Dutch artist Pierre Derks is following the travels of an army of little men with blue helmets that's been appearing all over the world. His Miniscule Blue Helmets on a Massive Quest site is documenting their appearances on a world map along with photo and video evidence of their presence. In February 500 of the troops took over a phone booth in Delft (images shown). Where will they end up next? I have a feeling their first US visit is in not far off...
I recently was given the opportunity to make some public art for my hometown Richmond, VA. The local free paper Style Weekly offered 10 local artists the chance to transform one of their old newspaper boxes into an interactive sculpture. While the boxes needed to stilll function, no other restrictions were made. In my case I created Bestia Urbanis (Urban Wildlife), by covering the entire box in black faux fur except for the panel on the door, which I painted with chalkboard paint. After adding a chalk drawn face, I left the following instructions inside, "Using the chalk and eraser below to remove any previous markings from the front of the door and give a new face to this endangered creature." The box hasn't been put in a public place yet, but I'm looking forward to documenting it in the wild...
Here's a video of the event where it was unveiled...
These striking images come from the DesegreGAYtion Initiative which "aims to point out the absurd discrimination that presently exists against Gay and Lesbian couples". The artist behind the project wants people to print out "Gays" and "Straights" stickers and place them in public places to elicit a conversation about the state of equal rights in the US. More pictures and info, as well as the sticker template, on their MySpace page HERE.
Even though I'm generally disgusted by the increasing intrusion of large scale commercial advertising onto every imaginable surface, I was pleasently surprised on my brief trip to Washington DC yesterday to discover some in the tunnels between the stations that was actually quite delightful. A series of lighted stills move by at just the right pace to create a short animation. The ghostly images appear with no warning and are rather eerie in their silence (perhaps not the best effect for every product), but also brought on a childlike sense of glee in seeing the classic zoetrope effect at that scale. I'd love to see what an NGO or artist could do with this medium.
I found this video of it on YouTube, though it's really much more dramatic in person...
Dutch artist Pierre Derks is following the travels of an army of little men with blue helmets that's been appearing all over the world. His Miniscule Blue Helmets on a Massive Quest site is documenting their appearances on a world map along with photo and video evidence of their presence. In February 500 of the troops took over a phone booth in Delft (images shown). Where will they end up next? I have a feeling their first US visit is in not far off...
