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July 15, 2004
What's Currently Inspiring You?... Part II
From Swoon:"so, what's inspiring me lately is this idea of city builders, though not in the literal or ordinary sense, i am thinking of the utopias that never get built but that inform our sense of what a city could be, and the failures that teach us something about our collective desires, and of course of the people who build out little niches of the city that they want to live in for themselves, with their own two hands, from graffiti artists, to kids putting up illegal skate- parks, to mad scientists doing hydrogen fuel cell research in their back yards because they are trying to liberate every modern urbanite from dependence upon the grid. this train of though started this summer in philly,
i was doing a show with change agent and my good friend orien mcneill (whom i had almost forgotten is a complete genius), was drawing the crazy cities he keeps inside his head onto the wall of the gallery.
it got me thinking about something but i wasn't sure what. then i went to sweden for the 'outside in' conference and i met up with akim and zasd who had brought 20 graffiti writers from berlin to build the 'city of names' in an open field by some housing projects.
it was a simple idea, what would happen if the graffiti writers built the city? by the time i arrived the kids had stopped tearing it down and were playing in it. freaks gallery was there from copenhagen and told me about a one week restaurant that he created with akay and adams in zurich, it was called the scrap yard, they broke into an abandoned building, brought in found furniture and served dumpstered food, the restaurant fed about 300 people in a week for free. jocko weyland was there talking about skateboarding, amy francesi was talking about guerilla gardening and hydrogen fuel cells, michael rackowitz was showing his homeless shelters that parasite onto the ventilation shafts of buildings, keep you warm for the night and can be built for $5. lights were going on in my head like coney island at night. since i've been back i have been working on installing tiny peepholes around the city that let you peer into another world.
i have been looking at the drawings of lebbeus woods, sketches of arcosanti, and wondering how to bring these builders of cities here to new york all in one space to play.... thanks for asking that, really helps to ask yourself that from time to time."... swoon
From Influenza:
"the digital octopus: total governmental control on our daily lives, ongoing and the unstoppable change to police states while we speak, build on media-engined fear culture supported by a hermetic government controlled entertainment industry and the maximum lack of independent critic. mazzeltov and happy holidays"... influenska
From Dalek:
"i have been drawing my inspiration from the morning news. channel 4. maurice
dubois. i think that is his name."... Dalek
From Anthony Skirvin:
"What's currently inspiring me? 'That art, in this case photography, has the power to bring about change. In 1908, the NCLC(The National Child Labor Committee) provided Lewis Hine with a monthly salary and assigned Hine to photograph child labor practices. For the next several years, Hine traveled extensively, photographing children in mines, factories, canneries, textile mills, street trades and assorted agricultural industries.
Hine's photographs alerted the public to the fact that child labor deprived children of childhood, health, education and a chance of a future. His work on this project was the driving force behind changing the publics attitude and was instrumental in the fight for stricter child labor laws'.... Anthony
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