Earlier today, I noticed a substantial jump in site views for an old article that I wrote a little over 2 years ago.  The post was about the notorious UK street artist, BANKSY and an animatronic pet store that he had set up in NYC and made available to the public during that time period.  Not unlike his other work, the project was a remarkable and innovative effort, charged with abrasive tongue-in-cheek social commentary.  Sure, it was a fascinating endeavor, but why all of the interest now?  Why today?  I didn’t know myself, until the latest episode of The Simpsons aired and the introduction had BANKSY‘s name written all over it (literally).

According to a post today on Wooster Collective, the artist is responsible for both storyboarding and directing the intro.  In BANKSY‘s typical irreverent fashion, the elusive stencil-master utilized this “unheard of” opportunity to design one of the most legendary opening sequences in television history to take jabs at the program itself.  References regarding heartless and unapologetic capitalism/consumerism are addressed through biohazard containers, a sweatshop unicorn, and kittens in a woodchipper.  Serious subject manner?  Yeah… but, BANKSY‘s strength has always lied in his ability to fuse these loaded topics with light-hearted humor and biting wit.  Judging by our own search stats alone, seeing BANKSY‘s name on Matt Groening‘s program was enough to intrigue unfamiliar viewers and set them off on a Googling mission.  We’re sure that this latest platform will result in some additions to the graffiti hooligan’s fan base, but we’re also confident that it will, undoubtedly, rouse up quite a few more haters… as usual.  He seems to have that  polarizing effect on people.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For additional info on BANKSY and to view footage of the Village Pet Store & Charcoal Grill CLICK HERE

For a solid chronicle of information and images from BANKSY, we highly recommend picking up a copy of the hardcover book,  BANKSY Wall & Piece.

Let’s say that you’re Canadian and a couple of your pals have come over to visit, bringing with them a deego of beasters to smoke you oot with.  You’re feasting on some poutine, but the one thing that they didn’t bring was the booze.  What the fuck is that aboot?!  You could be getting pissed.  You should jersey these hosers for not grabbing a couple of forty pounders or a two-four before coming over.  You collect some loonies from these fools and head out to pick up some alcohol.  The store is only a few clicks away, so you put your runners to the metal and rock out to the radio jams until your toque falls off.  “Sheena is A Punk Rocker” by the Ramones is blasting through the stereo of your red semi truck and you’re so into it that you don’t notice the little boy running through a meadow and chasing his kite into the middle of the street.  Oh shit!  You try to react, but you can’t deke the kid until its too late!  “…. what?  Nothing happened?  Oh beauty!  It’s just an illusion, drawn out confusion style like that guy with all the 3-dimensional chalk images, of internet fame.“  Whew!  That’s a relief, but it’s still kind of a fucked up hoax.  “No fair… no fair…”

No.. but, seriously… Canada has started a campaign to help prevent reckless driving and the pedestrian casualties that they can be responsible for.  To “help” in making such reductions in tragedy a reality, an illusion of a young child has been placed in the road to frighten the shit out of people bring awareness.  There’s a claim that it’s been “carefully tested“, but it still seems a little questionable and like it may actually have the potential to create more damage than it prevents.

Here’s are the details accompanying it’s promotion:

“Marking the back to school term, Preventable together with BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation and the District of West Vancouver have launched an optical illusion geared to making drivers slow down at high-risk intersections.

The optical illusion of an illustrated girl chasing a ball has been placed on the road northbound at 22nd street in West Vancouver. There are signs leading up to it saying “you’re probably not expecting kids to run out on the road” to prepare drivers. The installation is meant to draw attention to the risk of children running into the street and was carefully tested before being put in place. It is in place for a few days only and is being monitored as a pilot to ensure pedestrian and driver safety are not risked. The illusion rises up gradually from about 100 feet away as not to surprise drivers, and it fades away by the time a driver approaches.“

