A.R.T. Atypical Recycling Today

A.R.T. 18

A.R.T.

Ne

Atypical Recycling Today

w

Fo

rm

at

Nº18 JANUARY ­ MARCH 2012 ­ USA : 3,50$ ­ CAN: 3,40$ cad ­ UK : 4,10£

Roy Lichtenstein the timeless Pop Art inspiration Robert Bradford's Junk Art UrbanGreen Art : Gardening Guerilla and Green Graffiti DIY : Your Tetra Pack coin purse

EDITORIAL ATYPICAL RECYCLING TODAY ­ MARCH 2012 B ECAUSE

WE DEFINITELY THINK THAT BEING ECO FRIENDLY CAN BE FUNNY AND IT IS EVEN BECOMING FASHIONBLE , IT IS MORE THAN EVER IMPORTANT TO START RECYCLING !!

S PRING

IS ALMOST HERE AND MANY OF US ARE ALREADY THINKING IN THE HUGE S PRING CLEANING COMING ! THIS TIME , THINK TWICE BEFORE THROWING AWAY YOUR STUFF ! ALMOST EVERYTHING CAN BE TURN INTO A NEW OBJECT, AN MORE THAN THAT, AN ORIGINAL AND FULL OF SENTIMENTAL VALUE .

M UCH BETTER THAN BUYING A STANDARDIZED OBJECT IN A CHAIN RETAILER! F OR SOME IDEAS CHECK OUT OUR MONTHLY D O I T YOURSELF AND WEBSITES SECTION WERE WILL GIVE YOU SOME TIPS ! O UR TEAM HAVE CAREFULLY SELECTED THE BEST SOURCE FOR TUTORIALS AND INSPIRATION !

RECYCLING

IS NOT ONLY MATERIAL BUT ALSO IDEOLOGICAL. AS EVERY MONTH WE HAVE CHOSEN AN OLDER ARTIST AND A CONTEMPORARY ONE , ANALZING THE CURRENT TRENDS IN ART.

HIM , A TERRIFIC ARTIST: ROBERT B RADFORD WHO WILL BRING US BACK TO CHILDHOOD WITH HIS S TATUES MADE OF TOYS!

F INALLY,

WE WILL TRAVEL TO THE TRENDIEST MEGALOPOLIS WHERE STREET ARTIST HAVE DISCOVER THE WAY OF MIXING GRAFFITY AND ECO FRIENDLY TECHNIQUES !

OF

COURSE , MANY OTHERS FEATURES ARE WAITING FOR YOU INSIDE , WITH MORE CULTURE AND GREEN CONCERN !

D O NO WAIT ANY LONGER! ENJOY YOUR READING....

AND GOOD S PRING CLEANING !

CLARA FRAIZY Ch ief Editor

THIS

MONTH , ROY L ICHTENSTEIN ONE OF THE KING OF P OP ART WILL BE OUR GUEST. N EXT TO

SPECIAL FEATURES COMMENTS, VIDEOS: MUCH MORE ON OUR WEBSITE

WWW.ART­MAGAZINE.COM

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

2

Cover : ©Robert BRADFORD , Foo Foo 2

A.R.T

©ROY LICHTENSTEIN, As I Opened Fire

Source: Roy Lichtenstein Foundation

CONTENT

Table of Contents INSPIRATION

Roy Lichtenstein Robert Bradford

5 8

Recycling Over the World The Monthly Arty Recycling Websites Do It Yourself Shopping

10 11 12 13

Green Urban Art

16

NEWS

AROUND THE WORLD

GREEN GRAFFITIS FROM PAGE 16 © Anna Garforth

A.R.T 3

INSPIRATION

ROY LICHTENSTEIN 4

One CenTral Figure of Pop Art

A.R.T

Roy Lichtenstein

INSPIRATION

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (O CTOBER 27, 1 923 – S EPTEMBER 29, 1 997) WAS A PROMINENT AMERICAN POP ARTIST. D URING THE 1 960 S HIS PAINTINGS WERE EXHIBITED AT THE L EO C ASTELLI G ALLERY IN N EW YORK C ITY AND ALONG WITH ANDY WARHOL, J ASPER J OHNS , J AMES ROSENQUIST AND OTHERS HE BECAME A LEADING FIGURE IN THE NEW ART MOVEMENT. H IS

Drowning Girl, 1963

WORK DEFINED THE BASIC PREMISE OF POP ART BETTER THAN ANY OTHER THROUGH PARODY. H E HAS BEEN A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION FOR MANY ARTISTS TODAY, BUT ALSO USED AS A MAIN PATTERN FOR RECYCLED OBJECTS DUE TO HIS COLORS AND STORIES .

