Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Concrete: Canvas of Resistance

Thanks to Niloufar for dropping us a comment on our previous post about the Great Urban Divide and the historical use of phsyical walls as a means for taming the people of an occupied territory, we find an article in Spiegel via rebel:art with some great pics of Baghdad residents painting the American walls.





(All images come via Spiegel Online and AFP.)

In case you missed them, here are a couple of other recent posts on using walls and border fences as canvas for political expression, resistance and solidarity: Face to Face; At the Checkpoint; U.S. vs. Mexico (Border Ball is on!); Wall(s) of Light; a little guardian angel barricade...; Three Ehxibits: on Walls & Political Divide; "Thinking of Walls"

2 Comments:

Blogger rn said...

Just wanted to give a nod to the original source of the Der Spiegel story: USA Today.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-04-26-baghdad-art_N.htm

That's right: McPaper was first to cover this.

Of course, the BBC reported on this phenomenon of putting art of the blast walls back in 2005. Though the article is no longer on the Beeb site, the photos are:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4230505.stm

My partner, the choreographer Andrea Haenggi, created an amazing dance video installation inspired by this 'art from horror' which premiered in 2005 in a handball court in Brooklyn. She may restage the work this summer. You can find out more about that piece, titled 'blast wall art,' at
http://www.amdat.org/newWebsite/repertory/repertory_en.htm

7:13 AM  
Blogger Bryan Finoki said...

rob,

thanks for the added links, especially your partner's! wow, some cool stuff. i see dance as animated paintings, of sorts - canvases come to life! that's really cool, against 'the wall' nonetheless. would love to see some of andrea's work.

re: the wall graf. there are so many cool wall art projects, from Banksy to Lebbeus Woods' Wall Game.

it is my duty to keep this collection, so thanks again for pointing some my way.

see you soon!

b

10:19 PM  

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