Montreal: Roadsworth

One of the reasons I love living in Montreal: I get to see Roadsworth art a lot.


Dandelions, 2005.

The native Montrealer, who's real name is Peter Gibson, his nickname directly references Andy Golsworthy(the name of this blog 'Boldy Goldy' also references him). He says in his 2008 documentary that he was inspired by the way Goldsworthy created his art pieces in a way in which they were harmony with their surroundings. Roadsworth's pieces seems to accomplish the same in a more urban setting. They also resemble Banksy's work when it comes to social and political significance.



I saw his work at last year's Biennale: OPEN CULTURE. Although it was indoors, it was a nice reminiscence on how catholic school used to be prominent in Quebec a few decades ago. He's also worked overseas in the Tour de France 2007.


A clip from his documentary 'Roadsworth: Crossing the Line':

Bansky

I felt like I needed to start at the beginning. So I'll start with a pioneer.

Banksy is now #1 of contemporary street art. Controversy definetly has arisen from his anynonimity and the disagreement between defining his work as vandalism or art. Pioneer of stencil street art, his name is the most recognized in this style.
His real name is not known(it was believed to be Robin Banks, but it's not proven), and he does street art mainly in London, UK.
He's had legal trouble because he once walked into the Louvre in Paris in 2004 and posted his own version of the Mona Lisa with a smiley face.

A 'vandalized' Bansky:


He also created his own version of Stonege in June 2007 with portable toilets at Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts in the UK:


Now he does work all over the world. I think the youth of London can relate very well to the anger of his works. It certaintly arises a feeling for some kind of angry activism that maybe it's dormant right now in our generation. It's like they're almost trying to wake up a regular morning walker from the apathy towards life that they've developed throughout the years. All I can say is that they're working for me. I'm wide awake.

first post

A little assignment for class. All about the new street art phenomena of the 80's,
90's, and now.

Chile(my home country) has many talented graffiti artists.The picture in the banner above was taken in the city of Valparaiso, a popular beach location for tourists(no, i didn't take it...). I believe the reason why the works from Chile are so detailed and meticulous is because the police don't really drive around at night that much, so artists have whole nights and more to do these whole walls.
Chile graffiti is the reason why I'm now interested in the whole urban style of street art. I'll post some of my pictures from Chile soon, but for now, have some from Chilean graffiti art blog KELP(Sorry, site's only in Spanish).

Here's on from Valparaiso again:


This one is from Santiago(near where I used to live!):