Now, watch the video of the illusion in effect:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Regardless of how much you test it and what you “discover” there is at least a potential for danger with something like this.  At one point or another, somebody is going to drive over that thing high or drunk on something and it’s gonna register in their minds a little fucky.  I’m not convinced that creating images of children that you are expected to drive over is necessarily the best method to help train people NOT to drive over little girls with toys.  This would likely prove especially true, if you swerved to avoid one the first time you saw one and it forced you to roll your car.  It’s probably not too safe to have people pulled over to the side of the road trying to inspect what they had just encountered, either.  This is the type of shit that people call in, claiming that some kind of “vandalism” or “street art” nearly caused them to front end their Aries K into a creek.  If you really think about it, by placing multiple campaigns like this out there , you would probably become more likely to encounter one of these fake kids in the street than a real one.  After a while, that real kid that gets laid out will be a simple result of the toddler who cried, “Please don’t run over my oblivious and unattended little torso” too many times.

If you want to find out more about this campaign, go to http://www.preventable.ca

My only guess is that their assumptions were either:

A)

For some overly dramatic statement, a dying woman must have used her last ounce of remaining strength to scale a huge billboard, only to fall into her eternal slumber length-wise across it’s form.

OR

B)

In a misguided and poorly thought out plan, a murderer chose to hide the remains of their victim on top of the one structure created, specifically to bring attention to anything posted on it.

Here’s Sept. 23, news footage of the scenario via CNN.com:

As mentioned in the video, the art installation was commissioned by SECCA (Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts) for their project Inside Out: Artists in the Community II.  Furthermore, a video PSA about the event was created by Time Warner, of which CNN is a subdivision.  After all of the crazy unsanctioned street art and public confusion that Jenkins has created in the past, it’s ironic that some of the most chaotic situations and largest concerns seem to be born from the most legit exhibits that he’s ever a part of (see: Greenpeace Bombscare)

The following is the official statement from SECCA about project:

The artists in this groundbreaking public art program are responding to the city, its people, and its many, unique places. As such, many of the projects are in development and will evolve over the life of the program. Each artist will visit Winston-Salem to install his/her respective project, conduct an artist talk, lead classes and/or workshops, and interact with the local community. The following descriptions outline each project, and show photos of past works that will relate to the 2009 program

Other sculptures by Mark Jenkins from Inside/Out:

For more information about Mark Jenkins, check out the following links:

xmarkjenkinsx.com (official Mark Jenkins Website)
Pigeons, Shit, Tampons, Heroin, and Vomit (“Purple Splendor” exhibit and Bio/Video/pics)

His photographs of young girls shoved in a locker or sitting on the ledge of a building weren’t very thought provoking.  There was one of a woman passed out with her face in a plate of food in the middle of a cafeteria, but it just seemed very “high school” to me; a little bit edgy, but nothing new or particularly magnificent.

It probably took about a week or two of me reading through the other articles before I noticed something that I hadn’t before and which made me take a second look.  It was a picture of a man leaning towards a concrete building with his head embedded into the side of it.  After reading the interview with him and looking over the images again, I found out two things that gave me a completely different perspective and a ridiculous amount of appreciation for Mark Jenkins and his art.

1) Jenkins work is not really photography based at all.
2) Those weren’t even real people in those pictures.

Mark Jenkins is a DC-based street artist.  The “people” photographed in the images are actually sculptures that have been cast out of packing tape.  The sculptures began while Jenkins was teaching English in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.  The position allowed for a lot of off-time and, after he was messing around and cast himself in tape one day, he began placing fully-clothed versions around town in confusing situations that would invoke double-takes from passersby.  The picture of the woman who appeared to be past out dead in her cafeteria tray was actually one of these sculptures that was left in a public cafeteria in Brazil.  The woman left on top of the building was being used to symbolize a narrator for a short film that Jenkins and his girlfriend were making.  They left it up there for a little while to get more footage and, when they returned, it had already been “rescued” by the fire department, due to numerous 911 calls.  In the interview, Jenkins said the following about his work:

“I think my outdoor work has to be called litter.  I mean, I leave them out there without any intentions of getting them back”

It’s hard to explain without seeing them so, here are 2 examples with video footage of pedestrian reactions, or rather, the lack thereof.

“Embed”
Washington, DC June 2006

Click here to view the embedded video.

