L’image Obscene (The Obscene Image) examines a tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, in which European medical interns use their surroundings as canvases for vivid and bawdy illustrations.
Whether decorated with crude drawings or elaborate murals, the walls of Parisian hospital break rooms are the subject of this new book by Marie L. Bouchon, with images by photographer Gilles Tondini. Featuring French text and English translations, it reveals an ephemeral practice that also provides a window into the contemporary work culture of French hospitals.
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Today in things we did not know: German graffiti artists are really freaking hardcore. In the video below, as a bright red train pulls into the station, a large gang of folks with spray cans comes running out. Pretty soon, the entire train is covered in silver, black, and green with a stylish pink tag. And then, faster than they showed up, those kids beat it the hell out of there. U.S. artists may want to consider this a challenge.
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Jon Naar is a photojournalist who started documenting the budding graffiti scene in New York City back in the early 1970s. In this video, produced by Stussy, Naar shares his thoughts on the early graffiti writers, their startlingly youth and their influences (or lack thereof). He also looks back at the influence of his collaboration with Norman Mailer, a book called The Faith of Graffiti, which came out in 1974. The book, an essay by Mailer about graffiti accompanied by photographs by Naar, has recently returned to print. Click through to watch the interview.
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Commemorating the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, photographer Richard Misrach recently released previously unpublished prints of the devastation left in the storm’s wake in concurrent exhibitions in New Orleans and Houston, as well as in a new monograph, Destroy This Memory, published by Aperture. Shooting with a four-megapixel pocket camera between October and December 2005, the photographer focused on the graffiti scrawled messages left by the survivors on their homes, cars, trees, fences, and businesses. From RIP notes and markings for the number of dead people and animals found inside places to condemnations against insurance companies and warnings for potential looters, the powerful pictures capture the response of the people most affected by the disaster.
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The BLK River Festival is currently being held in Vienna, Austria, and runs through October 6th. The annual gathering, now in its second year, is dedicated to street and urban art, and also includes a film series. This year, festival director Sydney Ogidan chose to focus on large-scale murals and site-specific installations from an international roster of artists including Blu, Know Hope, John Fekner, Ox, Sam3 and DTAGNO. Click through for photos of some of our favorite work.
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Mike Holtzman and Sabrina Fitzwilliams, who run the website Barebones Detroit, were the first to spot an alleged Banksy mural of a yellow bird in a cage before it was mysteriously removed from Detroits’ Packard Plant and ended up on eBay. Though the auction page says it’s authentic, we think “authentic” is a better description, as the claim has yet to be confirmed, and Banksy’s frequently copied work is notoriously difficult to verify. That said, we’ve put together a few steps we suggest you follow should you spot what you think might be the work of Bristol’s son.
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Ogilvy Paris has launched a new campaign for the World Wildlife Federation featuring photos featuring endangered animals covered in graffiti. The project attempts to symbolize the public’s general disrespect for these quickly dying-off species, and repeats the question in all of the ads, “What will it take before we respect the planet?” Confused about how anyone could even tag a whale? Us too. In any case, click through to see a few endangered animals covered in spray paint, and try to not neglect the environment so much.
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Famed graffiti photographer Martha Cooper, who has been documenting street art since 1978, recently released a book entitled Name Tagging
, which glorifies the dying fad of marking territory with nametag stickers — or what she calls the “smallest kind of graffiti.” Click through to watch Hypebeast‘s interview with Cooper about the new book and the art of tagging.
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Directed by the notorious Banksy himself, Exit Through the Gift Shop takes viewers on a wild ride through the illicit world of street art.
An exhilarating look behind the scenes of the movement, Exit follows the transformation of French shopkeeper Thierry Guetta — who’s obsessed with documenting street art, but unable to make a good film — into Mr. Brainwash, a megalomaniacal artist set on conquering the graffiti-art scene. Narrated by Rhys Ifans, the film also features music by Roni Size and Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, soundtracking fantastic footage of Banksy, Shepard Fairey, and other street-art heroes.
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The latest theme blog to catch our collective eye in the Tumblr-verse is visual log of defacements around town, which rejoices in “spotting things that have been drawn on, torn apart, covered in stickers, or just plain sullied.” Defaced is kinda funny, kinda brainless, but sometimes clever and a little thoughtful. And dare we say it serves as a giant Where’s Waldo game for commuting grown-ups? Five of our favorite, after the jump.
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