Tag Archives: butterflyartnews

London : el Seed – Tabula Rasa

February 18, 2019 butterfly

Tunisian-French contemporary artist, eL Seed has just opened his first UK exhibition entitled Tabula Rasa at Lazinc in London. We documented his previous visit to the UK capital in 2015 ( see here), where he painted a mural with this signature style: an adaptation of traditional Arabic calligraphy.

Within his intricate compositions, el Seed emphasises the curves and loops of the script removing a layer of legilibility and adding mystery to the meaning behind the words he chooses.

eL Seed commented: “I truly believe that art is a way to open dialogue. I like to think that my artwork can cut through the boundaries that we place between ourselves; whether physical, cultural or linguistic. My exhibition at Lazinc represents a new style of painting, where I am attempting to break down my thought process into layers. It also asks the audience to question the way they think and how much they have been affected by assumption or misconception.”

For this exhibition, the artist has developed on his process, stripping down the works, in an effort to access his own ‘tabula rasa’.
The concept of ‘tabula rasa’, pioneered by 17th Century philosopher, John Locke, argues that at birth the human mind is a complete, but receptive blank slate, upon which experience imprints knowledge. In relation to his canvases, eL Seed has taken the idea of the tabula rasa as a starting point, with the aim to alter deep-seated preconceptions that are commonly held about the Arabic script and culture.

In contrast to eL Seed’s usually polished and perfected canvases, the works at Lazinc appear with an unfinished aesthetic. The surface calligraphy is ripped and torn to reveal phrases and imagery below, which materialise slowly and differently with each viewing.
The layering of words and ideas offer an insight into the thought process of the artist.

Guests are invited to reconsider all that they previously thought about Arabic and immerse themselves in the calligraphic experience.

View the full set of pics here

elSeed – Tabula Rasa
Until 9 march 2019
Lazinc Sacksville
29 Sackville Street
London W1S 3DX

Paris, streets

Paris: Banksy Festive Rats

July 16, 2018 butterfly

To conclude Banksy invasion of Paris, the elusive artist celebrated also the festive spirit of the French capital with a series of stencilled rats.

Popping champagne bottles while happy rats are flying high on top of cork bottles.

Location as always: Montmartre first, and then in the Marais district with a Bar called ‘Chez Marianne’, of course.

To complicate things further, Banksy returned several times on the same locations, updating the stencils in colours and shape as you can see on the little animations, giving them a lively feel, as they were getting stolen, repainted or covered under plexi .

In the overcrowded area of the contemporary art centre ‘Centre Pompidou’, the elusive artist returned to paint a bigger mischief rat holding a cutter.

Lastly the City of Love is celebrated with a little rat couple dressed in 19th century outfits, lovingly gazing at the Eiffel Tower in the background from under a bridge.

Such a romantic! Happy Summer !

Paris

Paris: ‘Illustres- C215 autour du Pantheon’

July 11, 2018 butterfly

Portraits of illustrious men and women painted by the French street artist Christian Guémy, better known as C215, adorn the French National Monument Pantheon and surrounding streets in the fifth arrondissement of Paris until 10 October.

This year, the Centre des Monuments Nationaux is presenting “Sur les murs, histoires (s) de graffiti” on nine monuments of its network (see our previous coverage here). On this occasion, the artist C215 was invited to make portraits of men and women honored at the Pantheon, and thematic visits are also set up in the monument, to discover the many historical graffiti present in the heights of the monument, spaces usually inaccessible to the public.

Christian Guémy pays tribute to the figures of the resistance, like Brecht, Zola or de Gaulle, whose names are associated with streets, squares and institutions. In all, 28 portraits of historical personalities, some of which are buried inside the Pantheon, are painted on the walls of the 5th district.

The tour titled “Illustres! C215 autour du Pantheon ” begins in the crypt of the monument, which hosts an exhibition of the artistic approach and the techniques used by the artist to create these colourful portraits: stencils, blades. A series of photographies illustrate the artist’s creative process, while a movie presents an interview of the artist.

