2012 14:43:27 +0100

Brazilian twins Os Gemeos are well-known for their large-scale murals and detailed characters. They are less known internationally for their smaller, more subtle street work and their classic graffiti bombs. They are all-rounders. This piece is a great blend between a flaring tag and part of a character. I took the picture last year in Sao Paulo.

The Mark Bode Interview part 2

Fri, 25 May 2012 09:47:02 +0100

Check out this epic slideshow of Bode characters painted by different artists all over the World, including: Rio, Buenos Aires, London, Essex, New York, San Francisco, Spain, Germany, Australia and many other places!

My father sought enlightenment from gurus that came to the NYC area in the late 1960s. One young guru (Maji) picked him out of a crowd, touched his forehead and said “The answer is within you.” My father saw a warm light above a city when he closed his eyes and it changed him. He sought the light any way he could from then on. He didn’t have the patience to meditate in the mountains for weeks so he found a short cut (auto-erotic asphyxiation). This propelled him out of his body each time falling deeper and deeper into the light. He did this four times over a four year period. Each time he came back and came to he would cry like a baby to return, as he felt he found a true home, which he called “God Country”. He would tell me with a passion “It’s where we come from and it’s where we are going, never fear it Mark; death is glorious.” His auto-erotic asphyxiation didn’t affect me growing up – I knew why he was doing it and I knew where he wanted to go.

Bode in Brussels

He considered himself blessed to be able to go there and return to talk about it. The 5th time he did it I was staying with him he came out and said “No phone calls Mark, I’m doing my God thing today.” I was stunned by his glowing appearance and said “Dad you look beautiful.” He grinned and said “You see Mark, I really am a high priest”. He walked into his room and shut the door. Some necklaces got stuck in the harness and he never returned from his visit with God. He became one with the Universe once again.

His death was an accident and although I was mad about him leaving me I had a strong base which he put me on. I carried on and focused on taking care of my mother and making sure she did the right things so I wouldn’t lose her too. I never would try such a thing – it sounds like an alien behavior to choke oneself until you pass out.

After his death I was confused and wanted to be like him so much but I didn’t fully understand the need for cross dressing and all the bondage stuff. I guess it worked. I got the calm from his storm. I was very grounded and aware of my own sexuality without all the strange stuff my dad had engrained in his libido.

After Vaughn Passed Away

By the time I was 18 I was inking and coloring his unfinished strips for Marvel’s Epic magazine. Within a year after that I was creating new stories for Epic illustrated with the help of my father’s apprentice and collaborator Larry Todd who wrote stories for me. I would do the art and make up additional characters as we went like “Cobalt 60.” After that was “Miami Mice,” a hit comic I did in 1986 which was a bestselling black and white comic (it sold 180,000 comics in a year).

Bode in Sydney

Some fans ask “do you feel you live in a shadow?” and I answer “If you could bring someone back from the dead who you loved dearly, would you do it?” I do that when I work with my father’s work - that part of him doesn’t need to be dead. In fact, I feel that my father is immortal and I’m mortal. That’s a perfect working team - he gets to be dead and legendary and I carry the work to new places and new heights! So living in a shadow? No. If there’s any shadow then we’re both are in each other’s in the best way.

People want to associate me with Dad and Dad with me. People want to see Bode doing Bode, you know? It’s always positive when I show the style strong and clear. I have no problems with it; I’m my father’s biggest fan! It’s a positive path to follow a family tradition end of story.

A huge Cheech Wizard in Rio

My father knew he would hit bigger markets then comics and I knew it too so I’m not surprised how people have reacted to it. If it didn’t hold magic it would have faded into obscurity. I take credit for holding the mast high and educating people on how this stuff is copy-written material. It’s cool to do one-offs, murals and trains but if you want to make money from Bode characters then you have to contact me! I have a feeling long after I’m gone Cheech and the gang will still be kicking it in the streets around the globe.

I first noticed the influence of my father’s characters in NYC; I was at the School of Visual Arts in 1982, waiting for a train on 23rd street, and I saw a whole top-to-bottom train car with Deadbone Mountain and Bode characters flash by me (it was either Kel and/or his brother Mare 139). I moved back to San Francisco a year later and saw more Bode stuff in the streets – that’s when I realized it was spreading and it wasn’t just one artist putting up my father’s characters. Now nearly 30 years later I have pieces all over the World (but mostly in the San Fran Bay Area where I live).

Bode in Granada, Spain

Personally, my pieces very rarely get tagged – there’s a respect and reverence for the Bode name. I love doing spraycan art more than any other medium I’ve experienced. Although I love doing comics it’s a long a tedious process; tattooing is great but it’s a public service in the end. Graffiti is quick, big and immediate, plus the public can appreciate you as you do it. It’s addictive and time flies by when I’m painting. For real I’ve had police thank me as they roll by but that’s San Fran for you!

Next up for me is a solo exhibition at the Articks Gallery in Amsterdam (July 20^th) with many of my paintings and subway maps, etc. Just before the show Articks is organizing a Bode Tribute to my father in the streets. Then in August I have a two-man show in San Fran at The 1AM Gallery with Metal Man Ed who builds life-size subway trains out of metal. We’re doing a 3D show with stuff that pops off the wall! Cobalt 60 is being optioned for an animated series for Adult Swim and a live action movie with Zack Snyder at the helm as director, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed the Bode magic will continue to grow!

Bode in Luneburg, Germany

References

This interview coincides with a forthcoming Mark Bode solo exhibition at the ArTicks Gallery in Amsterdam in July (http://www.articksgallery.com/exhibitions/articks-gallery-presents-da-bode-in-amsterdam).
www.markbode.com

There really are Bode characters all over the World! This gem is...

