Category Archives: Reviews

99/40

Leave a Reply

99mm green cover

The last time I reviewed the 99mm zine I was surprised to find that the publication had been in production for twenty years! So it’s good to know that it’s still going strong as Ian Vanek has recently released, what he believes to be, the best 99mm yet! This time the zine’s contents aren’t published in the standard zine scheme of black & white but a cool jazzy green with a stitched spine. Apparently this is in commemoration of its 40th edition which harks back to the zine’s origins as a blue DIY magazine. Continue reading →

Le Langage Du Mer ?

1 Reply

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 →

Changing the Urban Wallpaper

1 Reply

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 →

Berlin Gold

Leave a Reply

Auri Sacra Fames 5

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 →

Adam Void Interview

Leave a Reply
Adam Void

Nirvana Rules is the latest of offering from among the many excellent zines Adam Void has produced. 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. In the introduction to the zine Adam Void points out that it’s not unusual to see a popular band’s name on a wall. Fans of various groups eg; KIϟϟ, Iron Maiden, or Slayer seem to enjoy slapping a bit of emulsion on brick or writing on a toilet door. However the Nirvana Rules tag appears to be unique in that it has a dual function as one person’s tag. Presented over the pages of the zine in black and white the tag is shown to have a clear aesthetic being placed on a variety of surfaces and mediums.

Continue reading →

Understanding Vans

Leave a Reply
places-2

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 →

Freight Trainz

Leave a Reply
Fumez

Starting out life as a black & white affair during the nineties Fumez has been given a fresh 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. Considering its size, this amount of content could’ve resulted in small poor quality images. However the editor has done a good job in ensuring that the photographs are all nicely sized and of a high quality. Listing nine contributors Fumez covers nearly three decades of freight graffiti up to the present day.

Continue reading →

A Lifeline

Leave a Reply
Henkireikä frontcover

Henkireikä is a recently released magazine hailing from Sweden. The publication brings together some of the vibrant work of the graffiti artist Rikard Olsen. Working on the idea of a blackbook it is designed to display his work in a form that can be physically distributed. Olsen describes the painting of his work as a breathing-space or even a lifeline. At some time, during a conversation with a friend about art, Olsen came across the Finnish word ‘Henkireikä‘ which translates as something similar to the process of Olsen’s graffiti. With family ties to that country it seemed an obvious title for his first foray into publishing.

Continue reading →