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The ancient Japanese poetry form of haiku was originally the opening verse of a longer poem, the renga. Refined by the poet Basho, it has since evolved into an independent art form. At times delicate and willowy, at times punchy and ironic, these bite-sized poems deliver maximum effect with minimum description. Kigo (season words) often set the tone:

Icy cold, brown slush
seeps stealthily through leather
finds hole in my sock

Today, the winter solstice, is National Haiku Poetry Day.

Quote: “The haiku lets meaning float; the aphorism pins it down.”

— Mason Cooley

[via Spotlight @ Answers.com]

The Japanese characters and written or spoken words are are called ‘kanji’. The word kanji is from kan (the name given to a great part of China thousands of years ago, from where the language and characters were adopted by Japan) and ji, meaning language or words.

The image to the left is an example for haiku. Kanji is written from right to left and from top to bottom. The three columns on the left are the cherry blossom haiku verse; the next column of two characters represents Maitreya’s original Japanese name, Koji, which interestingly means ’supervisor of cultivation’; and the final column far left is the date, which traditionally includes the emperor’s name, hence so many characters.

More signs for how street art is moving towards high art. Under the title “Art sales: Graffiti draws a new crowd“, the Telegraph in Britain published an article on burgeoning market for graffiti, stencil art and the like. More and more galleries are opening in their doors to keen buyers, with works from famous street artists like Antony Micallef, José Parlá, Swoon or Banksy selling from £35,000 to £323,000. Only celebrity of course can splash around that kind of money, or smart investors. So it’s not surprising to find well-known figures such as designer Paul Smith, artist Damian Hirst, rock star Eric Clapton or actress Angelina Jolie joined by City traders and small-business executives lining up to get their mansions and bank safes filled with the popular wares.

Where does all of this leave urban art? First of all, let’s not forget that this is not the first commercial assault on urban art. For years now artists have been working for example for the fashion industry as well as for marketing products from mobile phones to cars. Yet street art is still alive and kicking. So, with the move from the street to the gallery, we’ll probably lose some of the great street artists to the wealthy end of town . But, even if, in the worst case scenario, street art’s purpose might be totally and utterly blunted, like that of many other forms of grassroots cultural expression and political resistance before it, I doubt that commercialisation and commodification will spell its end any time soon. While some corporatisation of the rebellious and often anti-corporate element is happening, and while graffiti is being transformed into tourist attractions, there is still so much passion, energy, creativity and a strong spirit of civil disobedience and subversiveness left which not only creates great urban art, but that for various reasons will never be for sale - let’s continue to celebrate that!

While urban art takes many forms, I am not talking here about large sculptures neatly arranged in public places by bureaucrats. I’m also not referring to decorative art in shopping malls and centres, enhancing the thrill of the consumer experience, or gallery and living room displays of works by former street artists risen to commercial fame. When I think of urban art, I mean the artforms of graffiti, stenciling, poster bombing, music, breakdancing, skateboarding and even surfing, which have infiltrated the urban environment not by sponsored invitation but through subversive action. Their function is not to cater for a commodity market but to respond to the concrete estates, pain and poverty that characterise living at the social peripheries in our cities. Sure, even being poor can be a stratified experience, between destitution and more upper levels of material deficiency, and the artistic expressions of people living in spaces of different degrees of privation will reflect these disparities. At the same time though there is of course the overall similarity of experience of social, economic and cultural inadequacy, and it is this shared experience which has created and maintains the urban artforms I value higher than the polished performances of the market.In terms of influence on urban sub-cultural expression, it is of course hard to draw lines between what is more powerful: the raw expressions of portrayal of and social resistance against living in run-down impoverished and despondent neighbourhoods, or the songs and colours produced by those who have escaped these vicious circles. I can only speculate and theorise here, but I assume answers lie hidden on the one hand somewhere in the complex relationships between authenticity of the artists’ voices and the branded illusions sold by multi-billion dollar dream industries to beggars, struggling recipients of social welfare benefits and romanticising middle classes. On the other hand, hip hop and graffiti are not just about politics; there is also a historical dimension to them (where the artist is part of cultural traditions reaching back at least to the itinerant performers traveling the fair grounds of Europe in medieval times), and there is an emotional and aesthetic articulation where the artist is the skillful communicator of the personal: her or his sensibilities, thoughts, emotions, beliefs or ideas.With blurred boundaries around what is still grassroots authenticity, and faced with the impossibility of determining what effect individual artists might have not just on the consciousness of the individual spectator but also of society and culture at large, I simply gonna retreat to a position of personal preference when it comes to Justin Bua. Although my personal experience has not included living with concrete, basketball courts, breakdancing b-boys, graffiti tags, and the pain, the poor and the flavour of the 1980s New York City’s Upper West Side, I’d like to credit him at least with having the roots for what what I define as urban art. And when I look at his pictures (through probably romanticising senses), I get a feeling of an authenticity that I can also seesm to be reflected in his words: “There’s a hardness to urban art. I think it really echoes the architecture of New York City, all of the really harsh gates, undulating terra-cotta of new york,” Bua says. “The square, the cement, the projects, the fences, the basketball courts - it’s got a very similar rhythm. It’s a concrete city.”Bua, a hip hop artist, breakdancer, skateboard and CD cover designer, creator of Comedy Central’s animated series “Urbania” and music video artist for Slum Village’s “Tainted”, creates striking paintings. He describes himself as a “distorted urban realist” and (in hindsight not surprisingly) sees his work in the tradition of some of the old masters: “I paint the underclass, like Rembrandt or Bruegel. They painted the poor people of their culture, and those are the kind of people I emulate, too,” Bua says. “I like to paint the heroes of my day and the people I grew up around next to this welfare hotel.”Here we’ve got a good example for historical tradition I mentioned earlier - it makes urban art not just a child of today’s rough, jagged skyscraper-scarred cityscapes; urban artforms from the edge are about people populating urban fringes, and as such they have walked these paths for centuries. Genuine graffiti and hip hop are about the lower classes, about the images of its people - and in this regard Bua’s work is truly arresting. He seems to capture street culture vividly in all its diversity, richness and intimacy. And not only that: the Michigan Daily described his work as ‘visual hip hop’: “There’s a beat and flow to his paintings, as if any second the sub-woofers will kick in and the canvas will shake and rattle to life”. You get this feeling when looking at his characters who all are tall, thin and kind of awkwardly built, and who seem to bring together both, the rhythms of rap and the swooping forms of graffiti. And the awkwardness expressed in these lanky bodies probably reflects issues around self and identity, arising from growing up in these harsh and jarring neighbourhoods.

