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09

Apr

Tour 13 Paris: The Ephemeral Nature of Street Art

by Meredith Mullins on April 9, 2014

Colorful portrait by B Toy and rubble after the first phase of demolition of the Tour 13 in Paris, proving the fleeting nature of street art. (Photo © Galerie Itinerrance)

The beginning of the demolition of B Toy’s work at the Tour 13
© Galerie Itinerrance

The Long-Awaited Demolition: The Walls Come Tumbling Down

Art is fleeting. It lives for the moment.

Sometimes the artist, like Claude Monet in his later years, punctures holes in his paintings because he doubts himself. The work is destroyed before it’s ever seen.

Sometimes the life cycle of artistic expression is determined by the whim of contemporary tastes.

Sometimes an artist, like sculptor Andy Goldsworthy, creates the work to purposefully evolve over time, with nature as a collaborator. Stones are smoothed by water. Ice melts. Wood rots. Leaves wither. Life. Decay. Death. A natural cycle.

Sometimes the act of destruction is part of the work itself.

Street art, by its very nature, is ephemeral. Graffiti artists make transience their creed. They work quickly, often stealthily.

Their art and tags get painted over in days (or even hours!) They don’t get attached. They speak to the moment and move on.

These truths were the foundation for the Tour 13 in Paris.

Running rabbits, artistic expression of street art at the Tour 13 (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

The wild stampeding rabbits by Pantonio from Portugal. 
Photo © Meredith Mullins

The Birth and Death of the Tour 13

Last year, more than 100 graffiti artists from around the world were gathered together by Mehdi Ben Cheikh of the Galerie Itinerrance in Paris and were given freedom of expression in a building targeted for demolition. OIC covered the event in its October story.

Faces inside the Tour 13 in Paris, a haven for street art and graffiti artist Jimmy C (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

The original artwork on the 8th floor of the Tour 13
© Meredith Mullins

As the artists took over the 36 multi-room apartments and a labyrinth of basements—and painted everything from closets to kitchens to toilets to radiators, to say whatever they wanted however they wanted—the last act of the story was already written. The art would not last.

A portrait by street artist Jimmy C in the Tour 13 in Paris, showing the fleeting nature of street art (Photo © Galerie Itinerrance)

What’s left after the first phase of demolition
© Galerie Itinerrance

Everyone knew the dilapidated building would be destroyed. The community of artists, who worked for free, knew it. The 25,000 visitors, who waited in line for up to 13 hours to see the amazing installation, knew it. The nearly half a million visitors to the social media sites knew it.

So, it is no surprise this week that the walls will come tumbling down, the final part of the demolition.

Side of the Tour 13 in Paris after the first phase of demolition, proving the fleeting nature of street art (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

The destruction of the building (and the art) was part of the plan.
© Meredith Mullins

The Demolition

It is not so much a “tumbling” as it is a “nibbling.” To create an experience unlike any other, a crane will snack on the remaining exterior walls little by little, revealing the interior walls, floors, and ceilings for one final look. A retrospective of the most unusual kind.

A crane destroys the Tour 13 in Paris, revealing 8 stories of street art. (Photo © Pamela Fickes-Miller)

The “nibbler”
© Pamela Fickes-Miller

The art that was once on the closets, bathtubs, radiators, sinks, and windows has already been destroyed. The windows have been knocked out. Piles of rubble inside and outside the building, with chunks of bright color, reveal hints of that progress.

An exterior wall of the Tour 13 in Paris with a pile of rubble, proving that artistic expression is fleeting in the world of street art. (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

Remnants of artistic expression in the rubble
© Meredith Mullins

No Regrets

Oh I see. There is no sadness in saying goodbye. This is life, as street art.

A1one art at the Tour 13 in Paris, a street art project (Photo © Galerie Itinerrance)

The work of Iranian street artist A1one after the first phase of demolition.
© Galerie Itinerrance

For the Iranian artist A1one, the art was so fleeting, he didn’t even have time to finish his room last year when he was in Paris. Then, he lost touch with the tower’s unfolding story. Now that he has heard about the destruction, he speaks with the heart of a true street artist:

“Cool. I didn’t know it was being destroyed. I like it when my works fall down. I hope we learn from it. Huge things can easily fall down in a glance.”

Mehdi Ben Cheikh feels the same about this final stage. “I’m glad of it,” he says with no nostalgia. “It’s part of the project—the ephemeral nature of street art.”

Mehdi Ben Cheikh, founder of the Tour 13 in Paris, a project that gave voice to street art and street artists around the world. (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

Mehdi Ben Cheikh—Street Art Crusader
© Meredith Mullins

However, Mehdi—always a street-art crusader—has an eye toward the future of this kind of artistic expression.