ROY LICHTENSTEIN was born in New York into an upper­middle­class Jewish New York City family. After graduation from Franklin, Lichtenstein enrolled in summer classes at the Art Students League of New York, where he worked under the tutelage of Reginald Marsh, a famous American paintor. After serving in the army during World War II, he returned to studies in Ohio under the supervision of one of his teachers, Hoyt L. Sherman, who is widely regarded to have had a significant impact on his future work (Lichtenstein would later name a new studio he funded at OSU as the Hoyt L. Sherman Studio Art Center). Lichtenstein entered the graduate program at Ohio State and was hired as an art instructor, a post he held on and off for the next ten years. He then moved to New York where his career took off.

Favoring the old­fashioned comic strip as subject matter, Lichtenstein produced hard­edged, precise compositions that documented while it

Girl in Bath, 1963

parodied often in a tongue­in­cheek humorous manner.

His work was heavily influenced by both popular advertising and the comic book style.

He described Pop Art as, "not 'American' painting but actually industrial painting".

"(...)My style looks completely different, but the nature of putting down lines pretty much is the same; mine just don't come out looking calligraphic, like Pollock's or Kline's."

Lichtenstein used oil and Magna paint in his best known works, such as Drowning Girl (1963), which was appropriated from the lead story in DC Comics' Secret Hearts #83.

(Drowning Girl now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.)

Also featuring thick outlines, bold colors and Ben­Day dots to represent certain colors, as if created by photographic reproduction.

Lichtenstein would say of his own work: Abstract Expressionists "put things down on the canvas and responded to what they had done, to the color positions and sizes. My style looks completely different, but the nature of putting down lines pretty much is the same; mine just don't come out looking calligraphic, like Pollock's or Kline's."

Roy Lichtenstein played a critical role in subverting the skeptical view of commercial styles and subjects established by the Abstract Expressionists. By embracing "low" art such as comic books and popular illustration, A.R.T

5

INSPIRATION

Whaam! (1963) by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. It is widely regarded as one of his finest and most notable works. It follows the comic strip­based themes of some of his previous paintings. The painting, a diptych, is large in scale, measuring 1.7 x 4.0 m (5 ft 7 in x 13 ft 4 in).

Lichtenstein became one of the most important figures in the Pop Art movement. His work is easily recognizablee. He had a prolific and somewhat eclectic career that drew from Cubism, Surrealism, and Expressionism. But it is his re­ imagining of popular culture through the lens of traditional art history that has remained a considerable influence to later generations of artists, as Pop Art went on to significantly inform Postmodernism.

LICHENSTEIN : Influenced and Influencing

6

Art had carried references to popular culture throughout the 20th century, but in Lichtenstein's works the styles, subject matter, and techniques of reproduction, common in popular culture appeared to dominate the art entirely. This marked a major shift away from Abstract Expressionism, whose often tragic themes were though to well up from the souls of the artists: Lichtenstein's inspirations came from the culture at large, and suggested little of the artist's individual feelings.

Although, in the early 1960s, Lichtenstein was often casually accused of merely copying his pictures from cartoons, his method involved some considerable alteration of the source images. The extent of those changes, and the A.R.T

artist's rationale for introducing them, has long been central to discussions of his work, as it would seem to indicate whether he was interested above all in While his paintings of cartoons and comics are producing pleasing, artistic compositions, or in shocking his viewers with the garish impact of popular culture.

Lichtenstein's emphasis on methods of mechanical reproduction ­ particularly through his signature use of Ben Day dots ­ highlighted one of the central lessons of Pop art, that all forms of communication, all messages, are filtered through codes or languages. Arguably, he learned his appreciation of the value of codes from his early work, which drew on an eclectic range of modern painting. This appreciation may also have later encouraged him to make work inspired by masterpieces of modern art: in these works he argued that high art and popular were no different, both rely on code.

