Vhils: Scratching the surface

The portuguese street artist Alexandre Farto, commonly known as Vhils, have an unique take on street art.  He converts the wall to a scratchboard, chipping away the plaster and remove the negative space with a weathered touch. The wall becomes the subject itself and his portraits grows out of the wall. I first saw Vhils work in the streets London and was amazed by his technique and style. Since then, I've seen his works in the streets of Paris, Berlin and Stavanger.

With Vhils wall portraits, I get the feeling that "the wall" is trying to tell me something. Maybe make me aware of the sacrifices that some humans do for the sake of humanity and against oppression and that others pains and struggles have secured my own freedom and welfare.

The summer of 2012, I was lucky to see a solo exhibition of Vhils in Paris. I often find that artist that do work in the streets doesn’t work very well inside, as art in a gallery. Vhils works did well in the gallery. Using his unique scratching and chipping technique on doors, iron plates and styrofoam making smaller scale portraits.

I took the picture above in Stavanger, Norway, april 2012. "The fisherman" was made for the nuart festival in Stavanger 2010 and the huge portrait still looks strikingly fresh!

Together with this image I choose "Fisherman's Blues" by the Waterboys (click the link or the "play" button below!).

Dolk: The pay phone!

This is one of the most well preserved stencil in the streets of Bergen made by Dolk. I took the picture on an october night in 2011 on my way home from town. It's located, pretty hidden, in a backyard near the legendary pub Garage. I'm not sure when this was made, but its a long time since Dolk did work in the streets of Bergen (Norway). I read somewhere that he did his last works here around 2006. Not because he stopped doing street art, quite contrary. In 2006 he was invited by Banksy to London to join the "Santa's Ghetto" festival. Since then, Dolk have worked all over the world at street art festivals and exhibitions. Today he is among the world's most recognised street artists. Since 2008, he has also taken street art out of it's urban environment and given lots of recognition for his works on deserted wooden houses at the rural coast of Lofoten (Norway).

Dolk Lundgren was born in Bergen 1979 and little is known publicly about his background. Dolk Lundgren is a pseudonym, his signature, from the days he did illegal works in the streets of Bergen. Despite his fame as an artist, he has kept his real identity hidden from the general public.

Dolk's images are highly thought through and gives an imediate reaction or perception that stays with you long after you've walked past. Their sometimes funny and contradictory in style; Combining iconic figures, persons or symbols with a touch of sarcasm as a comment on actual issues or more enduring issues in society. E.g. when he pictured Prince Charles with a Burger King hat. Another line of his images often have an emotional undertone that supports the lonely, the different and the neglected soul (often a child). I think the image above is along that line.

Dolk Lundgren lives in Melbourne where he study art and travel the world doing art on the streets! Along with this image I choose Decoder Ring feat. Lenka (from the movie Somersault): Somersault (Score) (Click on the link or the "play" button in the box below to listen).

Travel: Poitou-Charentes

France is divided into 22 regions with all together 96 departments. Poitou-Charentes is a region in the middle western part of france and consists of 4 departments: Charente, Charente-Maritime, Deux-Sèvres and Vienne.

This story is mostly about Charente. In the heart of Charente is the biggest town Angouleme. The department of Charente is named after the river Charente which runs through the district.

The biggest cities is Angouleme and Cognac. For me, both were new places, I’ve of course heard of Cognac and the famous alcohol drink made of grape wine. The area is famous for their cognac houses and destilleries. I was more exited about Angouleme. The city organises the largest comic festival in Europe, and every january about 200 000 visitors travels to the city for Angouleme International Comics festival. It’s the beginning of July, so I am far to early for the festival, but I’ve heard about the murals and wall paintings in the town. And I have a friend who lives there and could show me around.

Angouleme is a beautiful city on the hill. In the middle of the city I found a statue of Herge, the creator of Tintin

The city is full of beautiful murals

The river Charente runs slowly through Cognac and is a popular for boat trips

Except the cities, Charente is a fertile agricultural district with beautiful nature and small villages. I lived in the small village of Massac while staying there. Grape and Sunflower fields as long as the eye can see.

Small villages and easy atmosphere

Beautiful landscapes

In the west (Charente-Maritime), Saintes and Saint-Jean-D’Angely are two beautiful cities west in the region. Old towns with calm atmosphere. Its nice to travel around in the area and quite relaxing. There is much to see and this time I didn’t go to the coast and the main cities there, I was driving out of the region down to Bordeaux.