“All You Can Eat”
SESC Pinheiros in São Paulo, Brazil 2007

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Hobo Polar Bear”
Columbia Heights Metro station in Washington DC, Sept. 2008

Last year, Jenkins collaborated with Greenpeace to do a series of public installations around the Washington DC area.  The project consisted of multiple polar bear figures resembling the homeless and was meant to bring attention to the growing issues surrounding the melting ice caps.  The photo above is of what became the most famous of those polar bear sculptures.  It was placed outside of a train station, which was later shut down for a couple of hours due to the polar bear being deemed a “suspicious package”.  The figure to the right is a member of the bomb squad.

Purple Splendor

A couple of weeks ago I found a random email that had been lost in my spam filter.  It looked like a message sent from one person that I didn’t know to another person that I’ve never heard of.  I deleted the rest of the messages but noticed that the subject in the heading read “Mark Jenkins exhibition purple splendor“.  I didn’t know how the sender had found me but, after opening the email, it was definitely about the same Mark Jenkins that I had suspected and hoped that it was.  Along with the email was an attachment with a flyer for an art exhibit in Vienna, Austria.  I replied to the sender about the event and requested more information about it.  I didn’t hear back at first but, just recently, I received the an email which included the following:

“sorry for the very late reply, thanks a lot for your interest in the mark jenkins purple splendor exhibition. its marks first solo show in vienna.

the exhibition features classical mark jenkins sculptures as well as new work. the new work is a collection of streetfinds from his time in vienna. mark built the collages in the gallery showing a good example how streetart works in the white cube.

below are some pieces from the exhibition.”

Mark jenkins purple splendor, exhibition
Vienna, Austria 2009 ,
Curated by Apocalyptic Colors

Trasher,
edition of 5, installation, vienna, austria 2009

Purple Splendor,
1/1, installation, vienna, austria 2009

Mini Trasher
edition of 5, installation, vienna, austria 2009

Puker
edition of 5, installation, vienna, austria 2009

Streetcocktail
1/1, installation, vienna, austria 2009

Umbrella
1/1, installation, vienna, austria 2009

Street Sign
1/1, installation, vienna, austria 2009

Mobile
installation, vienna, austria 2009

Purple Shit
1/1, installation, vienna, austria 2009

purple shit: didn’t make it through the exhibition

[All exhibit photos featured above are courtesy of Sydney Ogidan]

More Information sent in follow up emails about the event:

“The gallery name is Ve.Sch which means something like, smart, smooth, posh and is the new art room right now in Vienna, exhibitions change almost every week.

“Apocalyptic colors is a colective from vienna that curates, produces and teaches art.”

“…Music was part of the welcoming session.  The band were Gypsies who are street musicians in Vienna.”

I was also provided a link to the following photos which were shot by Tobi Leingruber (aka: Mr. Pirates of the Amazon)


(For the rest of his Flickr set, please CLICK HERE)

Jenkins has a variety of different art, beyond what we’ve featured in this article and beyond just tape sculpture.  We suggest that you check it out.  ALL OF IT!

The “Mobile” installation  in the Purple Splendor exhibit is part of Jenkins‘ “Storker Project“.  He tape casts dolls and places them in crazy random public locations.  To go to Mark’s DIY site, watch video, and get step by step instructions on how to make sculptures in the same fashion, CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW of the blinking infant.

MORE LINKS:

Mark’s official site
Mark’s Youtube page
Ve.Sch Gallery on myspace (you’ll need to translate it yourself)

Last month, signs like the one to left began gaining popularity after they were masking taped to poles and other public surfaces around the Melbourne suburb.  The signs, which became increasingly awkward, had locals questioning their legitimacy and helped the anonymous poster’s popularity blow up like the World Trade.  Sites like FunnyorDie.com blogged about the “artist” and even Time Magazine recognized the phenomenon.  Facebook fan pages sprouted up as quickly as the signs themselves and have already grown thousands strong.  This shit is spreading like AIDS fire and there still appears to be no end to the growth in popularity.