Photos courtesy of The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation

To learn more about the artist: http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/

And give your opinion on our website www.art­magazine.com

INSPIRATION

Rober t BRADFORD Junk Art

© Robert Bradford

A.R.T

7

INSPIRATION

Robert BRADFORD

© Robert Bradford

Robert started his artistic career as a painter and film maker. After 5 years in the US, where he exhibited his paintings widely, he returned to the UK and decided to specialize in sculpture. Since 2004, he has become particularly well known for his large imaginative sculptures which use discarded and recycled plastic items, mainly toys but also everyday objects such as combs, buttons and clothes pegs. “Toys ARE a colorful version of everyday life including fantasy life, love life, work life, even spiritual life, so pretty much everything can be mentioned/ referred to/ communicated about using them.

New fads and fancies come and go – a whole cultural and anti­cultural history exists within them, waiting to be explored/ exploited. It took me three years of false starts to find the most flexible construction method and another year to start doing it well so it has been no ‘instant fix’.”Contrary to some reports, he’s not a self­ taught artist who tinkered in his shed one day and suddenly decided to create something out of his kids’ discarded toys. He is a London­born and U.K. and U.S.­trained visual artist who, like many artists, also had another career on the side.

His was that of a psychotherapist.

8

A.R.T

In 2002, he started to consider the possibilities that his children’s forgotten toys could have as part of something bigger.

Bradford says he likes the idea that the plastic pieces have a history, some unknown past, and that they also pass on a “cultural” history as each of the pieces represents a point in time. Recycling is not his primary concern, but each sculpture certainly keeps quite a few pieces from becoming landfill.

Some of the sculptures contain pieces from up to 3,000 toys and sell for £12,000 (US$19,000) His recycled art is collected worldwide by private galleries, institutions and museums like Ripley's Believe it or not. Robert Bradford now lives quietly with his family in beautiful North Cornwall when he's not feverishly creating or exhibiting his work around the world.

INTERVIEW Well, Robert, how did everything start?

Everything started on the dining room table and in the hallway when I was small, I have always painted and built things – masks, skulls, brick cities, racetracks – and I managed to get 8 years of Art School before having to do a proper job!

My use of toys started about five years ago. I have always liked using found materials with their own history like books, magazines, old wood, tree waste etc. and toys were just an extension of these things. I was in the studio one day where an old toy box was stored; the simple thought that came to me was that if I could find a way of joining lots of them together they would make a wonderful larger form collectively. I liked the huge variety of shapes and colours that were contained within the box I was staring into and I liked the random juxtapositions of types of content. It triggered off many ideas and possibilities...

INSPIRATION How did you decide to use toys as the main element of your creations?

Toys are a colourful version of everyday life including fantasy life, love life, work life, even spiritual life, so pretty much everything can be mentioned/ referred to/ communicated about using them. A whole cultural and anti­cultural history exists within them, waiting to be explored. Like most series, the first couple of pieces were made as experiments, to see if the idea could actually work in tangible reality and of course one thing led to another – but it took me three years of false starts to find the most flexible construction method and another year to start doing it well so it has been no ‘instant fix’.

Because I have been using them for so long, I can tend to forget what they actually are and just think “What have I got that could possibly fit there – blue would be ideal”, decision making goes on like that. And then ‘Oh it’s a gun, would that be O.K. content wise”.

What is the importance of choosing already used materials, that for some people it could be trash, in your creations?

I am working on the edge of nice/ nasty, trashy/ valuable, good taste/ bad taste etc. History in general is not a primary interest of mine but I like it to appear by default in my work and like the feel of humans having been in contact with the pieces already as long as they have had a good wash, the toys I mean not the humans...

Tell us something about your future projects.

In my studio at the moment there are various things ‘waiting’... a tiger woman, a man in a suit, various angel heads with cropped hair parked near some airplane wings, a Sniffer dog armature or two, a half started glitter painting that may just get ROBERT BRADFORD ROBERT BRADFORD ROBERT BRADFORD texted onto it… there are a few flat airplanes hanging about too. I have just sold three dogs in Paris and

there are not many left in the gallerie. There is a soft toy Tiger Skin Rug started and a sofa prepared for soft toys too. There is a soft toy dog commission outstanding... and several magazines real and online wanting imagery. My website needs updating and I have a small film to shoot for educational T.V. (not to mention Blue Peter). There are several art fairs coming up and some exhibition offers that I need to respond to.