For Bua, street art is more than graffiti, breakdancing or hip-hop music - it is the means that holds them all together, it is the way in which the street affects life, experiences and expression: “Street art is a way to pose and gesticulate that you are art, and no matter what is going on around you, you’re standing strong,” he says. “And you know, even though I’m poor, I’m proud.” In this intimate and powerful sense, he capture, as the Michigan Daily puts it, “people in their element: musicians plucking double bass strings with spidery fingers, the air hung with Chinese lanterns; wool-capped graffiti writers slouching in the train yard, wielding canisters of spray paint.” No one is posing here.

“I started painting things that people told me not to paint,” Bua said. “I’m painting MCs and b-boys and break dancers and graffiti writers. People asked, ‘What the hell you painting that for? No one cares about that!’ I said, ‘I hear you, I respect that, but I’m a do what I wanna do.’ ” Forgotten by mainstream are also the people re recently started painting, like pimps and neighbourhood hustlers. For Bua though “they’re the people who made New York what it was, and they’re just as important, just as much a part of the New York City skyline as the Brooklyn Bridge or the Empire State Building … these are the people that I say, ‘Hey, this is what gave New York City its flavor,’ ” he says.

“I think that art is tremendously powerful, and it can move masses. When you say a picture speaks a thousand words, it really speaks more than that to me,” he said. “Art and hip hop are about gratitude and hope and bringing together people from all walks of life.” There’s nothing I could add to that.

I’m not sure whether this is just a video animation or the whole thing is real - I just hope that it’s not true that the xmas illumination madness has spilled over to Halloween in the US; I wouldn’t like Australia all of a sudden jumping on that derangement bandwagon as well. Bad enough people waste the planet on oversized santas and reindeer in glittering forests of lights … even though, I could be accused of hypocrisy if our neighbourhood would have hackers producing xmas light shows like the pumpkin patch - depending of course on his or musical choice . The chances for that to happen are pretty slim though (that = the hacker bit) …

[via geekend]

Graffiti art by the acclaimed artist Banksy on streets in Tower Hamlets is to be painted over after the council decided to treat it as vandalism. A statement said: “Tower Hamlets Council takes the cleanliness of the borough very seriously and is committed to removing all graffiti as soon as possible. “Whilst some graffiti is considered to be art, we know that many of our residents think graffiti in areas where they live, such as local housing estates, is an eyesore.” Tower Hamlets councillor Abdal Ullah said: “We need to be clear here, graffiti is a crime. It spoils the environment, makes our neighbourhoods feel less safe, and costs thousands of pounds each year to clean - money that could instead be paying for valuable local services.”

Banksy, from Bristol, made his name with public art and subversive stunts. Stencilled artwork from the guerrilla artist can be seen on walls across London, but Tower Hamlets is the first council to treat them as vandalism. The plan comes as 11 pieces of the artist’s work go on sale on Wednesday at Bonham’s auction house in Knightsbridge; his works now sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds. The actress Angelina Jolie reportedly bought one of his works for more than £200,000. A piece, commissioned by rock band Blur for their 2003 album Think Tank, recently sold in London for £300,000, Gareth Williams of Bonhams said.

A spokeswoman for Tower Hamlets Council said it had not thought of selling the potentially valuable artwork to help raise money for council services, but did not rule out such action being considered in the future. It is not yet known how many of the artist’s works would be affected.

The future of a Banksy piece painted on a wall in Bristol recently went to public vote, with 97% of people saying it should be kept.

[via BBC News]

No one would have reported the above if it wouldn’t have been Banksy’s art. Nevertheless, the vandals at Tower Hamlet Council could learn a thing or two from cities like Glasgow or Melbourne, which very successfully promote street art as tourist attractions - a move that has helped support street artists and provided fun and education for hundreds of thousands of people. Trying to reflect on the Abdal Ullahs of this world, I have to say that it is totally beyond my comprehension how narrow-minded and ignorant people can be.