JR asks us all to become the subject, protagonist, passerby and interpreter in this global artwork.

artist: JR, “ACTIONS”

On display will be a mix of colour prints as well as his signature wood mounted monochromatic paper pieces telling the story of JR’s global initiative to employ art as a tool for global communication and understanding. Works within the gallery will highlight various actions JR has accomplished around the globe and will include images from Wrinkles of the City Project in Berlin (spring 2013), his journey to North Korea and new images recreated in 2012 from the 2004-06 project, Portrait of a Generation set in the ‘Les Bosquets’ ghetto of Paris. The buildings that featured the original images have since been destroyed so this new series sees the faces looking at each other across an abyss of time and degradation, a mise en abime that speaks to the heart of Paris’ recent history.

Out on the streets of the nation’s capital, the artist invites the community to become part of public art project, turning each participant’s portrait and identity into communal artwork. Spurred by his award of 2011 TED prize and subsequent TED Conference, JR called for the creation of a global participatory art platform: INSIDE OUT. The underlying concept of the project is to provide anyone and everyone with the opportunity to share with the world their portrait and a statement of for what they stand.

artist: JR, “ACTIONS”

artist: JR, “ACTIONS”

artist: JR, “ACTIONS”

Since its conception, the INSIDE OUT Project has travelled from Ecuador to Nepal, Mexico to Palestine and most recently to New York inspiring a call to action on various themes including democracy, hope, violence between gangs, immigration, and climate change. To date over 150,000 people from across 108 countries have participated in this epic art project.

And if you’re in London during October, you’ll get a chance to create your own black and white portrait in travelling INSIDE OUT trucks where they will be subsequently printed as large posters and pasted onto various iconic London sites. JR asks us all to become the subject, protagonist, passerby and interpreter in this global artwork.

Gallery Information

Lazarides Gallery
Lazarides Rathbone, 11 Rathbone Place, W1T 1HR + 44 (0) 207 636 5443
Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 7pm, admission free
www.lazinc.com

INSIDE OUT will be taking place across various sites in London, including at the site of Land Securities’ New Ludgate development situated on the City’s fringe (adjacent to St Paul’s Cathedral). Location of photobooth truck to be confirmed.

artist: JR, “ACTIONS”

artist: JR, ‘WOTC Berlin’

artist: JR, ‘Destruction #2′

artist: JR, ‘Destruction #1′

All images (c) JR, c/o Lazarides Gallery

Photograph: Pieter Hugo, Green Point Common, Cape Town, 2013

Over the past eight years Hugo has turned his eye on cramped townships, contested farmlands and abandoned mining areas; psychologically charged still lifes in people’s homes; sites of political significance; drifters and the homeless; his pregnant wife, and his daughter moments after her birth; the domestic servants who have worked for the Hugo family over three generations. The series alternates between intimate and public spaces, with particular emphasis on the growing disparity between rich and poor, and reveals Hugo’s deeply conflicted feelings about his home. It confronts complex issues of colonisation, racial diversity and economic disparity. Kin endeavours to locate his young family in a country with a fraught history and an uncertain future.

Hugo describes the Kin project as:

An engagement with the failure of the South African colonial experiment and my sense of being ‘colonial driftwood’ … South Africa is such a fractured, schizophrenic, wounded and problematic place. It is a very violent society and the scars of colonialism and apartheid still run very deep. Issues of race and cultural custodianship permeate every aspect of society, and the legacy of forced racial segregation casts a long shadow…. How does one live in this society? How does one take responsibility for history, and to what extent should one try? How do you raise a family in such a conflicted society? Before getting married and having children, these questions did not trouble me; now, they are more confusing. This work attempts to address these questions and to reflect on the nature of conflicting personal and collective narratives. I have deeply mixed feelings about being here. I am interested in the places where these narratives collide. Kin is an attempt at evaluating the gap between society’s ideals and its realities.