If you asked me again in a few weeks I may be a bit clearer as to what is next… they all look like a lot of fun and any or all feel exciting. I would like to know what any of them would look like completed… and of course there is the rest of life that is not art!

Interview by Mark Stuart

© Robert Bradford

He is currently exposing in NDI Gallery, created to promote public awareness of quality Recycled Art and Artists.

NDI GALLERY Guildhill Avenue, Bournemouth BH6 3EY (England) http://www.ndigallery.com

A.R.T

9

NEWS

Environmental and Recycling Statistics For Our Worldwide Viewers in 2012 RECYCLING OVER THE WORLD

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

UNITED KINGDOM

CANADA

The last time the EPA reported the national recycling figures was in 2011 for 243 million tons of trash generated: - 82 million tons composted or recycled for recovery rate of 33.8 % - 4% of office-type paper recovered - 60% of yard trimmings recovered - 34.5% of metals recycled - 7 million tons of metals recycled reduced greenhouse gas emissions at equivalent of removing 5 million cars from road for one year.

- On average every person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every seven weeks.

- Every UK household produces over one tonne of rubbish every year.

- Every eight months the UK produces enough waste to fill Lake Windermere.

- It is estimated that there are 90 million redundant mobile phones in the UK. - Once an aluminium can is recycled it can be part of new can within six weeks.If all the aluminium cans sold in the UK were recycled, there would be 1 4 million fewer full dustbins each year.

In 2011 , Canadian households produced 1 3.4 million tonnes of waste - Almost 3/4 of this was sent for disposal - Residential waste increased by 2.1 million tonnes over 4 years - Canadians produce 41 8 kg of waste per person as of 2004 - 3.6 million tonnes of the 1 3.4 million tonnes of waste went to recycling

REMEMBER

RECYCLING

SAVES ENOUGH ENERGY TO POWER A COLOUR TV FOR 1 5 MINUTES .G LASS WILL NOT DECOMPOSE IN LANDFILL BUT CAN BE RECYCLING WITHOUT LOSS OF PURITY. 70% LESS ENERGY IS REQUIRED TO RECYCLE PAPER THAN MAKING IT FROM RAW MATERIALS THE ENERGY SAVED BY RECYCLING ONE PLASTIC BOTTLE WILL POWER A 60W LIGHT BULB FOR SIX HOURS .

70% LESS ENERGY IS REQUIRED TO RECYCLE PAPER COMPARED WITH MAKING IT FROM RAW MATERIALS .

ONE GLASS BOTTLE

SO KEEP RECYCLING!

10

A.R.T

REuse, REcycle and REduce our materials and products consumption in order to decrease our footprint. Learn More About Statistic and Recycling on our Website www.art足magazine.com

NEWS THE MONTHLY ARTY RECYCLING WEBSITES

For four years now, they have covered over 900 items and had over 14,000 suggestions of ways to reuse, repurpose or recycle things that would otherwise go in the bin. They have covered items from around the home, office and garden, things for particularly hobbies or sports, and random bits of technology that have broken or are just out of date. You can also add your own ideas! They have been mentioned all over the place including a number of national newspapers and magazine in the UK (including The Times, The Telegraph and the Guardian), and on international green & craft websites including TreeHugger, ApartmentTheory and Craftzine. Now on our A.R.T Magazine! http://www.recyclethis.co.uk/

Born in 2002, Global Inheritance is a non­profit organization that develops creative, cause­based campaigns to educate individuals about issues that affect us globally.Their unique programs focus on the power of interactivity to communicate ideas that push for progressive social change by empowering millions of individuals at festivals, events, workplaces and schools throughout the world.

By employing technology, the arts, and experiential learning, Global Inheritance reinvents activism by inspiring people from every walk of life to act responsibly and become forward­thinking leaders within their community. http://www.globalinheritance.org/

The goal of Recyclart.org is to bring you good products that are made from recycling, reusing, upcycling, etc. They prefer to give you inspiration through pictures and the links where you can find more informations. The goal is to be a kind of portfolio based on ideas in which you can brainstorm your sustainability creativity.Possibilty of entering in this Re­something frame taking 2 minutes to propose yout idea, using “contribute page “. After some contributions you can contact them and they will create you an author account that allows you to post directly on Recyclart. http://www.recyclart.org/