“As with any great art movement, institutions are always one step behind,” Mehdi says. “They offer so little exposure to street art, even though it surrounds us in urban life. Although this project is at an end, it opens the door to new projects about to happen.”

Out of the rubble . . . who knows what will emerge.

What we do know, however, is that long after the Tour 13 is gone, it will be remembered.

Street art near the Tour 13 in Paris, showing Pantonio's artistic expression (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

A hint of Pantonio’s rabbits (alive and well) in the neighborhood
© Meredith Mullins

The “nibbling” is taking place this week and will be shown via live camera on the Tour 13 website, on the Tour 13 Facebook page, and on French television and on YouTube.

Thank you to  Elsa Courtois and Mehdi Ben Cheikh of Galerie Itinerrance and Pamela Fickes-Miller for contributing to this story.

The Tour 13 demolition in Paris proves the fleeting nature of street art (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

Au revoir Tour 13
© Meredith Mullins

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France (Paris)/The World's Art & Design

07

Apr

Richard Renaldi Poses Strangers . . . and Questions

by Bruce Goldstone on April 7, 2014

Portrait from Richard Renaldi's Touching Strangers, a project that creates and captures fleeting relationships. (Image © Richard Renaldi).

Sonia, Zach, Raekwon, and Antonio, 2011, Tampa, FL
from Touching Strangers (Aperture, May 2014)
© Richard Renaldi

Touching Strangers Creates and Captures Fleeting Relationships

Two kids and two adults perch on a bed in an anonymous Florida hotel in Richard Renaldi’s striking photographic portrait.

Their body language shifts every time you look back. Are they relaxed or tense? Friendly or feuding? A hidden piece of information explains why the subtext is so hard to read: these people aren’t an actual family. In fact, they just met moments ago.

Renaldi’s project Touching Strangers investigates the complex chemistry of fleeting relationships. What happens when people who don’t know each other pose as friends, lovers, or family members?

Portrait from Richard Renaldi's Touching Strangers, a project that creates and captures fleeting relationships. (Image © Richard Renaldi).

Tom, Alaina, and Charlie, 2012, San Francisco, CA
from Touching Strangers (Aperture, May 2014)
© Richard Renaldi

Do appearances reflect reality? Or maybe they create it?

Sometimes When We Touch

The basics of the project are simple: Renaldi finds two or more strangers and asks them to pose together. The eloquent, complex results are on display at Aperture Gallery in New York City through May 15, 2014.

Asking strangers to assume intimate poses creates an obviously unnatural situation. Nerves and awkwardness are a common first response, and are frequently reflected in subtle body language in the final portrait.

Portrait from Richard Renaldi's Touching Strangers, a project that creates and captures fleeting relationships. (Image © Richard Renaldi).

Nathan and Robyn, 2012, Provincetown, MA
from Touching Strangers (Aperture, May 2014)
© Richard Renaldi

Yet many of the portraits create an uncanny sense of reality. How can this relationship be a put-on?

Portrait from Richard Renaldi's Touching Strangers, a project that creates and captures fleeting relationships. (Image © Richard Renaldi).

Donna and Donna, 2012, Craig, CO
from Touching Strangers (Aperture, May 2014)
© Richard Renaldi

Even though the relationship is artificially constructed, by the time Renaldi snaps the photo, the relationship may not be fake after all. This insight became an “Oh, I see” moment for both Renaldi and the participants.

Portrait from Richard Renaldi's Touching Strangers, a project that creates and captures fleeting relationships. (Image © Richard Renaldi).

Atiljan and Tiffany, 2011, New York, NY
from Touching Strangers (Aperture, May 2014)
© Richard Renaldi

Getting to Know You

Renaldi uses a large format 8-by-10-inch-view camera for his portraits, in part because he prefers the quality of the resulting images, and in part because the process itself takes time, and time creates comfort.

Portrait from Richard Renaldi's Touching Strangers, a project that creates and captures fleeting relationships. (Image © Richard Renaldi).

Tari, Shawn, and Summer, 2012, Los Angeles, CA
from Touching Strangers (Aperture, May 2014)
© Richard Renaldi

Unlike a quick digital snapshot, the large format camera requires a slower pace. While Renaldi is setting up, the subjects have time to talk and relax. By the time he begins taking pictures, some of the strangeness of the situation is already worn off.

In May, Aperture Foundation will publish Touching Strangers, a large-format book documenting the project.

In the Afterword, Renaldi shares how he began to understand the value of the slowed-down photographic process in creating space for a personal connection to take place:

“On completing one of these photographs, there was often the feeling that something rare and unrepeatable had just occurred.”

