I blogged about this before but I just noticed that Espo's book is now out on the US Amazon for about £10 or from the UK Amazon on March 31st.
The evolution of Espo from graf artist to fine artist has been quite amazing. Not to take anything away from his graf career, but he has taken his letterforms, subversive quotes, and sign painting styles to unexplored territory. This latest book, on occasion of his recent show at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, is yet another step into the unknown. Espo created this world of signs and iconography that hits you like a powerful blues song. Not sure what the message is, but it hits you in some dark places despite the bright palettes. But if you don't want to go there, just step back an admire the perfect lettering, throwback graphics, and humorous details. For an Espo fans, this is probably his finest book yet. Hardcover, 115 pages.
Not sure how old this is but thanks to Ian for sending it in.
Monsters Of Art by Alan Emmins
I am standing on a platform at Copenhagen’s main train station. The clock tells me it’s just after midnight. I watch trains and people come and go. I eye the commuters up and down wondering, could it be them? Finally a guy in a green hooded top idles up to me.
‘Follow me,’ he says.
Further down the platform we join two of his friends. They give me a nod but say nothing. A train arrives and we jump on board. The train ride, I am told, will take about thirty minutes.
We are heading into the suburbs of Copenhagen. At the very last stop we will leave the train and wait for the services at that station to end. As soon as it is all clear the people I am with, who make up the Copenhagen arm of MOA (Monsters Of Art), one of the worlds largest and most active graffiti crews, will hop the fence and attack the sleeping trains with their spray cans.
MOA are considered the biggest graffiti crew in the world because they have crews in over ten countries, although they wont tell me which. In fact due to the police campaign that has been launched against them here in Copenhagen they don’t give much information about themselves. But this is to be expected: it did after all take me ten months to set this story up.
We are three stops from the end of the line. Talk is minimal. But then the silence is broken as right above our heads a fist-sized rock comes smashing through the train window. Glass flies everywhere.
‘Hold da helt kæft!’ (FUCK THAT!) laughs the guy sitting next to me. He is the tallest of the group and one of the oldest crew members. We’ll call him MOA1.
The problem with the smashed window isn’t simply the fact that everybody is covered in glass, but that the three guys from MOA have their bags packed full with spray cans. If the police come into the carriage now and decide to search their bags the MOA boys are looking at jail time just for the intent. That is how serious graffiti has become here.............
Size: 1.25gb Year: 2007 Length: 75 Mins + 30 mins bonus material
Features 70K.7DC.AF.AKM.AOD.ATB.BGS[…].BK.C4.CI.CIA.DSK.DSU.DTR.FAME.FUNK.GLK.GRS.MB. MDT.OFF.RHB.RNB.SDK.SF.TNT.TOY.TPG.VIMOA.VS.VX.WC.WUFC.Y2K.
See loads of cool action from trains in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bucharest, Budapest, Lille, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Moscow, New York, Paris, Rotterdam and Stockholm.
Japan has always been a breeding ground for innovative approaches to Western traditions, such as cinema and baseball. Another example includes graffiti, which covers the buildings and walls of Japan's largest cities, as well as the more rural areas. While graffiti in Japan shares many of the same characteristics with examples from other parts of the world, distinct cultural aspects of Japan, from Kanji to popular anime characters, set Japanese graffiti apart.Tokyo-based photographer Remo Camerota has captured these culturally unique aspects of Japanese graffiti, and in doing so has befriended some of the country's major graffiti artists. Colorful spreads and intimate interviews provide a detailed examination of Japanese graffiti, a subject that has yet to dominate the graffiti book market.
The current era in graffiti is characterized by a majority of graffiti artists moving from subway or train cars to "street galleries." The Clean Train Movement started in May, 1989, when New York attempted to remove all of the subway cars found with graffiti on them out of the transit system. Because of this, many graffiti artists had to resort to new ways to express themselves. Much controversy arose among the streets debating whether graffiti should be considered an actual form of art.
During this period many graffiti artists had taken to displaying their works in galleries and owning their own studios. This practice started in the early 1980s with artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, who started out tagging locations with his signature SAMO (Same Old Shit), and Keith Haring, who was also able to take his art into studio spaces.
In some cases, graffiti artists had achieved such elaborate graffiti (especially those done in memory of a deceased person) on storefront gates that shopkeepers have hesitated to cover them up. In the Bronx after the death of rapper Big Pun, several murals dedicated to his life appeared virtually overnight;similar outpourings occurred after the deaths of The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur, Big L, and Jam Master Jay. Princess Diana and Mother Teresa were also memorialised this way in New York City.
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign which involved people in various states spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." However due to illegalities some of the "street artists" were arrested and charged with vandalism.
Along with the commercial growth has come the rise of video games also depicting graffiti, usually in a positive aspect -- for example, the game Jet Grind Radio tells the story of a group of teens fighting the oppression of a totalitarian police force that attempts to limit the graffiti artists' freedom of speech. Following the original roots of modern graffiti as a political force came another game title Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure which features a similar story line of fighting against a corrupt city and its oppression of free speech.
Mark Ecko, an urban clothing designer, has been an advocate of graffiti as an art form during this period, stating that "Graffiti is without question the most powerful art movement in recent history and has been a driving inspiration throughout my career."
Modern graffiti is often seen as having become intertwined with Hip-Hop culture as one of the four main elements of the culture (along with the Master of ceremony, the disc jockey, and break dancing), through Hollywood movies such as Wild Style. However, modern (twentieth century) graffiti predates hip hop by almost a decade and has its own culture, complete with its own unique style and slang.
For example, a famous graffiti of the 20th century was the inscription in the London subway reading "Clapton is God", in reference to the guitar skills of Eric Clapton. The phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington Underground station in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a now-famous photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall. Similar approvals or disapprovals of musicians have continued since, for instance, the summer 2007 inscriptions in Harlem reading "50 Cent is Wack". A popular graffitos of the 1970s was the legend "Dick Nixon Before He Dicks You," reflecting the hostility of the youth culture to that U.S. president. The belief that graffiti and hip-hop are related arises from the fact that some graffiti artists enjoyed the other three aspects of hip-hop, and that it was mainly practiced in areas where the other three elements of hip-hop were evolving as art forms. Graffiti is recognized as a visual expression of the rap music of the decade, as breakdancing is the physical expression. Graffiti also became associated with the anti-establishment punk rock movement beginning in the 1970s. Bands such as Black Flag and Crass (and their followers) widely stenciled their names and logos, while many punk night clubs, squats and hangouts are famous for their graffiti. Via HYB
"Here's another example of legal Graffiti. This time it's an installation called 'Tagged in Motion'. Graffiti artist DAIM sprays virtual graffiti in a hall. There are cameras around him that record all his movements. These movements are translated into Graffiti that floats in the air. You can walk through the Graffiti using special 3D glasses."
