Artwork: Mural by Mantra, Where the miracle blooms (Wo das Wunder blüht), Wuppertal, Germany, September 2024
It’s spring in Melbourne and this mural by artist Mantra (@mantrarea) perfectly encapsulates the feeling of life blooming. Titled, Where miracles bloom (Wo das Wunder blüht), Mantra painted this mural freehand in Wuppertal, Germany (Sept 2024). Simply stunning.
Artwork: Paste-up by OAKOAK, Paris, 2024
French street artist OAKOAK declared October to be OAKTOBER and has been doing daily situational paste-ups that are brilliant, hilarious, whimsical and poetic. Here’s today’s work, a beam-me-up UFO body snatcher inspired artwork, one of a series of three in a row along the wall. Made me smile.
Artwork: Photograph by aldaalsaahmed (@ahmedaldaalsa), Gaza, 2024
Words of a woman fleeing for safety in Gaza—
we are not animals
we are not numbers
we are human beings
we are people
we love peace
we love life
we love to educate our children
we raised teachers, engineers
particle physicists
and all other walks of life
our history has been erased
our past has been erased
our present has been erased
and our future has been erased
and whatever life we have lived
has been erased
show us mercy!
Artwork: Kelly Akashi, Cultivator (Regeneration), 2024
A beautiful new work by Kelly Akashi that will be on view at Art Basel in Paris, titled Cultivator (Regeneration). Akashi wrote this about the piece: “The roses in my garden bloom in May, and I treasure their short-lived scent and many stages of beauty. This year, after I thought they had all been exhausted, I was surprised to see two new roses had emerged unexpectedly. This year has been full of surprises, difficult, enriching, and all of them humbling. I took these unexpected roses as a lesson, and made Cultivator (Regeneration) to hold and share their lesson: that new life can surprise us after loss.”
Artwork: Mural by GERA1, Persephone’s Emancipation, Eleusis, Greece, 2024
Amazing ground mural by GERA 1(@gera1_) titled Persephone’s Emancipation at a skatepark in the Municipality of Elefsina, Eleusis, Greece. GERA 1 wrote this about the piece:
“With this ground mural at Elefsina’s Arkopolis @skate_p_ark🛹I attempt to highlight the modern physiognomy of this great historical city while glimpsing at its rich and intense past✨
Drawing inspiration from Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s well-known baroque sculpture representing the abduction of Persephone by Pluto, I tried to reinterpret the well-known Greek myth, emphasizing the moment of Persephone’s intense struggle for deliverance and her desire to remain in the upper world of the living.
My Persephone can be any woman who fights for her freedom and is capable of bringing rebirth and a new joyful reality, as Eleusis’s etymology and myths has always manifested.”
Artwork: Trcaey Emin, I followed you to the end, 2024
As part of Tracey Emin’s most recent exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey in London (19 September – 10 November 2024) titled I followed you to the end, exploring themes of love, loss, mortality and rebirth embedded in her personal experiences, Emin spoke about art and its relationship to the public:
“Art is probably one of the only things left, the only true things left which exists for its own sake and nothing else. Because it’s a pure thing, art is a pure thing that comes from a realm that we’re not completely sure about. That’s why we like artists. That’s why we love art. That’s why we think it’s special. That’s why millions of people go and stare at the Mona Lisa every day, because they’re affected by the gaze of this special thing. The Turin Shroud wouldn’t be the Turin Shroud if people didn’t go and see it, and art is like that. It has an alchemy with those that take part in looking at it, at the gaze of it, and so if you’re going to be responsible for that as an artist, you have to be totally honest as well.”
Have to admit when I first heard British producer Aaron Hibell’s remix of Billie Eilish’s Chihiro I was blown away. Aaron posted the remix on SoundCloud (here) and YouTube, but was unable to release it as a track and wrote this to explain:
“I wanted to make this one a journey from start to finish. Unfortunately Billie's team said no to official remixes but they gave us permission to post on here. So I'm glad you can all enjoy it in full now. I'm very excited for this journey to continue and you all to be a part of it.”
Check it out!
Artwork: Paste-up by OAKOAK, Paris, 2024
Another brilliant and funny paste-up by OAKOAK in France, subtitled with the quote by Ernest Hemingway “The only kind of writing is rewriting.” I can relate.
