Aug 30, 2015

#BACKTOTHESTREET


A new artist emerged on the stage of Parisian artists. Around one year ago, more less 600 photos were cemented on the walls all over the city. All his works, as well as his nickname, remain for the moment #backtothestreet. People got very enthusiastic about these new street art pieces and Twitter was pretty charged with the new hashtag #backtothestreet appearing constantly since few months away now.  

www.paristreetart.com

It would be a bit hard to classify this new method of artistic expression (if there's a need of that, of course). It is neither a paste-up, nor a mosaic. Yet not a simple photo, because these photographs are glued on the white piece of paper, placed under the glass plate and cemented on the walls in the end.

www.paristreetart.com

After reading the interview with artist published on: http://www.streetpress.com/sujet/1433424880-backtothestreet#, we know that #backtothestreet is a backpacker/photographer travelling to such places as New York, Cameroun, Haiti. Over there he takes the photos without notice, without paying attention to the place. This way the photographs are very real and the artist needs to be very fast and very discreet at the same time.

www.paristreetart.com

His inspiration was the movie about Banksy who did exposition of his photos on the street. Then, a clear idea appeared in his mind: the photos that he takes on the street, need to go back to the same place: to the street. Go back to the street. The real open air photo exhibition. Now, not only in Paris, but in Nimes, Lile or Bruxelles, too. Enjoy, everyone's invited!  

www.paristreetart.com

www.paristreetart.com

Www.streetpress.com asked if they can take a photo of  #backtothestreet artist. This is an answer.

Photo above belongs to: http://www.streetpress.com

Jun 11, 2015

First Lady of the Street Art... First Miss... Miss.Tic.


After a long break of not writing (life, busy life...), I decided that the next post can't be about whatsoever... So here it is: the biggest, I suppose, female character amongst all the street artists. As I said once that Jef Aerosol is a father of the Street Art (here), a mother, in this case, would be undoubtedly his peer: madame Miss.Tic (her official webpage here). 

Miss.Tic isn't mysterious (only her real name remains unknown), as I thought once trying to figure out the roots of her pseudonym. There's her full biography all around the internet: lot of interviews, photos and videos (for example:YouTube's video, where Miss.Tic talks about her book). No wonder: born in 1956 in Montmartre, Paris, she's officially present on the artistic scene since 1985, when she signed her first personal exhibition. I won't write here about her private life. I would only simply mention that Miss.Tic's art was much influenced by the fact that as a young girl, she lost almost all her family. You can read about on Wikipedia French, where's a quite big article dedicated for her, or in English, though still very briefly.  



Back to her pseudonym (which is interesting story): Miss.Tic. After reading and watching interviews with her, I have an impression that she's somehow very positive and very funny personality, who likes to laugh a lot. Therefore, it didn't surprise me that her pseudonym comes from the character of the Scrooge McDuck universe cartoon (Disney). Magica de Spell, this was the name of the character, was the very powerful sorceress/witch with the characteristic black shoulder-length hair (exactly like a Miss.Tic in real. Btw. maybe it was one of the reason why she has chosen so). In French, the name of Disney's character was translated: Miss.Tick. Another reason to choose her pseudonym was the fact, that during the years of Miss.Tic's beginnings, quite a lot of painters have chosen theirs pseudonyms after the cartoons characters, to underline the break with the abstract and metaphysical intellectualism from the past decades (after Wikipedia). It was so called "big beta" movement. 




Now a little bit about her work: simple stencils, fine idea and a pinch (or even two) of poetry. Everything that's needed to make a discreet but thought-provoking at once, street art. The main iconography are women. In one of the interview Miss.Tic explains that her inspirations have their roots in observation of the woman's status in the society. The images of the women that appear in the newspapers and adds; the women that are sexy, glamour, healthy and young. Miss.Tic says: "It's nothing but an image that I'm trying to reverse and give it some new meaning, trying to do something new with it on my own way. I'm an observer, not a socio-political critic at any case!". 

Picture below: Le corps au régime ment. - "The body (bodies) on diet lies". At the same time we can understand: "The body (bodies) of (for?) the army (regiment)".   



Miss.Tic is a poet also, which is not hard to figure out whilst reading all these maxims and sentences, which have either a double meaning, or are a word-play. Very often in a phonetic aspect as well.  For example, if we would read very fast the maxim "A la vie a l'amor" (picture below) - "For the life and love", we would understand at the same time: "For the life and death" ("amor" is written in Spanish in this case, to achieve her intention of phonetic word-play).





The maxims that Miss.Tic comes up with are sometimes so brilliant, that the stencils become a nice supplement for it rather than inverse. Of course, it's not the case all the time. The seductive woman has a power. For her words to sound clearer...   


The men and couples start to appear more and more often in her works, too.


Even though Miss.Tic isn't a socio-political critic, like she's said, she likes to give her "opinion", when it's about some important political events. Then she signs her stencils vel "Miss.Tick Présidente", for us to know that the art was done for some "political" reason. Below the maxim says" On est ni de droite, ni de gauche. On est dans la merde" - "We're not from right, we're not from left. We're in the shit"....(so familiar!)







The animals are the subject in her work, too. Sometimes with maxims, sometimes not. In the beginning usually the cats, now the puppies as well.



"On n'est pas des chiens" -  We are not dogs. I think that Miss.Tic, like a real cat, chose her way to walk long ago and will never change her mond. At least we hope so and waiting for more!



Jan 27, 2015

The Gallery of Unknown Artists (part III-mosaics)


Finally, the third part of a series of posts concerning the Unknown Artists is out! This time I will present the mosaics whose authors are not known to me.

The second about stencils here: The Gallery of Unknown Artists part II - stencils.

Like always, my request doesn't change: if somebody knows the name of some of these artists, please let me know by leaving the comment below the post. It will be much appreciated!

Let's start then. The mosaic presented below is very Space Invador alike, but I'm not 100% sure of it... 


The one below formed by irregular polygonal pieces, presents a man in a gentle movement, either observing or trying to seize a butterfly. I saw once another mosaics by this artist and each and every one is about the same man, usually running after the animals. 


This one looks like a Rubik's cube. In 2D. 


Mosaic below resembles a bit Invader's concept about character's from computer games. Unfortunately, I don't know neither the name of the artist nor the game from which it could eventually come from. 


Kind of a mix of a traditional mosaic, pixel art and with a pinch of Invador...


Below, one of the best examples of  Pixel Art. Icon well known for the users of Windows...Someone can help with discovering the name of the artist?


For the end, maybe not the best example of the street art (or maybe on the contrary, it is indeed), as it is pretty hard for me to classify this artwork... Nevertheless, first - it is a very nice and dynamic sculpture (especially the window's curtain being blown out of the window) covered all in mosaic, second - made instead of a window, so everyone can admire it from the street (or rather not instead of a window, but where the window couldn't be placed anyway, someone decided to fill this place up with this beautiful idea). 


Romantic edition of street art, just as befits Paris...