Within display cabinets, C215 is creating a dialogue between the illustrious portraits and symbolic objects. Thus, literary works, handwritten letters, and professional objects of Marie Curie, Germaine Tillion, Andre Malraux, Victor Hugo or Antoine de Saint-Exupery are exhibited and highlight the area for which these illustrious people are honoured.

Punctual visits to the upper parts of the Pantheon allow the public to discover some of the historical graffiti.

At the same time, C215 painted 28 portraits in the streets of the 5th arrondissement surrounding the Pantheon and invite the viewer to discover the lives of these extraordinary personalities.
For example a huge portrait of Marie Curie adorn the walls of the Institut Marie Carie.

A full map of the C215 Illustres tour is available here

Illustres ! C215 Autour du Pantheon
Until 10 October
Place du Panthéon
75005 Paris

CMN ‘Sur les Murs, Histoire(s) de Graffiti’

https://graffiti.monuments-nationaux.fr/

Paris, Street, streets

Paris: Banksy Bataclan Tribute

July 6, 2018 butterfly 2 Comments

Continuing his Paris invasion, Banksy chose a poignant subject and spot on location.
A new stencil appeared on the exit door of the Bataclan theatre in the 11th district of Paris.

Extremely strong symbolic as it is this exact exit door where victims of terrorist attacks tried to escaped during mass shooting on 13 November 2015, leaving 89 dead and over 300 injured.

Painted on the black background of the exit door, a white stencil features a woman with a lace veil, which gives a mystical and protective aura like a Madonna.

Her face is inspired by a marble sculpture by Italian artist Giovanni Battista Lombardi from 1869.
She is dressed in a uniform , reminiscent of the rescuers that did everything to save the victims that night.

veiled woman by giovanni battista lombardi

©Francois Lafite

The mourning woman is holding some files in one hand, maybe the victims reports and a delicate lace handkerchief on the other.

Using just a monochrome stencil, Banksy creates a strong moving memorial to the victims of terrorism in Paris, as well as a big up to the rescuer teams.

For further updates on Banksy in Paris check here

Paris, streets

Paris: Banksy joins the celebrations of Mai 68 riots

June 30, 2018 butterfly

While Paris has been celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the May 68 Riots with multiple exhibitions, elusive artist Banksy has hit the streets of the French capital with a series of new artworks.

May 68 in France – Ten million workers on strike, young people in the streets, public services at a standstill, a paralysed economy: the state faced a major social crisis which threatened to shake its very foundations. The entire country was affected, including all sectors of activity.

Facing the entrance of La Sorbonne University, Banksy put up a dark stencil of a man hiding a saw behind his back while an amputated dog is salivating looking up at a bone. Could be a play on words ‘Saw Bone’ which sounds similar to ‘Sorbonne’, but also is a very cynical symbol of our society, raising questions of sacrifice and perceived rewards from the powers in place.

Placement and context are always very important. This is where the major student demonstrations took place. Interestingly, less than 10 meters away from this ‘Saw & Bone’ stencil, Invader placed a pixelated commemoration plaque on the Place de La Sorbonne earlier this May.

Click on the pics to enlarge

Banksy painted additional little rats characters, with the tag 1968 and the 8 falling apart and being transformed into the bow of the famous Minnie mouse, nod to Disneyland, symbolising with his stencils that the 1968 uprising has lost its luster and morphed into capitalism.

Next to the Centre Pompidou, which hosts Le Musee d’art Moderne, the largest museum of modern art in Europe, Banksy painted a mischief rat, which was later transformed into a bigger one holding a cutter. He posted the caption on his Instagram: ‘Fifty years since the uprising in Paris 1968. The birthplace of modern stencil art.’

The entire city is celebrating the 50th Anniversary, from the streets to institutions. For further historical context about the 1968 riots, the Hotel de Ville is presenting historical pictures by photograph Gilles Caron who documented the student revolts while the Archives Nationales are showing the events of May-June 1968 as seen by the authorities of the time. Earlier in May we also shared the intervention of Spanish artist ESCIF on the external walls ‘Open Borders’ of the modern art institution Palais de Tokyo ( see full coverage here).

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Stay tuned as we continue our coverage of Banksy invasion of the French capital…