Mar 11, 2010

Graffiti To Go

Let us introduce to you: COMBO, a collaboration between Blu and David Ellis. These artists have made a mind blowing wall-painting animation at the FAME festival in the South of Italy in late September last year. This may therefore be classified as ‘old news’, but it’s so cool that we decided to share it with you anyway.

It all looks so effortless; imagine painting your house with this (deceiving) ease. If you know what it takes, making a stop motion animation then you know how much time and effort is in fact involved. What of course amazes the most, is their use of the environment. Window sills become eyes, hanging lamps serve as their irises, no corner is safe. The artists’ recognisable individual styles combine beautifully. Have a look, it’s an absolute joy to watch. Oh, and if we may give you a piece of advice: don’t try this in your own neighbourhood…

http://vimeo.com/6555161

Aug 21, 2008

Filthy Luker

An artist which came to my attention recently goes by the name of Filthy Luker (great handle, youth!) and produces some of the most intriguing things I’ve seen in a long time. It took me back to the late 1980′s when, in the UK at least, there was a fashion of taking inflatable things to football matches and that grew to specific inflatables at specific clubs. You could that tell you were in Hull by the inflatable Cod each and everyone carried to the match (Canaries in Norwich, Sheep in Cardiff etc.)… erm, enough of the memory lane stuff – people are looking at me funny.

The point being this artist produces great things with inflatables (and many other media) that remind me of my younger days. His work could be slightly (heavily?) inspired by Banksy, who has done some great things in London and, indeed, most cities around the world now, both political and not. I think that the thing that appeals to me is that this work is somewhere between Graffiti (something also close to my arty heart) and installation art.

Click the picture above to go to his Deviant art page for a bunch of pictures of his work. The pieces to look out for are the AMAZING tentacles that he places in buildings extruding from the windows and doors and an awesome piece called ‘Urban Regeneration’ in which a giant inflatable seedling makes its way through the trampled soil. Brilliant.

Good work ‘Filthy Luker’, I reckon this is the most inspired I’ve been all week.