Photograph: Pieter Hugo, The children’s ward in an abandoned tuberculosis hospital, Mthatha, 2008

Photograph: Pieter Hugo, Theresa Makwenya, Carletonville, 2013

Photograph: Pieter Hugo, Outside Michael’s flat, Troyeville, 2011

Exhibitions:

Hugo was born in 1976 in Johannesburg and grew up in Cape Town, where he lives. His survey exhibition, This Must Be the Place, has showed at the Fotomuseum Den Haag, The Netherlands; Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland; Stimultania Photographic Centre, Strasbourg, France (2012); Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary (2013); and continues to tour. Some recent group exhibitions include Present Tense, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal (2013); Distance and Desire: Encounters with the African Archive, The Walther Collection, Ulm, Germany (2013); Africa: Photographs and video from the Martin Margulies Collection, Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, Edison State College, Florida, USA (2012); Africa, There and Back, Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany (2012); Qui Vive? 3rd Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Russia (2012); FotoTriennale.dk, Funen, Denmark (2012); Contact Photography Festival, Toronto, Canada (2011); ARS 11, Kiasma, Helsinki Museum of Contemporary Art, Finland (2011); Figures and Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography, V&A Museum, London, UK (2011); The Eye is a Lonely Hunter: Images of Humankind, Fotofestival Mannheim Ludwigshafen Heidelberg, Germany (2011); and The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds after 1989, ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany (2011).

Awards:

Hugo won the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art in 2007; the KLM Paul Huf Award and the Arles Discovery Award at the Rencontres d’Arles Photography Festival in 2008; the Seydou Keita Award at the 9th Rencontres de Bamako African Photography Biennial, Mali, in 2011, and was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse photography prize in 2012.

KIN Info.:

KIN opened in Johannesburg on Thursday 3 October, 6 to 8pm, and runs until 8 November. It opens in Cape Town on Thursday 17 October, 6 to 8pm, and runs until 23 November.

Photograph: Pieter Hugo, Nokhanyo and Ayabukwa Mabuse, Langa, 2013

Photograph: Pieter Hugo, Louis Matanisa, Cape Town, 2013

Photograph: Pieter Hugo, Linda Ntsukwana, Colesberg, 2013

Photograph: Pieter Hugo, At Rietpoort farm, Graaff-Reinet, 2013

Photograph: Pieter Hugo, Aerial view of Diepsloot, 2013

Source: STEVENSON, all photos by Pieter Hugo

A fascinatingly calm group of artists with their own distinctive styles, the artists have a grounded pride about them; this will be their first time exhibiting together. Dressed as effortlessly sophisticated as his work– in a crisp white shirt and black tie– Rayaan seems ready. Leigh next to him, lanky and tall with boyish charm shuffles impatiently in his seat beside Anwar, who projects the kind of wisdom that could only come from years of hard work. The most shy of the group, NardStar*, likes to let the work speak for her. Every artwork in the exhibition was done meticulously by each member of CORE, including the beautiful wooden frames they are cased in. A labour of love, each one of the works is for sale, however reluctant they are to let them go…

What are your various mediums and why did you decide to use them?

Rayaan: I’m a big fan of working in monotones, so black and white is my thing. I like the strength and the boldness of it, so I chose to work in black india ink. It’s the first time I’m using this medium so it was quite a learning curve for me! It has such an awesome variation of line quality going from very thin to very thick, so details weren’t a problem; it’s such a fluid medium. It’s waterproof too, so you can do colour washes over it without any trouble.

Leigh: I generally do graffiti, so I used spray paint and india ink too. I saw Rayaan using it, and I thought “well that’s rocking!” It looks great for the style that I was going for…

And what kind of style is that?

Leigh: …Anti-style!

Dramatic! And Anwar? Are you using india ink too?

Anwar: I thought about using it too, I mean obviously it’s quite awesome, but I prefer to use a black fine liner. I’m happy with the outcome, because of the control it allows me to have. If you look at my pieces, you’ll see that there’s a lot of detail and using a pen just seemed better for me.

There’s a heavy debate concerning the difference between graffiti, street art and vandalism isn’t there?

