Why I love NY - Part One

One of the things I have noticed about NYC is that there are so many things to do. Any day or night of the week there are random things happening all over NYC. When I used to live in London my flat mate subscribed to Timeout. I never really understood why but this was because I never really looked at it. I picked it up over here one day and can now understand why. It contains so much info on what is happening and has heaps of ideas of things to do each week in NYC. 

A couple of weeks ago I had a free Sunday and decided to put it to the test. Ended up being an awesome day. Started off just round the corner at a funky little cafe for some brunch. From here I headed to midtown to check out the Affordable Art Fair. This was basically an art show containing a large collection of different artists who were selling pieces for less than 10 clicks. I guess it says something about NYC when affordable ='s 10 grand or less. I should have smelt a rat when they were stinging you 20 bucks to get in.

From the art show I jumped on the subway and headed over to Brooklyn with Tracy. This was the first time I had been to Williamsburg. It seems everyone you meet in New York aged between 28 and 35 live in Williamsburg. I was heading over there as I'd grabbed a flyer earlier in the day for a record fair. Was quite an interesting trip and got a some decent jazz vinyl to add to the collection. Smashed down some Pizza from Apizza in the E.Village and was home about 10. 

Brunch @ Gourmet on Ave A.

Interesting Piece at the AAF

 

 Some of the Cache

Lomo Pana Stitches From France

(Click Images to make them larger)

The Eiffel Tower - April 2010

Rue Denoyez Shutters, Belleville, Paris - April 2010

Provence, France - April 2010

Le Lavendou, France - April 2010

Exit Through The Gift Shop

Over the past couple of years I have become quite interested in street art. Less so the tagging and old school graffiti but more along the lines of stencils, stickups and other more politically orientated pieces. I was therefore looking forward to getting along to the new art-doco "Exit Through The Gift Shop." I was pretty stoked as being an ARThouse film it was only on at one or two cinemas in New York, one of which was just round the corner from me on Houston St. 

The story is primarily about a guy called Thierry Guetta a.k.a Mr Brainwash (MBW). MBW is a French guy living in LA with a habit of repeating the same sentence several times. Back in the 80's he started carrying a video camera everywhere and filming random events. While back visiting family in France he discovered that his cousin was the famous Parisian street artist known as Space Invader. Through a series of events MBW began focusing his camera work on the growing street art scene in various places around the world. This all culminated in a chance encounter with the most famous street artist today, Banksy. 

Some Space Invader from my recent trip to Paris

 

The first two-thirds of the film was really good. There was some great footage of some of the most famous street artists around and it was great to see how MBW's interest in street art evolved. The highlights were various interviews with Banksy. The humour in much of his art was evident when being interviewed in person. 

I left the cinema feeling a little frustrated however. I was not sure if it was the fact that I sat in the front row and was in dire need to get a neck massage. I think it was more the last third and watching Thierry become MBW. By becoming MBW, he assumes the role of 'artist' but is he really that or merely someone with deep pockets and the ability hire people to bring his visions to reality? 

Through the later part of the movie I felt the vibe that everything he did was really designed and executed by someone else and MBW came along and splattered a bit of paint on it. I don't want to take away from the fact that he has obviously had an important role in the production of an end product but the whole concept does not gel that well me with. I think in the end those that buy into the hype are really having the piss taken out of them.

Footnote

I thought the poster put on top of the movie advertising poster above was quite funny.