Banksy at Bristol Museum

Don't miss the "pictures" slide show link.

SHOK-1 art retrospective online

SHOKthen is a major retrospective of the art made by British graffiti / outsider artist SHOK-1 between 1984 and 2004.  He produced a huge amount of work during this period and much of it is being published now for the first time, online.

UK-Protesters denounce jail sentences for graffiti writers

Tragically, a young man hanged himself in jail after being sentenced to a cruel and unusual 30 months for writing on trains.

Saturday 14th February 2009

A PROTEST calling for an end to custodial sentencing for non-violent graffiti offenders took place outside the Royal Courts of Justice today.

Around 50 people turned out in central London to demonstrate against sending graffiti offenders to prison.

Last Saturday 23-year-old graffiti artist Tom Collister from Penge hanged himself in jail.

He had belonged to a gang which carried out a two-year campaign of vandalism on trains and stations around south London.

Collister was serving a 30-month sentence after admitting conspiracy to cause criminal damage.

A cautionary tale about Facebook, porn, extortion and punishment

Teenage guy poses as a girl online, collects nude photos of dozens of male, underage classmates. He blackmails some of them into having sex with him. Police bust him for a bomb threat and find his photos, etc. Sounds simple at first: he's up against nearly 300 years in jail, case closed, right? Wrong.

It will be awhile before we know how many of these victimized teens end up being prosecuted too. Clearly there's one bad guy and lots of victims, but the law is not completely on the victims' side, unfortunately.

The number of teens being prosecuted as sex offenders for trading nude photos of themselves with other kids is skyrocketing. In a better world, the law would discriminate between a little skin among friends and child porn, but it doesn't yet. Some teens have even been prosecuted for statutory rape for simply having consensual sex with their teen friends. Peeing in public is even a sex offense now. We're deep in Crazy Land here.

Sex offender penalties are awful and they are apparently forever, so if you have any photos of the naughty bits belonging to you or your friends, do yourself a big favor and delete them before they ruin your life. And ... of course ... never send racy photos of yourself to anybody. Never. Your friends today could be your enemies tomorrow, and photos on the Internet never die. Ever.

Plus you won't have encrypted them, so the NSA and all the sysadmins at your ISP and at school and at work will all have a chance to scoop your photos up in transit. Gmail and other webmail systems will save them (possibly forever). And as always, lots of the apparently teenage girls you may meet online are actually boys, sex offenders or FBI agents, so it really pays to be paranoid.

Photographers' rights, UK, US

BTP rail enthusiasts guidelines (UK)

A Downloadable Flyer Explaining Your Rights When Stopped or Confronted for Photography (US)

Banksy talks about his endangered piece in London

Pretty funny and profound stuff. It turns out the Royal Mail is the complainant and the defender claims it's theirs and it's advertising. Banksy is not amused.

On Oct. 23, the Council of Westminster in London ordered the removal of a 23 ft (7 m) Banksy mural -- reportedly his largest work in central London -- claiming that it encourages graffiti.

In an exclusive statement to TIME, the mysterious guerrilla prankster has responded to the council's decision. "I don't know what next door is complaining about -- their building is so ugly the 'No Trespassing' sign reads like an insult," the statement reads, referring to Royal Mail, a tenant of the building that has sought the mural's removal.

Save the Banksy campaign

Not surprisingly, citizens would rather save that Banksy (see previous post) in London rather than let the authorities whitewash another masterpiece. Bristol saved one of theirs this way, so who knows. You'd think the Tate Modern would step up to defend it given their recent focus on street art.

Here's the email address in a usable format: planninginformation@westminster.gov.uk

Here's a photo of the work in question

London to eradicate another Banksy production

Better get photos now, Londoners. The grey paint committee is on the way. The lovely anti-CCTV piece is going to be destroyed.

Some cave art may have been painted over millennia

"The results so far are in line with archaeologists' hypothesis that sudden flowerings of cave art came as rapid climate change was causing Palaeolithic cultures to move quickly about Europe, first as the coldest period of the ice age approached, and then as the ice age drew to a close and inhabitable areas expanded."

"There have been surprises, though - in several caves whose art had previously been assumed to date from the same period, the new dating technique has revealed that the paintings were done in several phases, possibly over 15,000 years (25,000 years ago to just 10,000.)"

Imagine living in English caves for tens of thousands of years waiting for the ice to go away again.