Leigh: I’ve been doing graffiti for four years. Graffiti has had its time in museums, sure, but it’s for the people, that’s why it’s done outside… and I don’t agree with graffiti being done indoors in a gallery setting. Spray paint is just another medium, which is one that I’ve used here, but graffiti, real graffiti, should stay outside.

Rayaan: Exactly. I love the interaction with the community that comes with graffiti. While you’re painting, you meet people; you have kids running around watching, guys coming up to you asking questions, watching you work… It’s very interactive. You won’t get that indoors at all, working on your own… that’s why I love it.

Leigh: Street art has become a huge movement. People are using it as a way to communicate… to express how they feel in their hearts, and that’s mad! A lot of places are very poor at the moment, so they use street art to say how they feel. They can go out there and do it themselves, dream something up and just do it, which is very cool.

Anwar: Yeah, and a lot of the social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter let people stay connected and share their work with other artists. Instead of just being abut Cape Town and Jo’burg, we can stay in contact with the world! A lot of what you’re seeing here is influenced by that. Our influences come from everywhere, not just one particular set of people.

NardStar*: Exactly. The theme I followed with my work is the idea of staying in touch with people from around the world, online. There’s a portrait of me and my dad; he went to Jo’burg for two years and that’s how we stayed in contact. There’s another one of my friend Kaas, who moved to Oman. It’s deeper than just social networking.

Anwar:

It’s about coming together; that’s what we’re doing here.

Rayaan: Mixing the fine arts side with the street art side… You know, Street Art is supposed to have a message. You have mass media telling people lies every day, all the time, and street art is about dropping knowledge and letting people know about things that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to access.

So did you all go to art school?

Leigh: We’re actually all graphic designers! Our aim was to go and learn how to make things and get involved, and we were so excited… but then when you get there, it’s not what you’d expect it to be. As a graphic designer you learn all about making powerful images but then when you get to the working world, it’s all about the client and there’s no expression in it. That’s why we have CORE. So we can still do what we do best, to express that frustration with having to hold ourselves back.

Rayaan: We’re all a little jaded by the industry unfortunately…

Work hard to play hard huh? Well in terms of hip hop culture, how much does that influence your work here? That’s where graffiti comes from, correct?

Anwar: Yeah, so much! I was so immersed in hip hop culture. I loved MCing and beatboxing; I used to perform with Black Noise and even got involved with Prophets of Da City as well so I was into it full time and I was trying to evolve as a human being back then too. With hip hop, it’s a positive movement that teaches knowledge of self.

It’s about trying to find out who you are and being able to do things for yourself.

Hip hop has brought me where I am today and I’m happy to be here. There’s always a message in the music which is what we’re all about– sending a message.

Leigh: …I was heavily into break dancing in high school, and I realized that the same people who love breakdancing, also like to draw! That’s how I got into graffiti. It just clicked.

Rayaan: Music totally influenced me. The rawness of hip hop was great and it just made sense for me to couple that with graffiti. Just listening to music felt right, and I even DJ’d at some point too. We’ve all been involved in the hip hop scene in some way or another.

So, of all of this… community, hip hop culture and music, what inspires you the most, and does Cape Town as a city influence your creativity at all?

Leigh: The people…definitely. This beautiful gift of a life that we have too.

Anwar: Waking up every morning thinking “today is going to be a good day,” definitely does.

Rayaan: Cape Town as a city… it’s such a symbiotic relationship really. That connectedness that we feel to this place is unbelievable. My peers inspire me the most as well. I feel so blessed to be associated with these guys! We feed off one another’s energy. As soon as one of us levels up, we try to top the next guy and so we all grow together as artists.

Leigh: We’re a family now! We didn’t know each other when we first started out. I met Rayaan at work!

Rayaan: It’s true! I went to get some things printed and I’d never touched a spray can in my life. There was a tag we were discussing, and he asked me if I was into graffiti. I told him I had a secret passion for it and I’d always wanted to try it out. After that, we painted a few walls and became solid friends after that.

So if you could paint on any surface, what would you choose?

Leigh: Giant buildings. And Bridges.