Saint-Jean-D'Angely

Saintes

Bordeaux

To June

June is the beginning of summer here north. The light time of the year with long evenings, festivals and midsummer night. You asked me to take a song or a poem with me from the highlands of Scotland back home. I am fascinated by the poetic Gaelic language. The old irish language which later came to Scotland and used during the middle age and still represents a big part of the cultural heritage in Ireland and Scotland. The Scottish Gaelic is influenced by Norse and is perfect for light northern summer evenings.

Street singer outside The Victoria Market in Inverness

In a record shop at the Victoria Market in Inverness, I found music from Julie Fowlis and immediately fell for her clear and tender voice and music. On her debut album «Mar a Tha Mo Chridhe», which is translated into «As my heart is» I found the most beautiful songs and Fowlis's music is romantic and steeped in the tradition of her Western Isles home (North Uist). The song I chose is «Tha Mo Ghaol Air Àird A' Chain» (my love is on the high seas). Hope you enjoy this voice and music and since Gaelic is unknown to us, I bring a translation of the words below.



Tha Mo Ghaol Air Àird A' Chuain
(my love is on the high seas)

On a quiet evening at the beginning of May
When the bat was in the skies
I heard a tearful young maiden 
Singing beneath the shadow of the green branches
The sun was setting in the sea
And no stars yet graced the sky
When the young girl sang sorrowfully
"My love is on the high seas"  

The night's dew began to fall
Each bloom yielding softly to the droplets
The wind blew in a fragrant breeze
Bringing life and renewal to each field
The girl tunefully sang her song
Quiet and peaceful like the June dew '
And this chorus constantly repeated
"My love is on the high seas"    

Day darkened and the stars shone
Setting their course amongst the clouds
the maiden sat, burdened by her sadness
Her singing could not have been more soothing
I moved closer to the young woman
Singing of her love sailing on the sea
Oh sweet was her sad lament
"My love is on the high seas"  

The music enticed me
Nearer to the brown-haired maiden of the warm eyes
And she prayed to the King of Heaven
"Protect my love on the high seas"
Her heart was breaking with love
When I took her by the hand
"Wipe your eyes, your love is safe
I have returned to you from the high seas"

Moving inside: Streetart for sale!

          I was happy when I got to know about StreetSmart, and exhibition event with local and international Street Art artists here in Bergen. "Bergen Kjøtt" in Sandviken was a perfect venue. 11 artists with 40 works all together. Prizes in the range of about 110 pounds to 9000 pounds.  As a fan of of outdoor street art. I have mixed feelings about moving this kind of works inside, into the galleries and into a commercial setting. As a traveller, and a frequent visitor of galleries, I love art both inside and outside. When I left the Street Smart exihibition yesterday, I still had mixed feelings. Some works did work, and some did not. The highlights for me at this exhibition was the works by L.E.T.  As far as I know, L.E.T. is a franco/german street art artist based in Düsseldorf. I´ve never seen his work outside.

Works by L.E.T.: I´m so angry I made a sign!

 Martin Whatson and DotDotDot is two norwegian artists that was well represented at the exhibition. I love both artists outside works, but inside? Actually not. I just dont think its good enough and/or original enough. Both artists uses a lot of references to art (popart and street art) in their works which makes them recognisable, but these references is used so frequently that it becomes boring. 

Their more famous brothers Banksy and Dolk do the same references with succes, but in a very unique way. 

In the middle: Match This by DotDotDot

Both artists had similar stencils in different sizes, but why is it so that a big piece is so much more expensive? Repetition is a part of the Street Artist´s "weapon and teqnique" and is best in the streets (outside) because the environment makes all the difference. At this exhibition it looked more like a commercial need. And artists have to survive too :-), I guess and use their momentum (with reference to mr. brainwash).

Two of the biggest works: Martin Whatson to the left and DotDotDot to the right

The venue "Bergen Kjøtt" was great and the works nicely placed and very well organized. I missed a folder or an info paper with small presentations of the artists. it´s a great initiativ from Goblin.mag and I hope they will do this more and better. My wish would be less focus on sale and more focus on presenting street art with more long term exihibitions. This exhibition lasted only two days. 

 The exhibition also worked as a sosial gathering and a meeting place! It was nice to spend some hours there!

One of the most interesting works (from a local point of view) was the piece made by Argus outside on the wall. A comment to the exhibition? I wonder when we finally will see Argus inside....

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

This is the famous quote from George orwell's book Animal Farm (1945). The quote is comrade Napoleons re-formulation of the 7. commandment "all animals are equal" in the ideology of animalism when he take absolute power of the farm and transform it into a totalitarian society.