Portrait from Richard Renaldi's Touching Strangers, a project that creates and captures fleeting relationships. (Image © Richard Renaldi).

Michael and Kimberly, 2011, New York, NY
from Touching Strangers (Aperture, May 2014)
© Richard Renaldi

Stranger Things Have Happened

This video of Renaldi at work shows how his constructed poses swiftly segue from distance and discomfort into real, if temporary, relationships.

If the video does not display, watch it here.

Come Together

Renaldi delights in combining subjects from different backgrounds to create his instant families.

Portrait from Richard Renaldi's Touching Strangers, a project that creates and captures fleeting relationships. (Image © Richard Renaldi).

Vincent and Charles, 2012, Los Angeles, CA
from Touching Strangers (Aperture, May 2014)
© Richard Renaldi

The juxtapositions arouse human, and humane, questions. What’s a family, anyway?

Portrait from Richard Renaldi's Touching Strangers, a project that creates and captures fleeting relationships. (Image © Richard Renaldi).

Kiya and Simon, 2012, New York, NY
from Touching Strangers (Aperture, May 2014)
© Richard Renaldi

Which pairs are lovers? Which pairs are friends? Can you always tell the difference?

I’m a Stranger Here Myself

The Touching Strangers project has been enthusiastically received as word of mouth has spread, and, not surprisingly, a lot of people want to get involved.

Richard Renaldi, author of Touching Strangers, a project that creates and captures fleeting relationships.

The photographer who stages connections
invites others to join in.
© Richard Renaldi

Renaldi has received many requests from people who want to recreate his process and find their own “Oh, I see” moments.

Now, he’s found a way to include his fans contributions. All you need is a camera and the courage to say “Hello” to some complete strangers.

Using Twitter, people who’d like to join the project can send their own pictures of strangers to hashtag #TouchingStrangers.

Richard will check the feed regularly and select favorite photos to be displayed alongside his own at the Aperture exhibit.

As the Touching Strangers project evolves, Richard Renaldi has found surprisingly rich ways to preserve the flash and spark in fleeting relationships.

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Clever Ideas/The World's Photography

31

Mar

10 Fine-Feathered Reasons to Keep Backyard Chickens

by Bruce Goldstone on March 31, 2014

Backyard hen and chickens, pets that can help you be happier. (Image © sherjaca/Shutterstock)

Here, chick chick chick. Come to my house!
© sherjaca/Shutterstock

Want to Be Happier? Go to the Birds!

Chances are, backyard chickens are kicking up dust in a yard near you. More and more people in urban and suburban areas are keeping these familiar yet exotic birds and smiling about it.

Could chickens help you be happier? Here’s a flock of ten reasons they just might.

Reason #1: Fresh Eggs Are Tasty

Philosophers can argue “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” until the cows come home, but for chicken keepers the answer’s clear: It’s the eggs.

In a recent poll at BackYard Chickens, 92% of responders said that one reason they keep chickens is for the eggs. Ron Ludlow, the owner of the site, acknowledges the growing popularity of “the pets that make you breakfast!”

Fresh eggs from backyard chickens, illustrating one way these birds can help you be happier. (Image © stocknadia/Shutterstock)

Fresh eggs will keep your sunny side up.
© stocknadia/Shutterstock

Home cooks are discovering that super-fresh eggs from your yard are the secret ingredient that makes extra-special omelets, souffles, and much more. Even a simple fried egg is a delight when you know exactly where it came from.

Reason #2: Chickens Are Surprisingly Good Pets

Even for people who begin keeping chickens for the fresh eggs, these curious and quirky birds often become favorite family pets.

Darrell Schoeling and Jeff Corbin have been keeping chickens in New Paltz, NY for several years now. Although initially reluctant, Darrel has jumped into the hobby with an enthusiasm matched by his birds’ personalities.

Man with backyard chickens indoors, showing how these pets can help you be happier. (Image © Jeff Corbin)

Poultry pals
© Jeff Corbin

Along the way, he’s had many “Oh, I see” moments including this one: “I had no idea they’d be so interactive,” he admits. “They come running when they see us. Our chicken Penguin loves to sit in my lap.”

Reason #3: They’re Cute or Beautiful or Weird-Looking (or Sometimes All Three)

If you think of chickens as dull, brown birds, look again. Chickens come in an astonishing variety of spectacular color combos, from the sublime to the outrageous.

A variety of backyard chickens, pets that can help you be happier. (All images © Shutterstock, top row: sherjaca, Catalin Petolea, Bill Purcell; bottom row: Fotografiecor.nl, sanddebeautheil, sherjaca)

A colorful hen party
© Shutterstock, top row: sherjaca, Catalin Petolea, Bill Purcell
bottom row: Fotografiecor.nl, sanddebeautheil, sherjaca

The Extraordinary Chickens books and calendars by photographer Stephen Green-Armytage show off many unusual breeds. They have a devoted public, eager to gawk at the latest in poultry pulchritude.