Rayaan: We’re quite inspired by the FAME street art festival in Italy. I would love to work there. See No Evil is also great for murals. It’s such a forward way of thinking, beautifying the city with street art. I don’t know why we aren’t doing something like that in Cape Town, since we have Design Capital of the World award for 2014.

Anwar: We’re really excited about tonight, not nervous at all. We put everything into this; especially those frames. We went from sawing the raw wood to sanding it, to putting the frames together…It was a long process. We spent so much time bonding while setting up, sourcing the venue, everything…

And lastly, are you guys ok with the fact that anonymity of street art is no longer there, especially because of social media?

Leigh: That’s what happens when you get online I guess, yeah we’re cool with it. It is considered a crime in some places but not as much as before. People aren’t afraid anymore. They’re ready to step up and say “yes, this is my piece.”

One thing I have noticed about Cape Town is that everyone seems to know each other, which means you end up seeing the same artists all the time, in the same circles. I know all these guys personally and it’s refreshing to see people doing something new, especially when it’s for themselves. – Guest

The CORE exhibition will be running from Septmenber 6th until month end, 2012 at The Museum Gallery, Upper Eastside Hotel, 31 Brickfield Road in Woodstock. Every Wednesday evening at 18h00 until September 26th, the artists will be hosting CORE Creative Nights, where participants will bring their own drawing materials and engage in the creative experience.

Interview: Shiba Melissa Mazaza & Silje Rolfsen
Photographer: Bernice Israel

Encounters at the Edge will travel to Bekris Gallery in San Fransisco in November this year. Lurie’s photographs have been selected for two prestigious art fairs, Zurich International Art Fair in October and Miami Photo in December.

ImizamoYMadness1 PRINT

OceanVKassiem1 PRINT

ImizamoYPrivateHouse1 PRINT

Interior

bungalows I

bungalows II

bungalows III

Bungalows, Hangberg, Hout Bay, Cape Town I, II & III (Triptych)
Colour photograph on fibre based archival paper
57 x 86cm
Edition /10
2012

Click here to read Prof Jo Noero’s opening speech.

© Leonard Freed - "Police Work"

Currently exhibited at the Museum of the City, New York is a haunting photographic collection from Magnum photographer Leonard Freed, which documents the ‘sometimes boring, sometimes corrupting, and sometimes dangerous lives’ of ’70s NY police officers.’

Titled Police Work, the exhibition exposes the harsh reality of police life on the streets in New York; a life filled with both tragedy and compassion. In Police Work, Leonard Freed worked alongside the policemen of New York in order to see what life ‘on the beat’ was really like. To follow is a selection of photographers from the exhibition.

© Leonard Freed - "Police Work"

© Leonard Freed - "Police Work"

© Leonard Freed - "Police Work"

© Leonard Freed - "Police Work"

© Leonard Freed - "Police Work"

© Leonard Freed - "Police Work"

© Leonard Freed - "Police Work"

© Leonard Freed - "Police Work"

© Leonard Freed - "Police Work"

© Leonard Freed - "Police Work"

© Leonard Freed - "Police Work"

source: lostateminor, magnumphotos

Andrew Sutherland is a young Namibia born artist that combines the graphic, detailed qualities of his illustration techniques with a bit of unstructured abstraction and surrealism in his paintings. Andrew’s passion  lies in international issues, such as over-population, globalization and environmental sustainability, which he examines from nature’s point of view. He also deals with themes such as dreams and the subconscious mind.

His polaroid photographs are like an undiscovered diary or pages from a scrapbook. Discovering that each object has a history and finally inducing his beautifully coloured works with a uniquely personal air. Through his art Andrew hopes to bring awareness and with it a message that will break through to the masses.

“Tell me something” by Andrew Sutherland

Paul Senyol has been drawing and painting since he was a high school student, but never had any form of artistic or graphic training. As a kid he discovered skateboarding and punk rock music that became the maininfluence in his early drawings, skateboard graphics, album covers, magazine layouts and illustrations. Around that same time he also discovered the creativity of graffiti and street artists such as Marc Gonzales, Ed Templeton and Barry McGee. His lack of schooling has given him the freedom to break away from traditional notions of painting, allowing himself creative freedom.

