Love this! On repeat. Remix of The Prodigy’s Breathe by Tom Frankel & Dayne Harper who front the UK indie/underground label Council Work (free DL on SoundCloud here). Check it out.
three cages
Artwork: Mural by SETH (@seth_globepainter), Three Cages, Amman, 2021
Beautiful mural by SETH (@seth_globepainter) Three cages, painted in Hashmi Al Shamali in Amman for the @baladk festival, 2021.
racist sexist boy
PUNK IS NOT DEAD!!!
The Linda Lindas song, Racist, Sexist Boy, has gone viral because it’s awesome. The Asian/Latinx band of four girls (ages 10-16) are signed up with Epitaph Records for their first EP The Linda Lindas, and have already made an impact, opening for Bikini Kill at the Hollywood Palladium.
Check out the song performed at the LA Public Library (which is a crazy cool backdrop—but i‘m a book nerd).
to build a home
The dance duo and brothers Marvel and Victory Ebinum from Lagos, Nigeria, create movements that resonate with abstract feelings and big issues relating to mental health, belonging, racism and the planet. The power and beauty of their expression comes as much from their connection to each other, as with the world around them.
Recently they spoke of what inspires them to dance, despite the challenges:
“Your life is a story where you choose the words with your actions. You can choose to lead, follow, fail, win, fall or grow. We had no shoes to dance on and we became so used to it that we loved dancing barefooted even when we had the shoes, it became a part of us.
We had no studios to train, we trained in different floors, in sands, concrete, under the rain, in the room, wherever we were, we became so used to it that even when we had the studios we just loved expressing ourselves anywhere, it wasn't about how we did it anymore it was why we did it.
Even with all that, we still kept expressing ourselves. We got hurt on the way, we argued, we fought, we cried, we almost died but we never stopped because we had a dream, a purpose. We are happy to not only express ourselves through movements but to also inspire and change minds with it and still growing to fulfill our dream which is for the world to be filled with love.
That's the key to keep moving, having a purpose and believing in your dream. That way, you will never lose focus no matter the circumstances that come your way, you will keep moving because you can already see where you are headed.”
Their performance To Build a Home featured here, was created in collaboration with @artelsewherelondon and @areprojectsfor for a project Art & Ecology. The Ebinum brothers said this about the piece:
“This piece was created minutes before we shot it […] We being in that environment, seeing the sand, the water flow, and leaves, we actually tap into that feeling of togetherness. We created our movement to tell a story of how nature brings us together, watching the communication of the wind and the water including the trees, watching them speak without actually speaking, that's what we wanted to create with our movement. We actually became the water flow, the sand, the wind and trees. Communicating to ourselves without saying a word, even when we want to be alone, when we feel depressed, when we feel anger, it just brings us together despite the craziness of this world. So the whole piece is all about TOGETHERNESS.”
words on walls
Artwork: Words by Addam Yekutieli, 2014
The escalating Israeli/Palestinian situation is horrific. Today Addam Yekutieli (aka Know Hope; @thisislimbo) wrote this on Instagram, with images from words he wrote on walls in Europe and Tunisia during the Israel-Gaza war 2014. Words that are tragically still relevant now.
“Revisiting some pieces from the time of the Israel-Gaza war in 2014.
About a week into the fighting, I left for a few months for projects around Europe and Tunisia and throughout this time, witnessed the atrocities taking place from afar.
It was a difficult and extremely surreal experience that brought forth feelings of shame, anger, disorientation and immense heartbreak.
Throughout this time, I wrote these phrases on walls in Austria, Italy, Tunisia and Germany. Like an organic diary of sorts, I used these different spots as moments for reflection. Walls or locations that visually reminded me of a human condition, an emotional situation, places that felt personified by adding thoughts or words onto them that reflected my processing of the events that were going on thousands of kilometers away.
How the barbarity of war reveals the worst of ourselves, collectively and individually, internally and externally.
How people can be hypnotized to believing that there is no other way, how we so easily succumb to the arrogance of war, the self righteousness that indoctrinates and justifies our acts of violence.
Artwork: Words by Addam Yekutieli, 2014
How we look to place guilt anywhere besides on ourselves in order to rationalize the unthinkable.
How we’re not willing to admit what a high price we all pay for this.
How we are shortsighted and fail to see that what is happening is a result of generations of dispossession, humiliation and systemic and systematic oppression.
How we are complicit in sustaining, enforcing and perpetuating this reality for the Palestinian people- even if we're not violent people on an individual level, even if we only keep to ourselves and live our small lives.
How stubborn we are to insist on erroneous terminology to describe this reality.
