Perhaps I was too busy elsewhere for it to register, but I wasn't really aware of last weekend's demonstrations in Spain. Thanks to a tweet by Newsnight's Paul Mason today, I found this impressively stylish video of the event via the Egyptian blog 3Arabawy and YouTube:
As a piece of agitprop it pushes all the buttons needed to get your pulse racing and the adrenaline flowing although it doesn't really offer any concrete ideas as to how the change it promotes could be achieved. To be fair, I suppose the demonstration was a protest rally rather than a demand for revolution, though the video clearly referenced scenes from the Arab Spring, particularly the massed gatherings in Tahrir Square. In spite of its strident tone, the video seems to be a well-meaning attempt to promote political activism generally.
Though I'm skeptical about the practical impact of the video's central message, I'm nonetheless mightily impressed by its synthesis of image, text, music, rhetoric and ambient sound. It creates an emotional roller coaster that lasts as long as the music plays.
Friday 20 May 2011
Wednesday 18 May 2011
Art Beneath Our Feet
Friday's online Guardian published a gallery of sixteen photographs of street paintings of walking figures — the type that are painted on the ground to indicate a pedestrian route. Although we think we know what they look like and perhaps assume they all look the same, Stephen Wragg has noticed a surprising degree of variation in the way they are painted. Luckily for us, he has recorded them in photographs on a new website (www.walkingmen.org/).
Though his project might be seen as a dull typological study of street art, it's far more than that. The figures teem with life and character, each one hurrying along on an imaginary mission. It could be reasonable to assume that some of the figures reflect the subconscious preoccupations of the workers who painted them. In this respect they are an authentic example of folk art.
My favourite among the Guardian's selection is this one:
For me, it immediately evokes an image of an art student carrying a portfolio or painting, the heavy metal slab suggesting the effort needed to manage such an unwieldy load, The decayed state of the painting endows it with the quality of a faded memory.
It's also a reminder of one of André Kertész's best known photographs. Taken in 1928, it records the railway viaduct in the Parisian suburb of Meudon.
Like many others, I have often wondered what is inside the newspaper-wrapped parcel carried by the man crossing the road. Like a birthday parcel that will never be opened, there is a somewhat exquisite pleasure in not knowing what it contains. The man looks at us directly - and will never tell.
Though his project might be seen as a dull typological study of street art, it's far more than that. The figures teem with life and character, each one hurrying along on an imaginary mission. It could be reasonable to assume that some of the figures reflect the subconscious preoccupations of the workers who painted them. In this respect they are an authentic example of folk art.
My favourite among the Guardian's selection is this one:
For me, it immediately evokes an image of an art student carrying a portfolio or painting, the heavy metal slab suggesting the effort needed to manage such an unwieldy load, The decayed state of the painting endows it with the quality of a faded memory.
It's also a reminder of one of André Kertész's best known photographs. Taken in 1928, it records the railway viaduct in the Parisian suburb of Meudon.
Like many others, I have often wondered what is inside the newspaper-wrapped parcel carried by the man crossing the road. Like a birthday parcel that will never be opened, there is a somewhat exquisite pleasure in not knowing what it contains. The man looks at us directly - and will never tell.
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