Hopefully, with the latest revelations, the excitement will die down a bit.  There have been endless acknowledgments, articles, and comments referring to how “original” and “creative” Craig seems to be.  I’ve read them and thought the postings were a great idea myself… at first.  Hell, I still feel that they are, but I’m just not that impressed with the Aussie who has garnered so much recognition for them.  The internet is an amazing source for content and information, yet people still abandon research and cross-referencing for immediate and instantaneous gratification.  Even, so-called “legitimate” news sources often take the latter approach.  I, on the other hand, felt prompted to delve deeper and, within 20 minutes, realized that CRAIG had stolen this concept from the beginning by taking a huge bite out of the big apple and the work of New York artist/writer Todd Lamb.  Why more have not chosen to promote this information with an equal number of posts, is beyond me.

The Evidence

The following sign was placed on a pole last month by “CRAIG”

(Please don’t ask what Banana Big M’s are; this is from Australia)

Posted @ a subway stop in NY by Todd Lamb, last year

Obviously, the similarities are a little more than suspicious.  Here are more examples:
(Top photos from last month, bottom versions are originals from last year)

An Australian paper called The Age originally ran a piece on CRAIG and the street art.  Later, after finding out about the true origins of the work and speaking with Todd Lamb directly, they posted follow up piece in their Diary section to clear the air.  Of course, not as many people were as interested or willing to spread this lesser exciting information.

Lamb was quoted as stating the following to the paper:

“Craig is an unoriginal person who plagiarises people’s art and writing.”

The New York artist also managed to track the plagiarist down, via online means, and received an email containing the following quote:

“Hi Todd, indeed the idea for it did come from your web link. I loved them and decided to expand on it. I didn’t realise that it was actually you since the name on the signs was Chris and your name is Todd, otherwise I would have asked permission. Sorry for offending you.”

Indeed, he did take it further and brought enjoyment to thousands.  However, I still feel there is great importance in making sure that the real artist gains the recognition that he deserves.  Regardless of if you enjoyed these pieces, or the 8 others from CRAIG (provided in gallery below), they are still extremely derivative by nature and origin.  Todd Lamb posted his signs in New York and were, no doubt, somewhat lost among endless other works and exhibitions in the bustling city.  Hopefully, if anything, the situation will help to encourage those in less prominent cities to take their art to the streets with the realization that some level of acknowledgement and success could still be attained, without having to relocate to a larger metropolis.  The postings further display alternate means of utilizing and presenting street art.  At this point, it is more original than most of the standard graffiti on the streets and less invasive or threatening (aka: more widely accepted by the community) than works by artists like Ron English or Mark Jenkins.

Sorry, about your fallen god but “No Virginia, ther isn’t a Santa CRAIG!“  The good news is that Todd Lamb is, by no stretch, a one note (pun intended).  By knowing who the original mastermind is, all you CRAIG fans can turn to checking out his work and know that he will have more up his sleeve to offer in the future.

Mr. Todd Lamb created this video for the Monkeybacon song “Trouble at Party Time Lake“

Click here to view the embedded video.

Most recently (March 20th), while the CRAIG hype was really gaining ground, Todd Lamb appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to attempt to break the record for sitting on the most Whoopee Cushions in 30 seconds without cracking a smile (results are still pending).

-Dead C

Peep these hype Todd Lamb related links:

Watch the Jimmy Fallon footage
Todd‘s website
His book “Yo, Check the Perm“
Todd Lamb on Myspace

(click photos to enlarge)

Banksy is one of the most influential and forward thinking graffiti artists of the last 20 years. He is well known for his stenciled bombing which he honed in the Bristol area of the United Kingdon.  In his book “Banksy: Wall and Piece” (2005) he states that he decided to start doing his tagging with a stenciling format after being caught and running from the cops at the age of 18.  He claims that, while hiding, he “spent over an hour under a dumpster truck with engine oil leaking all over (him)“.   He looked up at a stencil on the fuel tank and realized that he had found his answer to cutting his painting time down to a fraction of what they currently took.

