Ektopia

Publishers have been celebrating graff for a long while. As the scene evolved so did the book releases. As orthodox graff was joined by (or morphed into) street-art the graff books were joined (and morphed into) street-art books. Street-art too has morphed in so many exciting ways. One of them is the way that artists have been taking their 3D art into public places without permission in the same way as orthodox writers paint their pieces. Street Renegades, published by Laurence King, is Francesca Gavin’s latest project. For those that don’t know, she’s currently the art director of Dazed & Confused but for this project she’s focussed on urban sculpture.

Urban interventions are becoming more and more widespread as the fine line between sculpture and street-art is crossed from both sides. Here’s a collection of some of the finest pieces that have been planted in public space during the recent past. Once I opened the pages of Street Renegades I was instantly reminded of Hidden Track because I immediately noticed the inclusion of Thundercut and Mark Jenkins (whose oversized sticky-tape telephone adorns the cover of this book). However, the focus in the aforementioned book is much more on gallery installations. We are treated to a whole different bias here; it’s all about the outside world and how these artists play games with their chosen environments. For a quick example, take a look at Truth’s piece below and you’ll get some idea of the thing I’m talking about as his pieces adorn the facades of various buildings; run down as well as those kept in good condition like the one shown. Carry on below for a few more of my picks from the book.

I’m really enjoying Samuel Francois’s work; in particular, his bough scars that he simply calls “Pattern” followed by the place and the year it was done. These are done on a few trees that have long lost large boughs. Over the years this has left the trees with open scars with bare innards, which Samuel has beautifully painted in colourful patterns. It’s as though someone has unzipped some cartoon trees.You get the impression that you could be taking a countryside walk and stumble across one of these pieces and be left feeling like you’ve struck gold. I know this is a regular reaction to finding street-art in urban environments but there’s no rural scene that I know of!

Cayetano Ferrer’s pieces are also doing it for me. In a collection of his work, he takes photos of advertisements, edits out all the text and images, re-prints them and then plants them back in the original place. He’s ended up with some simple graphic shapes and colours in prime advertising space that will have no doubt been most confusing for the average person on the street. And that’s kind of what it’s all about really. In doing this Cayetano will have made people question the relevance of his pieces and made them think about the space that they occupy while most of the time these spaces will be viewed but never questioned.

Slinkachu gets a well earned few pages too. I’ve been digging his little people from the get go and it’s great to see him in print. I love the fact that even though his creations are placed in busy places the chances of people actually seeing them are very small. Like Samuel Francois’s a bit I guess. I can only imagine how the uninitiated would react when seeing one of his pieces, especially the one below. If someone did stand there wondering long enough to work out what was going on, imagine how pleased they would be and how much they would think and talk about it after.

So, are the artists included in this book real “street renegades”? Well if your definition of the word brings up thoughts of artistic deserters or people that are rejecting what we know and understand about street-art then the answer is no. However, if you, like me, conjure up thoughts of rebellion and unconventional behaviour then the answer has to be yes and I imagine that’s exactly why Francesca Gavin called the book by that name. This is just a little picking from the great artists included in the book. The full line-up of artists is Brad Downey, Caliper Boy, Cut Up, Eine, El Tono, Faile, Cayetano Ferrer, Samuel Francois, G from Paris, Michael Genovese, Jorge Rodriguez Gerada, Graffiti Research Lab, Influenza, Invader, Mark Jenkins, Leopold Kessler, Knitta, Carla Ly, Adam Neate, Part 2, Psalm, Robin Rhode, Skullphone, Slinkachu, Judith Supine, Thought Police, Thundercut, Truth, Dan Witz and Zezao. Street Renegades weighs in at 120 pages and is great collection of urban (and rural!) interventions that will no doubt intrigue and please you as it has done for me. Get a copy direct from Laurence King or from all the usual place including AmazonUK etc.