How in any other context, in any other place, with any other narrative, we would understand this and condemn these systems.
How this reality might give us a sense of safety, but at the expense of a vast population of people indigenous to this land. A people that are fighting for their freedom- of movement, of believing in a future and for their dignity to live a full life.
How on one hand we have our own personal histories ingrained in our psyche but on the other hand are not aware that we are using our generational trauma to justify causing new generational trauma to others.
How it's as if we haven't learned anything, so from within our denial our trauma has mutated into a monster that will end up devouring us all, a Golem that is unaware of its own self.
Artwork: Words by Addam Yekutieli, 2014
How the Occupation is an ongoing process, how it continues to morph and get more elaborate and its engineering more sophisticated.
How we all so actively make sure that we don't lower our guards and take a moment to reflect what we would do if we were in the same situation, without insisting on resorting to cold pragmatism.
Looking back at this and reliving my thoughts, partially through a more current prisma, I'm not surprised at how little has changed.
It emphasizes how much unlearning needs to take place and how urgent the need for the myths that paralyze our morality and overbear our empathy need to be dispelled.
Realistically, these were just words written with spray paint on a wall. Words that can mean anything to anyone, or nothing at all. That they can be loaded and filled with interpretation or be empty of meaning.
Ultimately, it's our choice to see reality and what's in front of us in the way that we do.”
Old Tree
Artwork: Pamel Rosenkranz, Old Tree, Highline, new York, 2021
Pamela Rosenkranz’s recent commission for the Highline, New York, is a stunning, vibrant and mythic sculpture of a red-pink tree. Old Tree references the myths of ancient trees connecting heaven and earth, but set within the concrete, glass, tar and steel of the city, it’s a stark reminder of the blood and roots of what makes this world liveable and beautiful. Trees are fundamental to life, and Old Tree wonderfully connects the blood, vessels and tissues of the human circulatory system with that of the tree which sustains our lives. And it’s a reciprocal relationship.
Starry Beach
In 2020, a’strict, the art division of the Korean digital design group d’strict, created this amazing and skin tingly immersive art installation, Starry Beach.
First shown in Kukje Gallery, Korea, the digital artists of d’strict/a’strict explore the intersection of humans and technology, especially in light of the transformation of digital technologies during the pandemic. Starry Beach is a surreal landscape created in a black box space, engulfing the viewer in a synesthetic experience of encountering massive waves on a beach under a starlit night. The inspiration was “the complexity of nature, in particular the diverse visual and sonic characteristics of water.”
It’s simply hypnotic and awesome.
poisoned land
Poem by Addam Yekutieli, END THE OCCUPATION, 2021
As Trevor Noah commented recently about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, there are so many layers, that depending on where in the timeline you go back to, blame for the current violence continually shifts. Not wanting to delve into the history, instead he focused on one salient issue: power.
Speaking on his Daily Show, he commented: “In Gaza, Israeli air strikes have reportedly killed 28 people, including 10 children. Over 150 people have been wounded. In Israel, Hamas rockets have killed two people. And this exchange of fire comes after the Israeli assault in and around the al-Aqsa mosque that left more than 600 Palestinian protesters, worshippers and civilians wounded. And a few dozen Israeli police.
“Personally, I cannot watch that footage and hear those numbers and see a fair fight.”
He then posed this question: “If you are in a fight where the other person cannot beat you, how hard should you retaliate when they try to hurt you?”
Finally he posed this question in reference to Israel. “And I’m not trying to answer the question, nor do I think I’m smart enough to solve it. All I’m asking is: when you have this much power, what is your responsibility?”
That hit home.
Israeli artist Addam Yekutieli (aka Know Hope) makes art in the studio and on the street reflecting the divisive, complex and volatile situation between Palestine and Israel. Recently he posted a poem on Instagram with the title: END THE OCCUPATION, featuring the startling line highlighting the torturous situation of his country: “How can this land relieve itself from itself”.
And where is the hope that any of this can be resolved humanely and peacefully?
cupid
Artwork: PichiAvio, Cupid, (2021) Grañén, Huesca (north Spain)
Spreading the love! Brilliant mural by Spanish duo PichiAvio, melding contemporary street art with classical, Cupid, (2021) painted in Grañén is a rural village in the province of Huesca (north Spain).
I LOVE YOU EARTH
Artwork: Billboard by Yoko Ono, I LOVE YOU EARTH, 2021
I LOVE YOU EARTH!
For Earth Day (every day) and Yoko Ono created a series of billboards in collaboration with Serpentine Gallery across the UK with this message to care for our beautiful planet.
