As an Englishman my ability to speak any language except my own is severely limited. So when I first picked up Graffiti Brassaï: Le Langage Du Mur I was a bit puzzled how graffiti could be the language of the sea? I quickly realised my mistake! In fact this is the first serious art-historical study of Brassaï’s Graffiti photography series. Researched by the curator Karolina Ziebinska-Lewandowska the book sheds light on the artist Brassaï and graffiti as his subject. Continue Reading
Advertising Shits in Your Head is a new handy pocket guide to modern advertising and, more importantly, how it can be subverted. Published by Dog Section Press just last year it has already run into a second edition. The book’s title was originally used in an article by a certain Bill Posters where he attacks advertisers who surreptitiously “shit in your head”. Expanding on this Advertising Shits in Your Head discusses why advertising should be regarded as such a problem and how it can be tackled effectively. The publishers tell me the book is “intended as a call to arms against the outdoor advertising industry particularly, and capitalism generally. It’s also an exploration of the origins of the modern day, international subvertising movement, and a guide to some of the theory and practice underpinning it.” Continue Reading
Last month Berlin’s Auri Sacra Fames mag celebrated its fifth anniversary! To mark the occasion we did an interview starting with how the magazine first began and the ethic behind it. Continue Reading
At 232 pages the new Auri Sacra Fames is basically a book rather than a magazine. A range of seven different chapters, each with their own style and content, rolled into one publication. This fifth instalment is the ‘Legend’ issue. So alongside two sections of Berlin trains are features on five legendary Berlin crews and individuals. The introduction defines a graff legend as having achieved “a real long-term relevance” through a combination of quality and quantity. Interestingly this description is printed alongside the dictionary definition which labels a legend as a “narrative, which can not be proved or which is grotesquely exaggerated.” Continue Reading
Sometime in the late 2000’s I found myself sitting in a police interview room opposite a pair of excited coppers. After a few minutes of pointless questions they gleefully put their theory to me: “we believe you were intending to travel up to central London to vandalise the Tate Modern!” Continue Reading
Nirvana Rules is the latest of offering from among the many zines Adam Void has made. The title gives a clue to the content within which focuses on the ‘Nirvana Rules’ tag he first noticed on the streets of Baltimore. The graffiti is unconventional, both in its form and style, yet being well-executed and repeated often this clearly isn’t just a series of spontaneous tributes left by random Nirvana fans. Continue Reading
At first glance RTS vs. ŁKS looks like some sort of coffee table-book of hooligan graffiti. The album comprises walls photographed in the Polish city of Łódź. Located slap-bang in the middle of the country the place is home to one of its nation’s most vicious football rivalries. Continue Reading
Following a recent trip to Canada a friend kindly came back with the third issue of a tidy little magazine called Names and Places. Surprisingly this was actually the only domestic publication to be found among a wide selection of European train mags over there. Anyway as it happens Names and Places turns out to be a real gem! Continue Reading
Starting out life as a black & white affair during the nineties Fumez has been given a new lease of life. Issue 1 of the newly released publication is now a full colour, slender looking, magazine roughly about A5 size. The cover of the mag proudly states that there are “over 100 photos” within. Continue Reading
Not too long ago the second instalment of Gossenpost was released! The topic of the magazine remains on the margins with a load of grimy tags but this time round it has a more specific focus around markers. Continue Reading