INSA - shoes

Spike heels for the ladies by the UK writer INSA. Hot stuff.

Rough videos

Rough at Tate Modern - UK history


Stormie and Rough brighten up Perth Australia

Catalog from the Street Art show at Tate Modern

For sale, the book.

Mare139: Day 5

Showing you how the chrome 3D is done.

Color - It's okay to express yourself, in the closet or garage

Just ask the Swiss Embassy.

"Perhaps we need to follow the example of the Swiss embassy in London, where a recent much-publicized party revealed a secret that its staff had enjoyed privately for years - its underground parking garage is not a dull white wasteland but a place full of colour and commentary.

"In 2001, then-ambassador Bruno Spinner had invited local graffiti artists to create what was supposed to be a temporary installation, but it proved too irresistible to whitewash."

[...]

"Back at the Swiss embassy in London, one of the contributing artists, Banksy, has become so famous in the seven years since the graffiti installation was created that his part of it (which includes 21 profiles of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin sporting a Mohawk and a Mona Lisa with a rifle range stencilled on her forehead) is estimated to be worth £1-million."

"Which is, no doubt, a lot more valuable than all of the granite, marble and embellishments in the embassy's front hall put together."

Of course, there's no photo in the article. And the article goes on about the adventures of conservative people painting bright colors in closets for secret thrills. London does seem the perfect place for a Banksy in the old pantry or a perky little painted car park.

Go ahead ... live a little. Gray is for battleships.

Blek le Rat - new book

Blek le Rat - Getting Through the Walls, published by Thames & Hudson.



Blek le Rat is one of the most influential figures in the world of street art, who is said to have inspired Banksy.

Also, photos of his installation from May 7 at The Conran Shop, Fulham Road, London, by Paul Jenkins.

These look to be pasted up stenciled material of some kind.





Thanks to Mark and Amy.

Free Daze (UK) - UPDATE

UPDATE: Daze was freed from prison this week after his case went to appeal court. The protests helped to raise the profile of his case and generated lots of support mail from around the world.

---

Graffiti writer Daze (Gary Shields) from the UK was jailed in March for 28 months at Ayr Sheriff Court. This was for eight offences.

A protest and appeal are aimed at getting this ridiculously long sentence reduced. See the link for details and current petitions.

[Note that this is not the same Daze whose painting appears on Art Crimes' front page this month.]

London: Ron English billboards

Overnight two RON ENGLISH billboards have appeared in West London.

The exact locations are:

1) the corner of Harrow Road and Hythe Road (next to the Texaco station)

2) outside Willesden tube station.

[please send photos!!]

also, from Elms Lesters Painting room (where they are now showing)

The Adam and Ron show catalogue

Hundreds of fans queued for the catalogue signing, here at the gallery this
morning, with Adam Neate and Ron English.

Unsigned catalogues are still available from the gallery or by post.

Ring the gallery on 00 44 20 7836 6747 to reserve one.

The show continues until Saturday 31st. May.

Opening hours:
Tuesday - Saturday 12 - 6pm
Thursdays 'til 9pm

See the link for upcoming London show info: Delta, WK Interact, Anthony Lister, Jose Parla!

London: Banksy tunnel - this weekend only [updated]

"Graffiti artist Banksy has turned a south London tunnel into a half-mile long exhibition space, but the elusive artist kept its location secret until the last minute, reported the BBC. Banksy marshaled more than three dozen international artists for what he's calling the "Cans Festival" - and is encouraging visitors to contribute their own graffiti starting Saturday.

Members of the public are being invited to take part in Banksy's latest project in London, as an army of graffiti writers turn a whole street into an art exhibition. "

More: www.thecansfestival.com

UPDATE: on Flickr

Banksy vs CCTV

Daze from Scotland, sentenced to 28 months: protest campaign

http://www.freedaze.co.uk

Shoot-self-in-foot public policy strikes again. The stupidest thing is that those who are arguing that the sentence fits the crime are up in arms about the damage amount claims. If they weren't idiots, they'd be arguing for restitution, not tax-paid incarceration, which likely will end up costing them more than the damage amount.

Scotland should let him go to school as planned. Education is more reformative than prison and it leads to more tax paying citizens.

Now if we could just get the US to wake up, where more than 2 million people are in prison, many for nonviolent offenses...

Factory 311 - Art and Design Dream Team

Check this out. Factory 311 has assembled an amazing group of artists into an international design team. Way to go.

Secretwars

This looks like fun.