New Year's Eve: Reflecting and Revisiting

The new year approaches quickly and with it comes sentimental and philosophical reflections about the past, hopes for the future, lamentations, goals, wishes. It the time when everyone looks back on what they have or have not done and thinks.

To pseudo follow the trend, I wanted to revisit a theme that I had posted about earlier this year: graffiti vs. aerosol art. While traveling recently with my partner Danny, we happened to stumble upon two spectacular works of what would technically be called aerosol art.

The two works we found were on perpendicular walls. The content of the two works were different (faces vs. cars), but the colors and forms seemed to borrow from each other.

The works weren't found in an arts district or any specified place. We just happened to stumble upon them.

We also created a video in front of the car mural: 

I suppose things that have caught our eyes or attentions before always have the ability to catch them again. Right now, I'm in the process of sorting through photographs from our XC road trip this summer in preparation for our next project. It's interesting how things that surprised and delighted us during that voyage continue to do so now. As artists, we're reflecting on 2012 in our own way, visually. 

Happy New Year! See you in 2013! 

Funk Lessons

GET DOWN AND PARTY. TOGETHER.

That was the mission statement of artist Adrian Piper's collaborative performances that were entitled Funk Lessons. While the piece itself is older in terms of contemporary art (the performances took place in 1982-1984), it addresses ideas and notions that are quite relevant to society and culture today.

In Funk Lessons, Piper stages and leads a series of performances in which she taught white people how to listen and dance to Funk music. As a woman who had grown up in in both white and black culture, Piper created the piece to unite both communities and both parts of her identity.

Piper writes in her Notes on Funk I-II, that the piece gave her a chance to "explore and affirm the cultural dimensions of my identity as black...at the same time...to affirm and utilize the conventions and idioms of communications...in white culture...These modes of fluency reinforce my sense of identification with my audience and ultimately empower all of us to move with greater ease and fluidity from one such mode to another."

Though I'm someone who doesn't completely fit into either black or white culture, I find this piece thought-provoking and inclusive. What Piper strives to do is to break down feelings of shame or awkwardness that are the result of not belonging to a particular culture or community. The piece enables the "other" to be able to navigate and jump into another culture in an accepting and culturally-enhancing way.

The above video quality is not pristine, but it should give you a sense of how the piece worked and how it was received. You can also check out the page on her website, which has a cleaner video (but can only be viewed on her site).

Graffiti vs. Aerosol Art

I was watching television the other day when I heard the term "aerosol art" used. Is what was formerly called graffiti now known as aerosol art?

Graffiti in Brazil

It turns out that there is a difference between graffiti and aerosol art, and I suppose that the show I was watching was trying to highlight the legality of aerosol art (versus the illegality of graffiti).

Perrier aerosol art by Steffi Bow and Sya One

The Minnesota Daily makes a concise distinction between the two. Graffiti is the tagging or illegal marking on private or public property. It's word origins are from the Greek graphein, which means "to write." Aerosol Art, however, is legal spray painting that is done in public spaces, canvases or other surfaces.

The first graffiti shop in Russia. 

So, it seems the distinction is a matter of semantics. One is legal, the other is not. One has been accepted in the realms of the museum and the gallery. The other is still seem as a demarcator of crime that brings down property values. And so this brings us back to the old debate: what is art? As seen here, it is a matter of words that can distinguish between what can be regaled as art and what can be dismissed as trash. Isn't that quite a thin line?

Stencil graffiti by Banksy in Bristol. 

MPC Distribution Seminar: Good Men Project

This past Saturday, I went to the Massachusetts Production Coalition's seminar on film distribution. Despite the snow, the turnout was impressive. All the conversations and contributions by the panelists were interesting and I was sure to feverishly take notes on all the information disseminated.

Social media expert Lisa Hickey's talk about the Good Men Project especially caught my attention. Hickey told the story of how her media company, Good Men Media, Inc., the for-profit section of the Good Men Project (originally founded by Tom Matlack and James Houghton in 2009) was conceived.

After an unsuccessful merge between her advertising company and another a few years ago, Hickey found herself "out on the street" with nothing but a good idea, relentless enthusiasm and faith in the power of social media. The circumstances afforded her the opportunity to create the hugely successful Good Men Media, Inc., an online and print publication which "is a glimpse of what enlightened masculinity might look like in the 21st century" (Source). The tagline of the refreshing publication is, "What does it mean to be a good man?"

I was encouraged by Lisa's positive attitude and honesty about her journey. She explicitly stated during the two-hour seminar that filmmakers "should not go out an hire a social media person," adding humorously, "unless you're way over budget!" She encouraged a DIY attitude for filmmakers and inspired a sense of self-reliance that merges her two loves of "art and math."

I encourage you to check out the website for the Good Men Project. The publication is creating and encouraging intellectual, topical and relevant conversations about contemporary notions of masculinity. The project and its publications are a rare and necessary addition to the modern collection of male-focused print media.