A .R.T

11

NEWS

YourTetra Pack Coin Purse DO IT YOURSELF

F EELING CREATIVE ? N OTHING ’ S MORE ECO-FRIENDLY THAN TRANSFORMING JUNK HEADED TO THE LANDFILL INTO SOMETHING USEFUL, OR USING EVERYDAY ITEMS TO CREATE CLEAN , GREEN ENERGY. I F YOU ’ VE GOT THINGS LIKE PLASTIC BAGS , FLOPPY DISKS , CARDBOARD AND OLD TIRES LAYING AROUND , YOU CAN USE OUR ECO -DIY TUTORIALS AND PROJECT EXAMPLES TO MAKE THINGS LIKE SHOES , FURNITURE , HANDBAGS AND EVEN GREENHOUSES .

Tetra Pak has been committed to recycling since the mid 1980s, introducing a recycling program for its cartons in Source: cutoutandkeep.net Canada as early as 1990. In 2000, Tetra Pak invested Bt20m (€500,000) in Southeast Asia's first recycling plant for aseptic packages, in Thailand.

Recycling of the aseptic packages has indeed been one of Tetra Pak's big challenges Since the aseptic packages contain different layers of plastic and aluminium in addition to raw paper, they cannot be recycled as "normal" paper waste, but need to go to special recycling units for separation of the different materials. Once separated, the aseptic carton results in aluminium and pure paraffin which can be used in industry.

Even without separating the carton materials, however, the aseptic carton can be reused, a Tetra Pak spokesman said, for example in engineering equipment. In 2010 30 billion used Tetra Pak carton packages were recycled, a doubling since 2002.The company stated that it aims to help double the rate of recycling in the next ten years, something that will require an engagement within the whole recycling chain. As per 2011, 20 % of Tetra Pak cartons are recycled globally, with countries like Belgium, Germany, Spain and Norway showing local recycling rates of over 50%.To increase the level of recycling and meet the targets, Tetra Pak has engaged in driving recycling activities such as facilitating the development of collection schemes, launch new recycling technologies and raise the awareness about recycling and sustainability. Used Tetra

12

A.R.T

Pak packages have been used as construction material in different design projects, with varying results .

Tetrapak containers have been the bane of recyclers lives for quite some time. It’s only recently that we’re once again able to recycle them in the UK, and many supermarket car parks now play host to Tetrapak banks where you can deposit your used Tetrapak type containers.

People have never given much thought to recycling projects including used Tetrapaks, but the resourceful people at A.R.T have come up with this cool coin purse made of a used Tetrapak container or two, with full instructions so that you can make one too. Or make a few and give them to your friends.

How to make a tetrapack wallet: ­ cut the top and bottom, make a flap on one side, ­ fold in half, ­ tape the middle edges, and ­ stick a bit of velcro to close the flap, or use an elastic band

Post your pictures on our website and comment our other tutorials! www. art­magazine.com Source: en.espritcabane.com

After Lichtenstein

NEWS

SHOPPING

©Silvia Zacchello

Silvia Zacchello She universally connects people with her storyboard furniture which is available either online or at all good furniture stores in Venice and Milan. Silvia Zacchello’s work is based on the art of recycling and restoring furniture and vintage objects, particularly chairs.

Some objects recall images and parts of images reflecting works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Indiana, Keith Haring, nevertheless; they are to be considered copies and not authentic reproductions by the above-mentioned artists.

To learn more: http://www.silviazacchello.com

Borbonese In celebration of its first centenary, the Italian luxury brand collaborated with Roy Lichtenstein Foundation to create a new project: the Art Bags (picture), twelve bags produced in limited edition that reproduces some of the pop artist’s masterpieces shown at the exhibition at the Triennale di Milano. Lisa Perry Madison Avenue is unfortunately the only boutique in the US to carry this collection.

