Berlin July 07

I had really limited time in Berlin, and I was disorganised as hell, so I hadn't sorted out any artists to meet. This was my own fault because people had made some suggestions when I was still in Melbourne but I hadn't followed them up. Anyway, despite this, it was a pretty nice first visit. Stayed in a hostel close to Mitte, and spent the first day resting, then the next cruising around on a fat-wheeled bicycle that I hired. I can see why so many artists love this city. It has a really chilled vibe, and so many interesting crumbling buildings to squat in and/or paint. I missed the Berlin wall though! I was still on my bicycle, went off the edge of my map, spent ages cruising around trying to work out where I was, and then had to rush to get the bike back before the hire place shut. That was a bit disappointing!

This tower mostly kept me orientated!

The Brandenburg Gate

The Jewish Memorial. This and the museum were incredible. 

Dom Berlin

Met these kids painting a wall - they gave me some good directions for graff places.

Slobben.

Faile Collective.

Don't know who this is, but I love it......

Banksy.

Unknown.

July Travels: NYC street art and graffiti

Of course one of the major reasons I wanted to see NYC was the graffiti. Now I doubt I really touched the tip of the iceberg in my time there, but here's what I snapped anyway.

5 Pointz

Logan was kind enough to take me out on a trip to 5 Pointz in Queens, which is pretty much an old factory which has been completely bombed, but is mostly legal these days. I think there are even some studios inside now. Logan wanted to see this too, so we took a trip out one afternoon. The sheer volume of coverage was incredible. All the best pieces IMO were around the other side......... Def. going back here next time I'm in town.










Other pics from around town:

July 07 travel: New York - wall decay

In general, I was revelling in the layers and layers of paint, rust, stickers and general decay in NY. I think this is the point where I just started taking ECU details (often abstract) of walls and surfaces. DUMBO, in particular had all sorts of amazing worn away textures:

DUMBO

DUMBO

Queens

Williamsburg subway

July Travels: Logan Hicks in NYC

Logan is another person I met at the 06 Melbourne Stencil Festival. He, John and I hung out pretty solidly, and got on like a house on fire. He came back to Melbourne for the K-Swiss tour later in 07 also. I'd originally talked about paying him a visit in LA, but then he and his girlfriend Kristen had a bit of a radical life change, and moved to NYC. Honestly, I wasn't that gutted to miss out on LA, and I had NY on my itinerary anyway. Logan's girlfriend Kristen was pregnant also, and they've now had a baby boy, Sailor Logan Hicks.

NY rocked. It seriously did. For some reason I didn't expect to like it so much, but I found myself loving the pace, the people watching, and the mishmash of everything. Logan and Kristen had snared themselves a pretty nice little place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. So I scored the comfy couch bed, and generally intruded upon their space (which they'd only just moved into) for about 5 days.

We developed a nice little routine where Kristen and I would go to one of the many bakeries around their place to pick up coffee and pastries for breakfast, then Logan and Kristen would get their work done during the day while I gallivanted around town going to things like MoMA and the Guggenheim. Then generally we would meet up for a meal or similar in the evening. As well as this, they took me out for a nice picnic with a great view of the skyline, plus Logan showed me around DUMBO (District Under Manhattan Bridge), and we went to a few openings in the neighbourhood too. Actually I was expecting the work in the shows to be amazing, but we both agreed it was pretty underwhelming..... I guess a good example of writers who start doing gallery work late in their career, but it doesn't seem like their work suits a gallery space.

My lovely hosts - plus the very snuffly bulgy-eyed Petunia and Beatrice.

Hip kids outside a hip Williamsburg exhibition opening.



All the standard taxi chaos in Times Square.

Some warehouse art/afternoon we went to.

Lister is also in NY now. He seems to be doing brilliantly. Check out his site here.

I also caught up with Rupert - one of my old school friends from way back in the day. He is a pretty brilliant classical guitarist, and got a scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music a few years back. Now he's doing his post-grad at Yale. We did a few classic tourist activities like walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, then having a picnic in Central Park. Was a really nice afternoon chatting and seeing where we were both at after all that time. Oh, and we went to the 24 hr Apple store, and I emerged blinking into the light about $500 poorer. I knew it was a bad idea....

Bustling iCommerce.

I have now realised how much of a luxury it is being able to stroll around a massive gallery for hours on end.... MoMA and the Guggenheim were definitely highlights for me. I would have liked to get around to some smaller galleries too, but that's for another visit I think.

MoMA

Nice op-art (detail), Guggenheim

Every time I see Bauhaus design work, I go all weak at the knees.

guess who

I guess I just have too many street art/graff pics to put them in this post, so I'll dump them in the next one.