Artwork: Shaun Tan, Never drop your jar, oil on canvas
The wonderful artist/illustrator Shaun Tan is currently featured in the exhibition Ten Years of Summer at Beinart Gallery in Melbourne, from 28 September to 20 October. Here’s one of Tan’s artworks in the exhibition, Never drop your jar, and his comment about the piece:
“Note the omnipresent crow, which owes something to the paintings of Australian artist Arthur Boyd, who often included a quiet animal observer of ‘secret’ human transgression. I grew up in Hillarys, a suburb of Perth dominated by ravens, always watching, calling out like something dying of thirst on the power lines. Also spent most of the summer fishing. As the younger and more inept brother, I was always dropping things into the inaccessible gaps between rocks, or otherwise needing help with a snag.”
Artwork: Paste-ups by a collective of artists for Palestine, Can You See, for the 3 ° Festival Internacional de Paste Up Barcelona 2024, La Prosperitat September 21, 2024
Words written by a little boy in Gaza:
I’m a star
but there is
no sky
Artwork: Martin Creed, Work No. 3435: EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT, Braemar Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 2020
British artist Martin Creed first used the phrase “EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT” in 1999, featured in various LED colours it has since cropped up in spaces all round the world. The message draws on advice given to him by a friend, and Creed says about its meaning to him, “No one can say everything is going to be alright, but despite that, many times in my life I have been very comforted by people saying something like that to me.” This iteration is from Braemar Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 2020.
Recently Nick Cave asked his audience at the Red Hand Files what brought them joy. Feeling at a low point, Nick wanted people to respond to this simple question and got flooded with answers! He said he’d post his favourites, but being so numerous he has created the “JOY” files instead. Here’s the link, JOY and I hope you find a glimmer of hope, laughter, resonance, and that this makes you smile. At the top of the list is one response that made me laugh outright, and made Nick cry apparently, “Golf”!
Artwork: ERON spray painting, Chiesa di San Martino in Riparata, Rimini, Italy
Love this image of Italian artist ERON (@eron_artist) spray painting birds on the wall and ceiling of Chiesa di San Martino in Riparotta, Rimini (Italy). Especially love his wings!
Be fierce…(recent drawing by Yoshitomo Nara in Toya, 2024).
Came across one of my favourite Emily Dickinson poems (written c.1862) yesterday and had to share:
Artwork: Wall mural by Kennyrandom (@kennyrandom), Padova, Italy, 2020
That I did always love
I bring thee Proof
That till I loved
I never lived—Enough—
That I shall love always—
I argue thee
That love is life—
And life hath Immortality—
This—dost thou doubt—
Then have I
Nothing to show
But Calvary—
(source: Emily Dickinson: The Complete Poems, Faber & Faber, 1960, p.267)
Artwork: Mural by Huariu, Tell a vision, Bacău, Romania, 2024
Portuguese street artist Huariu (@huariu) has created a powerful mural for ZidArts Festival in Bacău, Romania titled Tell a vision. Huariu wrote this about the ideas behind the mural:
“Addressing the impact mass media has by compelling citizens to accept obvious falsehoods and the power to dictate what is real, to manipulate and oppress individual thought and perception. For this I have chosen to use George Orwell’s ‘2+2=5’ idea from one of the most banned books in history: ‘1984’. The little boy, mesmerised by the TVs, will soon forget how to play. Slowly killing his ability to imagine, he becomes more and more attached to screens. His understanding of the world will soon be shaped by these same screens.”
Wonderful to listen to Ghanian-American singer, writer and multi-disciplinary artist Moses Sumney’s new EP Sophcore (2024). Sumney’s voice and poetic lyrics have always been a standout for me. One song hooked me in, Gold Coast, with its lush and layered sound; it’s a sensuous, hazy track with an edge of grit, an intimate story of intense attraction and surrender. Enjoy!
Artwork: Stencil work by Banksy, Richmond, London, 2024
Banksy is back with a series of stencil works around London, the first is a mountain gazelle on a wall in Richmond, near the Thames River and Kew Bridge. It’s a black silhouette of a mountain gazelle, and many have noted it is the national animal of Palestine, and is also an endangered species. Simple, powerful and direct. However I’ve also come across Banksy’s “team” at his support organisation Pest Control Office, posting comments that the works are meant to provide amusement and emphasise the “human capacity for creative play” in opposition to destruction and negativity. Other animals to crop up have been monkeys, pelicans, a howling wolf and two elephants, a veritable menagerie. What I’ve always liked about Banksy is allowing the images to speak for themselves, with literally no discourse around the work’s creation. Make of them what you will!
Artwork: By Kennyrandom, Padova, Italy, 2024
Always, peace…another poetic work from @kennyrandom.
Artwork: Mural by Banksy, Bomb damage, Gaza, 2015
the bombs
keep coming
at first light
waiting in queues
when asleep
searching for food
carrying water
kicking a ball
catching a breath
the noise a terror
as if there is
no end
and we become
as though we are
nothing
© Angela Jooste