A .R.T

13

AROUND THE WORLD

14

A.R.T

AROUND THE WORLD

Source: throughagreenlens.com

Š Edina Todoki

A.R.T

15

AROUND THE WORLD

Urban Green Art

U RBAN ART IS A TERM WHICH GAINED POPULARITY IN THE LATE 20 TH CENTURY. I T WAS USED MAINLY BY THE

ART ESTABLISHMENT TO ENCOMPASS ART AND ARTISTS WHO WERE ORIGINALLY INVOLVED IN STREET AND GRAFFITI ART. WITH THE GROWING CONCERNING ECO - FRIENDLY WAYS OF EXPRESSION , IT WAS NECESSARY TO FIND A ALTERNATIVE TO TRADITIONAL MATERIALS . THE GREEN URBAN ART WAS BORN : AN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY FORM OF OUTDOOR ART ( OR ADVERTISING ). THE IDEA IS TO LEAVE THE PLACE WHERE THE ART OCCURS GREENER THAN PRIOR TO THE ART. E VEN IF THE MOST FAMOUS IS THE " GREEN GRAFFITI ", OTHER FORMS OR G REEN U RBAN ART ARE DEVELOPPING IN OUR MEGALOPOLIS . AN OVERVIEW OF THESE NEWS TRENDY FORMS OF ART.

Guerrilla Gardening From Melbourne to Montreal, from Calgary to Camberwell, an underground Source: milycracra.over­blog.com urban movement has grown through the world’s cities – sowing the seeds of subversive environmental pro­activism in the most beneficent of ways, brightening up our public spaces with the power of plants, and allowing flowers to flourish where otherwise there would be only grey; in short, taking disused pieces of land that are going to waste and greening them up for the good. The name of this movement? Guerrilla gardening.

Guerrilla gardening is gardening on land that the gardeners do not have legal right to use, often an abandoned site or area not cared for by anyone. It encompasses a very diverse range of people and motivations, from the enthusiastic gardener who spills over their legal boundaries to the highly political gardener who seeks to provoke change through direct action. The land that is guerrilla gardened is usually abandoned or neglected by its legal owner. That land is used by guerrilla gardeners to raise plants, frequently focusing on food crops or plants intended to beautify an area.

This practice has implications for land rights and land reform; it promotes re­consideration of land ownership in order to reclaim land from

16

A.R.T

perceived neglect or misuse and assign a new purpose to it.

Some guerrilla gardeners carry out their actions at night, in relative secrecy, to sow and tend a new vegetable patch or flower garden in an effort to make the area of use and/or more attractive. Some garden at more visible hours to be seen by their community.

It has grown into a form of proactive activism or pro­ activism.

The earliest recorded use of the term guerrilla gardening was by Liz Christy and her Green Guerrilla group in 1973 in the Bowery Houston area of New York. They transformed a derelict private lot into a garden.[1] The space is still cared for by volunteers but now enjoys the protection of the city's parks department. Two celebrated guerrilla gardeners, active prior to the coining of the term, were Gerrard Winstanley, of the Diggers in Surrey, England (1649), and John "Appleseed" Chapman in Ohio, USA (1801).

Guerilla gardening takes place in many parts of the world ­ more than thirty countries are documented[2] and evidence can be found online in numerous

Source : maggiejeans.com

AROUND THE WORLD guerrilla gardening social networking groups and in the Community pages of GuerrillaGardening.org The term guerrilla gardening is applied by some quite loosely to describe different forms of radical gardening. This includes gardening as an entirely political gesture rather than one with genuine horticultural ambition, such as the London May Day protest in 2000, when no long term garden was expected to take root.

The term bewildering has been used as a synonym for guerrilla gardening

by Australian gardener Bob Crombie.

interest to their garden designs, the recipe with moss can be used as an environmentally­ friendly alternative to spray paint and has been adopted by contemporary street artist.

Is It Illegal ?

There has been much debate surrounding the idea of graffiti art. For some, it is blatant disregard for our cityscapes, and Source: for those with a more acute http://www.guerrillagardening.org/ aesthetic eye, it is a form expression that serves a greater social purpose. Guerrilla artists have found firm footing in mainstream culture, more Toxicity risks notably Banksy, who notoriously used stencil art and life­size There are some health risks to sculptures to project social foraging or planting edible plants commentaries in London’s near toxic waste sites and roads with public spaces. But what happens heavy traffic due to chemical runoff when you throw in an that gets absorbed by the roots. Toxic environmentally­driven motive plants tend to grow on toxic land. into the mix? Is it still illegal if it Some scientists have learned that is ‘green’ graffiti?

