OBEY, BY SHEPARD FAIREY

Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary street artist, graphic designer, activist, illustrator and founder of OBEY who emerged from the skateboarding scene.

The OBEY sticker campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology. Heidegger describes Phenomenology as “the process of letting things manifest themselves.” Phenomenology attempts to enable people to see clearly something that is right before their eyes but obscured; things that are so taken for granted that they are muted by abstract observation.

Obey Giant

19:00 - By Unknown 0

THE PROBLEM WE ALL LIVE WITH, BY NORMAN ROCKWELL

The Problem We All Live With is a 1964 painting by Norman Rockwell. An iconic image of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States,it depicts Ruby Bridges, a six-year-old African-American girl, on her way into an all-white public school in New Orleans on November 14, 1960 during the process of racial desegregation. Because of threats and violence against her, she is escorted by four deputy U.S. marshals; the painting is framed such that the marshals' heads are cropped at the shoulders.On the wall behind her is written the racial slur "nigger" and the letters "KKK"; a smashed tomato thrown at Bridges is also visible. The white crowd is not visible, as the viewer is looking at the scene from their point of view.The painting is oil on canvas and measures 36 inches high by 58 inches wide.

22:52 - By Unknown 0

STRYX: THE VENUE FOR THE EXHIBITION IN BIRMINGHAM

Stryx is an artist led studio, project and exhibition space in Digbeth, Birmingham.

Formed by Fine Art graduates in 2012, Stryx is formed of individual practitioners who work together to foster a diverse range of events, exhibitions and projects both in and outside their studio space. Furthermore, Stryx seeks to initiate and develop regional and national artistic collaborations in order to promote and strengthen an accessible and vibrant network of ideas and practices.

14:22 - By Unknown 0

THE PILLAR OF SHAME (16.744 SHOES), BY CENTRE FOR POLITICAL BEAUTY

To forget is to kill! The victims of Srebrenica may only be one people with one religion but they stand for one huge betrayal of humankind. The Pillars of Shame will be a metaphor for the betrayal inflicted upon them by the United Nations and a constant warning to anyone who might work for the UN in the future. The Plan: build two 8-meters tall bright white letters consisting of 16,744 shoes (representing 8,372 victims).

The letters (“U“ and “N“) will be scarred by three huge bullet holes filled with 200 shoes taken from mass graves in East Bosnia: an unforgettable monument to the oblivion of Europe’s nights of shame. At the same time, it will serve as a weapon for the media showing the enormous guilt of the Srebrenica genocide that the UN bears.

Centre for Political Beauty.

23:14 - By Unknown 0

RESPONSES TO AN IMMIGRATION REQUEST FROM 194 GOVERNMENTS, BY RAAFAT ISHAK

"A formal request to immigrate was sent to 194 governments, 97 of whom provided a response, varying from congratulatory notes to outright suspicious interrogations of motive. What was evident, was that inherent laws and regulations, particular to each state, were in fact a conglomeration of sameness: race, language and religion, as well as economic and professional qualifications were key criteria. Unsurprisingly, 97 states chose not to respond at all.

Responses to an immigration request from one hundred and ninety four governments (2006–09) constitutes 194 painted panels, depicting the faded flag of each state superimposed with a summary of each response, or no response, in stylised and phonetic Arabic text. What on the surface seems like an unprecedented opportunity to reclaim the world by self and citizen is obstructed by an inherent lack of freedom, in particular the freedom to cross borders and migrate from one distinct place to another. This work constitutes a polemic veneration towards otherness whilst engaging in a reconsideration of self and citizen as a contrivance of nation states mired in economic, social, political and historical relevance."

16:53 - By Unknown 0

SUSPENDED TOGETHER, BY MANAL AL-DOWAYAN

The doves display travel permission documents donated to the artist by many leading women from Saudi Arabia (scientists, educators, engineers, artists, etc.). In order to travel, all Saudi women need a permission document issued by their appointed guardians.

16:34 - By Unknown 0

MEJOR VIDA CORPORATION, BY MINERVA CUEVAS

The Mejor Vida Corp is an enterprise that provides free products and services such as international student ID cards, subway passes, lottery tickets and barcode stickers which reduce the price of food at supermarket chains. Cuevas started the project in protest against the capitalist companies.
“Mejor Vida Corp. is a non profit corporation. M.V.C. creates, promotes and distributes world wide products and services for free, M.V.C. doesn't discriminates any person for its gender, race, religion, sexual preferences or economic status.”

Mejor Vida Corporation web site: www.irational.org

Minerva Cuevas was born Mexico City in 1975.
She is a Mexican conceptual artist. She studied at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas. In 1998 she founded the Mejor Vida Corp which imitates a company layout but it deals with the social and political research the Cuevas is interested in. Cuevas also creates posters, alters logos and producing printed matter, billboards, and performances. Cuevas has assumed the role of both a political and artistic actor.