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:50:44 +0100

There really are Bode characters all over the World! This gem is by Tats Crew’s Bio in New York (there’s even a Banksy tag in the corner). The picture coincides with part one of our Mark Bode interview: http://globalstreetart.com/post/23662590690/markbode!

The Mark Bode Interview pt1

Thu, 24 May 2012 08:52:45 +0100

A Bode dedication wall in Melbourne

If you ask any graffiti writer about ‘Bode characters’ there’s a good chance that they have some in their sketchbooks. Vaughn Bode was a famous American cartoonist who passed away in 1975, aged only 33. His most famous character, Cheech Wizard, wore a large yellow hat with red and black stars that covered everything but his feet. Cheech Wizard was always on the lookout for parties, women and beer. The popularity of Bode’s work around the late 1970s may explain why his characters were so commonly painted by early graffiti writers on New York subway trains. As photographs of New York subway graffiti became popular around the World in the early 1980s, more and more graffiti writers got to know Bode’s work, helping to make his characters a perennial staple in graffiti culture.

Vaughn’s son Mark Bode is an accomplished artist in his own right but has never shied away from referencing his father’s work. A fine arts major, a tattooist, and with a list of graphic novels and comics under his belt, Mark is also known for his graffiti. We catch up with Mark in time for his Amsterdam show at the Articks Gallery.

Check out this slideshow of Mark Bode’s art…

Bode on Bode

My earliest memories of my Dad were sitting on his lap as he guided my hand coloring in areas of his comic strips (like the Masked Lizard, which was the first strip printed with the Bode Lizards in it in 1965). I might have been around 2; I was not old enough to hold a pen. I stuck a pencil in my forehead and started crying (I still have the lead mark just above my eye like a tattoo).

My father was a very funny and goofy guy; he never took himself too seriously. He was also always trying to get me laid - he said it would be my favorite thing when I got older! We often talked when he took a bath in the morning. I would sit by the tub and we would trade stories and talk about god and what we’re doing on the Earth.

Vaughn Bode with his son Mark, circa 1973.

My father was also very depressed and had to go to a psychiatrist for many years. It stemmed from his abusive child hood. My grandfather was a drunk and beat his kids badly. Maybe that’s why Vaughn was so lost into his own Worlds and why he became the genius he was. He never showed that side of himself, except to maybe my mother. He always had a happy face on for his friends and fans.

I learned to imagine in my father’s style as he taught me his Worlds were real and that he was merely drawing what he saw on his adventures. I believed him as any young child would, and as a result I started imagining Cheech and the gang as real, walking around with us on a daily basis. I never saw them personally but I truly believed my father was hanging out with them: they were just hard to connect with and my father was lucky to cross paths with them more than I did.

I relate to my father’s characters like family. It’s hard to explain other than I feel I’m amongst family when I work with those characters. I often smiling for hours when I’m doing a strip and my cheeks hurt when I finish. It’s kind of like getting into trouble with old school mates. When I work on my own material I’m often much more brooding.

Early on I would do my own versions of his ideas in a crude childlike way. Children have a free way of thinking so I gave my father many of his ideas when I was quite young. For instance Frankenturd and the vampire, and Werelizards were my ideas. Hat yoga and even using women as boats were inspired by my crude ideas.

My dad taught me to draw tits when I was 7 years old. He said “Son, if you draw tits like this you will always make money.” I still draw the girls as he taught me; we have different ways of drawing them but the flavor and voluptuousness is a family tradition.

”Son, if you draw tits like this you will always make money.”

My father couldn’t stay married because of his fetishes. It drove my mother Barbara crazy. He would often dress up and look prettier than she did, which didn’t turn her on. He wallowed in his own androgyny; it’s just the way he was. He was a beautiful person – it’s just that my mom wanted a man and not a closet queen. They broke up still madly in love after 9 years of marriage.

Many of the strips in the Erotica books were his real fantasies. It reads like a sort of diary to his real-life escapades. He even had a tendency towards necrophilia (you may remember the Cheech strip where the apprentice gets dressed up as Cheech and digs up a corpse of a deceased town whore). He never acted on it but all these things were in his head. He was always showing me sexual type stuff, trying to open my mind so I wouldn’t be shut down like he was as a child.

He gave me a paperback called “Girl in Your Pocket A to Z” with pictures of all the parts of girls and explanations about what made them tick. I was 9 at the time and he encouraged me to masturbate to it. I did eventually and thought I was going to die the first time I came! My dad was thrilled I had finally discovered my life force and drive.

By the time I was 12 I had a very skilled hand with art and my father was ready to start to use me as an assistant. We would become a father and son team but it was too late. He died at that time in my life and we never got to work on an official project until a few years after his death when I colored his strip ‘Zooks’ for Heavy Metal magazine (I was 15). He couldn’t have been a more loving father: we were best friends.

Part two of this interview to be published shortly. This interview coincides with a forthcoming Mark Bode solo exhibition at the ArTicks Gallery in Amsterdam in July. Check out the link and flyer below:

How have I not published this yet? This great character is by...

Wed, 23 May 2012 14:51:46 +0100

How have I not published this yet? This great character is by Bristol’s 3Dom, aka Mike 22. After a lot of searching I finally found 3Dom online: www.flickr.com/photos/3dom22. I think he’s a genius.

I had too many Invader photos to post just one! So here’s...

Wed, 23 May 2012 10:43:05 +0100

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

I had too many Invader photos to post just one! So here’s one minute of pure Invader video goodness, set to ‘Around the World’ by Daft Punk.

Lush is well known for his sense of humour. Painting this where...

Tue, 22 May 2012 14:45:39 +0100

Lush is well known for his sense of humour. Painting this where the street art tours go is best complemented by a light-hearted street art tour group who get his funny side. I took this picture in London two weeks ago! Check out the full Lush interview at www.globalstreetart.com/lush.