Source: herbgardendesign.co.uk certain types of plants absorb toxins I came across Mosstika Urban from the soil without dying and can Greenery, an eco­minded thus be used as a mechanism to reduce chemical collective based in New York City, dedicated to ground pollution. Guerrilla gardening could be creating innovative ways of merging art and used as a way to take independent action to clean nature within our urban centers. Upon further up one's community, but eating a toxin­absorbent reading, I found myself forming a rather plant will deposit those toxins in the body. Urban favourable view of the burgeoning ‘green’ graffiti foragers face similar health risks in this manner. movement. Founder Edina Tokodi, whose public Care should be taken to not eat plants that grow art installations are firmly rooted in in areas where there is known chemical green guerrilla tactics, is very much a forerunner contamination or water pollution. Plants that for sustainable art expression; as she goes on to grow on the side of high­traffic roads should also explain: not be eaten because of automobile fluid runoff.

“I think that our distance from nature is already a cliché. City dwellers often have no relationship with animals or greenery. As a public artist I feel Green Graffiti a sense of duty to draw attention to deficiencies in our everyday life” Green Graffiti look very similar to traditional ones And that she does. Her moss installations offer a but a closer look makes us discover a whole vegetal fresh perspective, adding colour and life to our world on the wall. otherwise mundane city surfaces. Tokodi’s quirky Originally created by horticulturists keen to add moss patches, easily spotted around the streets of A.R.T

17

AROUND THE WORLD

Street artist Edina Tokodi puts up two polar bear figures in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She forms the shapes at home from small sheets of moss before hitting the streets. (Photo courtesy of Edina Tokodi)

Brooklyn, characteristically take upon animal­inspired shapes.

She uses the city as her canvas, painting atop barren construction walls and telephone booths to create these mini green sanctuaries in the most unexpected places. And does so quite brilliantly too, I might add.

urban ecology in a delightful eco­project that uses only natural and organic materials.

Moss paint, a viable alternative to toxic paints or sprays, present a more sustainable means of creating art, one which has been adopted by many green graffiti artists.

where else, ‘green’ graffiti forges a strong connection between the urban neighborhood and nature. It does not deface public property, and therefore, should not be classified as illegal art in any shape or form.

Similarly to Tokodi’s Mosstika Urban Greenery, London­based environmental artist Anna Garforth takes upon similar values of sustainability. Her first moss art project, Sporeborne, incorporates typography art with

With the works of Garforth and Tokodi in mind, there is a glaring difference between graffiti and guerrilla gardening initiatives, as highlighted above.

Graffiti, for one, has been criticized for depreciating and devaluing urban landscapes,

EDINA TODOKI Eco­minded street artist Edina Tokodi is putting a new spin on green guerilla tactics in the trendy art enclave of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Tokodi’s site­specific moss installations of prancing animal

18

A.R.T

Focus On:

AROUND THE WORLD RECIPE

You will need a blender to make the mixture and if you plan to grow your moss outdoors you will also need a seed tray filled with compost.

Several clumps of moss 1 pot of natural yoghurt or 1 2oz buttermilk (experiment to see which works best) 1 /2 teaspoon of sugar Plastic pot (with a lid) Paint brush Spray-mister Seemingly, getting the recipe to work can be quite difficult, the location and weather conditions need to be spot on. Moss thrives best in damp areas so if you have to grow it indoors make sure you spray it with water frequently. As soon as it starts to grow, transplant it in your chosen location and watch your graffiti art spread

figures and camouflage outgrowths are the talk of a local urban neighborhood typically accustomed to gallery hype and commercial real estate take足overs. Unlike the market足 driven art featured in sterile, white box galleries, the work of Tokodi is meant to be touched, felt, and in turn touch you in the playful ways that her animated installations call to mind a more familiar, environmentally friendly state in the barren patches of urban existence.

ANNA GADFORTH considering herself an urban land artist, anna garforth from the UK integrates her interest in urban ecology and sustainability through her creative practice. from moss collecting, wild city foraging to hunting down undomesticated areas of the urban forests in her neighbourhood, these activities have driven her to discover and understand more about her natural surrounding and express this passion through the following projects.

Anna Garforth is currently featured in the

international bi足monthly graphic design publication IdN(http://idnworld.com/) as part of the 'eco graphics' issue which looks at the works of designers and ways in which they seek to change consumer behaviour and attitudes about the environment.

息 Anna Garforth

A.R.T

19

You would be surprised o f w h a t w e c a n d o w i th r e c y c l e d m a te r i a l s