Other art works by Minerva Cuevas:

16:23 - By Unknown 0

LOS DINOSAURIOS, BY CHARLY GARCÍA

The friends from the neighborhood could disappear,
The singers on the radio could disappear, The ones who are in the diaries could disappear.
The person who you love could disappear.
The ones who are in the air can disappear in the air.
The ones who are in the street can disappear in the street.
The friends from the neighborhood could disappear,
But the dinosaurs are going to disappear.

I'm not calm, my love,
Today is Saturday at night, a friend is in jail.
Oh, my love, the world disappears.

If the heavy things, my love,
Take all that mountain
Of baggage in the hand,
Oh, my love, I want to be light.
When the world heads downward
It's better not to be tied to anything,
Imagine the dinosaurs in bed.

15:52 - By Unknown 0

WELFARE STATE PROJECT (SMASH THE GHETTO), BY DEMOCRACIA

The “Welfare State” project has its origin in El Salobral, one of Europe’s largest shanty towns located on the southern outskirts of Madrid. In March 2007, the Madrid City Council and the Regional Government decided that the slum should be demolished and its inhabitants rehoused. “Smashing the ghetto” is a single channel video installation displaying the demolition of these slum properties as if it were a sports event. The public watches the process from its seats on the stands and cheers on the bulldozers in a hooliganish style. The project turns the destruction of the neighbourhood into a show for the members of civil society. Unconcerned by considerations like the disappearance of a specific way of life, civil society celebrates the end of the ghetto as if it were a media spectacle.
Cuatro News footage.

22:42 - By Unknown 0

WINGED EAR OF MAIZE, BY BENVENUTO CHAVAJAY

During the 36-year armed conflict in Guatemala, the military referred to indigenous children as “cholocates” in reference to our brown skin. They also called us “bad seeds” that needed to be eliminated so as too prevent us from growing up and seeking vengeance. They couldn’t kill us all, and now us bad seeds have grown up, and grown wings.

22:16 - By Unknown 0

FREEDOM FRIES: STILL LIFE, BY YOSHUA OKÓN

For Freedom Fries Okón convinced both a McDonald's manager to grant him access for an overnight shoot and a McDonald's loyal customer to participate as a model.

The resulting work references the way in which the body is tricked and, above all, dehumanized by the corporate environment. In this sense, the site itself acquires a symbolic nature: McDonald's, as a representative of corporate culture, references the way in which "consumer society" alienates the human body.

In Freedom Fries the obese body becomes the evidence of a neoliberal system which ideology promotes an idea of freedom based on disproportionate consumption and the continuos promotion of low self-esteem. In such a context, the work points out the irony of how, in the name of Freedom, we have become prisoners of our own bodies.

Freedom Fries documents the consequences of an economic and political system that has eroded our agency so deeply that we have lost not only the connection with other species and other human beings, but we have also become alienated from our own corporality.

21:55 - By Unknown 0

SPASIBO, BY ANAÏS SARTINI

A gay short film about human rights in Russia. Awarded by Amnesty International - Special Prize for Human Rights.
More info:
spasibo-shortfilm.com
facebook.com/spasiboshortfilm
SPASIBO is a short-film made in reaction to the homophobic law in Russia, which came into force the 17 of march 2012 in Saint Petersbourg. Today, the law is extended on the entire Russia.
The film got the Special Prize for human rights at the Cinema and Human Rights Film Festival, Amnesty International, Paris 2012. Clément, a French actor, goes to Saint Petersburg to participate into a film festival. When he gets there, he realizes he has disappeared: nobody can hear him and see him. He meets Andrei, a Russian gay who lives the same thing.

22:50 - By Unknown 0

PETITION TO FREE BURMA'S POLITICAL PRISONERS, BY J. WALTER THOMPSON NEW YORK

As part of its campaign to help free Burma’s estimated 2,100 political prisoners, Human Rights Watch & JWT NY created an interactive installation at Grand Central Station. Consisting of hundreds of prison cells, a closer look reveals that the cell bars are actually pens. Visitors could remove the pens to symbolically free the innocent prisoners and then use the pen to sign a petition calling for their release. The installation will now travel to Prague and will be released in a digital format.

22:30 - By Unknown 0

FLESH TO WHITE TO BLACK TO FLESH, BY BRUCE NAUMAN

Presenting his bare torso to the camera, Nauman meticulously applies, and removes, layers of white and black pigment, to his face, arms, and chest. Beyond the link to body art, and the idea of treating the human body as artistic subject matter and material, Nauman enacts a process of self-transformation—a masque applied and removed—as the tape ends where it began. This title was in the original Castelli-Sonnabend video art collection.

Full video: https://youtu.be/HjEAtc0Ee4M

12:50 - By Unknown 0

HUMANAE, BY ANGÉLICA DASS

Humanæ is a work in progress, who intends to deploy a chromatic range of the different human skin colors. There is no previous selection of participants and there are no classifications relating to nationality, gender, social class or religion. This taxonomy adopts the format of the PANTONE® Guide. The presentation of the range of color shades induce the viewer to reflect on one of the dual meanings containing the word identity: that associated with equality. Humanae is a color catalog in which the “primary” colors have exactly the same importance as “mixed”.

humanae.tumblr.com

11:56 - By Unknown 0