His current work at The October Show, focuses on shape, line, form, colour, composition and text. His work seeks to engage the viewer by translating his own experiences on to canvas, allowing for an open discussion and translation of his work.

“Roam” by Paul Senyol

Daniel Ting Chong is an illustrator, designer, artist and VJ/DJ. He is known as one of Cape Town’s top creative talents following a series of art exhibitions, talks and design collaborations with international brands like Levi’s, Adidas and the Discovery Channel. Daniel Ting Chong believes design is all about tangibility. His style is sharp, clean and crips illustrations, pieces of typography and packaging designs. His works showcases itself off the page and into your personal space. When he’s not designing clothes or paiting, he is projecting lights and custom graphics on the dancefloor as resident VJ at the Assembly club.

“You’re the ocean in which I learn to swim” by Jordan Metcalf

Jordan MetCalf is a graphic designer, letterer and artist and has exhibited all over South Africa. Jordan’s work is somewhere between nostalgia and melancholy, isolation and hope. He finds himself dealing with themes like alienation, loss and relationships. He works with traditional materials such as acrylics on paper, ink and wood. His works focuses on texture in simple composition and typographic experimentation in various mediums and executions.

“Looting”, “Insecure”, “Stress”, “Ransom” by Daniel Ting Chong

Daniel Ting Chong and Jordan Metcalf, have collaborated on several pieces for The October Show. The series of works is entitled Fear.Less.  and the objects are all weapons used in acts of crime in South Africa, both by criminals and the law. Eventhough the objects have a lot to do with violence; it still has a very playful feeling about it. Daniel and Jordan aim to re-contextualise the place these items hold in our everyday psyche.

“FEAR.LESS” by Jordan Metcalf and Daniel Ting Chong

Source: Salon91
Photography: Lynn Vullings

The oldest member of The Prodigy, Maxim under the alias MM, recently launched his first

Have you always been interested in art?

Yes. I do go to art galleries a lot, but my interest has grown tenfold now I’m doing art myself.

Is it important for you to get recognition from the art world?

Well, it would be nice, but I will still continue doing art regardless of what happens outside my studio.

The title of this exhibition – LepidopTerror – where did this name come from?

Because the majority of the paintings in this exhibition are butterfly-based, I called it LepidopTerror. The story started from about three years ago, when I caught a moth in my music studio. As I was letting it out the door a thought came across me. What was the moth thinking? Was it thinking get the fuck off me?

So I had the thought of empowering the butterflies and giving them swords and machetes. Lepidoptera is the large order of insects that include moths and butterflies, so changing it to LepidopTerror bought the meaning somewhere else.

Are you feeling excited or nervous about the reactions you will get on your exposition?

Yes I am nervous because it is my first exhibition. But I’m confident in my work so the nerves won’t last long.

At what age did you start painting?

I started painting about 11 years ago when I needed some art for my walls at home. I went to a few art fairs and what I saw didn’t inspire me. So I decided to create my own art. From then on I haven’t looked back.

Which artists inspire you and why?

There isn’t a particular artist that inspires me, but I like Basquiat, and I like Thomas Doyle who creates scenes in glass domes.

What do you do to get inspiration for a new art piece?

Inspiration comes from many places, mostly films. When I get an idea, I plan it out in my head and picture what the outcome will look like.If it doesnt go to plan normally burn them and move onto a new idea.

Are you intrigued by the ‘dark’, sinister side of life?

Well, when you say dark I’m not into the evils that men do! But I like fictional, dark imagery in films etc.

Do you feel you can expose a part of you in your art that you could not in music?

Yes. Painting a picture can say so many things – you can get the story straight away. In music it might take the whole song to build the picture.

Butterflies play a big role in your work. Can you explain why?

I think I answered that in question 3 but my next phase of work will be totally different.

What kind of creative process are you going through when you’re making a painting?