Yoko Ono said: "There are so many of us in the world who are now awakened, ready to act to save our world. So, let’s work together to save this planet. Together. That’s how we will change the world. We change, and the world changes. Have trust in what you can do. Have trust in how fast we can change our world for the better. Why? Because we have to. Believe that we are one and together we will make it. Love is what connects all lives on Earth.”
sky wonders
Photo: by Ewelina Dziewiela (@ewelinadziewiela)
Spectacular sky featuring polar stratospheric clouds in Iceland. Beautiful.
the end of the tunnel
Artwork: SETH (@sethglobepainter), Le bout du tunnel / The end of the tunnel, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, Paris, 2021
A beautiful painting of hope from SETH (@sethglobepainter): "Le bout du tunnel" / "The end of the tunnel", Paris, 2021.
Seaspiracy
The recently released documentary Seaspiracy directed by Ali Tabrizi is incredibly difficult to watch, yet I’d highly recommend it. It exposes the devastating impact of industrial fishing—legal and illegal—on the environment and sea life.
I felt sick watching it, but I persisted as I want to know what’s truly going on. I’m vegetarian and I don’t eat fish, and while I don’t like to enforce my views of what to eat and why, I believe this film would change a lot of people’s perspective if they truly knew what they were eating and the price paid for doing so.
reading is sexy...
Artwork: by WRDSMTH (@wrdsmth)
Totally agree!!! 😊
Artwork by WRDSMTH (@wrdsmth).
A Yoshitomo Nara Day
Artwork: Yoshitomo Nara, Peace of mind, 2019
Peace of mind.
Sit Still
This. A short dance work directed by Vincent René-Lortie in collaboration with Jacob Jonas The Company featuring seven-year-old Adeline, alone in a vacant school and her “intimate and exhaustive journey of self-expression as she navigates her emotions through Krump.” Krump is a free-form style of street dance with Afro-diasporic roots, popular in the United States. Adeline’s adaptation is quietly powerful, the film heart-wrenching and poetic.
This is amazing.
the acorn is happy to become an oak
Handwritten note by Vivienne Westwood, 2019
Beautiful and wise words from the iconic artist/designer/activist Vivienne Westwood:
“The acorn is happy to become an oak
— Aristotle.
He defines happiness as fulfilling your potential. Follow your deep interest (forget yourself) and become who you are.”
Griffon!!
Awrtork: paste-up of griffon by SONAC (@sonac.artwork), Paris, 2019
A mythical griffon photographed in the wilds of Paris!
Wonderful paste-up by SONAC (@sonac.artwork) of the fabled half-eagle, half-lion creature imagined and written about for centuries by authors such as Herodotus, Pliny, Marco Polo, Dante and Jorge Luis Borges.
And magically brought to life here.
El Dorado
Artwork: Choker, album Peak, 2017
Grand theft auto and love gone wrong—El Dorado, a brilliant song by Choker from his 2017 album Peak. Check it out!
words shape reality
Artwork: Christine Sun Kim billboard, Words Shape Reality, 2018
Artist Christine Sun Kim’s (@chrissunkim) billboard for For Freedoms Words Shape Reality (2018) is particularly relevant in the wake of heightened awareness of crimes and discrimination against Asians in America (and around the world) since Covid. Kim reposted an image of this billboard and this comment on IG of her life experience as a deaf Asian American:
“i grew up in an immigrant household and attended predominantly white deaf programs. i was taught that my asian american identity does not equal my deaf identity and should remain in the background. it took me years and years to recognize how erased our asian american experience is, let alone asian american deaf. the feeling of being unimportant still remains in me to this day and that is called a trauma. i grew up dealing with both casual and clear racism from classmates, neighbors, teachers, interpreters, church people, strangers, and even friends. back then, i didnt have the discourse (and social media) to justify nor explain what the fuck was going on, so instead i buried the pain and let my experiences fade into obscurity. because of white supremacy, the system is designed to socially condition us to think that asian americans have the closest proximity to whiteness (aka model minority) and how our experience should be understood compared to the black experience. the closer we are to whiteness, the more invisible we become. but of course, its all bullshit and very much part of how oppression operates. i'd like to revisit the billboard i designed for @forfreedoms in 2018, which was based on my two charcoal drawings from 2017. it shows how words can easily shape our reality. its the kind of reality that has resulted in the deaths of vincent chin, vichar ratanapakdee, christian hall, soon chung park, hyun jung grant, suncha kim, yong yue, delaina ashley yaun, paul andre michels, xiaojie tan, daoyou feng and many many more. #stopasianhate”