Radar Fifteen: Art Battles | Babelgum

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Radar Fifteen: Art Battles

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Radar Fifteen: Art Battles

[ 04:00 ]

Sean Bono set up Art Battles as a way to correct a system he saw flawed. With artist friends getting arrested for graffiti, others loosing their individuality in mundane graphic design jobs, and more laboring unrecognized in galleries, he started painting battles in his canvas-lined apartment as a way out. Since then his unique take on live art has grown leaps and bounds with Art Battles now offering competitors a compelling way to get seen, sell their work & win residences at galleries. We follow Lexi Bella & Leif McIlwaine as they prepare for battle.

04:30

Radar Sixteen: Missed Connections
Illustrator Sophie Blackall has read thousands of missed connections posts. A self confessed addict of these intimate, fleeting moments described in haste and posted in public, she trawls through them daily to find the most visual, humorous, lyrical or wierd confessions or pleas, before creating a similarly spontaneous illustration she then posts to her blog. We talk to Sophie about the significance of shared moments between strangers, and create the moments that might have been.

04:44

Radar Fourteen: Honey, I Shrunk Red Hook
When curator Laura Arena approached MIT’s Luis Blackaller & Andy Cavatorta, her brief was simple: create something that initiates interaction between the inhabitants of the neighborhood. From the Portuguese fisherman to the Projects, to the artists and hipsters, to a new influx of people, Lucky Gallery sits at the crux of several different communities, none of whom talk, but acknowledge each other as familiar strangers. Luis and Andy’s response was to build a miniature version of Red Hook and populate it with photographic doll versions of people they met and talked to on the street. We join Luis and Andy as they prepare for the opening and watch as the element of play in a virtual world impacts communication in the real one.

03:24

Radar Thirteen - Undetermined Measurements
Ten people dressed in stark white "clean suits" and masks disperse amongst picnickers, inspecting the ground in sunny Central Park. Heads turn, unsure, and people start asking questions. Undetermined Measurements is an ongoing performance and documentation project. During each phase of the interventionist series volunteers gather, dress in protective clothes and silently engage with the audience in a non-confrontational manner. Why are they there? The question is left open ended, expressing the ever-changing perception that the United States has transformed from a unique symbol of freedom to a more fragile and fearful representation of uncertainty. We follow Sean Hovendick and his team as he takes Undetermined Measurements to NYC for the first time.

02:30

London Street Art Spots: Buxton and Hanbury Street
RJ finds some great street art on a side-street near Truman Brewery. Work by Irish artist Asbestos, Word to Mother and Mysterious Al.
For more videos from the RJ's Street Art London series, visit babelgum.com/rj

03:27

Paradise Regained (Steve James)
He was the painter who brought paradise to the infamous Chicago housing projects, miles of urban housing rife with violence, gangs and crime until they were finally torn down. With Reed's wall-filling murals, residents transformed their living rooms into oases from the ghetto storms outside. Through description and animation, Reed depicts a world that is thankfully gone yet brought alive again by ex-residents who will seek his views of paradise.

04:04

Radar Twenty-Five: Subway Etiquette
Jay Shells is the man behind Subway Etiquette, a new project that uses silk screen signs, which look identical to official transit signs, to speak not just to New Yorkers but all commuters, asking for a simple thing: Respect. Jay’s signs request that the reader does not do things like eat messy foods, preach their own religious beliefs or cut their toenails while riding the subway. What seems to be common sense is actually happening at every turn - bothering everyone around them. However our own concern with politeness keeps us from speaking up. We follow Jay from his silk screening studio in The New School, through the stairwells and tunnels of the New York Subway System, posting signs that hopefully remind us all to be a little more courteous.

03:49

Urban Canvas - Part 3
A profile of the Burning Candy street-art crew. One of the crew's London members, Tek33, talks about his motivations and work.

03:52

Urban Canvas - Part 2
A profile of the Burning Candy street-art crew. One of the crew's London members, Sweet Toof, talks about his motivations and work.

03:07

The Work's the Thing (Abigail Norris & Jerry Rothwell)
A short film about the art and working methods of Paul Housley. Born in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, in 1964, Paul studied at the Royal College of Art. He has an interest in observing the everyday and a penchant for humble mass-produced objects. Like a number of other young UK artists, Paul is returning to figurative painting, at a time when video, photography, installation and new media have attracted increased attention as art forms. Since the popularity of the young British artists, the rise of 'Brit Art' and the controversy of the Turner Prize, painting has taken a back seat. Damien Hirst was famously quoted as saying that painting was dead. Housley, however works with traditional materials, proving that painting is alive and has an energy and power of its own in today’s art world. His paintings play with our notions of taste, finding novelty in cliché and lyricism in mundane, blank objects like sports bags and light bulbs.

04:01

Radar Four - Universal Record Database
What do 'Most money destroyed for profit', the 'Longest shhh' and 'Most flaxseed cracker people created in one minute' have in common? They are all records held on Dan Rollman and Corey Henderson’s Universal Record Database, otherwise known as the 'definitive site for human achievement'. The founders take us through the thinking behind their project, while Zoomdoggle's Jake Bronstein waxes lyrical on the joy of inventing new categories, Emmy award winning writer/director Todd Lamb explains his obsession with fish sandwiches and photographer Emily Wilson breaks a new record live.

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