Reason #4: Because You Can

City zoning laws permit chickens in a lot more places than you might think. For example, you can keep chickens in New York City or Las Vegas (though in both areas, as in many others, noisy roosters aren’t allowed.)

Businesses like NYC’s Victory Chicken, are helping people in big cities “bring the chicken back into everyday American life.” With an all-in-one package of coop, chickens, supplies, and training, it’s easy to get started, and services for feed delivery, coop cleaning, and chicken check-ups help out later.

A chicken walking down a city street, illustrating the idea that these pets can help you be happier. (Image © Dwight Smith/Shutterstock)

Chickens are permitted in many cities
(though this rooster is probably out of bounds).
© Dwight Smith/Shutterstock

You can visit BackYard Chickens to learn more about local zoning laws in your area, and there’s help on legalizing chickens at My Pet Chicken.

Reason #5: You’ll Be in Good Company

There’s an impressive and growing community waiting to welcome you once you take the poultry plunge.

When Ron Ludlow launched BackYard Chickens in 2007, its forum had about 50 members. That number jumped to 1,000 in 2008 and 25,000 in 2009. Today, the site has over 235,000 members.

Of course, you can connect with chicken celebrities, too, such as Andy Schneider, aka The Chicken Whisperer, whose internet poultry show offers advice on everything from raising chicks to showing prize-winning specimens. His guests are a veritable who’s who of chickendom.

Andy Schneider, the Chicken Whisperer, who talks on Internet radio about how backyard chickens can help you be happier. (Image © Andy Schneider))

The Chicken Whisperer® knows his birds.
© Andy Schneider

Even the literati have gotten involved. Pulitzer-Prize winner Alice Walker joined the chicken brigade with her heart-warmingly goofy memoir The Chicken Chronicles.

Reason #6: Kids + Chickens = Learning Galore!

Keeping chickens can help children learn about responsibility, life cycles, ecology, and animal behavior, all while having fun with a flock of feathered friends.

Girl holding a backyard chicken, a pet that can help you be happier. (Image © Jeff Corbin)

Kids and chickens really click (and cluck).
© Jeff Corbin

Some kids get so involved that they begin to raise and show chickens with organizations like 4-H.

Reason #7: Super-Rich Soil is a Fantastic Freebie

Fantastic soil is yet another by-product of chicken keeping. Darrel Schoeling boasts that the soil produced by composting his flock’s litter is “the envy of the New Paltz Gardens for Nutrition.”

Feed your chickens nearly any kitchen scraps that you’d compost and they’ll turn them into luxurious, nitrogen-rich soil.

Backyard chickens, pets that can help you be happier. (Image © schubbel/Shutterstock)

Kitchen scraps go in and fantastic fertilizer comes out.
© schubbel/Shutterstock

Reason #8: Bugs Away!

Another handy side effect of chickens is their voracious appetite for creepy crawlers.

A grasshopper, one of the insects eaten by backyard chickens, whose pest control can help you be happier. (Image © Kirsanov Valeriy Vladimirovich)

Chickens eat almost anything that crawls.
© Kirsanov Valeriy Vladimirovich/Shutterstock

Happy chickenistas report their birds chomping on grasshoppers, fleas, flies, fire ants, grubs, and pillbugs. They’ve even been seen snacking on scorpions, beginning with the troublesome stinger before getting to work on the rest of the bug.

Reason #9: Going Slow Can Keep Diversity Alive

Chickens are a simple way that many people can participate in the slow-food movement. While most people don’t have the resources to start a self-sustaining organic garden, many have the space available for a handful of egg-laying hens.

This movement to keeping backyard chickens is a move toward self-sustenance with global benefits for food production. And home farming of chickens offers another important fringe benefit—breed diversity.

Two backyard chickens from diverse and unusual breeds, pets that can help you be happier. (Images © Imageman/Shutterstock)

Two faces of chicken diversity
© Imageman/Shutterstock

For efficiency, factory farms keep a very limited number of chicken varieties. Backyard chicken fanciers, however, keep a huge number of rare, heritage breeds that might otherwise go extinct.

Reason #10: Clucking Can Cheer You Up

No matter how you look at them, chickens are kinda funny, which is a very good thing. Backyard chickens can be a natural anti-depressant. Making you laugh is just one more way these friendly fowl can help you be happier.

Backyard chicken, a pet that can help you be happier. (Image © Anna Hoychuk/Shutterstock)

Could you keep a straight face around a mug like this?
© Anna Hoychuk/Shutterstock

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