I highly recommend “Wall and Piece” because it is, not only an impressive composition of his collected work, but also full of quotes and passages that display the artist’s distinct vision and philosophies.  What makes Banksy’s work consistently relevant isn’t his ability to draw or paint, or even his cunning vandalism, but his voice.  I’m not going to claim that all graffiti is vital and has something to say beyond simple territorial pissings or blind destruction, because much of it is done ignorantly, but I will openly argue with anyone that claims that Banksy’s work isn’t absolute art in its purist form.  His graffiti work evokes thought, inspires hope, and contains strong social commentaries about capitalism, politics, and, most of all, humanity.  Like artist Ron English, Banksy’s hopeful, yet “illegal“, art pieces are often created in response to the corporate advertisements and “legal” oppressive imaging that we are bombarded with on a daily basis.

Wikipedia describes Banksy as “pseudo-anonymous“.  This is because he is obviously well-known enough to publish books and have gallery shows but it’s doubtful that you will see his actual face on the cover of any magazine, or program any time soon.  You won’t even find it on his website.  He’s been able to achieve the oft-elusive feat of transferring from underground renegade artist into one that commands universal respect, but continues to enjoy the freedom and versatility of street art that warrants such anonymity.

Galleries are great, but they sometimes have the ability to almost quarantine art and remove it from the rest of society.  They don’t provide the same effect as a giant, unexpected, apocalyptic mural in the center of Wall Street.  In the past, the tagger has altered large building walls, in both the UK and in San Francisco, to read as “Designtated Graffiti Areas“.  The scheme encouraged locals to come and vandalize the properties based on the fact that the walls were labeled to infer that the areas were permitted by the local authorities and government agencies.  In 2006, Banksy teamed up with DJ Danger Mouse in London to replace hundreds of copies of the Paris Hilton album with hoax versions.  Danger Mouse remixed tracks and renamed songs to have titles like, “Why am I famous?” while Banksy slipped the copies with alternate booklets into local retailers.

This August, Banksy spent time throwing up some new work in the New Orleans area, in his classic stenciled graffiti street art style.  The paintings were done to commemorate the 3 yr anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina disaster and has been chronicled nicely on sites like Wooster Collective.  For this month of October, however, Banksy has made his way up to New York and it appears that the artist has been able to find himself the perfect middle ground between gallery-style artist residencies and the awe-inspiring specatacle of street art.

Banksy’s “Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill” has a giant storefront window located at No.89, Seventh Ave. South in Greenwich Village, New York.  It’s set up with the motif of a pet store but all of the “creatures” inside are constructed using animatronics.  I write “creatures” because, although there is a lifelike robotic rabbit with full make up, filing it’s nails in the mirror, there is also everything from fishsticks swimming in a tank to chicken nuggets with feet eating out of a BBQ sauce container.

His art has often contained images of rats and other animals in the past and his 2003 animal rights activist enraging work “Turf War” had the artist spray-painting graffiti directly onto the sides of cows and pigs.  There is a quote from Bansky on Wooster Collective where he says the following of the animatronic pet store:

“New Yorkers don’t care about art, they care about pets. So I’m exhibiting them instead. I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming, but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing. I took all the money I made exploiting an animal in my last show and used it to fund a new show about the exploitation of animals. If its art and you can see it from the street, I guess it could still be considered street art.”

The project is scheduled to run until Halloween and is open daily between 10am-12am, but is also viewable at night.  If you are in the area we suggest going down there and checking it out.  If you are able to make it down but choose not to do so, we suggest punching yourself in the genitals.

For those of us who will not likely be able to view the splendor first hand a video is provided below.  The site Notcot.com commissioned artist filmmaker Seth Brau to make the following film which, at least at this point, appears to be the best video document of the exhibit available.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Big Cats
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IpriP5Bl20

Sausages
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVJtXiujDVQ

Fish Fingers
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbsPCaxS-ec

Rabbits
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emFgmo1UeQM

Nuggets
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxNjikJNjdk

Primates
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZAwOMrpCSU

CCTV
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u239zSO1tQ

For coverage on more amazing artwork, make sure to check out he following sites as well:
www.Banksy.co.uk
www.Woostercollective.com
www.Notcot.com

-Dead C