It all starts with a strong concept and I’m not the kind of artist that doesn’t see the end. I plan out every step, even down to the colours I use.

Do you have personal rituals in your process of making art?

No ritual as such – but I love drinking  green tea when I work.

Does your art relate to your music?

Not at all! Obviously it’s all part of me, but it’s another rose bud on the rose bush.

What do you listen to (if anything) whilst creating artworks?

I have my iPod on shuffle when I paint, but I love listening to Rage Against The Machine. The best live band ever, apart from The Prodigy.

How do you find the time to pursue both a life of art and of music? How do you find the balance?

It’s easy! Music is my first passion and art slots into the times I’m not doing music. But it’s not a constant thing, it happens when I get inspired – I never force music or art.

What are you trying to communicate through your art? Do you want to ease, thrill, frighten?

I let the individual get whatever they want from my art, but I always build up images that make people think. Nothing is ever that straight forward, with my work it’s all thought-provoking.

The exhibition is curated in a ‘room within a room’ – where elements such as darkness, warmth and low frequency sound is intensified. Can you explain why you choose for such a presentation?

The reason I did this is because I want people to leave having had an experience they wouldn’t normally get from an exhibition.  I’ve been to many exhibitions and it’s always the same thing – paintings on white walls – nothing else… Maybe I should do what everybody else does and not go against the grain.

What next?

Watch this space! I have a million and one ideas in my head. I’m slowly leaking them out for the world to see!

I let the individual get whatever they want from my art, but I always build up images that make people think.

Images: Courtesy of MM

This prompted artist Jon Rafman to scan through thousands of images, globally available to the public, of people going about their daily lives and come up with a kind of anthropological study of people in their most natural state.

Google declares that the purpose of this visual exploration ‘enables you to view and navigate 360 degree street level imagery of various cities around the world, providing greater understanding of a specific location or area.’ Let’s be dramatic, because it’s more fun, and plant the (probably infertile) seed of Truman Show similarity; a panoptic invasion of human solace.

Street View, launched in 2007, is the somewhat nosey addition complimenting its powerful digital navigator, Google Maps. It involved the dispersion of electric cars; transformer-like creatures each boasting nine cameras enabling panoramic photographs, a GPS and equipped with laser range scanners. Although there is no need to go into the endless debates on surveillance, conspiracy and all the other invasions of the Google monopoly, there is still the invisible fine print to take into account.  It is available in real-time to anyone who has access to the internet, shots directly of faces and registrations are automatically meant to be blurred out, although there are always those cases of machine malfunction and identities are exposed.

Jon Rafman’s project is called ‘Nine Eyes of Google Street View’ and in all its simplicity, presents an unaffected study of the modern world; one that highlights the binaries, cultural nuances and the ironies in human life. The omnipresent relationship of an abandoned and uncaring universe where we try and find a sense of belonging and purpose becomes evident in the stills. A moment that has authentically lived within all of us has been captured and a of a new kind of street photography has emerged, each stamped with the unmistakable ‘zoom’ icon in the top left corner.

We get to see the less savoury aspects of life, the ‘de-glamourised’ reality of society from prostitution, car accidents, crime and drug-taking and its balance with some of the most serene moments in life.  The tumultuous scale of pain is balanced with the beauty of catching nature in motion, passionate lovers, timeless architecture and raw outbursts of emotion.

So, where a photographer calculates for days to take the perfect shot, Google can achieve in minutes with an automated catalogue consisting of photojournalism, wildlife photography and idyllic landscapes from locations all around the world, removing human agency. Just one more thing in the world that Google can now do better than you… how niggling.

Words: Megan King

Belgium street artist Roa has taken over London’s East End with his massive black-and-white murals of animals, hand-painted on walls of derelict buildings. Starting his work in the quaint cobbled streets of his hometown of Ghent in Belgium, his work now decorates buildings all over Europe and in New York. This year he held his solo debut exhibition at Pure Evil Gallery in London, including original works on A4 paper, locker doors and even street works in the area.

London, UK

London, UK