In history this quote have been used heavily by reactionaries and conservatives to criticise the Marxist and communist ideology and society. And yes, Orwell's fairy tale describes the process and developments of totalitarianism and elitism in ideology and politics, but does his tale apply to us?

 In US, Western Europe and Norway we tend to like that democracy is different, more open and more egalitarian than comrade Napoleons farm. However we tend to forget the part where Orwell describes the the dynamics of power and elitists thinking which may as well apply to our society. Often hidden, but may reveal it self in critical situations. It's difficult for our society to deal with the forces where the main duty is to secure the power base. The agents of these forces are not the main "actors" on the public arena like e.g. Napoleon in Animal Farm or the main politicians and political actors in our society. We may call the forces to secure power base "the shadow" of an open society. These forces rules by comrade Napoleons dictate: "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others".

Big Letters! Ben Eine

Ben Eine started as a graffiti writer in the underground street art scene of London in the late 80´s and 90´s, and is a friend of Banksy. Both are now superstars in the street art movement. Art curators is of course part of their commercial success, organising street art shows in combination with gallery exhibitions in major cities world wide. Ben Eine is lives in London and his works is very present and visible in East London (Shoreditch), and when I´m in town it´s a pleasure to visit and photograph in the street art areas of East London. It´s like having the biggest open air art gallery in the world!

Ben Eine and his works are frequently featured in major trend magazines and music videos by big bands. In July 2010, President Barack Obama was presented with a screen print by Eine, Twenty First Century City, as an official gift from the British Prime Minister David Cameron. I'm not sure if Cameron knew about Eine´s criminal record from his graffiti years when he was arrested numerous times.

Ben Eine is present in my hometown Bergen too: On a wall at NHH (Norwegian school of Economics). Visible from the highway were thousands of cars passes every day, and hundreds of students walk by into the campus. I think many do not recognise this as a piece of art at all.

At first glance it looks like a collection of letters. A commercial of some kind? A big board announcing something? The letters are bright, clear and colourful. The letters make three words: «controversial» «calculate» and «cash».

The wall was spray painted by Ben Eine during a few summer days in 2011 as a part of a festival on Capitalism by NHH.

Please visit the Eine Diary (One of the coolest web pages on this planet).

A special visit! Mount Melleray Abbey

Mount Melleray Abbey is situated in the county of Waterford in Ireland and was founded in the year 1833. My friend took me for a drive to this place yesterday and in the middle of February the air was mild and the fields still green. The Abbey is on the southern slopes of the Knocklemealdown mountains, around five miles from the borders of Tipperary! The landscape is mild and beautiful as we see the big, light grey cathedral.

It was a quite day and inside there were no other people than us. The monks of Mount Melleray are members of the Cistercian or Trappist Order, an Order of the Benedictine family, founded at Citeaux in France in 1098.

Constitution 7 says:"In the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance the way of life is consecration to God expressed in fraternal union, solitude and silence, in prayer, work and a disciplined life". My friend tells me that she visited this place often as a child. Now, I became curious! Why? They visited her grand uncle who was a monk at the abbey and further her father was a monk at the abbey, but decided to leave the Monk Order at 23 to start a family. So this is a special place for you, I replied! Yes, she said and told me a facinating story about her grand uncle and her father, once a Monk.

The confession boxes looked rather scary I think, and it was a strange thing to sit in one! A poster invited me to stay and live with the community and actually stay for life as a monk. I could stay for a while, but at this point, certainly not for life.

My friend tells me that at one point there where so many as 700 monks at the Abbey, and they were self sufficient with food, equipment and even had their own power station. They had huge land areas, animals and crafts. It's said that they put food in a certain box for the beggars and poor, and the box never got empty.

Its a special place for my friend, and all her stories made it a special day for me.

A multi creative artist - Ole Jørgen Ness

I first became aware of this artist when he was main artist at the Bergen festival "Festspillene" i 2006. I just love his paintings, sculptures and installations!

It´s difficult to categorise his art, but critics often describe him as a surrealist!

He is born in Bergen, Norway in 1961 and I think he represents me and the cultural zeitgeist i´ve developed in. The strange thing is that the artist represent 9 different artists, with different personalities and artistic styles. His works represents all of these alter egos and styles!

I think his art resembles street art and art forms of art that have been developed outside the mainstream art environment. His work can be figural and abstarct, expressive and impressive, natural and non-natural, real and surreal: Independent of tradition, time and space.

Ole Jørgen Ness works have been exhibited all over the world and are now actual at Stenersenmuseet in Oslo, Norway.