Throw away the spray cans: street art goes beyond graffiti —
Forget the image of a street artist as a hooded figure with a spray can. Today's artists are using sculptures, light, plants, water, tiles, and even knitting yarn to redecorate the cities' streets and get their message across. "Street Craft," set for release this February by Thames & Hudson, collects together 28 of these alternative urban interventionists across the globe to celebrate the changing medium of street art, and the people who are pushing the art form forward.
Mentalgassi
"Ticket Validator," Cologne, Germany, 2008, photographs pasted on to ticket machines.
The Berlin collective have long pasted photographs onto the urban canvas to create humorous, interactive art, such as their ticket machine mouth creations. They have worked with Amnesty International to highlight the case of Troy Davis -- a man held on death row despite a lack of evidence -- for a project called "Making the Invisible Visible" in which a portrait of Davis could be seen on iron railings when a viewer approached from a particular angle, but would then evaporate.
Throw away the spray cans: street art goes beyond graffiti —
Stefan Lotze"GorillaLighting," Karlsruhe, Germany, 2012, light project
German artist Stefan Lotze creates ephemeral portraits of curious gorillas peering into our cities. All street is remains for a finite period, often a momentary glimpse, and Lotze takes that to the extreme by painting with light.
Throw away the spray cans: street art goes beyond graffiti —
Slinkachu "The Last Resort," Wandsworth, London, 2010, mixed media
The UK's Slinkachu has been finding homes for tiny people since 2006. The miniature installations -- featuring human figurines in comedic situations -- are catalogued in photo by the artist and left for others to discover.
Throw away the spray cans: street art goes beyond graffiti —
A Common Name"Geodes" Arts District, Los Angeles, 2012, paper. © Gregory Tuzin
Los Angeles-based Paige Smith creates crystal-like "geodes" out of paper and resin that fill the cracks in walls, pipes, and pavements. She has created these tiny installations worldwide (see them all on her site) and mails "geode kits" to others to spread the miniature marvels to new neighbourhoods.
Throw away the spray cans: street art goes beyond graffiti —
Anna Garforth "Grow," London, 2012, moss
Londoner Anna Garforth invented "moss typography" after a visit to graveyard, where moss had filled the lettering of a headstone to create cursive shapes. Taking inspiration, she has created neatly designed organic bodies that invite viewers to touch them.
Throw away the spray cans: street art goes beyond graffiti —
Isaac Cordal "Cement Bleak," London, 2009, molded sieve
Spanish sculptor Isaac Cordal's melancholy cement men -- often found wearing a suit and clutching briefcase -- straddle the divide between comedy and tragedy. Inhabiting their own world in the city's cracks and crevices, the micro stories he creates for them in his ongoing project Cement Eclipses usually finds them in desperate straits. Using an everyday cooking sieve, slightly dented by his hand, he also creates shadow sculptures of shocking beauty.
Throw away the spray cans: street art goes beyond graffiti —
Mademoiselle Maurice "Rainbow", Paris, 2012, folded paper
French artist Mademoiselle Maurice takes inspiration from her time in Japan. Brightly colored but minimal in design, she uses delicate materials such as lace and ribbon, folded into origami shapes, to create illusions of order and coherence in chaotic surroundings.
Throw away the spray cans: street art goes beyond graffiti —
Mark Jenkins "Tape sculpture", Richmond, Virginia, 2012, tape
American Mark Jenkins creations are wrought from heavy duty sticky tape, but take on an unnervingly human form. His sculptures are created for impact -- whether depicting a person grasping to the edge of a tall building or standing without a head.
Throw away the spray cans: street art goes beyond graffiti —
El Bocho (in collaboration with 4th Raik)"Post", Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Ludwigsburg, Germany, 2012, mixed media.
Berlin's El Bocho has created surreal, mixed-media sculptures since the 90s. "I'm motivated by communication," he says. "I don't have to be a street artist for the rest of my life. Maybe one day I'll teach or do sculpture. We'll see."
Throw away the spray cans: street art goes beyond graffiti —
Ishknits"Tree," Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, 2010, yarn. © Conrad Benner,
Californian-based Ishknits wraps relics of the past in yarn to draw fresh attention to them. Payphones are "yarn-bombed" and former Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo is dressed in a pink bikini. Many of her past works have taken over statues and monuments in her former hometown, Philadelphia, to make frequently funny statements about masculinity and femininity.
Throw away the spray cans: street art goes beyond graffiti —
Luzinterruptus "Mutant Weeds", Madrid, 2012, fluorescent lights. © Gustavo Sanabria
Madrid-based collective Luzinterruptus spend weeks masterminding short-lived light interventions which could be gone within an hour. Using LEDs or fluorescent lights the aim to highlight "problems in the city that seem to go unnoticed both by the authorities and by citizens" and highlight places or objects they believe have unappreciated value.
Throw away the spray cans: street art goes beyond graffiti —
NeSpoon"Bunkier," Turin, Italy, 2012, stencil and spray paint
Poland's NeSpoon combines the hard and very soft to create homely features in the cold city scape. Using lace or embroidery patterns, but imprinting them in metalwork, cement and stone, she says she aims to "make art that deals with happiness, peace of mind an fulfilment."
Throw away the spray cans: street art goes beyond graffiti —
The Pansy Project "Faggot!" Canary Wharf, London, 2013
Londoner Paul Hartfleet created the Pansy Project to document the sites of homophobic abuse after his own experiences of violence. The project plants a pansy at the scene, creating a ritual compared to the tending of graves for family members. Here, though, the plant is living. "It feels like a positive action," he says.
Throw away the spray cans: street art goes beyond graffiti —
Secret Sculptor, "Free to Fly," Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh, 2013, mixed media
Anonymous Edinburgh-resident Street Sculptor attacked the "austerity" programme of cuts to the UK's art and culture sectors by the government in 2012 and 2013. The delicate paper creations were left in public places, accompanied by a note stating the focus of the project and a literary quotations -- their craft designed to represent the value of what was being lost to the cuts.
