With “Joan of Arc,” at a warehouse along the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, the graffiti collective Slavery is paying homage to a 1980 work that read “Hand of Doom.”

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I’m pretty excited that these are starting to pop up around NYC.

In the 18th century a Shinto priest named Hideaki saw a Karakuri doll (a clockwork robot made of wood) and claimed that in the future we will create mechanical characters that will become so superior to our own intelligence and ability’s that we will subject ourselves to them as if they were gods.

AUJIK shares Shintos belief that everything of nature is animated, even those things that we consider to be the most artificial and synthetic which border the realm of the abstract. To them science and technology is considered as sacred as stones and trees and imbued with a universal sentience.

This is fundermental to AUJIKS doctrines which aims to represent the chaos of original nature (trees, metals, organism etc) in duality to the ordered nature of refined nature (computers, robots, DNA-manipulation, etc), it explores the relationship of the two and the nature of existence.

By reflecting on it’s doctrine through the creation of artwork of an organic/synthetic nature, AUJIK hopes to facilitate the evolution of mankind.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/13567516[/vimeo]

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/13885334[/vimeo]

“And the places they most haunt are the loveliest — high shadowy groves where the uguisu sings in green twilight, above some voiceless shrine with its lamps and its lions of stone so mossed as to seem things born of the soil like mushrooms.”

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/14822511[/vimeo]

“This first fallen snow

is barely enough to bend
the jonquil leaves” – Matsuo Bashō

Last weekend I spent my days riding around Montreal. Here’re a few shots from the missions for your immediate viewing.

A lot of people were out to help save 5 Pointz. Writers, DJ’s, families and friends made for a great Saturday afternoon stroll through Queens.

I forgot I was the admin for one of the biggest tag / handstyle groups on Flickr

Got some pics, add em to the pool.

I think Gothic Futurism is best described as the Kabbalah of graffiti, the esoteric assignment of defensive, offensive and metaphysical elements to letters within a composition theorized by the brilliantly abstract mind and popularized by the equally charismatic spirit of one late Ramallzee. Who passed away yesterday. This is a good opportunity for everyone to read up on him and his work. Thanks Kano for introducing me to his work so many years ago.

The most famous , and talented, twin brothers of the street-contemporary-graffiti-art are literally taking over the city…and the world!

These month only they did a show in the Brazilian Museum of Art with the “VERTIGEM” (vertigo) exhibition, they illustrated the international film festival’s posters and billboards and performed one of the most incredible things I´ve ever saw in my life, a show with inflatable giant dolls one of them being a giant yellow big headed guy.

Here are some stuff I found on the net to give you guys a little taste of it all.

The “VERTIGO” show

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59gYmKdnML8[/youtube]

This is definetely the best exhibition I´ve ever been. Those guys really know how to do it, from the moment you step on the door of the museum you already feel like you´re going into another world. The enviroment they created makes you feel like you´re really inside a parallel universe, their universe. They stepped up another level and brought new sculptures made of metal, new interactive pieces, beautifull canvases and an amazing mural painted on the walls of the museum.

I´ve been to the show 2 weeks in a row and I can´t get tired of it, everytime I find a new detail, a new piece, I discover another part of the world they created inside the museum.

33rd International Film Festival

Not only they designed the art and posters of the festival but they also paticipated on a debate with the art director of the movie Art Inconsequence, which is part of the festival, about street and art.

Check the link for more info.

Plasticiens Volants + Osgemeos

To end the celebrations of the “year of the France in Brazil”  Osgemeos gathered with the french group Plasticiens Volants to perform the show called “O Estrangeiro” (the foreigner). The show had already been presented in Holland, see it here,  in 2008 and now came to Brazil.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrkkTe8FgyI[/youtube]

The inflatable puppet more than 20mts high was exactly the same character they painted on the side of a building that´s on the same square where the event took place.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9b2tKeGA5I[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foUBjts1Kxs[/youtube]

(There´s a lot of shots on YouTube. This guy, guitarfeak666, seems to shot the whole thing, is very long but worth every second of it !  I filmed it too but I can´t post it yet)

I had tears in my eyes watching this! It was so surreal to see a real character from Osgemeos walking in the middle of the buildings looking like it was about to step on us, like the giant marshmallow monster from “Ghostbusters” ! And not just that but the whole scene, it was a theatrical intervention with a snake, a fly and an owl coming from behind the buildings interacting with the “foreigner” character , and the music, the sounds that seem to be coming out of the sky ! You gotta see it to believe it ! Just brilliant!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UgQHGVh1dA[/youtube]

It´s official : OS GEMEOS TOOK OVER SAO PAULO !

I’m back in NYC for a little while working. It’s been hard for me to get out during the week, but on the weekends I get to explore. What’s better than exploring? Exploring with Sutu (NiceProduce.com designer, and the guy behind Nawlz.com). Dope.

I’ve been too busy to keep up with what’s going on, but Sutu had the hookups. The photo above is Sutu shooting the Graffiti Hall of Fame (currently up on 106th and Park Ave). I’ll show you some more details once I get the join up together. We were planning to head out to 5 Points but by the time we finished all our beer, the sun was going down, so we decided to hit up Harlem instead.

So we hit Harlem for some soul food (currently the best meal I’ve had in the city, though probably not the healthiest). Harlem was at time warp. Current fashion craze is 80’s hip-hop, Spike Lee flick, DeLaSoul and Run DMC hits. It truely has got it going on. I will go back with my camera and show you all what it’s all about.

The other 2 shot above are from a spot in China Town. Totally bombed. It’s great to be back in a city with dirty walls. Stockholm (where I live) is clean as a whistle and has a zero tolerance for graffiti. There is a law (if you can call it that) that says if there is graffiti on your walls or on the train, then it must be removed within 24 hours. While NYC is a lot cleaner than the last time I was here, there’s definitely character and the charm of it’s graffiti history on every block.

I’ll be serving more updates as time goes on. This week I’m hitting up Krink’s studio for a chat and shoot for an upcoming interview. Sneak peaks only found on Grassroots, bitches.

Peace.

The guys and the girl that represant what the street means, got together to repaint a wall that had a Sliks (Prakrti) and Enivo’s work on it, that I loved but the freshness must go on.

So, here it is !

.PRAKRTI.

.TIKKA.

.ENIVO.

.FUNTO.